President Martin’s Comments:

Here we are, heading rapidly into summer and a new Rotary year. I know President Elect Roger has been busy preparing for the 26/27 Rotary year. Those who have not yet been President should recognise that a lot of work goes into preparing for a presidential year and this typically starts in February. Budget planning and nomination of new team leaders are amongst some of the tasks. I know we will support Roger’s year, and it is important that we all play a role in supporting him, as well as play our part in seeking out new Rotarians to join the club. We also need to make sure we keep those existing Rotarians within the family feeling valued and supported! It is always good if anyone can suggest a speaker as that is at the heart of keeping the club intact.

This is also one of our busiest periods: Plant Sales, Golf Day, two concerts, District Assembly, our own AGM, Assembly and Charter evening plus handover. A lot of work and planning goes into these events over many months.

Being reflective in nature, I have started to look back at my year as Rotary president. It is sobering to reflect that we have seen a total of five either active or very recently former Rotarians move onto higher service. Whilst it is a sad moment, it has been a pleasure to have known and to work alongside these Rotarians: every single one of them gave something back. Thank you is not enough for the work they have undertaken.

Wednesday 29^th April 2026 was a sad day, as we said our goodbyes to Rtn John Boyes. As stated in the last VFTB, John will be missed but not forgotten. Thank you to all those who supported Eileen and with car sharing.

A recap on April’s programme:

Now to reflect on April’s programme. A big thank you again to Neil and the team who created a detailed and enjoyable programme. I need to start with our meeting on the 31^st March as this was held after the publishing deadline.

31^st March: It was a pleasure to welcome Mayor (and former Shepshed Rotarian) David Northage and Mayoress Jenny Northage. The evening was also supported by the previous Mayor and Mayoress the “Julies”, as well as Carol, the Mayors PA. David entertained us with a talk that focused on how he became mayor and some of the events that he has attended. There was the occasional mention of Shepshed in the talk but to para phrase a certain Basil Fawlty “I think he got away with it.”

The President with the Mayor & Mayoress plus “the Julies”

There was no meeting during Easter week, so the next event was on 14^th April when the “former” Costa Rican Rotarian, Francesca Smith, delivered a talk on Cost Rica with an update on what the San José RC was doing in the community; it was interesting to see that we were aligned with them on the type of projects in which we both take an interest. Francesca gave us many facts, most of which were previously unknown to us such as that they do not have an army. Her talk was well received. What Francesca did not know whilst delivering her talk is that it was also her Career Talk; at the end of the meeting, I was proud to induct her into RC Loughborough Beacon and hand over her club badge.

Francesca Smith is formally inducted to the club

Francesca has thrown herself into Loughborough Rotary and alongside Susan Bird supported the Rotary East Midlands Disability Games held at Ratcliffe college on April 12^th. Susan has sent this report of the event:

“Rotarians from clubs all across the region ran events and provided support for around 150 disabled competitors of all ages. Susan and Francesca represented Loughborough Beacon in a supporting role. Medals and cups were presented for archery, darts, curling, boccia, table tennis, weightlifting, rowing, swimming, basketball, wheelchair slalom and wheelchair dash. It was a very happy occasion, and the competitors clearly had a brilliant day!”

Susan has also provided photos of the event:

Rotary East Midlands Disability Games

The 21^st April saw Rtn Carl Hughes updated us some 19 years later after his first Rotary career talk about his business, Hughes Driver Training Ltd. He actually used a few pictures from that talk regarding HDT in a talk which was informative and yet also fun. The company is now 250+ employees and is UK wide. The big recent development was the new contract covering the training of Army, Airforce and Navy Personnel. Carl gave us a great insight into what is behind an HDT branded lorry that we all see regularly. It was also interesting to learn that they have other brands as part of the group. Thank you again to Carl.

The 28^th April was devoted to a discussion regarding Plant Sale preparations. This year we are at a new venue, which will require some flexibility in our approach, as we have less space than in previous years and parking will need to be tightly controlled. We will also look to request that drivers come at a particular time for their deliveries. Thank you to Robert & Ann Waterfall for making their home, Ridgewold Farm on Wymeswold Lane, available to us. Thank you also to Andy Perkins who has been co-ordinating the Plant Sale operation this year. Thanks, too, to Simon Leese for “manning the shop”, as well as to all those of you who have helped in the preparation so far and have promised to help us on the day!

Updating the Wiki

It helps enormously if you update the Wiki as far ahead as possible; some points to note for the near future:

• In addition to the monthly pages, we have a Plant Sale volunteer page and a Charter page which need to be completed separately.
• Please note that the 12^th May is our AGM and we need to be quorate: do try to be there!
• Also note the boat trip requires some decisions about options on the night in June’s Wiki page.
• NO MEETINGS for the two Bank Holidays (5^th & 26^th May).
• Please note that for some months now we have had two wiki pages as the size of a joint page, including impact groups, was not able to be saved. Thank you to Ian and Roger for sorting this issue.

Thank you to those people who have volunteered to mark East Leake Academy scripts and to Bruce Eastman for co-ordinating this event.

Please take a moment to keep Almoner Rosemary up to date with any health issues if you think it appropriate that the club is aware. It was good to see some Rotarians return to Longcliffe over the past few weeks.

From Lawrence:

Our next Zoom talk will be held on Saturday 13^th June. The speaker will be Professor Ed Hawkins of the University of Reading, on Climate Change, under the auspices of ESRAG.

Prof Hawkins was awarded an MBE in 2020 'for services to climate science and to science communication', and is the inventor of 'warming stripes' and 'climate spirals'.

Please feel free to pass the link from Lawrence Leger’s email on to anyone who might be interested, especially young people and non-Rotarians.