Club Meeting at SCCC

A fast and late ball saw the meeting held at the SCCC in place of The Boathouse, where President Colin presided over his second meeting. 34 members enjoyed a pleasant meal before Malcolm Turner introduced Cherry Bird from KINOE, Kids in Need of Education who gave a talk on the need for good education in south east Asia. The charity was formed in 2000 by five women in London who believe that “education is more effective at lifting people out of poverty than any other form of aid”. They were particularly concerned about the standards in Nepal and amongst women. Working alongside three other charities, most recently “Teach for Nepal”, the current emphasis was on the recruitment and training of highly motivated Nepali graduates and then sponsoring them for two years to teach in local government schools, a cost of between £5000 and £6000 per teacher. The teachers live with local families to help them become more aware of local issues and they concentrate primarily on teachi ng maths, science and English. Thanks proposed by Richard Austin.

Clubs visited; Derek Bartaby had recently attended the installation of David Hancock (a past member of RCTV) as President of the Christchurch Club.

Roderick Purves brought greeting from a club in Kenya which he had recently visited

Richard Austin gave a briefing on the now imminent return exchange visit by a group of 15 Rotarians from Kerala, India, to District 1200. He explained they would be here from 12 – 16 September on the final leg of the stay and that four hosts were still required to accommodate them during that period. He also gave a run through of the proposed programme and that it would be appreciated if anyone was able to day host . Following a meeting last week the likely cost of the visit was likely to be in the region of £1900 -2000. The Treasure then explained that the money for these kind of visits normally came from the Social and Twinning Fund which was funded by the Ball Draw. (It was proposed and agreed that this would stay at £1 per week even if it were decided to only have two meetings a month).

Richard expressed some disappointment at the level of support being offered for the visit given the number of member in the club, a visit that had been agreed in principle last October.

Tony Blackshaw said he thought the implications of the visit may not have been fully understood.

Bill Tregullis then gave an update on the Flower Show (4/5 August). A draft roster had now been completed. Car park marshals were only required on Friday this year. The response to manning the RCTV Stall had been somewhat “lightweight” and the fact that it had been manned by wives on previous occasions rather than Rotarians was commented upon.

The viability of RCTV having a stall as well as the “Mother” Club was a matter the President agreed to take up.
It was agreed that the debate on the number of meetings per month would be held in September.

John Binns gave an update on the Halcon Project with which the club had now been involved for six months. The speaker at the meeting on the 14th August would be The President of the Taunton East Development Project.

Malcolm Turner expressed thanks to those members who had responded to his call for assistance to help with the TOG Garden.

Clarity was sought on who was going to serve on which committees during the forthcoming year, and the President said that he would be sending out lists in the next few days.

Chris Lovelock asked for support for the Social evening on the 31st July to which partners and guests were warmly welcome but places had to be booked with Tony Blackshaw, if not already done so on clip board passed around.

Ball Draw was won by Stephen Jenkins who was not present so rolls over to the next meeting.
31st July Social Evening at CICCIC 7pm
Monday 14th August Talk on Halcon Project
Duty Rotarian; Derek Bartaby
Speaker’s Friend: Bill Tucker.