Club Handover 2020

This week we held our annual Handover when President Moray Bisset handed over the Presidential Chain of Office to Rotarian Ray Spencer. In these strange times it was all done virtually by zoom and socially distanced and was attended by an unusually high number of members.

Whilst it signalled the start of Ray’s second stint as President it was the culmination of Moray’s second time as President. Although his year ended in peculiar circumstances it was a very successful one with a number of memorable moments two particular highlights on the social side being the Edinburgh visit and a memorable Burns Night. The annual Dragon Boat racing and more recently the work done in distributing food boxes were other highlights. Ray thanked Moray for his leadership throughout and steering the Club in his usual inimitable style through the vicissitudes of this Rotary year.

Traditionally one of the outgoing President’s last acts was to present various ‘Chantry Awards’, these were;

‘Attendance Award’

Changed circumstances have called for different criteria, his decision was informed by Rowland’s top six attendees before lockdown and to this was added attendance at social and community events. Therefore, for all round commitment to attend and support over the whole spectrum of Chantry life in 2019/20 the award went to Robin Richmond.

‘Fellowship Award’

This focused on fellowship of recent months generated by WhatsApp and Zoom both of which were driven by Mark Jeffries. It was he who has also represented the best of Chantry to a wider community through the distribution of Morrisons Food Boxes. Therefore for enhancing the fellowship of Chantry both within and without the Club it went to Mark Jefferies.

‘Rotarian of the Year’

On of the key jobs in the Club which is best done not only efficiently but also quietly is that of Secretary. This year has occasioned a whole range of unexpected responsibilities to add to the usual lot of the Secretary. Therefore, the richly deserved recipient of Rotarian of the Year was Graham Wilson.