President's Report, September 2007I am sitting in front of the computer thinking that I could never find time to write a blog. It is difficult enough to come up with a quarterly report, as most of the happenings in the Club have already been mentioned in the News and Gossip page. The year kicked off for me with the handover at Dorney Reach. Not an auspicious start as the rain came bucketing down. I had printed out programmes for the evening, and set these out on the tables. Shortly afterwards the staff came round to light the candles. A puff of wind then nearly brought events to an early conclusion, as a programme fell on a candle and started a small blaze on the top table. The following week was very busy, with an invitation to the SE Berkshire District Scout Council AGM on Tuesday, our Club Assembly on Wednesday, an invitation to hear RIBI President Alan Jagger speak at Burnham on Thursday (which VP David attended in my place), and District Handover on Friday. Club Assembly was held at Ascot Day Centre, and again was an eventful evening as unfortunately one of our members was taken ill in the middle of the proceedings. One of my goals for the year is to progress the marketing initiative - to publicise the role of Service Clubs, and particularly our Rotary Club, to businesses in our area (Ascot, Sunninghill, Sunningdale). This venture is being undertaken in conjunction with Ascot Round Table, and is now supported by Ascot Racecourse. So in July, the first team of "cold callers" met up in Ascot before starting on a trial sales drive visiting businesses in Sunninghill. We are encouraging businesses to cooperate with and support our activities in whatever way they feel appropriate - sponsorship, prize donations, publicity posters, speakers at our meetings, becoming "Friends" of Rotary, and becoming Rotarians. To date we have visited nearly 100 organisations, and have identified a number of new supporters. I went along to the District meeting in July, and was impressed by the Young Chef project - a national competition organised by Rotary to encourage young people in secondary education to develop cookery and food presentation skills. I brought back a video to show to the club, and I contacted some of the local club presidents to see if they would be interested in collaborating on a local heat for this very interesting competition. We now have a nucleus of support from the "Five Clubs" (Ascot, Bracknell, Crowthorne, Easthampstead & Wokingham) and are planning a local heat in the autumn. At the end of July, the long-awaited Polo day was scheduled to take place, but it turned out that the field was too wet for play, so instead we had a barbeque in the barn at Coworth Park. We were invited to go along to the rescheduled Polo matches in August, and a number of us availed ourselves of that option. In August 50 Rotarians, partners and friends went on a day trip to explore "Hidden London", beginning with a walking tour from St. Paul's through some of the historic and narrow streets of the city, up past the Central Criminal Courts to Smithfield. On the way back we called in Postman's Park, and paused to read some of the tiles commemorating ordinary people who lost their lives trying to save others. After lunch in the crypt of St. Paul's our coach took us to Little Venice, where we boarded a canal boat for an hour trip along the Regent's Canal to Camden Lock. Here we encountered Camden Market in full swing - something you either love or hate, with our membership evenly divided. See full story and pics Our charity golf day in August is one of our major fund-raisers, and this year was a great year, with a record number of teams competing. For the first time we had a professional master of ceremonies and entertainer at the evening gala dinner and auction, which made for a very enjoyable end to the day. We raised around £13,800 which was divided between a "Children with Special Needs Foundation" project and our own charity fund. In September I took some holiday, leaving the club in the capable hands of Vice President David. 18 Rotarian partners and friends visited the "History on Wheels" museum in Eton Wick, an eclectic assembly of pre-war and wartime vehicles from France, Germany, the USA and the UK. The 2 hour private visit started at 2:30 but I am told that our visitors were still absorbed by what they were finding at quarter to six! Finally, to round off the first quarter, our District Governor Tony Bacon came to our September business meeting to tell us about the goings on in District, RIBI and Rotary International. Not a bad first quarter overall, and maybe I should think about adding a blog space to the website? Ian Valentine |