President’s Final Report 2008-09Our speaker for the April Friends meeting was Alan Grace, who had spent almost the whole of his working life on Forces Broadcasting. His presentation was most interesting, and few of us had previously much idea about the scope of this activity, and what it had meant, to our servicemen, especially those working abroad. In May, David Duff came for his 4th visit to the Club, and his subject this time was “The Schlieffen Plan”, which he presented using a very up-market PowerPoint display. We thus learned how, in effect, Germany had lost World War 1 in the very first 8 weeks. For our final 2nd-Wednesday meeting in June, a large group of us, with wives and partners, visited Windsor Great Park, where we were escorted on an informative tour by a senior member of the staff, and followed this by a buffet in the York Club. The AGM for the year was held at our final meeting in April, showing that in spite of the financial failure of our participation in the Fireworks event on 1 November, we had raised quite a lot of money, and had distributed it on a variety of local, national and international projects. In addition, we had shared several very enjoyable fellowship events, in addition to our weekly meetings. On Wednesday 29 April, the weather was sunny and dry, and several of us escorted 8 of the District’s Ambassadorial Scholars to a day at the races, this being the opening meeting of the flat season at Ascot. Most of them had never been to a race meeting before, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. In the evening, they came to dinner with us, and 3 of them gave brief talks to tell us about their studies, and their community projects, and explain how their studies here in England will help them to develop their humanitarian projects further. This really was an enjoyable and informative day for all of us involved with the visit, in various ways. Sunday 10 May dawned bright and sunny, and remained so throughout the day. This was fortunate, as Eileen and I were ‘At Home’ for the day, from 10am onwards, and had visitors from then continuously until almost 10pm. Most of our Rotary friends and many other friends shared the opportunity to meet one another, and to relax and chat in the garden, and altogether some 90 people visited us. We were somewhat tired at the end, but knew that we had achieved the entertainment that had been planned weeks before, and which benefited so much from the glorious weather. We had planned for the following weekend over many months, as this was our International visitor weekend, when we also formally celebrated the Club’s 60th Anniversary of its Charter. Our 15 visitors from abroad were entertained privately on the Friday evening, and a coach load of us then had an early start the following morning, for a visit to Blenheim, followed by lunch in Woodstock. There was not too much time to relax then before we headed off to the Eton College Rowing Centre at Dorney Lake. The restaurant there is in a superb position, and on a sunny evening, the view along the 2km racing stretch of water is stunning. 108 diners thoroughly enjoyed the evening, at which after the dinner we exchanged presents with our visitors, awarded various certificates, and were very well entertained by a group of boys from Eton College, known as ‘Incognito’. They sing ‘a capello’ in harmony, and their programme truly reflected the amount of work that they do to prepare. It rained the following morning, for the visit of about 35 of us to RHS Wisley, and our visitors left after lunch there.
The Club Assembly meeting was held at the end of May, at which next
year’s programme was presented, for fund-raising, community and
vocational, and our Foundation and international programmes, plus the
various fellowship events that are already planned. It
promises to be another very interesting and challenging year. On Wednesday 17 June, we visited Boehringer Ingelheim once again, this time for a talk on Diabetes by Professor Stephanie Amiel, who is a leading specialist in this field. There were 84 visitors, a really excellent turnout, and most of us were so much better informed about this illness that affects so many people, especially in later life, and has such significant implications in relation to the occurrence of other illnesses. After the talk and questions, Boehringer Ingelheim provided an excellent buffet supper for us. Just 3 days later, on the Saturday, Eileen and I went off to the NEC at Birmingham, attended also by Ian and Chris, for the 100th Rotary International Convention, through to Wednesday. The Convention was attended by about 16,000 Rotarians and guests from more than 150 countries, and was a truly splendid event. There were plenary sessions each day, and also smaller, more specialized ‘break-out’ sessions, and exploration of the House of Friendship had to be fitted in around these. We had some excellent speakers, including the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, who spoke very highly of the humanitarian work that Rotary is achieving; also Mia Farrow, and Dr Jane Goodall, and they left us in no doubt at all that the world is failing the people of Darfur, and that there is a great deal still to be done, if we are to leave the world a better place for those who follow us. We also learned that Rotary worldwide has already raised US$90million of the US£200million that is required to contribute to the final stages of the programme to eliminate polio throughout the world by mid-2012. There was much excellent entertainment arranged for our daytime enjoyment, by artistes from UK and Korea, and the evening programmes included a Katherine Jenkins concert, a spectacular display at Warwick Castle, a final rehearsal show by Birmingham City Ballet, and a concert by the Treorchy Male Voice Choir. Finally, there were many opportunities throughout the 5 days to meet Rotarians from around the world, and to learn of their programmes and priorities. It was a truly inspirational event, and one that we shall look forward to repeating in the future. My year as President thus came to an end all too quickly, as the Handover Dinner was on Friday 26 June, at Northcote House, in the beautiful surrounds of Sunningdale Park. It was again a lovely sunny evening, and the dinner and proceedings were much enjoyed by 58 of us. The food and service was on the whole very good, and I helped to make everyone laugh, with some amusing stories. The year has been a particularly busy one for us, and in so many ways an informative and enjoyable time, we have been able to benefit a wide variety of activities both near to home and further afield, and have appreciated the continuing fellowship in the Club, as we helped, in the words of the year’s RI President, to ‘Make Dreams Real’. I shall always treasure the opportunity that I have been given, to be the Club’s President for this past year. David Marshall |