Club assembly and Handover

Club Assembly and Handover

It is the end of the Rotary year and time to mark the end of Adrian’s presidency as he hands over to his duties to our new President, Mike Till.
Adrian opened the proceedings by welcoming our guests, Assistant District Governor Alexandra Lloyd-Jones; Matt Cass, President-Elect of Gloucester; Mike Cogger, President-Elect of Kingsholm; and Lee Summers, Joint President of Gloucester Quays.  He also welcomed two of our honorary members: Geoff Cooper and Roger Head.
Adrian then gave a brief review of his year.  The Sporting Dinner and the Dragonboat Regatta both raised significant funds which have enabled us to make contributions to our chosen charities and other projects, both at home and abroad.  We have enjoyed a varied programme of meetings ranging from the high farce of Professor Collywobbles telling us about life as a Punch and Judy man to Angela and Oriana Fuguet sharing the tragedy that is modern Venezuela and the impact that has had upon the lives of them and their family.  He then reminded us of those we have lost in the year – Graham Choyce, Alan Williams and Elizabeth Brent-Smith – before moving on to mention that we have also gained two new members, Roger Boucher and Simon Owen, who have both thrown themselves into the club’s activities with great gusto.  Adrian concluded with a summary of the social and sporting activities we have enjoyed.
He then handed over the Presidential chain to Mike Till.  Mike gave Adrian his Past President’s badge and gong and Adrian sat down with a sigh of relief – duty done and signed off!
Mike then presented Jeff Dawson with his President-Elect’s regalia and badges of office to the other Club officers before moving on to give us a few words.
He started by thanking Adrian and Geraldine for all they have done to make sure of the Club’s continuing success.  He then moved on to explain that he and Jeff had both volunteered to serve a second term of office as that will give the members two years to think about and plan for the Club’s future.  We do need a President Nominee to ensure that we continue and he urged everyone to think about the issue.
Mike went on to tell us that this year’s theme is “Rotary Connects the World” and that this resonates with us as our fundraising has enabled us to reach out locally and internationally to do just that.  We have always connected well within the Club and our trademark is good humour and Mike hopes that existing members make sure that they connect with new members as they come along.  Rotary in Gloucestershire offers us another opportunity to connect within the local community.
Mike reflected on his first term as President when, in 1987, we presented our first cheque of £5,000 to Polio Plus.  
Since then we have seen the initiative, now renamed End Polio Now, continue to make progress in eliminating this terrible disease.  With his medical background Mike felt it essential we continue our support - it would be magnificent if we could see both smallpox and polio eliminated within our lifetime.
Mike then invited the Officers and Committee Chairmen to outline their plans for the year – which can be summarised as: “Steady as we go.”
Alexandra then spoke to us.  Apparently this was her last Assembly as she is now moving into her 3rd year as ADG.  We shall miss her.  She was pleased to know that our fundraising efforts were to continue and that Nick and Simon were taking over the Dragonboats.
She told us that Foundation was increasing its contribution to End Polio Now such that each £1 that we contribute to the programme will be worth £6.  Surely another good reason for our supporting the initiative.  We learnt that Rotary has a central record of volunteer hours committed by clubs and their members.  Not all clubs report their hours but there were 45 million reported hours last year which equates to a value of $1 billion!
Finally she encouraged us to do whatever we can to increase our visibility in the community.  Her view is that the more that people know about us and what we do, the more likely they are to want to join us.
Altogether it was an excellent evening.