Author: Jim Murphy

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Club Meeting – Richard Taylor

Much of what Rotarians do is aimed at improving the health and quality of others lives – this evening however we heard from local businessman Richard Taylor with tips on how members could improve the their own quality of life.

Richard runs Pure Fitness, a successful personal training club based at Pendeford Business Park, and he prides himself that he has helped hundreds of people to change their lives for the better.

With his ten Golden Rules Richard explained how sensible diet and simple daily exercise can improve health and help to reduce weight. Whilst rather too many of the Clubs members appeared to be trying to find loopholes to exploit in the rules I am sure given the interest which was shown in his presentation that those of us who don’t pay enough attention to our own fitness levels will feel encouraged to take some remedial action.

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Inner Wheel – Houston Symphony

Houston … if we have a problem its certainly not with the Symphony.

Tettenhall’s Inner Wheel Club this evening visited Birmingham’s Symphony Hall to hear the Houston Symphony perform Holst’s The Planets – appropriately accompanied by a selection of NASA HD clips of each of the planets on this tour of the solar system.

Premiered in the Space Agency and Orchestra’s home city in January 2010 this is the first time that this joint project has been performed in Europe.

It was a wonderful performance by the orchestra and only a shame that they could not be persuaded to a third encore. Our thanks to Lynne Cave for her work in organising an exceptionally entertaining evening.

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District 7030 GSE Team Visit

During their visit to the region GSE teams are given the opportunity to experience some our Midlands institutions and to get a feel for the way in which we live our lives. Clubs within the District take turns in hosting the team for a day to show them something of their area.

Today Tettenhall had the pleasure of hosting the visiting team from District 7030 and to give them a choclaty taste of life in the country’s second city, Birmingham.

As well the opportunity for little shopping the day took in a tour of Cadbury World, one of Birmingham’s leading attractions, and a visit to the BBC Studios at the Mailbox in Birmingham so that the team could see the preparations for that days Midlands Today news programme.

Check out the teams facebook page to see how they spent the rest of their visit.

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GSE Team Presentation

As part of the GSE programme teams visit a number of Rotary Clubs within the District in order to make presentations giving Rotarians a glimpse into the life of the team members and of their country.

This evening the visiting team from District 7030 made their presentation at the Rotary Club of Wednesfield.

District 7030 covers the Eastern Caribbean and members of the visiting team were representing sponsoring Rotary Clubs in Dominica, Barbados, Grande Terre Pointe Des Chateaux and Liamuiga (St Kitts).

There’s no doubting that the team come from a truly beautiful part of the world and their presentations were all the more impressive given the short time which the team had had together before flying to England. They are great ambassadors for their nations and for Rotary District 7030 and we are grateful to them for the insight which they gave us into their lives.

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Wightwick Hall School – Young Enterprise

As we’ve previously mentioned in this blog July saw the Club once again sponsoring Wightwick Hall School’s Young Enterprise competition.

This competition aims to help students develop confidence, ability and ambition to succeed – qualities which will help them as they move into the world of work.

The success of last years competition had encouraged many more schools to enter the competition and the Rotarians involved were greatly impressed by the work and attitude of the students. For those who weren’t able to attend the School has now produced a couple of videos of the event to give a flavour of what went on.

Wightwick Hall School – Business & Enterprise Week from Be Inspired Films on Vimeo.

SEN Enterprise Resource Pack from Be Inspired Films on Vimeo.

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District 7030 GSE Team Visit

We are delighted to welcome the visiting Group Study Exchange (GSE) team from Rotary District 7030 – the Islands of the Eastern Caribbean.

The GSE scheme forms part of Rotary’s Foundation charity and offers a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for young business and professional men and women between the ages of 25 and 40. During the four weeks of their visit team leader Rotarian Sammy Wyke and the members of his team Zilma Charles, Songee Branch, Rosy Locatin-Cimbert and Dominic Matthew will have the opportunity to study Midlands institutions and our way of life, to observe how their own vocations are practiced here, to develop personal and professional relationships, and to exchange ideas.

By providing an opportunity for participants to broaden their cultural perspective and understanding of a nation’s history, language, commerce, and government the GSE programme is designed to enhance the international perspective of the next generation of young leaders and to promote tolerance and collaboration with professional people of other cultures.

It’s a gruelling schedule for Sammy and his team but we hope that as well as being informative it will also prove to be enjoyable for them and that they take back fond memories of their time with us.

Thanks go to David Cave and the members of the Foundation committee who have worked so hard to make this visit a success and to Chris Kraushar who has generously acted as a home host for a member of the visiting team whilst they are in the Southern Area.

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Club Meeting – Skittles Competition

Monday saw the latest of the Club’s away days as members competed in the Club skittles championship at the Swan Hotel in Brewood.

The Swan has an excellent skittles alley and that, and a ready supply of good beer, made for a great night of fellowship.

Despite Club Secretary Ivan Hill having led the competition from the out the championship was claimed by Ken Rees who with a perfect mix of aggression and skill scored a record 15 points in the last round of the competition to clinch the title. Well done Ken.

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Club Meeting- Tea Glorious Tea

When I saw that we were to have a speaker talking about the History and Development of England’s Favourite Beverage I was expecting to hear all about the proud history of Guinness but speaker John Borthwick had a different drink in mind.

Having developed his interest in tea whilst stationed with the RAF in Lincoln John took the Club on a journey through three thousand years of the drinks history and recounting the birth of the drink when according to legend leaves from a nearby tea shrub blew into a cauldron of water being boiled for Chinese emperor and renowned herbalist Shen Nung so brewing the first pot of tea.

John encouraged members to venture beyond the classic tea bag and experience the wide range of teas available.

Our thanks to John for a very informative talk.

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Club Meeting – Birch Thompson Memorial Fund

The Birch Thompson Memorial Fund was established in memory of two former teachers at Colton Hills Community School, Graham Birch and John Thompson, who both died of heart attacks in 1980.

The Fund maintains Gelliwig, a residential centre in Porthmadog, North Wales. Gelliwig can accommodate up to 30 people and is used by the school and by youth groups and other voluntary organisations in Wolverhampton – thousands of local children have benefited from the Centre since its opening in 1989.

The Tettenhall Club has been a long time supporter of the Fund and when it became aware that money was needed for a replacement minibus to take children to the Centre Eric Johnson and Doug Evans arranged a fundraising bar-be-que which raised £700 towards the total. We were joined this evening by Keith Berry who accepted the donation on behalf of the Fund and who confirmed that they would shortly be taking delivery of the new vehicle.

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New Vice President

It was a pleasure this evening to be able to present Ian Rigby with his chain of office as an officer of the Club for the remainder of this Rotary year.

Ian is in his second year as our Club’s sports officer and he has taken the Club’s sporting achievements to new heights – Tettenhall are now District Croquet and District Darts champions. Not content with these achievements Ian has agreed to take on the role of the Junior Vice President and will serve as President of the Club for the 2012 -2013 Rotary year. Congratulations on your appointment Ian – you will have our full support over the coming years.