July 2013

My first month in office seems to have flown by. The month began with a presentation from Steve Lloyd at our new home The Lamb in Mortimer Street. Steve  gave the club a very good presentation on the Chernobyl Children's Life Line Charity and the work he does to support the children from Belarus. I must say it touched my heart to see how these children appreciate what our children in England take for granted.

Steve is also a judge for our annual Young Chef competition and this year the hotly fought contest was won by Zak Woodhouse, a year 9 student from John of Gaunt. Zak's meal of salmon in a tomato & basil sauce with green beans and a dessert of lemon mousse cone with strawberry coulis was presented with an artistic seaside theme. His next challenge will be to win the regional round in February.

My first official event as Club President was to attend the Trowbridge Chamber of Commerce Summer Social Barbeque and it was a pleasure to be there with my wife who enjoyed the evening as well.

The Club's first social evening was a Restaurant visit to the Thai Orchid at Westbury, kindly organised by Trevor and greatly appreciated by the club members who went. The food was very good and enjoyed by everyone, well done Trevor!

My first Business meeting also fell during this month and was attended by what was nicknamed 'The Magnificent 7'. After getting over my initial nerves, all seemed to go well with only minor errors like forgetting to organise the raffle prize!

July 29^th was our first members night and was organised by Andrea who did an excellent job of running a paper quiz. The members were split into teams Boys v Girls and needless to say despite efforts by the boys to get in front, the girls won the night easily with 13.5 points and the boys only scoring a 6.5. It was a fun filled evening which everyone enjoyed.

Another first for Trowbridge Wessex Mead is to sponsor a student in the Rotary Short Term Youth Exchange Programme. I  am pleased to say that our student from Trowbridge, 16 year old Kira, is now in Japan and will return with her fellow exchange student, Mayuko, in August. We very much look forward to meeting Mayuko with her host family at our Business Meeting in August.

I am exceptionally pleased to see the work and effort put in by the committees on the various projects that they are undertaking this year. I wish them well and I know that they will succeed in what they are doing despite life’s little obstacles that get thrown at them.