Our meeting on 22 May 2019 was our Club Assembly, the time when next year’s leaders announce their plans and programmes to the Club. The new year starts on 01 July 2019, so this was the ideal time. Before the presentations got under way, there were reports on visits to Clubs and Events, and a warm welcome to our visitors from other Clubs.
The presentations then started with next year’s President, Rachelle, introducing the Club members to next year’s world President and his theme, “Rotary Connects the World”. The chosen charities would be St Mark’s Hospital Foundation, a Europe-wide hub for the treatment of bowel cancel, and a world centre for endoscopy. Closer community links will be the goal, and that will be achieved through involvement with the hospital. This represents an innovative approach as recommended by General Secretary John Hewko. The work of our Strategy Group will continue as will developing our links to nearby clubs. In order to extend this work beyond just one year, a vision statement will be developed for our Club. There will be ‘lightweight training’ on Rotary for our members too. The friendship in the Club will be developed by having more Club Members as our speakers, and a number of ‘forgotten’ events will reappear on the Club Calendar. There will also be a monthly newsletter for the members from the President.
International will be led by Helen, Youth by Pankaj, Community by Mark, Foundation by John E, Public Image by Eric and Dick, and the HUB will make a comeback under Jo ensuring that absent members can stay in touch with the Club. Vocational visits will make a comeback and Northwick Park Hospital and St Mark’s Hospital are being lined up, along with a food bank and a mail sorting office. The Club hopes to expand by seeking new members from recently retired people living locally.
Then came the money side of things: Ritu and Ros will oversee the fundraising, and June announced that the subscription would be unaltered for the coming year. Our new Assistant Governor Adrian summed up the programme and was clearly impressed. All we have to do now is make it happen!
