Rotary Club of Gloucester

DID you know that when the Bank of England moved part of its operations to Gloucester in 1990 it wasn't the first occasion it had done so. A branch of the bank opened in Westgate in the 1820s but a combination of lack of business, rivalry with other money lenders and atrocious hygiene conditions meant that its existence was short lived.

This fascinating fact came to light when Geoff Sparkes spoke at a lunchtime meeting. He had come to Gloucester in 1990 as information systems manager with the Bank's Registrar's Department when it moved out of London and in 1997 he became its chief registrar.

Geoff explained that the Registrar's department was responsible for administering the Government's debt which was serviced by selling Government stocks and gilts. After a decision had been taken in the mid-1980s to move out of the capital Gloucester had been chosen over Winchester, Telford and Peterborough and a new HQ had been built opposite The Docks on the site of the old Gloucester Hospital.

The Registrar's department, which issues certificates, brought 100 staff with it and recruited 300 more. However it was soon clear that the Government wanted its operating costs cut by 50% - a target which the department actually exceeded by reducing its workforce and multi-skilling the remainder of its workers.

Despite this success even more swingeing cuts were demanded which meant that paper certificates would have to disappear and all registration work had to be done electronically.

The Government decided to put the work out to tender. It was eventually won by an Australian firm working out of Bristol. Although some of the bank's employees had subsequently been taken on by the company most had been made redundant and had found employment elsewhere in the county.

Geoff paid tribute both to the city and his former workforce. He said he had thoroughly enjoyed the move to Gloucestershire and the staff he had had was of a very high standard.

A MAGNIFICENT 141 years of service to the local community, to Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland and to Rotary International was celebrated when members of the three Gloucester clubs enjoyed a centennial dinner together.

The joint meeting on February 23 of Gloucester and its two daughter clubs North and Severn, was exactly 100 years to the day after the historic meeting in the United States which led to the formation of the world's largest non-governmental charity and service club.

In an amusing talk, past district governor Ian Thomson of Cheltenham North, recalled some of the milestones in the movement's developments in a century of change which had seen Rotary grow to 1.2million members in 30,000 clubs worldwide.

He said that Paul Harris was an example of how one man can change of course of history and of how Rotary had transcended every barrier of race, class, creed, national border and politics and enabled ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Ian reminded members of Rotary's humanitarian programme throughout the world and said that 1.4 billion dollars had been given in grants by Rotary Foundation.
Looking to the future he spoke of the movement's vital role in promoting peace through its various programmes.

Citing Rotary's 30 year battle to eradicate polio and its more recent response to the Boxing Day tusnami disaster in S.E. Asia Ian said: "You are the builders of the future. You don't know how much you can do until you start to do it. Celebrate by creating a better world. You are simply the
best."

After Ian's presentation, representatives of the three clubs gave details of their clubs' histories and achievements.

David Seed gave an overview for the Gloucester club and said that there had been 597 members in its 85 year history. He then gave a fascinating breakdown of the club's various programmes during that period....much of which was quite a revelation to all those present - including those from his own club.

Rotarians had been welcomed to the event at the Country Club by the president of Gloucester Severn Bob Paterson whose members had arranged the evening. Bob stressed the value of Rotary fellowship and the success of the three clubs joint centenary project to at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

In proposing the final toast President Angela said how much the joint dinner had been enjoyed and hoped that such an event might be repeated in future.

AFTER a three-month spell in the South Atlantic HMS Gloucester should be returning to Portsmouth by the middle of this month when its crew will be able to catch up on Christmas and Easter leave.

In an e-mail to Chris Soane, Lt Cdr Marc Bye who is the ship's liaison officer with the club said the ship have been on its tour of duty since the end of November and during this time had visited Sierra Leone, Rio de Janeiro (where they were at Christmas), the Falkland Islands and South Georgia.

He writes: "South Georgia has been the highlight of the trip (even better than Sugarloaf Mountain etc in Rio - although the 'wildlife' in Rio was rather fascinating.) "The wildlife in S Georgia is so abundant and so tame. It felt like being in a wildlife documentary as we strolled around penguin colonies and passed huge elephant seals only a few feet away; a little bit further than from the fur seals which were small but quite aggressive. It was also quite interesting having to dodge the icebergs.

"Our deployment has been a success operationally so far, quite hard work (good value for the tax payer) and also enjoyable (the important bit that actually makes people want to stay in the Navy)."

Marc, who is a marine engineering officer, then makes the point that although the ship is on its homeward journey there was still a lot of work to be done - including having to change an engine.

In a separate communication Commander Tuppen, the ship's commanding officer, says that there is likely to be an 'affiliates' day at sea on Wednesday, July 27 when it's hoped that club Rotarians might be involved.

The club is asked to indicate to the ship's liaison officer the numbers of people who might be interested by May 1.

Marc, who is at present our liaison officer is due to leave the ship when it reaches The Canaries on its homeward journey, is due to be replaced by Lt Cdr Charlie Field.

THE Boxing Day tsunami disaster in Sri Lanka brought back vivid memories for the Rev Graham Jackson who was born and brought up on the island; served there for many years as a Methodist minister and has returned on many occasions since.

Speaking at a lunch meeting he said that the tragedy had hit the poorest of the poor on the island. He said the principal victims had been the fisher folk who were at the bottom of the caste system and those who survived would have lost their homes, families and livelihoods.

The island's east coast which had taken the full force of the waves had many low lying beautiful sandy beaches much loved by tourists.

An added complicating factor on the island was the continuing problems between the Singalese who controlled the Government and the Tamils - the latter living mainly in the north and east. He hoped aid was getting through to these people, but had doubts.

An unusual aspect of the disaster was that the animals in the Yala Game Reserve had sensed the coming wave and escaped death by fleeing while the tourists there had not been so fortunate.

In his vote of thanks John Smith expressed the hope that humanitarian needs would outweigh factional differences and that out of this catastrophe would come hope.

* To date clubs in district have raised more than £200,000 for the tsunami disaster. Some of this money has already be spent sending emergency aid such as aquaboxes and shelters to the striken areas. Some of the remainder has been allocated to buying replacement housing, boats and nets. The boats - 65 of them - will bear the names of club in District 1100.

The remainder will be used to fund projects as identified and costed by Rotarians in areas affected by the tragedy. A special tree is to be planted in the Rotary Centenary Maple Glade at Westonbirt near Tetbury as a memorial to the tsunami victims.

THE vital work of the National Star College at Ullenwood near Birdlip was outlined to members at a club meeting when the speaker was Helen Liley, the college's corporate and community fundraiser. She had been invited to speak, and was introduced by, Rob Hall who had donated the 00 proceeds of a marathon he had run to the college.

Helen explained that for the past five years it had been a further education college for 16 - 25 year-olds. Originally it had been the National Star Centre and had been founded in 1967 in the wake of the thalidomide tragedy. When it started there had been just 15 students but now there were 160 from all over the country.
The present students - 75% of whom were in wheelchairs - were either severely physically disabled or had acquired brain injuries.

Because of their need for 24 hour care and the nature of the students' disabilities there were 420 staff. She said that the college provided further education courses in leisure, the creative arts, heath and social care, IT, sports and recreation and the performing arts and that many students experienced work placements in local industry.

However while the college hoped to place students in employment it was appreciated that this was unlikely in a large number of cases.

With all students the college's objective was to enable them to achieve a degree of independence so they had control over their own care - and lives.

On the question of who foots the bill, Helen said that the money came the Learning and Skills Council although as a charity it also sought to raise ,000 annually through fundraising and corporate donations. She also explained that the college - which had conferencing facilities - hired these when they were available such as during the summer vacation.

A DISUSED urinal at Tuffley Park has got a new lease of life as changing rooms for the highly successful Gloucester Girls Football Club. The transformation has come about by a combination of hours of voluntary labour and £1,500 financial help from our club.

The project has taken about a year to complete and came to fruition when there was a short opening ceremony on Saturday, February 19 attended by the players themselves, club founder and supremo Ian Powell and club members.

Ian said that the Wagon Works Sports and Social Club had given the building, which had fallen into disrepair, to his club. The club agreed to fund the materials need for the transformation and parents and friends of those in the club had carried out the work.

A vandal-proof plaque now testifies to the continuing link between our club and the Girls' Football Club. This is the second occasion when we have joined forces - a short while ago the Rotarians sponsored some new kit for the thriving club.

On this occasion it was senior vice president Howard Johnson who was the main Rotary link with the club

The new facilities at Tuffley Park will mark the end of an ambitious project by the club which involved them using a bulldozer to create two playing pitches in the first place.

The pitches and new changing rooms at there will be used by the club's younger members - those in the Under 10s, Under 11s and Under 12s teams. The Under 14s and Gloucester City Ladies Seniors Reserves side play at Blackbridge while the Senior Ladies side turns out at Meadow Park, home of Gloucester City.

The club, which over the years has won an impressive display of silverware, continues to go from success to success. At the time of writing (middle of February) the Gloucester Ladies side is third in the South West Premier League.........with eyes on national status, while the reserves are top of the Gloucestershire County Women's League. The Under 14s, 12s and 11s are also top of their respective leagues.

Didn't they do well

IT'S not often a grandfather has the pleasure of introducing his granddaughter to Rotary as a speaker. But that's what happened when Colin Rogers introduced Emily Russell to members in January.

Emily and her friend Vicky Walker spoke to the club about their experiences on a youth exchange with two girls from Tunisia.

Rarely have two such young people spoken to Rotary with such confidence and self-assurance. The girls gave an excellent illustrated presentation which covered both the visit of sisters Naomi and Iyona Delporte to England in August and of their own visit to Tunisia in October.

In August the Delporte sisters had been hosted separately by Emily and her family and Vicky and her family. They had also had different itineraries which had involved several Rotarians and their wives and included such places as Gloucester Cathedral where they were shown around by the Dean (and Rotarian) Nick Bury, the city Docks, Tintern Abbey, the Black Country Museum and Cadbury's World.
In October the duo flew to North Africa where they enjoyed a memorable eight days as guests of the Delporte family.

Here, as we saw on the slides, they swam in the Mediterranean and a hotel pool, visited the Medina (an ancient market place), went to a Mosaics Museum and they also spent two days in the desert.

The latter was particularly unforgettable since they rode on camels, went to a salt lake and visited a farm growing dates.

Hopefully the exchange has sown the seeds of friendship and both girls said they hoped to continue the friendship into the future.

In proposing a vote of thanks David Seed said they had been a credit to themselves, to their families and to their schools. It was thoroughly merited praise.

Also present at the same meeting was next year's District Governor elect Ken Corrigan from Pershore .