Convivial Co-operation and Competition?

Less than four weeks ago, eight members of the Rotary Club of Basildon joined us at our Club’s Charter Lunch.  On November 24, nine Members of our club and partners joined our friends from Basildon Rotary Club at their Charter Dinner at the Holiday Inn, Basildon.  President Michael Ginn and Sue, President-Elect Roger Kettle and Sarah, Brian Wellman, Margaret Fowler, Les Sheppard, Peter Greene and Michael Sinclair all went along to celebrate this Charter anniversary. As usual, it was a black-tie event, and everybody turned up in their best finery.

A Warm Welcome

What an enjoyable night. With the great news that the evening raised £325 for Children in Need.  Well done, Basildon.

All nine of us were seated at one table with a fine view of the room and assembled guests.  Incumbent President Ben Rajan welcomed all, and as a first – quoted “M” from James Bond and likened Rotary to MI6 – “we know what we do, but the public doesn’t!”  He was followed by the toast to our hosts by Alison Beaumont (President Basildon Concord) before we all tucked into an enjoyable meal.

This time next year

The Speaker was Ian Davidson, who spoke on the subject of “Consumer Competitions and how to win them”. 

“King of Comps” Ian has been entering consumer competitions for over 40 years, winning many prizes, trips, and visits to sports events including the 2012 Olympics. 

In an interesting and fun talk he encouraged us all to start entering competitions using some of the tips and tricks he has acquired over the years.  As he put it, in the immortal words of Delboy “This time next year, Rodney, we’ll be millionaires!”, but you have to be In it to win it.  He stressed it wasn’t just the prizes you won, it was the experiences – VIP treatment at world events, meeting some of the World’s celebrities including famous athletes, tennis players and even Benny Andersson (Abba) on a notable trip to Stockholm.

He highlighted where to find competitions – who knew the TESCO magazine was such a rich source of opportunities?  Or that some competitions had more prizes than people entering them!

A most enjoyable evening

A high spot of the talk was a series of quiz questions for which Ian provided the prizes, president Michael Ginn won one prize for almost saying who preceded David Cameron as Prime Minister, and Margaret won another – “Gangsta Granny” – say no more!

As always, it was a most enjoyable evening in the company of our fellow Rotarians in Basildon who are always happy to support our events.  Basildon Club is only one year younger than ours, is our closest neighbour and we share many objectives and twinning relationships with Clubs in Italy, France and Sweden.

We look forward to many more joint events and trips.