A Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Five of our club members Les, Mike, Keith, Peter Strong and Peter Greene, took advantage of our missed meeting (Bank Holiday Monday) to visit our fellow club - the Rotary Club of Colchester. 

Why Colchester? Not only for the social interaction and fellowship with another club in the District, but also, because this was a lunch time club like us, but with a booming membership of nearly 70!  How do they do it?

Great Fellowship

We were greeted warmly by their club’s official greeter on our arrival at the meeting place, the Balkerne Restaurant in the Colchester Institute.  Our menu choices had been noted and printed slips awaited us at our positions on the various tables. 

The best laid plans of ...

Everybody was sat together except Peter Greene, who was seemingly banished to a far flung table.  A cause for concern? ....Well, the clue was in the name - there was another Colchester member called Peter Green (no final “e”) who had turned up unexpectedly, and in the resultant confusion, had taken our Peter’s place, paid for the meal, and taken Peter’s food choice.

No worry, all swiftly sorted out by Colchester and we all settled down for a very enjoyable meal.

Lebanon

There was a  brilliant speaker, Mark Howell, a Rotarian from another Colchester Club, who had been on a Rotary visit to Lebanon, the country of his birth (to English parents) and gave a most interesting talk about his recent visit.

Membership

After the meal, club President Colin Brodie and Membership Chairwoman Pat Prestney PHF spent over an hour describing how they managed to attract so many members to their club.  Manly hard work - preparation, asking people to join, and FOLLOW UP!  We picked up a lot of tips and hope we can profit from their experience.