Pitching Up to Catch the Early Birds 

Treasurer Mike Ginn reports on his time at the May Fest.

May 13 dawned overcast.  On behalf of our club I was helping as a marshal at Rotary Club of Basildon Concord’s Mayfest.  No problem till I found that my duties started at 7am. 

I am an early riser.  I often run out of sleep before 6am, so this was no real hardship.  So, it was a cuppa before I went.  I drove down to Basildon and parked by Hobbycraft.  Fortunately, I had an old pound coin to feed the parking meter and so I was able to present myself at 7am with my hi-vis jacket on.

In Town Square, Basildon Council had marked out pitches for the various organisations who would be participating.  There was already a queue of cars waiting to get into Town Square.  We marshals were assigned in a line to wave the cars through to the place where Basildon Rotarians were directing people to their assigned pitches.  It was all very efficient and there was never much of a queue of cars waiting direction.

I recognised several people driving their cars and exchanged greetings with them.  It occurred to me that being the leader of an organisation does have its flip side.Getting out of bed on a chilly overcast morning to be the smiling face of their organisation at such an occasion as Mayfest is part of that flip side.

Basildon Concord's Mayfest

Giving Directions

When the inrush of people setting up stalls had subsided, I was moved to be in Great Oaks opposite the Magistrates’ Court.  My job there was to wave car drivers through who had finished setting up and were moving their vehicles away from Town Square to an assigned underground car park I had no idea existed.  It was under the Council Offices.

Three people from Billericay Mayflower Rotary Club were just in sight and were directing people into the car park.  Most people knew where to go and sped past me, but about a dozen people stopped for directions and I was able to tell them to drive down to where the guys in the hi-vis jackets were and be directed by them.

By 9am, my job was done.  I returned to my car and then returned home for some breakfast.  I felt the whole process had been well organised and it was a pleasure to help another club who had supported us at our Soapbox Derby.