General Meeting - Live

ROTARY CLUB OF CHESTFIELD

Breakfast Meeting 07.45 for 08.00am Thursday 28^th July 2022 @ the Golf Club

Present:               Andrew B, Andrew M, Dave C, David M, Elaine, Godfrey, Jean M, Kathryn, Lesley, Maureen, Margaret, Nick, Pat, Paul, Pete, Pippa, Reggie, Robert, Spyros, Sue, Chris, Marian.

Apologies:           Hilary, Iain, Myfanwy, David B, David K, Trevor, David B.

Guests:                Gerry Lennon (prospective new member)

                                Sally Thomas (Andrew B’s sister)

                                Emma & Sue from Open Your Hearts to Bhutan

Grace:                   Paul

                BREAKFAST

Chairperson:      Pat welcomed all our guests this morning.  And the members – very good turnout today.

Social:                   Pat asked about afternoon tea parties.  These were a great success during the latter part of lock down and she is keen to see them happen again this year.  None arranged so far.

                                TheTea by the Sea is going ahead – 2.00pm at Dave C’s beach hut Wednesday 14^th September (no. 154, British racing green hut near the Angling club building).  Dave will get his kayaks out (not a euphemism) if Andrew wears his Speedos.

                                The visit to Wildwood is on 6^th October at the full moon.  Several members are already booked in; if you want to go you need to book online.

Fundraising:       Race Night is on Saturday 20^th August.  Dave C sent copies of the poster to all local secretaries, who did acknowledge.  Godfrey said he is still struggling to sell enough tickets, and wondered why this is so?  Lesley wondered if the event is more of a man thing?  Godfrey said if you can’t or don’t want to go, you can still support the event by buying a horse, there are still some left.

                                Car Parking.  Very good result, David M said it was the second highest amount we have had.  Margaret said the card machine was an incentive for visitors, especially from out of town, to pay a bit more.  David M advised to make sure the payment has been approved before letting someone go.  Andrew said thank you to Marian whose flapjacks are always popular.  No one bought the croci (crocuses?); Pete said we might encourage this by wearing one ourselves.  Sue reminded that we need to update the information about how much it costs to park elsewhere in the town.  The next one will be on Tuesday 9^th August.  Paul confirmed we could do with a few more volunteers.  Andrew M asked Godfrey how to put new batteries in the radios: Godfrey said the key thing is to remove the pocket clip first, before you can get the back cover off.  There are always new batteries in the bucket where we keep the £10 and £20 notes.

                                Golf Day.  This is going OK, but like the car parking (above) needs some more volunteers especially for the putting competition.  We also need some more raffle prizes.

                                Harbour Day.  We ought to cancel this.  Canterbury are not supporting this or any other similar events this year.  Kathryn said there will be no charity stalls, no boats in the harbour, only the blessing of the waters.  We will try to get our £50 deposit back.

International:    Andrew B recapped what was said last week about District’s appeal for accommodation in Ukraine.  Andrew has advised Ray Seager how much we have already contributed towards Ukraine-related causes.  David M confirmed that this is just short of £9K.  The grant for Ismail University is still ongoing.

                                Andrew has spoken to Eric about our international friendship link.  Eric can’t make the Golf Day.  Andrew will update the board first about the prospects for the link.

                                Emma spoke about Bhutan.  She has just returned from a visit – the first in 2 ½ years, thanks to Covid.  Emma said that in Buddhism (as in most other world religions) gender equality lags behind what we would want it to be.  However it has come about that nuns as well as monks can now be ordained.  Emma has just become the first western woman to be ordained.  She is very conscious that as such she has to set an example in terms of keeping her vows.  Emma has a list of projects which need financial support – but potential donors always want to invest in something which is new, finite, rather than helping maintain what is already in place.  Dave C said he has had experience of this; he feels donors insistence on only supporting things they see as ‘sexy’ is a form of self-regard and should be challenged. 

                                One project Emma did mention was a school, one of the only ones in Bhutan where mainstream and special needs pupils attend the same establishment, which needs paths laying so wheelchair users can move about freely.  This will cost about £7.5K in total.  Could we do this jointly with Timpoo Rotary, contributing say, £3.5K?  David M and Andrew B said that the Rotary bureaucracy of managing joint projects with Rotary in another country moves very slowly.  It would be better to mobilise several local clubs to severally apply for district grants towards different aspects of the project. 

                                Finally, Emma said that Timpoo Rotary are going to try to host an international conference in June 2023.

Pat:                        Pat confirmed that Gardening at the Whit & Tank, mostly clearing the weed-choked areas, will go ahead on 6^th August from 09.00am.

                                Next weeks we will have a speaker, James Kirby from Crossroads.

AoB:                      No greeting from other clubs this week.

Raffle:                   Won by Marian

Master-at-Arms:              Nick said that today is Milk Chocolate Day, also Beatrix Potter’s birthday.  Yesterday was Take Your Houseplant for a Walk Day – only in America.

Final Toast:         Sue

Next Meeting:

07.45 am for 08.00am Thursday 4^th August @ the Golf Club