The Month That Was Nov 25

Close Neighbours

Perhaps the theme of the month. Nothing to do with Australia though, even though Mike and Pavla are heading down under for a few weeks. Our two most recent speakers at the club’s first-Monday meetings at The Crown saw Simon’s and Mike’s close neighbour Andrew Buchanan talk to the club on November 3rd about 'Romans on the Mendips', followed by David’s close neighbour Rob Harper - an internationally famous local caver - talking to the club at our meeting on December 1st on 'The History of Caving and its Techniques'. Both were extremely interesting talks.

We knew before he took to the floor that Andrew, an amateur archaeologist who led us earlier in the year on the 'Stone Age to Cold War' walk along the ridge of the Mendips, would give a fascinating talk. He didn’t let us down, intriguing members of the club with his story of the dig at Westbury-sub-Mendip. The Romano-British ‘villa’ which is the subject of the dig has given up many artifacts and insights into the life of what is thought to be a fairly wealthy Romano-British farmer / merchant living on the edge of the Mendips in the third century. The dig has revealed evidence of metalworking and many other aspects of human activity including a fragmented millstone, pieces of cooking pots and animal bone, coins, oyster shells, hobnails and even shards from glass vessels. It seems that the site gave evidence of a sizable structure, incorporating a building with substantial stone walls and a tiled roof.

A retired veterinary surgeon based in Somerset, Rob Harper started caving in the Mendip Hills in the late 60’s, and by the late 70’s had extended his skills to include cave-diving. Over subsequent years he has taken part in caving expeditions around the world, including international rescue expeditions. With slides from around the world Rob talked us through the different types of caves, their formation, the equipment (both historic and latest) used in caving, the perils and risks of squeezing through narrow gaps (sometimes totally submerged), and many other aspects of his hobby (or perhaps sport).

Surprisingly (?) no volunteers stepped forward from the club when polled by President Angela to join Rob on a cave dive the following weekend!!!

Business Meeting

The meeting started with members standing for a minute’s respect and contemplation in silence in memory of Adrian.

The plan ad been to have a speaker from Diabetes UK with a cheque presentation to engage with us at our November Business Meeting. This intention reflected the fact that November 14th is World Diabetes Day every year all around the world; also that we had agreed to make a donation from the funds raised at the Horse Race Night to Diabetes UK (John Cricket, our race master from the Race Night had expressed this as his preferred charity). Alas, we learnt at the last minute that they couldn't attend and have had to resort to sending them a cheque in the post.

The mood then lifted as we welcomed a new member into the club. Clare brings enthusiasm and graphic design skills with her, which have been immediately put to work. Joining Ellie’s team to help prepare for the upcoming Community Day, Clare is already hard at work reshaping and redesigning the image for our showcase stand.

Secretary Richard next took the floor to chair the club’s SGM at which the mood rose to even higher levels as our leadership worries melted into thin air when Sharon stepped forward to take on the role of President for Rotary Year 26/27; Jill is also prepared to stand as President Elect for Rotary Year 26/27; to cap the upbeat mood, Kevin also volunteered to fill the role of Club Treasurer next year (with help from current Treasurer Chris), and Richard agreed to continue as Secretary for one final year.

District Forum

Wells Rotary was well represented at the District Forum, held in the Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford on Avon at the end of the month.

It kicked off with a hilarious 'rap' video of the Rotary's founder Paul Harris backed by a chorus of his fellow-members extolling the virtues of belonging to Rotary - a good use of AI (Artificial Intelligence). The presentations included talks on environmental issues and how Rotary can contribute; the hazards of delivering the PolioPlus programme into conflict zones; and an adventurous journey into the Sahara in search of the rusting remains of a WWII unit of the Long Range Desert Group.

Building on the theme of close neighbours, farmer Suzanne Addicott (from the Dairy House direct access hostel), supported by Alan, gave an excellent and well-received talk on the work and the approach taken by her Charity's team towards tackling the problem of the 'revolving door' of homelessness. To see how it works,take a look at the video on their website: https://www.connect-centre.org.uk/dairy-house

Suzzane hopes that there will be interest and appetite amongst our neighbouring Rotary Clubs for engaging in and supporting a project to develop a craft workshop at the Dairy House that would be central to their strategy of upskilling residents and of supporting past residents..