The Presidents address at Handover

“Being elected the President of our Rotary club is an honour at any time but I am particularly pleased to be in the chair in the first year of the second century of Rotary International. The Centennial year was a great success in terms of celebrating Rotary and I restate my view that choosing Maggie as our President in that year was an inspired choice. Who better to have led the fun?

We also came od age as a club, celebrating our 21 st birthday…I know the age of majority has been 18 for some years now but there is still something mystical about reaching 21 years of age. Let’s hope the roses (planted as part of our centennial celebrations) thrive as well as the club has!

Year one hundred and one of Rotary offers new challenges and the pressure to meet the demands of survival in this changing world grows greater. My view is that we will not prosper by doing nothing. Change is inevitable but it is how we manage that change that is the key to success. We start by accepting it as a principle and then we buy into it and once we have bought it we own it.

A phrase that has been repeated often in our club over the last few years is that “we do not need to fix what ain’t broken.” Even allowing for the poor grammar, the message is clear and so my proposal is that we carry out a review of what we currently do, examining the roles of the main committees and reconfirming where our priorities lie.

Over the next year we can allocate at least one meeting to a review of each of the main committees and Chrissie Webber has offered to facilitate the meetings. A bit of soul searching in this way will hopefully enable us to lay down plans for the future, both short term and longer term, buying into the strategy so that we all own it and then nurture it to fruition.

Future Presidents and club members can reap the harvests and the club will go from strength to strength.

Long may it continue… but let’s ensure we have fun in the process!

President John Griffiths

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Former president´s - Maggie Furness - adress, at handover

The outgoing President’s address at Handover

“The Queen is dead, long live the King !!”

“I have some difficulty speaking to you this evening as the dead Queen, but I like a challenge!

I feel that we have had a very successful Centennial year thanks to the hard work of my fellow Rotarians, and I must express a very big thank you to all of you, officers, councillors, committee members, chairmen and individuals.

I thoroughly enjoyed my year and I am very grateful for the support you have given me as your President.

Looking back to this time last year I can hardly believe how time has flown, but at the same time I am fully aware of how much has been accomplished in this time by our Club. The Centennial project funds have all been raised, thanks to all the early planning and the success of the fundraising events.

The Centennial project, a playground for the children of Oakfield Primary School has been built and I had the pleasure of seeing it everyday use by the children. I am also delighted to say that the Centennial rose bushes and tree, after a somewhat wobbly start, are beginning to thrive.

I would like at this stage to mention the Ways and Means committee who have produced some superb events, such as the charity lunch and the boxing evening, both of which were very successful. Many thanks to Malcolm James and his team. Then there is the Community Service committee which has gone from strength to strength, continuing our local involvement and keeping the children happy through our projects such as “Kids Out”, RYLA, “Young Chef” and via holidays for the disadvantaged. Many thanks to Chris Dale and his team.

The Social committee ensured that we have eaten and danced our way through various functions such as Skittles, Australia Night and a Mardi Gras evening. Many thanks to Robert Egford and his team.

With regard to the Membership committee my thanks go out to John Reardon –Smith who kept us on our toes, started a new Sailing project and with the help of Chrissie Webber monitored our attendance. Membership has increased and I am pleased to say we have some more Lady members.

Our treasurer Ken Truman has kept our record amount of money safe and helped to ensure that we spent it wisely.

Our vigilant secretary Joe McLean answered all our Rotary questions, helped us to digest District missives and aided and abetted by our minute secretary Michael Boyce, recorded all of our Rotary activities.

Finally I must mention our Foundation chairman Clive Johnson and Past President Alan Hodgson who have been my mentors and advisors and have satisfied all my questions and given me invaluable support.

I am pleased that our Assembly Document proposals have been generally been achieved, including that relating to fun and fellowship, with enjoyable visits to both District and National conference and with a long weekend in Rome and we have the photos to prove it!

Reflecting on the past year I remember some fun, smiling faces, friendship, commitment and hard work. Well done everyone.

Now John it’s over to you! I wish you a happy and successful year and hope that all your plans come to fruition.”

Maggie Furness

President 2004/2005

Handover!


President Maggie Furness about to handover to incoming President John Griffiths

On 14 th July, 2005 at a splendid black tie occasion in the
St. Mellons Hotel and Country Club Maggie Furness our first lady President handed over the chain of office to John Griffiths, an ex Round Tabler and Banker turned committed Rotarian. In his address to the Club John had the following to say:

“ Being elected the President of our Rotary club is an honour at any time but I am particularly pleased to be in the chair in the first year of the second century of Rotary International. The Centennial year was a great success in terms of celebrating Rotary and I restate my view that choosing Maggie as our President in that year was an inspired choice. Who better to have led the fun?