Weekly meeting 26 September 2016

19 Club members, plus our guest Kerry Rubins (Ambassador for the Martha Trust) , sat down to a meal of beef stroganoff followed by a delicious apple and blackberry crumble topped with ice cream.   

John Utting reminded the members their reservations for next week’s ‘Scatter Week’ had been arranged – members have received confirmation of their reservations by email.   Nominations have been received from Rotary GB&I of the five candidates for the office of Rotary GB&I President for 2019/20 – details will be sent by email to Club members, who have been requested to make their choice at next week’s meeting, in order that the Club vote can be cast. he also mentioned Bob Joslin will be on holiday next week and that he (John) would be acting Dining Steward for next week (03 October).  

Patrick Brown reported on those who were indisposed, and circulated a birthday card, signed by all members present, for Lew Harris who will be celebrating his birthday next Sunday 02 October. The 200 Club draw was held, but in the absence of Tony Nicholls, the winning number (101) joins last week’s number (149) as the two winners could not be identified.   The 200 Club will be holding its Grand Draw on 13^th October, when the top prize will  be £5000 cash.   This week’s wine draw was won by Marlene Burnham.

The President reported that the review of the club’s Bye-laws was ongoing, but the language and punctuation still needed editing.   John Utting will co-ordinate with the members of the team originally entrusted with its revision.  

Paul Robbins also announced that the new seating arrangements, whereby each member was given a number and then had to locate his seat, would come into effect next week and be tried out for three months.   The object is to encourage members to sit with somebody different each week, to improve the sense of fellowship within the club.

Pat Heath announced that the Trustees of the M. R. Dunn Fund had met and had agreed to provide  £1000 towards the provision of dictionaries to the local Primary Schools – with the balance of £260 being funded by our Community Committee.   David Harding reported that, when the dictionaries were given out to Year Six at Kingsdown School, the headmistress, Jo Hygate, discussed the possibility of issuing the dictionaries in future to students in Year Five, so they would have  the use or them for about eighteen months before they left for their secondary schools   John Utting said this confirmed information received from a member of the senior leadership team at Warden House, who stated the enhanced level of the curriculum meant that year five students would benefit from having the dictionaries earlier in their last couple of years at Primary school.  

David Lister reported on voting at last week’s District 1120 Council Meeting at Maidstone.    The meeting agreed to change from using District 1120’s bespoke website to the Rotary GB&I (Rotary GB&IT) website system – as already used by 20 out of the 23 Rotary GB&I Districts

The venue for the 2018 District Conference will take place at the University of Kent at Canterbury in early September

Alison Munn drew attention to the Rotary Club of Sandwich’s forthcoming trip to Lorette in France, to visit the battlefields and cemeteries on Commemoration Day, 12th November – Alison will be putting out a ‘board’ next week.

Marlene Burnham reported that there were 5,000 crocus bulbs waiting to be planted.   These are in aid of the main Rotary charity, supporting the elimination of polio throughout the World.    Half of these will be planted around St Andrew’s Church by members of the congregation.   She was waiting to hear from the Goodwin Academy who had promised to plant the other 2,500 around Sandown Castle.    The President congratulated Marlene on her tenacity in the face of a number of difficulties.

 Colin Richards reminded members of the Quiz Night on Thursday 6^th October at the RMA, 7 for 7:30.   Profits will also be going to supporting the elimination of polio.

David Harding reported that RC of Calais had supplied us with the date of the Triangulaire only last Friday morning, with the details of the events on Friday evening.   This gave the club just about a week to make arrangements, as the dates were 30^th September and 1^st October.     Most members of the club already had other arrangements so were unable to give an affirmative reply at such short notice;  fortunately none had booked ferry passages or hotel reservations.   This was just as well, as subsequent to the lunch, two e-mails came through during the afternoon from Calais.   The first regretted that the Triangulaire was cancelled, and the second was to explain that this was due to the sad demise of Xavier Morillion, one of the iconic long-standing members of the club, whom some of our own club will have known.

Finally, our guest, Kerry Rubins (see photo), thanked us for inviting her to lunch, and briefly outlined some detail of the Martha Trust charity she is an ambassador for.

Report written by David Harding