Bulletin for November 2023

                                                              Rotary Club of Cheltenham North

                                                                     November 2023 Bulletin

                                                             It takes skill to trip over flat surfaces!

From the President Kevin Gwilliam

Hello again.

Well, it is nearly that time of year, as I write this, I have just changed the clocks and hope I haven’t forgotten one.

Last Saturday we should have been celebrating a successful Wine Festival, but sadly this was cancelled at the very last moment due to a Health & Safety issue within the Pump Room. My thanks go out to Steve and his team. A lot of work had gone into the organisation of the event with further work now involved in the cancellation. Hopefully we can re arrange the event in the spring and at another venue.

Great news however is that the club has been offered to host the Snowdrop weekend at Colesbourne during the beginning of February. The last time the club did this was back 2019 where we raised around £3000.

The Carol Concert is looming to which Gill and her team must be congratulated upon in organising the event. Just need to sell lots of tickets.

On October 24th Crocus bulbs were planted in Sandford Park as part of World Polio Day – thanks go to Nigel for organising.

We have several interesting speakers to look forward to in the coming weeks and on December 4th the Queens hotel will be hosting our Christmas Dinner which I do hope you will all support.

As you know Nigel and I have been holding discussions through District, with Rotary club of Cheltenham to organise a joint initiative. A Community Awards event would take place in the Autumn of 2024, whereby we hold an awards ceremony and present smaller under the radar organisations with some startup funds and need some support.

Once again, many thanks for all your support in my year as President. It has certainly been an interesting one so far!.

The Wine Festival 28 October 2023 Steve Wood

I spent the evening of Friday 20 October at the Southam Village Hall Film Night. The film shown was “Belfast”, a film I had seen previously but that I enjoyed seeing again. I got home at a little after 23.00 hours having had a very pleasant evening. I thought that I would look to see if any emails had come in during my absence. I was especially interested to see if any more wine festival tickets had been sold whilst I was out. Three more tickets had indeed been sold but looking at my in box my eyes were more drawn to a message received at 20.27 hours that evening from Steve Mitchell, Head of Events at the Cheltenham Trust. Some of the Wine Festival Committee were due to meet with Steve Mitchell on the afternoon of Monday 23 October at the Pump Room to discuss arrangements and logistics for the event. Steve’s email informed me that “Unfortunately, a structural risk has been identified in a recent survey (at the PUMP ROOM), and safety measures have been implemented with immediate effect to ensure the venue is safe. These measures include a series of scaffolding towers within the Main Hall and Apse, which have a direct impact

on the capacity of the venue”. This did not sound like good news but it did not suggest that the venue was unusable for our purposes. A reduction in capacity from the usual 300 to 250 would be workable for us this year. In any event, there was little that we could do until the Monday.

At 15.30 I arrived at the Pump Room as planned to find Geoff Fox and David Hearle already there, together with Steve Mitchell and another Trust employee. The sight that met me on entering the Main Hall was most demoralising. Six substantial scaffolding towers had been erected, significantly reducing the floor space available. I asked Steve Mitchell how he saw our event working, to which he answered, “honest answer, I don’t”. I could not but agree. It was obvious that there would not be enough space left available for anywhere near the number of exhibitors that had booked and it would be virtually impossible for ticket-holders to circulate. Steve offered the Town Hall on Sunday 12 November; Remembrance Sunday, as an alternative. We said that we would let him know about that and left.

We almost immediately decided that 12 November would not work. Apart from the questionable good taste of holding a wine festival on Remembrance Sunday, the chances of getting a high proportion of exhibitors and ticket-holders in attendance at a date so little in the future seemed remote. Added to that, the Town Hall does not have sufficient parking space for even half of the exhibitors. In a Zoom meeting of the Committee later on Monday, it was decided that the Wine Festival 2023 would have to be postponed and that we would seek to stage it in April 2024. Many members will recall that the festival was in April until the advent of COVID in 2020.

Since that Monday much activity has taken place. All exhibitors and sponsors were contacted no later the Tuesday 24 October to notify them of the postponement. David Hearle handled this and managed to speak to them on the phone before sending a follow up email. The feedback that we have has been very supportive.

All exhibitors and sponsors will be offered the option of receiving a refund of their fee or of rolling the fee over to when the next festival is held.

All ticket-holders were emailed by Maureen McVitty on Tuesday 24 October. It became evident that some of these emails went to junk mail boxes but I believe that all ticket-holders were aware of the postponement by the end of 25 October.

Some of the feedback from ticket-holders has been less supportive with suggestions that we should be paying non-cancellable hotel costs and train fares. This will not happen. One ticket-holder emailed to say that she had contacted the Pump Room and been told that there was no problem with the building and that our event was still in the diary. It transpired that the powers that be at the Cheltenham Trust had decided not to inform the great majority of their staff about the Pump Room problem until Wednesday or Thursday. A strange management approach.

Again, all ticket-holders will be offered the choice of rolling their tickets over or receiving a full refund. I may be overly influenced by the small number who have written demanding an immediate refund but my feeling is that a high proportion will opt to have their money back.

Whilst several of the expenses incurred to date for the festival can be carried forward to its next staging, the hire of glasses and spittoons, the cost of pens and of hessian bags for example, there will be some non-recoverable losses involved. The largest of these will be the bill from ArtWorks, who do the design work for the festival catalogue and images and whose invoice will include the cost of printing the catalogue. The printing had been done only a few days before the cancellation but the collation of the catalogues was not done. Other sunk costs are:

Stripe payment system fees: £145.50

Banner and Flyer costs: £244.60

Square One website, including domain renewal: £336.00.

Looking forward, we are reviewing the options for the venue to be used in the future. The Pump Room is available at the cost quoted for this year, although the price has gone up for new bookings. There is a risk that the building will not have re-opened by April 2024.

We have looked at the Function Room at the Cheltenham Ladies’ College Sports and Leisure Centre, which seems a distinct possibility. We have yet to learn if it is available on 13 April. Other possibilities are being investigated and any suggestions would be welcome. Apart from the size of the venue, which needs to be very close to the Pump Room’s 265 square meters, if not larger, we also need parking for 28 “white vans”, or similar, for the exhibitors as well as space for the Rotary helpers.

I will report further as more information becomes available.

Crocus Planting on End Polio Day 2023 Nigel Gilhead

Members of RCCN, including our DG, planted purple crocus bulbs in Cheltenham's Sandford Park on 24th October, End Polio Day. This was a real community event.

The Friends of Sandford Parks, St.Johns Primary School and Cheltenham Borough Council (Green Spaces Dept.) joined in. Using tools and gloves provided by the Council's Park Rangers, 50+ excited children from the school planted bulbs. Please look for them in the spring in a part of the park near the Keynsham Road gate and the river; this area was suggested by FOSP and more clearly defined by the Park Rangers.

FOSP and the School put the event onto their websites with an explanation* of the 'purple pinkie' expression that is used in the End Polio Now campaign.

Photographs were arranged with the school and these capture the morning event.

*When a child receives their life-saving polio drops on mass polio immunisation days, their little finger is painted with a purple dye so it is clear they have received their polio vaccine. The dye lasts about a month, enabling the follow up team from WHO, visiting one or two weeks later, to check the success of the programme.

Photos courtesy of Michael Rouse

Hamper Scamper Gwynne Tucker Brown

‘Seeing is Believing’

Liz and I were invited to attend an open morning at the newly opened CCP HQ at 340 High Street on October 19th.

We were treated to a delicious breakfast which was then followed by a presentation firstly by Daniel, I had met him previously with Hamper Scamper. He explained the role of CCP in the Community. CCP stands for ‘Caring for Communities and People’.

They cover so many different areas :

Short term help for vulnerable people.

Mental Health issues.

Supporting children in police custody.

Support for people suffering from abuse.

Rent debt and loss of housing.

The lonely and isolated.

These are a few and there are many more. They have helped 4764 people this year mainly in the 16-25 age range.

This help varies according to the circumstances, it could be shelter, financial but always support.

We then had 3 short accounts from people who had been helped by CCP to turn their lives around. They were so positive and one had managed to overcome drug abuse. We were very impressed.

The CEO, Ray Cordell MBE, then showed us a short video, again, covering the work and areas that CCP are involved in. They are partly funded by the local council and rely heavily on donations.

We were also very impressed during our tour by the Community Pantry which was like going into a shop. The users pay a small amount according to their means. They have dried, fresh and frozen goods. People can use the shop as long as they need to unlike the Food Bank which is really only for emergencies .

Their big fund raiser, not for us I hasten to say, is The Big Sleep out which is held at Lilleybrook Golf Club. Last year the temperature recorded was 0.5C!!

So all in all a very impressive morning. There were about 40 people attending from very different backgrounds all coming together for the presentation. The work that CCP do is very thought provoking and I am glad that we are helping in some way with our contributions to Hamper Scamper.

Please start assembling goods for donation to Hamper Scamper. Every year the number of boxes has increased and this year even more are anticipated. The dates for collection of donations by Vivien, who is once again kindly storing them in her garage, are Monday November 20th and Monday December 4th. The collection will be in the car park of The Queen’s at the meeting.

Vivien is also happy to receive parcels at her home on the few days before this, from Thursday 16th, Friday 17th , Saturday 18th and during the day of Monday 20th, by prior arrangement.

She plans to put lists on the dining tables at the Queens for members to take away at the next 2 meetings.

CCP Christmas Food List 2023

Christmas pulling crackers

Savoury snacks, crisps, nuts, cheese biscuits

Christmas pudding OR cake

Mince pies – check date

Box of chocolates or Selection box

Luxury biscuits

Hot drinks – tea, coffee, hot chocolate

Condiments, mustard, mint sauce, cranberry sauce

Gravy, powder, cubes etc.

Stuffing mix

Tinned/packet pudding – custard, rice pudding, Angel Delight

Tinned fruit /vegetables

Thank you very much for supporting THE HAMPER SCAMPER collection.

PLEASE BRING CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE Rotary meetings on NOV. 6th and Nov. 20th. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Vivien Barr, vmbarr2@gmail.com and 01242 520637

Community Garden President Kevin Just to let you know that work has now started on Futures Community Garden project at Whaddon Church.

There is still work to do along with planting - trees will be planted in November.

Congratulations to Future - what a great first project for the local community.

Official Opening of the new accommodation block at National Star

Kevin, David Hearle and Michael Rouse attended the official opening of the new accommodation block at National Star on Wednesday 25th October. The new facilities are absolutely amazing.

Kevin and David with Monica Farthing – Chief Fundraiser at National Star

Here is the link from the BBC Points West report that was playing in StarBistro featuring the Ingram Discovery Rooms. Smart Tech National Star - BBC Points West - 23rd October 2023 - YouTube

Snowdrop Teas – 3rd/4th February 2024

We have been allocated the weekend of 3rd/4th February 2024 to provide the teas at Colesbourne for one of the Snowdrop open gardens. Vivien has kindly agreed to lead this project and I will back her as much as I can. We will need loads of cakes so please get baking after Christmas. A board will go round at the next meeting asking if you can help over that February weekend – we will need as many of you as possible.

Carol Concert – Tuesday 19th December 2023

Please support the carol concert this year and sell as many tickets as you can. We have two young delightful soloists – Imogen and Tomos Bowen who are pupils at Dean Close school and who are planning, among other things, to sing a duet. So please come along and hear them. For the first time we also have the Gloucestershire Youth Jazz Orchestra who will be playing jazzy Christmas music and we welcome back the Handbell Ringers from Cranham. Mark Cummings has kindly agreed to be the compere for another year.

Future Programme Clive O’Gorman

Mon, Oct 30th 2023 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Club Meeting with Guests and Speaker at Queens Hotel

A Club Meeting with Guests at the Queens Hotel Guest speaker Paul Murphy. Paul will give a talk on Charlie Chaplin Part One (Part Two on 29th January 2024) Host Beth Phillip

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Sun, Nov 5th 2023 at 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Cheltenham Fireworks at the Racecourse

Cheltenham Rotarians are supporting the Cheltenham Fireworks display organised by Round Table at the Racecourse on Sunday 5th November. Volunteers required contact Richard Purdon

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Mon, Nov 6th 2023 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Club Meeting with Speaker at the Queens Hotel

A Club Meeting at the Queens Hotel Guest Speaker Tim Sizer who will give a talk on "My Life in Pharmacy" Host John Phillip

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Wed, Nov 8th 2023 at 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Club Council Meeting

A Club Council Meeting At Home with Michael Jones

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Sat, Nov 18th 2023 at 9:30 am - 6:00 pm

Love Thy Turf

Cheltenham North are supporting Cheltenham Races again this year as Volunteers.. See website for more information Volunteers required contact Richard Purdon

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Mon, Nov 20th 2023 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Club Meeting with Speaker at the Queens Hotel

Club Meeting with Guest Speaker Details of Speaker TBA Plus Hamper Scamper Collection in Queens Car Park. Host Richard Purdon

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Tue, Nov 28th 2023 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

District Council Meeting

A District Council Meeting Face to Face Hybrid Details TBA

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Mon, Dec 4th 2023 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Club Christmas Function with Guests at the Queens Hotel

Club Christmas Function with Guests at the Queens Hotel See website for Menu/Entertainment. Cost TBA Host Kevin Gwilliam

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Mon, Dec 18th 2023 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Club Business Meeting/SGM at the Queens Hotel

Club Business Meeting/SGM at the Queens Hotel which includes election of Club Officers for 2024/25, review of Club Accounts for 2022/23 and report from Club Trustees. Host Kevin Gwilliam

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Tue, Dec 19th 2023 at 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm

Carol Concert 19th December 2023

The 45th Carol Concert organised by Cheltenham North will be held in the Princess Hall of the Ladies College on the 19th December 2023. See website for the latest information and purchase of Tickets.

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Mon, Jan 1st 2024 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

CLUB MEETING IS CANCELLED

Club Meeting is CANCELLED Bank Holiday

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Mon, Jan 15th 2024 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Club Meeting with Speaker at the Queens Hotel

A Club Meeting at the Queens Hotel Guest Speaker Chris Ruston who will give a talk on "Tales from the Lygon Arms Broadway". Host Michael Rouse

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Mon, Jan 29th 2024 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Club Meeting with Guests & Speaker at the Queens Hotel

A Club Meeting with Guests and Speaker at the Queens Hotel Guest Speaker Paul Murphy who will give a talk on Charlie Chaplin Part Two (Part One on 30th October 2023) Host Mary Ann Rust

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Mon, Feb 5th 2024 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Club Meeting with Speaker at the Queens Hotel

A Club Meeting at the Queens Hotel Guest Speaker Sally Ferrers will speak on “Donatello, Leonardo and Caravaggio”. (They are painters not footballers!) Host David Rees