2008 - Outgoing and Incoming Presidents' Addresses

July 3rd, 2008

From Outgoing President David Wallace:-

We have now come to the end of my year as your president. I have enjoyed my time in the chair and looking back over the past twelve months I think some of the highlights for me have been as follows:

In July - our visit to Beamish Museum. In August - the garden party at the home of Malcolm and Frances Proud - and the Clay Pigeon Shoot. In September, Ken Howe came to talk to us about the building of the Masonic Hall at Beamish. In 0ctober - another very successful President's Evening. In November - the Police Headquarters Firework Party. In December we had a busy time with a demonstration and lunch at Dobbies Garden Centre with Inner Wheel - Margaret's curry night - our Christmas sleigh - my visit with Santa to Belmont Grange - and our joint festive lunch with Inner Wheel when the very Reverend Michael Sadgrove gave the Christmas message.

We began the New Year in January with our very first Boxing Night. In February the Presentation by the GSE team from the USA In March The Sports Evening organised by Bede and the Irish Night dinner at Ramside Hall. In April Daphne and I attended both the Inner Wheel and the Rotary Conferences held this year in Blackpool. Followed by our Charter Night dinner with our mystery speaker from Chester and the Stroke Awareness Day in Durham. In May I brought Rotary greetings to the Inner Wheel 63rd InterClub luncheon and enjoyed a fascinating display of flower arranging! And in June we had a fine, sunny weekend for the Durham Regatta. Last Friday evening Daphne and I joined twenty members and guests at a Chinese fund-raising banquet held in China Town, Newcastle in aid of the China Earthquake Disaster fund. I believe with the three dinners they raised over 36,000. I would like to thank Alan Ribchester for organising this.

I have also made official visits to Durham Bede, Crook and Stanley Clubs and inducted four new members. I am delighted that Dean of Durham Michael Sadgrove has accepted our invitation to become an honorary member and will be my guest for lunch on 10th July.

You may remember some of the points I made at my inauguration last year but I make no apologies for repeating some of them. We have always been a democratic club and I hope this will continue. I did not intend to make drastic changes but to concentrate on fine tuning what we already have. 0ur priority must always be respect for the past whilst concentrating on the future - especially in the recruitment of new members - and valuing the continued support of existing members. However, we should never forget while we are encouraging our new members we must continue to value and respect our older members who still have a great deal to offer. As your newly elected President I did not consider it my place to tell you what to do - many of you were - and still are - more experienced and better qualified. But we are all volunteers - and we are all members of Rotary because we want to be.

0ver these past months I have tried to be true to my convictions - they do say people dont care what you know as long as they know that you care - well, I do care.

I have been very fortunate to have a great team behind me. I would like to thank all my committee chairmen for the way they have supported me. They knew what was needed and they got on with the job and have produced some remarkable results
I must also thank Stewart and Alan for keeping me on the right track - although I admit to having a few senior moments along the way.

It has been suggested that perhaps I have strayed too far from the formal side of Rotary but I agree with our Rotary GB&I President, Allan Jagger, who stated at the Blackpool Conference that Rotary should be first and foremost FUN and I have tried to bring some old-fashioned fellowship into all our meetings.

Finally, I would like to wish President Eric all the very best for his year in office, to assure him of my continued support - and to finish with a quotation from our founder, Paul Harris .

The Rotary of today is different from the Rotary of yesterday.
The Rotary of tomorrow cannot - must not -
Be the same as the Rotary of today.
Rotary will continue to evolve.

David Wallace hands over the chain of office to Eric Colling

From Incoming President Eric Colling:-

I am immensely proud to be your President for the coming Rotary year. And that pride is mixed with the sense of a great honour and a significant degree of trepidation.

When I look at the list of past presidents of the Club it seems, in some ways, like a roll-call of the history of the City over the last 85 years there are indeed some hard acts to follow. Hence the pride, honour and trepidation and, I should add, not a little humility. You have my heart-felt assurance that I shall do everything in my power to justify the honour you have given me and the trust you have placed in me as your President.

A couple of years ago, in his inaugural address, incoming President Eddy Nicholson noted the Clubs long and distinguished history and the fact that, although we are the biggest Club in the District, we still manage to maintain a warm, welcoming and friendly atmosphere. I am glad to say that nothing seems to change in that respect I sincerely believe that, here in Durham, we have a successful, healthy and vibrant Club that meets all the relevant Rotary criteria, and especially my personal interpretation of those criteria Service through Fellowship. We may not be perfect what organisation is? theres always something we could improve, but we do have a lot to be proud of.

In this fortunate situation, complacency is, as ever, our enemy. However, the fact that the last few years have seen us develop, implement and consolidate a number of significant changes to the way we run the Club indicates that we are keeping complacency at bay. In other words, the Club continues to evolve to meet the challenges of a changed and changing world.

I have been talking about history, about the past, but this annual process of handover affords us an opportunity to look to the future in my term of office and beyond.

Most of you will, by now, be aware that I would like us to develop our Vocational Service activities further. To this end, I have proposed three new initiatives:- the Dictionary for Life; the re-introduction of public speaking events for secondary school students and the establishment of one or more Interact Clubs. I would emphasise that these are still just proposals initial ideas; successful implementation or otherwise depends largely on us working together and in partnership with other organisations. There will be more news and details as these ideas are developed over the coming weeks and months.

As you can probably guess, I consider working with young people to be a very effective focus for Vocational Service. We must also remember that, within Rotary, there are a number of other ready-made projects to involve young people, such as the Rotary Technology Tournament and Rotary Youth Speaks, that we can exploit if, or when, the opportunity arises.

Within the Club we have a great breadth and depth of experience in industry, commerce, the professions and academia which, I believe, we can and should make full use of to meet our Vocational Service objectives. We are a disparate crowd but, as I implied earlier, we are a friendly bunch; we all get on well together. Let us use that comradeship, that fellowship to facilitate all of our service projects.

The proposed initiatives, the ambitious NURU Project in Tanzania, the Learner Programme and the Swimathon together with all our established activities, mean that we can look forward to an interesting, involving, and dare I say it even an exciting time ahead.

We have excellent teams in the various Club committees and they have my sincere thanks for all their hard work. But the success of our Service activities depends on the involvement of all members. So I would conclude with the exhortation to you all:-
Live up to the Rotary ideals. Be involved. Make a difference!

President Eric welcomes Vice President David Grey

... and Junior Vice President Margaret Anderson, while the Mayor looks on

After the meeting, President Eric is congratulated by the Mayor

Footnote photos:

Before the Handover meeting, Martin Leake captured David and Eric on his phone camera.

The next day, the District 1030 Handover Dinner took place at Brandling House, Newcastle and, quite by chance, the Presidents of the three Durham Clubs arrived at the same time. The opportunity for a group photo with their wives was too good to miss.

From left to right:-
Arthur Charlton (RC Durham Elvet) and Eileen;
Geoff Pratt (RC Durham Bede) and Jeanne;
Eric Colling (RC Durham) and Margaret.
(With acknowledgements to FearWorks Media, the official photographers for the event.)