Category: Club Meetings

District Governors are expected to attend meetings of each Club in their District at least once during their year in office. Fortunately we’ve managed to get hold of our new District Governor, Barry Preen, at the beginning of his year in office before the miles take too much of a toll on him.

As the representative of Rotary International one of Barry’s jobs is to communicate to Clubs the thinking behind this years Rotary theme, Reach Within to Embrace Humanity – a theme which has caused a little puzzlement amongst many Rotarians. To help members make more sense of the theme Barry told us of a meeting with a District Governor from Sweden who had translated the theme into Swedish and back into English after which it reads Listen to Your Heart to Help Others – a theme which the members of the Club can certainly relate to.

Rotary International President Banerjee is not a fan of change for its own sake and he is encouraging Clubs to continue with their long established programmes but to be conscious of the ways in which a little more can be done to help those causes which we support – as with Tettenhall’s commitment to raise an additional £10,000 to support the new Rotary Suite at Compton Hospice.

It was clear from District Governor Barry’s presentation that he does not take a one size fits all approach to matters and that his views of Rotary are very much in step with the members of the Tettenhall Club and we look forward to supporting him in the coming year.

There is no better way to start a new Rotary year than to welcome a new member into the Club and this evening we were pleased to welcome Chris Starkey to our number.

Members of Rotary have an opportunity to give something back, to give hope to those less fortunate and to make lives worthwhile and fulfilled. The enormous sense of achievement you can experience doing something really worthwhile is matched only by the enormous amount of fun you can have – or as we say at Tettenhall ‘Fun with a Purpose’.

Socialising and networking with like-minded people who have the same interests and aims as you gives a great opportunity to make firm friends as well as worthwhile business contacts and you’re always sure of a warm welcome from other Rotarians around the world whenever you’re on your travels.

Chris, who works with international removal firm Burke Brothers, is no stranger to service organisations having previously been a member of Round Table and of one of the Walsall Rotary Clubs. We are all glad to see him as a member of our Club and look foward to getting to know him better.

Jerry Hobbs never fails to make an impact when he visits our Club. A long standing member of the Rotary Club of Wolverhampton and Vice Chair of the management board of Compton Hospice Gerry joined us this evening to talk about the Hospice’s recent development and the £3.3 million investment which will lead to the introduction of 18 private suites for patients later in the year.

Due to Jerry’s inspiration the Rotary Clubs of Wolverhampton have come together to commit to raising an additional £60,000 over the coming year to fund one of those suites which will be named the Rotary and volunteers suite. These suites will have the facilities to ensure that patients can be treated with dignity during their time with the Hospice. Our own Club has committed to raising an additional £10,000 towards the cost of the Rotary Suite.

Jerry and other Rotary club members were instrumental in the formation of the Hospice nearly 30 years ago now. Over that time the Hospice has grown so that in addition to the in-patient services it also supports over 280 patients in the community, provides training services to those involved in social services and runs an invaluable day care centre.

Our own fund raising kicks off in November with a Big Band Concert at the Perton Community Hall on the 11th and with an auction of promises on the 20th.

As this was our first meeting of the new Rotary Year this evening saw the handover of the running of the Club from outgoing President Jim and his Council to our new President John Francis.

New Rotary International President Kalyan Banerjee has adopted the theme ‘Reach Within to Embrace Humanity‘ for the coming Rotary year urging Rotarians to discover within themselves and to develop the strength to embrace humanity. President Banerjee urges Rotarians to harness their inner resolve and strength to achieve success in Rotary. “In order to achieve anything in this world, a person has to use all the resources he can draw on. And the only place to start is with ourselves and within ourselves,” Banerjee says. Once Rotarians find their inner strength he believes that they can accomplish great things both in their communities and around the world.

President John’s own Club theme for the year is ‘Fun with a Purpose’. John aims to combine these themes to build upon the already strong fellowship within the Club enabling us to significantly increase the support which we are able to provide to our local community.

Rotary is great way to get to know people – but sometimes you can learn a little too much about them as we found out with tonight’s life talk from our newest member Mike Dickerson.

Whilst we were expecting to hear few war stories arising from Mike’s current business, caring for peoples feet, we were instead treated to an entertaining resume of his life – his early career extorting chocolates from his sisters boyfriends as the price for leaving them alone – his early training at the Staffordshire agricultural college where they appeared to have grown some very strange plants – and his later career selling vibrators (the concrete variety) to the Germans.

A member of the International team in the coming year we are sure to see some novel fund raising ideas from Mike. The team’s fundraising in the new Rotary year kicks off with a BBQ to be held at Wolverhampton Cricket Club on Sunday the 10^th July in support of Village Water, helping to bring clean drinking water and sanitation to Africa. Tickets are just £12.50 and everyone is welcome – if you’d like tickets then contact a Club member or email us.

The Club Assembly is an important part of every Rotary club’s calendar.

With one Rotary year drawing to an end and another about to begin the Club Assembly is an opportunity for our incoming president and his team to set out their objectives for their year and to engage the support of the members of the Club.

Incoming President John Francis and his team have put an impressive amount of planning into their year and there’s little doubt that this will translate in to an exceptional year ahead of the Club in terms of its fundraising, its community service and its fellowship; amply fulfilling John‘s aim of ‘Fun with a Purpose‘.

The Club Assembly was also an opportunity to hear about the direction set for the movement by the incoming Rotary International President, Kalyan Banerjee, at the Rotary International Convention in New Orleans

ROTARY THEME 2011/2012 – REACH WITHIN TO EMBRACE HUMANITY

Following on from our wonderful Ladies Weekend in Cambridge it was back to business tonight at the Club Annual General Meeting. As well as receiving reports from this years committee chairs the Club also approved the appointment of the Committee Chairs who will take post from the 1st July.

To ensure that our Club can provide service to its community, retain members, and grow we have to make sure that we operate efficiently. Our Club committees are charged with carrying out the Club’s long-range and annual goals.

Our congratulations and thanks go to:

• Mike Unwin – Fellowship and Social Chair
• Roger Timbrell – Community Service Chair and Protection Officer
• Chris Kraushar – Money Raising Chair
• Chris Bowyer – Sleigh Committee head
• David Eaton – Programme
• Brian Nicholson – Membership/Retention Chair
• Ivan Hill – Communications Chair
• Izeham Che Dan – Foundation Chair
• Doug Evans – International Chair
• Derek Evans – Youth Activities Chair
• Greg Instone – Attendance Officer
• John Whitten – Sports Officer
• Wasil Buczkowski – Regalia Officer
• Bert Finch & Sammy Chung – Family of Rotary

You might have seen over the last few months adverts in your local paper inviting you to ‘Join Rotary and Make a Difference’. Mike Dickerson saw one of those adverts and after attending a few of our Club meetings decided that he could make a difference. Tonight we had the pleasure of inducting him as the newest member of our Club.

Mike operates a foot health care business in Wolverhampton. As a member of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland, he joins an organisation of more than 55,000 men and women who, as members of over 1,850 Rotary clubs, volunteer their time, talents, professional skills and energy to improving the lives of people in their local communities and others around the world.

As a member of a Rotary club, you have the opportunity to give something back, to give hope to those less fortunate and to make lives worthwhile and fulfilled. If you’d like to find out more about joining Rotary then click here – How to Join Rotary.