General Meeting - Live at The Plough

ROTARY CLUB OF CHESTFIELD

Breakfast Meeting 1^st October @ 07.45 am, online

Present:      Pat; Andrew & Jean M; Kathy; Margaret; Sue; Godfrey; Robert; Andrew B; Lesley; Pater; Iain; David B; Dave C

Apologies:   Hilary; Ron; David K

Reminders:  The next Board meeting is on 14^th October @ 6.00pm.  Also, has everyone had an appointment about the seasonal ‘flu jab (and pneumonia, and shingles)?

General:      Some good news.  Gordon and Anne were married on Tuesday.  Jacqui went round to convey our good wishes and some flowers.  Godfrey said Sharon went round later and there were lots of visitors; apparently Gordon was very popular with neighbours.  The fund raising walk for SNAAP happened on Sunday despite the bad weather. 

Birthdays:   Happy birthday to Lesley.

Gardening:  This was cancelled last week.  The gardens had apparently been sprayed to get rid of rats, so it wasn’t safe for Rotary members.  Andrew will ask Marian for a new date.

Polio:           Sue reported that Simon the vicar had initially been doubtful that we could have a purple light display, after all.  Apparently the only floodlit part of the church is a cross which is deemed to be inaccessible.  However someone has since volunteered to go up there and have a look.  We wait to see.  In any case there will be a piece in the parish news, plus other publicity.

Interact:      Kathy said there has been a second meeting at the school, and the same students as last time attended, which is encouraging.  It is hard ‘though to come up with fund raising ideas for the students, which will engage them, but not be counter to current government restrictions on social contact etc.

Car Parking:  We have the new dates which Godfrey has circulated.  These are:

          Sunday 25^th October

          Saturday 28^th November

          Tuesday 22^nd December

          Tuesday 29^th December

          Saturday 23^rd January

          Saturday 20^th February

          Sunday 7th March

Note the opening times: Saturdays 08.00am to 17.00pm; Sundays 10.00am to 17.00pm; Weekdays 09.00am to 17.00pm.  Note also that the clocks go back an hour on Saturday 24^th October.  As always, as many people as possible are needed to volunteer for this important part of our service.  Godfrey may contact members individually.

Sky Dive:     Sue said that she has passed £21065 to David M, our treasurer.  Additionally, she has another £65 in hand.

Membership Survey:  Kathy thanked Lesley for all her work with this.  Kathy added that in general a majority of members appeared satisfied with the club, but some of the comments made were revealing.  These included:

·         We need to get more people to join, especially those local to Chestfield

·         People are worried about joining zoom meetings because of security

·         The members of the Board never seem to change

·         The same breakfast every time is boring

·         We don’t do enough for the local community

Lesley said that since the results came out she has received some helpful suggestions for moving forward.  A key suggestion has been that we should be more flexible in how and when we have our meetings.  Also that we should have two small focus groups of half-a-dozen each to look at the two issues of membership and meetings. 

During discussion two points were made about drawing in members who currently don’t zoom.  Firstly, we could carry on with Pat’s Summer tea party idea by holding indoor coffee mornings during the Winter.  Secondly perhaps we could offer reassurance that zoom is in fact easy to use and secure.  If you have security concerns about using zoom on your computer, you can always join meetings using your Smartphone.

Proposal:     Volunteers from the wider membership (not just the Board) to join Lesley (and Pete if he is available) in two focus groups – membership and meetings.  Lesley asked for anyone wishing to join a focus group to let her know by Monday week.

Further discussion included suggestions that we could alternate between early morning breakfast meetings and coffee morning meetings.  If we could get a significant proportion of our membership to meet together in small coffee mornings on the same day, then the coffee mornings could communicate with each other via zoom?  This would need some serious co-ordination. 

David B said that we need a dedicated PR person to get us an entry in local club directories, and get us in the local newspapers.

The Umbrella Centre:  Sue and Lesley met with Caroline Mumford who is the manager of the centre.  They now run a food share programme, which is different from a food bank in that users pay a small amount for the goods, and also that food includes fresh produce not just dry and tinned goods.  We could get involved with this by acting as volunteer drivers to go and collect donations.  A second point is that Caroline, through the Umbrella Centre, is in touch with a lot of new mums; the latter might be interested in joining this club (if we do adopt a more flexible approach to meetings) or a satellite club.

Members present felt that having a breakfast meeting on zoom every week was not very rewarding; we don’t have a lot to talk about.  Two meetings a month was felt to be enough, with one of these being in the evening.  So, on this basis, the next meeting ought to be in the evening (see below).

AoB:            Andrew confirmed that he has delivered letters about Walk4Water 2021 to all the schools interested in taking part.

Dave C said that at the end of last week’s notes there was a typo: ‘$38,00’ should have read ‘$38,000’.

Pat said that with regard to our evening meetings, we should have a dedicated speaker organiser.  This was seen as a good idea.

David B said commented on the idea of pursuing new members.  Chestfield meet at breakfast; Herne Bay meet at lunchtime; Whitstable meet in the evening.  So why do we need to be flexible about meeting times ourselves?  Surely we ought simply to direct potential new members to whichever club suits their availability?  However, other members present felt that there was more to it than just what time clubs meet; different clubs have different vibes.

Next Meeting:  In line with the discussion above, the next meeting will be:

8.00pm 15^th October online.  Note: this will include a brief presentation about the Umbrella Centre.

If anyone wants to come who hasn’t used zoom and needs some advice, contact Dave C.