President's Report, July 2005This month Rotary starts the second century of its existence and the Rotary International President - Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammer is keen to direct Rotary back to its roots of 1905. He has therefore adopted the theme 'Service above Self' and is encouraging Rotarians to provide more of their time rather than just fund good causes. Our new year was primed by an invitation from Inner Wheel to join them at The Jade Fountain in Sunninghill for a Chinese evening. Six Rotarians made up a party of 20 in total for an excellent evening of fellowship. During our first meeting of the year, our youngest member, Ian Valentine gave an insight into the world of aeronautical communications. His, at times worrying, talk contrasted the advances in aircraft technology with the somewhat lacking ability of traffic control to ensure safety. Our Friends meeting featured the Rev David Smith who has travelled to the Holy land in excess of 35 times. David provided a thought provoking analysis of the background to the situation in that part of the world. From my prospective his description of the total and inseparable rights of the Jews, Muslims and Christians to the same land was disturbing. The highlight of our second lunchtime meeting was hearing Beverley's description of his Trafalgar day treat which seemed to start badly and continue to go downhill all day. Tuesday 26th July I attended Inner Wheel's first major function of the year which was a well attended Garden Party at the home of Edith Hunter In the lead up to our Club Assembly, I attended most of the Committee meetings where I learned that an interesting year was being planned for us all. During our final July meeting these plans were outlined to and approved by members at our Club Assembly. We were pleased to welcome Eric Malam, our Assist District Governor who was impressed with the scope of activities being planned. Alan Penny |