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Home | RIBI President John Minhinick | John Minhinick 2012-13
John Minhinick, RIBI President 2012/13
John retired in 2003 after 43 years working for the Meteorological Office in a number of overseas locations, including a short period in Cyprus. During that time he held a variety of posts including weather forecasting, computer programming, research and personnel management. From 1990, John was the Regional Manager for Scotland and Northern Ireland with responsibilities ranging from small island offices to two weather centres and three major military bases.
John joined the Rotary Club of Burntisland and Kinghorn in 1991, becoming the club president in 1997. Inspired by the great work of Rotary and keen to be involved as fully as possible, he soon joined the district team as International Chairman and progressed to the position of District 1010 District Governor for 2004/05, fondly known as the Centenary/Tartan Army team. Two years on the Executive Committee were followed by three years as the Chairman of the RIBI Communications Committee. John was also a member of the Marketing Action Group. In 2010, John was honoured to represent RI President John Kenny at the District 1190 Conference.
Always keen for Rotarians to be recognised for their great work, John created and presented the Ordinary Rotarians Doing Extraordinary Things (ORDET) awards during recent RIBI Conferences. These later became known as the Magic of Rotary awards.
As part of the RIBI Executive, John led the review group that recommended changes to the RIBI Assembly and the follow‐up Mid Year Review. More recently, John has been involved in developing a long‐term plan to improve the membership of RIBI in terms of numbers plus gender and ethnic balance.
He has been married to Sheila for nearly 50 years. They first met at the South Harrow Jazz Club when Kenny Ball was playing. Sheila is as equally committed to helping communities and, for a number of years, has done voluntary work for the Fife Society for the Blind. John and Sheila have two sons, who were both born in Cyprus. Brian is a Civil Engineer living in Australia with his wife, Helen, and their two sons, Alistair and Patrick. Nigel, a train crew manager, lives in Shrewsbury.
John’s Rotary club made him a Paul Harris Fellow in 2005 and, as a Sustaining Member, he personally made Sheila a PHF in 2011 in recognition of her invaluable support. Studying is one of John’s many passions and he was awarded an Honours degree by the Open University after studying modules in the Mathematics, Sciences and Technology faculties. In the past he has run many half‐marathons and the London Marathon three times. For hobbies, in addition to Rotary, John occasionally tries to play golf, enjoys walking and keeping a large garden under control; the latter is probably more a duty. He also enjoys travel and playing with computers.
John is the President of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland for 2012/13.
Contact President John Minhinick at president@ribi.org.
You can also follow John on his own Facebook page.