Rotary Club of Gloucester

UNTIL recently this would have been unusual headgear for former president Angela Seddon .....but not any longer.

In fulfilment of a life long ambition our Angela has indeed put Service Above Self and has joined the Royal Air Force and is now undergoing the rigours of training which include a weekend every month.

Angela shared her hopes with fellow club members at the last lunch meeting of the old year and is now looking forward to new challenges and adventures in 2007, which could even include a tour of duty in Iraq.

With the determination and drive with which we've been familiar, Angela is sure to make a success of her new career and all fellow Rotarians wish her the very best of luck.
As our first female President, Angela seems certain to create even more 'firsts' for Rotary...............watch this space.

THERE can be few better accolades to Rotary than that bestowed on us by an OAP at Abbeydale. Having donated a sweet jar half filled with cash he was asked if he'd like to know how his money would be used. "Good heavens no. If it's going to Rotary they'll use it sensibly. You can depend on that."

It's a comment like that combined with the wholehearted generosity of givers and the smiles of children at seeing Father Christmas which made this year's festive collections a rewarding event in more ways than one.

A gratifying total of 00 was raised by the street and store collections - itself a reflection of the generosity of local folk and their willingness to support Rotary make a difference here in Gloucester and further afield.

In addition to the collections we also received a donation of from a Christmas charity concert kindly staged by the Gloucester corps of the Salvation Army.
The money will be used in three ways.

Firstly to support the Gloucester Women's Refuge, secondly to send disadvantaged Gloucester families on all-expenses paid breaks to a holiday camp and finally to fund a project the Beaufort Venture Scouts will be undertaking when they visit Ecuador later this year.
Once again the club's sincere thanks go to Ken Watson, who masterminded the collection rota to ensure all the slots were covered - although at times his equitable good nature seems to have been challenged!!

A Civic guest, other distinguished visitors and beautiful singing once again left members with a warm festive feeling at the end of the club's annual Christmas lunch.
We were delighted to welcome the Mayor of Gloucester, Sue Blakeley and her husband Martin to our lunch.

Also there were Joy Picken, Inner Wheel President and Richard Dennery and Di Phillips invaluable friends of the club.

After lunch everyone was enchanted by the singing of a group from King's School who delighted with a combination of carols new and not so new, known and not so well known.
They were charming and provided an ideal finale to an excellent occasion.

The last two months has seen Rotary at its best. Pictured above are Ribston Hall pupils whose generosity filled more than 30 aquaboxes (see page 3). Right is songstress Sue Black who entertained us at a Salvation Army charity concert which raised around for club projects (page 6/7). A further 00 was raised by the club's street and supermarket collections (page 5). Below are some familiar faces raising a glass at the club's annual Christmas dinner (page 6/7).

ONE of our liveliest meetings for some time launched the series of experimental evening meetings at the start of last month.

Ian Mean, editor of The Citizen and a Friend of the club is never short of an opinion on all things to do with Gloucester and covered a fair few subjects in a forthright and passionate talk.

He started by talking of his paper's partnership with the club. This had included the highly successful money raising campaign for cancer research and, more recently, the aquaboxes project. In particular he paid a warm tribute to the Peter Nesbitt who had led the successful fight to save Barnwood Park School and then to obtain special subject status.
Ian said that as an editor he was particularly focused on highlighting stories to do with health and wellbeing and on education and young people.

He then highlighted two major challenges facing the provinicial newspaper industry. The first was the trend for people not to read newspapers which was reflected in falling circulation figures. Here The Citizen had suffered considerably less than many. The second challenge was that of the internet which was biting into newspaper advertising revenues.

Ian then moved into his role as vice chairman of Gloucester's Urban Regeneration Company and outlined several areas of progress since he last spoke to the club. He told members that ground work on the Quays project would be starting in April. There was also positive news over the Railway Triangle where there had been a positive report on plans for a community stadium.

Ian also spoke of 'high expectations' for the future of the Kings Square/Bus Station area and of plans for Blackfriars. He also stressed the importance of having more flats in the city centre in order inject new life into the area particularly in the evening.

Overall Ian said that in the two years since its formation the URC had already attracted many potential investors. At the Docks considerable interest had been shown in the new outlet village, a new hotel and a supermarket and there were now plans for a co-ordinated policy to market the city more agressively.

It was a mark of members' interest that the 7.30pm deadline was ignored so that Ian could answer several questions.

The meeting ended in uproar and laughter as Chris Soane in a 'vote of thanks' took Ian to task over an unfriendly headline and story about the docks with which he had been involved. It was all good fun and Ian took it all in good part.

HERE we see President Tony presenting a cheque for £1,290 to the Longlevens Youth Project last month.

Also there was City Councillor and Rotarian Martyn White and some of the youngsters who will benefit from the cash which will be spent on youth work equipment.

Martyn was instrumental in identifying the Youth project's need forhelp in immediate Past President Howard Johnson's year in office.

The cash was raised with the help of a matching grant from district.

THE last meeting of 2006 saw two new members inducted into the club - Mike Cass and Mark Newey.

For one of these at least, the word 'new' is a bit of a misnomer. Mike Cass was a member for many years from 1985 and since departing the club in the late 1990s has been a frequent guest at club events.

So it's more of a welcome back to Mike who says he is now 'largely retired' from the insurance brokerage he established in Gloucester in 1966 and which is now run by his two sons.
A former pupil of Gloucester's Crypt School, Mike has also been president of the Old Cryptians Association.

He is married to Hilary and enjoys swimming, walking and golf although the latter is somewhat restricted at present because of a shoulder problem.

Our second new member is Mark Newey who lives at Malvern but who is in business with club member Ian Stuart here in Gloucester.

Mark and his landscape-architect wife Helen Donnelly ran their own business until a short while ago when they merged their business interests with Ian to provide a complete planning and design service.

Mike, who originally hailed from Birmingham, is only 45. He and Helen have two children - James (9) and Olly (5) and when he's not involved in other matters of consequence he enjoys cycling and helps out with training at a junior rugby club.

We extend Mark a warm welcome and hope to see he and Helen at club events soon.

JEREMY Keck our new junior vice president is a true son of Gloucester. Son of Leonard Keck and grandson of W J B Halls (a former Sheriff of Gloucester) both were well known businessmen in the Gloucester building fraternity during the last century.
He was educated at Wycliffe College and Christ College, Brecon before spending 12 months at Gloucester Tech prior to heading off to London to learn the building trade principally at the Brixton School of Building.

Here he gained a BSc or as it was in those days, HND, in Building Management and after nine years in and around London and the South East came back to Gloucester.
He joined the family business, Halls and Keck, in 1970, at that time a building contractor, joinery manufacturer and metal working company. In 1978 he recognised a poor future for the building section and closed it down.

He continued with the joinery business, SWJ Group, doing many prestigious jobs along the way. These included the Houses of Commons and Lords, virtually every museum and art gallery in London, the Royal Courts of Justice and many other court room complexes around the country - and more recently both the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly.
Unfortunately in May of this year after two poor annual results Jeremy decided to close the joinery business apart from the upholstery section and convert the premises to rented industrial and office accommodation.

For most Rotarians Jeremy's thespian achievements will first come to mind.
He started acting after 12 years in Round Table. Since then he has been in 56 productions in 20 years, the most memorable being productions at Chavenage House (19 of them), and the remainder at the Cotswold Playhouse or for Minchinhamnpton Drama Society.

At Amberley Church he is a choir member and here in Gloucester he is a governor of Calton Junior School.

Jeremy joined Rotary in David Seed's Presidential year, and since then has spent the majority of his time on, or as Chairman of, the Community Service Committee.

With (semi) retirement looming he felt the time was right to play his part in the Club and accept nomination for junior vice. It was a popular move.

He had been married to Margaret 'for years but it will never be enough.' They have no kids - although Jeremy thinks this a blessing in disguise.

NEXT year marks the centenary of the scouting movement and there can be few more persuasive advocates of scouting's advantages than two young ladies, who made a presentation to the club at the end of November.

Annia Evans and Laura Hook are members of Beaufort Explorer Scouts, which caters for 14 - 18 year olds and is now celebrating its 25th year having been formed when President Tony Tetley was head of Beaufort School.

They were introduced by the group's leader Margaret Fendall, (a Tony appointee), who said that the Explorers were mainly, but not exclusively, made up of Beaufort pupils.
She then introduced Annia and Laura who proved excellent ambasssadors for the unit by explaining some of the many activities undertaken.

In addition to regular meetings swimming lessons, and the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme (at all levels) the group is also involved in the Cotswold Marathon, the Malvern Sun Run and a visit to the Wilderness Centre in the Forest of Dean every February for team building activities. There has also been a camping expedition to France last year.

The presentation in itself would have been sufficient reason for the group's invitation to Rotary but, at the instigation of President Tony, there are now plans for unit members to visit Ecuador - a country with which our club has been linked by mutal projects in recent years.

Aptly, John Sargent, chairman of the club's international committee, was able to tell both club members and the Explorers that a midnight e-mail the previous evening had cleared the way for the unit's projected visit this summer.

Assuming that all goes ahead (and there is a projected price of £1,300 for each individual going) then this will be the fourth major visit to faraway places undertaken by the unit having already been to Kenya, once and the Dominican Republic twice.

In both places the unit proved its worth by underaking voluntary work - in the latter country becoming involved in building an extension to a school and laying out a basketball pitch.
In a glowing tribute to the unit Tony said that by providing exciting challenges and character forming experiences for its members , the unit was helping to produce the fully rounded young Citizens of tomorrow...........which, he said, was the ultimate objective of education.

DISASTERS come in many forms - earthquake, cyclone, flood, refugee displacement - but all share one common factor. The most urgent single problem facing relief agencies is the provision of a supply of safe drinking water.

Thanks to the efforts of our club and many schools in Gloucester this problem has been eased for hundreds in stricken areas by the provision of aquaboxes... sturdy plastic boxes with a water purification unit inside. Using whatever water supplies are to hand (many of which are polluted) they can provide 1,100 litres of safe drinking water to help a family through the first few weeks after a natural disaster.

The box also has enough spare room to hold clothing, eating utensils, basic hygiene supplies, candles and even a couple of toys.

In the Autumn of 2005 our club with the help of The Citizen, launched a campaign to fill 150 such boxes in three years. Thanks to an enthusiastic team headed by Peter Nesbitt and an incredible response by local schools this target was achieved in less than 15 months.
But the story doesn't end there. An additional 50 boxes are at present being completed by city schools which have either made generous financial donations or are filling the boxes themselves. These include Sir Thomas Rich, King's School, Coney Hill Primary and Robinswood Primary.

And now Peter Nesbitt has taken possession of 100 more empty boxes, a large number of which were filled recently by the girls of Gloucester's Ribston Hall High School. He is now hoping the remainder will be filled by Women's Institutes, Mothers' Unions, local schools which have not yet had an opportunity to respond and any other organisations who would like to be involved.

Helped by an enthusiastic team, Peter is prepared to make a speaker available to any organisation interested in helping with the project. He said: "The possibility of filling 300 boxes - double our original target - is absolutely fantastic. The response from local schools, companies and individuals has been remarkable. The tsunami in South East Asia on Boxing Day 2004, followed by other natural disasters such as the terrible earthquake in Kashmir has meant the UK's supply of aquaboxes has been severely reduced.

"Filling aquaboxes with water filtration equipment and other essentials of life is a thought provoking way of bringing home to people - young and old - what it's like to suddenly lose everything."

AQUABOX FAX FILE
* Aquabox is an official project of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI).
* Since its inception in 1993 more than 70,000 aquaboxes have been send overseas which have provided 353,389,300 litres of safe drinking water.
* During the year from November 2005 boxes were sent to Kenya, Sierra Leone/Guinea, Uganda, Tanzania, Liberia, Angola, Indonesia, Kashmir, Guatemala, Serbia, Albania and Romania.
* Once the box has arrived at the point of use it is emptied and a tap fitted (included in the kit) and the box filled with whatever water is available. This is strained through muslin and a purification tablet added. In two hours the water is safe to drink - free from water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and bilharzia.

With the club's future under discussion President Tony has written this letter for us in In Gear.

Many of us have reached the stage when any change in life's routine is regarded with suspicion and resistance. Recent discussions regarding possible changes in our club have been seen in this way by many.

Unfortunately if we look to the future there are some pretty stark factors we cannot ignore. In ten years time many of us are unlikely to still be members and club membership could fall to an unsustainable level.

In consequence we need new members now and every year into the future.
As a club we have not been very successful at:-
1. Recruiting new members and
2. Retaining them when they join.

It is with this in mind that Council has put forward the idea of seeing whether a change in meeting times might be acceptable to the present membership and help attract new members.
The original idea was to experiment with both Breakfast and Twilight meetings but it became obvious at an early stage that the Breakfast option would never win club support so we are now left with the Lunch/Twilight option.

Our aim is to go through with this experiment and then, as soon as possible after its completion, for Council to make recommendations regarding the club's future meeting format.
When we have voted on this and decided the club's immediate future, Council is determined to launch an intensive recruitment campaign using some of our financial reserves to ensure the campaign is both professional and wide-ranging.

We intend to approach a large number of companies and organisations outlining the work of Rotary and the advantages of membership. We would also like all club members to give the secretary the names and addresses of five people of your acquaintance who might be interested in becoming Rotarians (Jo and I produced my five without too much difficulty).
We would then invite these people to a meeting where Club members could outline in more detail what being a Rotarian means.

Hopefully from this we will be able to recruit new members and hope they too will be able to recommend others thus ensuring our club's future viability.

At this point many of you may be making cynical and negative comments. It's this cynicism which is our biggest enemy.

Cheltenham carried out a very similar campaign and from an initial meeting of 35 people recruited eight new members and have subsequently recruited a further four in this Rotary year.

Make no mistake, if we and the other Gloucester clubs fail to sustain our membership District will implement a policy of encouraging new clubs in the city which will further undermine us.
This may all sound like "Doom and Gloom." However it puts the facts squarely in front of you. We have a super Club with great fellowship which does so much good locally and internationally.

We need now to look to the future to ensure our Rotary club continues to play a prominent and continuing role in the life of Gloucester.
TONY TETLEY

HOW would you like to meet this charming Hula Hula girl shown caressing one of our past presidents? If the answer's YES then get your tickets for a Desert Island Evening on Friday, March 2 at Minsterworth Village Hall.

This is a combined Rotary and Inner Wheel Club event and funds will be donated to Milestone School for children with special educational needs.

The occasion might ring bells with those with long memories. A similar event was held on October 25, 1991 at Longford Village Hall.

Contacts for tickets (£10 each to include an exotic cocktail and food) are - Martyn White and Trevor Picken (Rotary) and Diana Beard and Sue White (Inner Wheel).
Please come and support a good cause.

The club's annual Christmas dinner with partners and friends proved an enjoyable - if noisy - occasion thanks to good food, fellowship and Christmas carols accompanied, once again, by musicians from the Salvation Army who managed to fit us into an increasingly busy schedule.
This year there was a change of venue to the Masonic Hall here in Gloucester but the delicious food and homely atmosphere more than justified the move from the University of Gloucester in Cheltenham.

In addition to the traditional highlights of the evening, Rotarian and Salvationist John Smith handed to President Tony Tetley a cheque for , which had been raised by a collection at the corps annual charity concert for Rotary the previous Sunday.

John also acted as MC for the raucous carol singing, which brought the evening to an end.
Full marks also to Howard Johnson and Graham Howell who staged such a memorable evening.

Our photos, kindly taken by Trevor Picken, reflect the enjoyment of the evening and illustrate the old maxim that one picture is worth a thousand words!!!!

City farm steers its way to success

IT'S always a delight to confound your critics. Not that Derek Brown, manager of the City Coucil's Countryside Unit ever said 'I told you so' -when he came to the club to tells of the success of St James City Farm at Tredworth which opened in 1998.
It was a project that various club members had originally suggested would end in disaster with animals being killed and eaten or the farm being burned down.

In fairness it wasn't only our club members who had doubts. Even the local NFU and Derek's City council colleagues were sceptical of the project's long term outcome.
Nevertheless with the help of a steering committee (including our own Andrew Hurley) and with growing support the farm is now a success.

Derek reported that in addition to increasing (multi-racial) visitor numbers, the farm was attracting more and more groups.

Many were from local schools for which the farm had devised a teachers' pack tied into Stage Three learning objectives.

One of the more pleasing aspects was the number of young people who voluntarily offered their help at the farm. This had led to the formation of a junior committee which was now represented on the steering group.

Another positive outcome had been the farm's role in reintegrating the unemployed into society (and work) and helping socially excluded young people. Derek said he was particularly proud of five former volunteers who had been admitted to full time courses at Hartpury College.

In recent years the farm had increasing held family events and become involved in promotional events such as those at Gloucester Park and the Medieval Fayre in Westgate Street.
Farm animals were not confined to Tredworth...livestock reared there and at Robinswood were now to be found at Alney Island, Barnwood Arboretum and Hucclecote Meadows as well as grazing further afield at Slad, Edge and Tidenham Chase. Rare preeds produced at the farm in Gloucester were also being sold to similar projects throughout the UK.

Looking to the future Derek said that two new cattle pens were being prepared for this year and plans were now being considerd for a café, after school club and a mobile farm (in a double decker bus).

There were also plans to sell surplus livestock for meat - a start having been made when a rare breed beef animal had been sold for meat and netted £1,000 for the project's coffers.

A warm welcome, lovely music and beautiful songs were the ideal ingredients to launch Christmas for those who attended the annual Rotary Charity Concert, again organised by the Salvation Army at their HQ in Eastgate Street.

From the rousing fanfare, which heralded the evening, to the final roof-raising hymn, it was an evening of sheer musical delights.

It would be unfair to pick out any particular highlight - the concert was packed with wonderful offerings from the Salvation Army Band ably led by Clifford Matthews and by the Salvation Army Songsters under the direction of Philip Webb.

Both reflected the corps continuing commitment to the Army's tradition of stirring the soul with joyous music and their choice of songs reminded us of the first, and second comings, of Christ - an apt thought on Advent Sunday.

Add to these the three festive contributions by that smashing and talented songstress from Malvern, Susan Black and three popular hymns - which brought the best from the congregation - and it was indeed an evening to remember.

Once more the club is extremely grateful to Majors Paul and Lorna Doust, undoubtedly aided by Rotarian and Salvationist John Smith, for staging the event which raised £450 for the club's 'Holidays for Children' project - an appeal which was voiced by our president Tony Tetley.

"It's not just a sports policy. It's a health policy, an education policy, an anti-crime policy and an anti drugs policy" - Tony Blair 2002

MANY of us sowed the seeds of a lifetime's love of sport at school. It's a love affair which has kept us fitter, sharpened our competitive edge, improved our quality of life and forged permanent friendships.

Yet despite sport's obvious advantages England's participation rate in sport and physical activity (at least three times 30 minutes a week) is worryingly low at 21%. This trails our European neighbours and the world's best by some distance.

In recent years our participation levels have either stayed the same or declined - a trend that has to be set against a background of growing adult obesity and heart attacks.
These concerns exist in spite of considerable investment in sport and physical activity since the early 1970s. Now the Government has launched an initiative to increase participation at all levels, in all socio-economic groups and at all ages.

To achieve this Sport England has established 49 county sports partnerships. Locally the Gloucestershire Sport and Physical Activity Trust (Glospact) has been tasked with the job of delivering its objectives.

How this is to be achieved was explained to a lunch time meeting by Glospact's John Stevens who said that the London Olympics of 2012 was a fantastic opportunity to make a difference to the way sport is perceived and practiced in this country.
He said that central to success were good quality and committed coaches who could develop and nurture talent to the highest levels.

It was also vital that the initiative should be inclusive - and to this end Glospact had recently appointed a disability development officer who was herself disabled.
Good coaching and leadership were vital to meet the Government's target of an increase in participation of 1% annually from now until 2020.

Also important was a renewed emphasis on physical education and sport in schools where the national target is a lowly two hours a week but which is often not attained.
It was also necessary to bring together a wide range of partners from the public, private and 'not for profit' sectors to create a more active county through improved provision of, and access to, facilities and opportunities.

John, a former PE teacher himself, outlined several ways in which involvement in sport could be increased and answered several questions.