President's Blog April & May 2014

With Easter taking place in April we had a slightly quieter Rotary month, and with the two bank holidays in May it seemed appropriate to combine the two months into one blog.

This year we are celebrating the one hundredth year of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland so at the beginning of April I attended a very interesting address with question & answer session given by Rotary GB&I President Nan McCreadie, at Sherborne.

Another productive club visioning meeting and our usual monthly business meeting at the Lamb completed the month of April.

On the first May bank holiday there were no lie-ins enjoyed for 6 of our club members as an early start was required to marshall the inaugural Trowbridge Hot Chilli Triathlon. Our morning was spent poolside at the Clarendon Academy, keeping track of the swimmers laps. It was an extremely well run event, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and have already been booked for next year! It was good to see Wessex Mead's founder president, Steve Lee, taking part and we didn't make him do any extra laps, promise!

The District 1200 Assembly took place on 10th May and three of our members attended the morning on behalf of our club, to listen to our District's plans for the forthcoming Rotary year. In the evening, a small group attended the Westbury Rotary Club combined President's Night & Twinning celebration. A good evening of food, drink and conversation with our friends from Westbury and their guests from Landernau was enjoyed by all.

In preparation for our club assembly on 19th May, new committees took place on 12th May. Looking ahead to the 2014/15 Rotary year, the draft calendar is progressing nicely with many events & activities already being planned. These ideas were then relayed to a very impressed Assistant District Governor John Butler at our club Assembly the following week!

There were no lie-ins again at the end of the month for Andrew, Ann & Caroline as they volunteered to be Rotary 'meeter greeters' at the Royal Bath & West Show on Saturday 31st May, along with Sarah from Melksham Rotary. Positioned in front of the payment kiosks at the purple entrance, they handed out survey sheets, family trail sticker booklets and wristbands for children. A parent's mobile phone number was written on the wristband so if the child became separated from their parents, they could be quickly contacted. After a long, busy & thankfully dry morning, the 4 volunteers enjoyed the show itself, timing it just right for the cider tasting demonstration and then stopped by to say hello to Tony Quinn who was manning the District 1200 Rotary stand.