Club Chronicle

1 August 2024: Business meeting

At this first meeting of 2024-25 we started by approving the minutes of the previous meeting and receiving the Treasurer’s report before going on to discuss future arrangements.

Perhaps the most important question we had was how we proceed when our Secretary, Jenny Black, moves to Bury St Edmunds. We will probably need to divide the tasks she does now among a number of members but we will still need to appoint someone formally to liaise with our District and RIBI as our Secretary. Our President said he had a list of the duties.

Now we no longer have Service Committees or Committee Chairs, we will also need members to volunteer to lead our regular service projects, including the two annual Jumble Sales, the Trip to the Panto for senior guests and Rotary Young Musician. We have already bought the panto tickets.

President Francis plans an additional event. The widow of our late member John Scammell intends to cycle to Edinburgh to raise money in his memory. Francis originally thought about joining her but decided instead that he would cycle from his home in Suffolk to Chelmsford on 28 August in order to attend our meeting the following day and then cycle back again afterwards, a total journey of 104 miles. He would be asking for sponsorship. However, he urged members not to sponsor him themselves but to encourage others to do so in order to raise awareness of Rotary. He promised to prepare something for our website.

We also discussed the arrangements for Club meetings after the end of the calendar year. It was agreed we should find out whether the Chelmsford Rugby Club could accommodate us on three Thursdays a month instead of two and what the Ivy Hill Hotel is likely to charge us for meals in 2025. The Hive and the Great Baddow Millennium Centre were mentioned as suitable for occasional meetings, although the room at The Hive is a bit noisy.

Senior Guests’ Summer Party

Our Senior Guests’ Summer Party took place on the afternoon of Saturday, 29 June 2024, in the Chelmsford Cathedral Chapter House as usual. We fed and entertained 25 guests of mature years. In many cases we also collected them from their homes and took them back afterwards.

As each guest arrived they were handed a glass of sparkling elderflower cordial with a strawberry at the bottom. We had a number of tables set up for them.

The afternoon started with entertainment provided by Steve Moriaty, the husband of our member and District Governor Elect Anne Moriaty, and their daughter Pippa. They sang a variety of songs which would have been well known to those attending.

They then took a break while we served the guests with sandwiches, sausage rolls, cakes and other light refreshments. The kitchen was staffed by some of our lady members and they and other members made sure all the guests had something to eat.

When everyone had eaten their fill we held a quiz while the tables were cleared. Steve Moriaty set the questions and Graham Furnival acted as Question Master. The winner managed to get a very creditable sixteen questions right out of twenty. There were prizes for her and for the next two places. Three guests shared third place.

After that Steve and Pippa took the stage for more songs, inviting the guests to join in the more familiar ones. The afternoon ended just before 16:30 with the final song that has become traditional on these occasions, “We’ll Meet Again”.

Our thanks to Alison Moses for acting as organiser this year, to all the Club members who helped on the day in various ways, and to the Cathedral vergers for getting everything ready for us.

Spring Jumble Sale 2024

We held our annual Spring Jumble Sale on Saturday, 20 April 2024 - at the Danbury Village Hall as usual. Members attended in the morning to sort out the jumble into categories and set up the tables and the auction for the more valuable items. The photograph shows the hall when this work had been completed.

The jumble sale itself took place in the afternoon, manned by volunteers from our Club and from the Village Hall. The total sales came to £517.20, an excellent result. Our thanks to all who helped on the day setting-up, helping on the stalls and clearing up afterwards. It was a very successful day.

Rotary Young Musician District Final

The District 1240 Final of Rotary Young Musician was held at Brentwood Cathedral on Saturday, 2 March 2024. There were nine competitors sponsored by Clubs around the District, including three sponsored by us. Others in attendance included the Mayors of both Brentwood and Chelmsford, the District Governor and District Governor Elect (our own Anne Moriaty), many other Rotarians and others who had come to support competitors.

The performers’ standard was very high indeed. The adjudicators had a difficult task deciding on placings. The winning vocalist was Rose Buggle (sponsored by us and by the Rotary Club of Brentwood). The runner-up was Katherine O’Hanlan (also sponsored by us). Our instrumentalist was unplaced.