RotaKids Conference - 8th December

                          ROTAKIDS CONFERENCE

The first Rotary Club of Glasgow RotaKids Conference was held on Tuesday 8th December 2015 at the Marriott Hotel as part of the regular weekly Rotary meeting. The Rotary meeting started earlier than normal ie at 12.30 and finished later than normal  at 14.30.

Total attendance at the Rotary meeting and RotaKids conference was 111 which is by far the highest attendance at a weekly meeting since a long time! 

33 members of the Rotary Club of Glasgow attended in addition to 6 guests, 60 RotaKids, 11 head teachers and teachers and  Ian Robertson who is the assistant director of education at Glasgow City Council.

RotaKids Clubs present were –

Swinton- Baillieston.
Quarry Brae – Parkhead.
Eastbank – Shettleston.
St. Marnock’s – Pollok.
Darnley.

Garrowhill RotaKids Club was only established 10 days prior to the conference and will attend the next conference. Phil Halewood, who is a teacher at Garrowhill and who is responsible for the RotaKids, was 1 of the 11 teachers present.
Each of the RotaKids Clubs gave a 5 minutes presentation on their school, RotaKids activities to date and 2016 plans for their individual Clubs. The presentations were all different, were extremely interesting, and were well received by the audience.

The Rotary Great Britain & Ireland Presidential Citation for 2014/15 was presented to the president of Swinton RotaKids by Ian Robertson, assistant director of education.

Past president Jack Steele presented a challenge to the RotaKids following the Climate Change Summit in Paris which was taking place at the same time as the RotaKids’ conference! Jack donated the “Planet Earth Trophy” to the Rotary Club some years ago and this trophy will now be used, on an annual basis, in an inter RotaKids Club challenge. Jack’s challenge is to research the comment – “Climate change is the greatest threat to human survival.” The individual RotaKids Clubs are expected to submit a report and/or visual presentation  on their  findings by the end of May 2016.  A judging panel, chaired by Jack,  will be established to oversee the final presentations. The winners will be presented with a cheque to the value of £150 for “RotaKids activities within their school. “ The runners up will receive a cheque to the value of £50.
 
An inter-club quiz was chaired by Iain Smith with questions set by past president Ian Dale. The winners were Darnley RotaKids who were presented with a trophy by the quiz master.

Uli Franzman, general manager of the Marriott Hotel very kindly sponsored an excellent  2 course lunch for the RotaKids and also arranged for a bar to be set up in the foyer  for the RotaKids to use prior to lunch.  A number of the RotaKids said it was really nice to be invited for lunch and a conference at such a posh hotel!  One of the head teachers also remarked that many of the RotaKids will remember the day for a long time to come as they seldom, if ever, experience anything like what they did at the conference.

Uli Franzman was  thanked afterwards, most profusely, for providing the RotaKids meal and bar  in addition to arranging for an excellent standard of décor and layout in the Queen Elizabeth Suite.

The members of Eastbank RotaKids Club outlined, in some detail, their experiences at the conference at school assembly the following morning  – in front of all of the pupils and teachers in the school.

The RotaKids were each given a specially commissioned baseball cap branded “RotaKids – Rotary Club of Glasgow”. The caps match the “RotaKids sponsored by Rotary Club of Glasgow” polo shirts which each RotaKid also receives. The cost of the baseball caps was met, in full, by the members of the Rotary Club of Glasgow.

Footnote-

President Morag condensed all of her regular agenda items in to less than 8 minutes to make room for the RotaKids conference!