President's Report, March 2008Another busy quarter with a good mix of fellowship and service activities. The year opened with one of our major fund-raisers, the Sunninghill Wheelbarrow Race. Geoff Donovan took the lead in organising the race this year and the event raised over £3000 for Ascot Day Centre. The Charters School "Service Above Self" awards were also made early January, with several Club representatives in attendance. At the January "Friends" meeting our GSE team member Onnagh McCarthy attended as our guest, and former Ambassadorial Scholar Lisa Morris was our speaker. We also welcomed new member Andrew Kazimirski into the Club, and Colin Corio was voted into the post of Junior Vice President. Many of us attended one of the ever-enjoyable jazz concerts, with Rtn David Jones and his Band, and this was quickly followed by a quiz evening organised by Rtn Mike Lustig. We also had a very enjoyable "5th Wednesday" meeting with the ladies present, at which our guest speaker was Ronnie Wilkie of Ascot Racecourse. No time to rest - the ladies had issued a challenge to a skittles competition in February, and the Rotarians narrowly won the trophy. Then a party of chocoholics went on a tour of the Mars factory in Slough, collecting samples of all the produce. The 5-Clubs dinner took place at Bearwood Lakes Golf Club, and I have to observe that we fielded the smallest delegation by far. I hope we can do better next year. However, we had a good turnout for the annual Children's Concert at the Hexagon in Reading. Our guest was the Deputy Mayor of the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, and the 11 schools were from the Windsor area this year. Finally, over 100 Rotarians and guests attended a lecture and buffet meal hosted by Bracknell firm Boehringer Ingelheim, whose MD is a member of our club. We learnt this time about Venous thromboembolic disease, and at the same time the event raised £2000 for AntiCoagulation Europe, a charity providing information and advice to users of Warfarin, other anticoagulants and antiplatelet therapy. As the quarter ended, we were just preparing for the District 1090 Conference in Bournemouth - more about that in the next report. Ian Valentine |