Club Chronicle

18 June 2026: Club Assembly

In her capacity as the incoming President, Anne Moriaty set our her vision for our Club in 2026-27 at today’s Club Assembly. She was previously our President in 2018-19, the last Rotary year before the Covid epidemic. She reminded us how we had adapted to change then and explained the changes she wished our Club to adopt next year.

Having visited all the Clubs in our District when she was District Governor, she was aware the each Club had its own way of “doing Rotary”. She felt that, since Rotary was avowedly a secular and non-political organisation, our Club should reflect this by dropping the Grace and the Loyal Toast during our weekly meetings. She did not intend to wear the President’s chain of office regularly at meetings, partly because she found it uncomfortable. Traditions she would continue at meetings were the use of the Club bell and the Rotary Toast at the end of meetings.

She wants our Club to continue the things that it is good at, such as:

• the twice-yearly jumble sales;
• the Summer Party and Panto Visits for Senior Citizens; and
• organising the annual local heat of the Rotary Young Musician competition.

Anne hopes to have a fund-raising project for End Polio Now next year. We will also continue to support the Rotary Foundation, particularly by encouraging members to pay a voluntary contribution at the same time as their annual subscription.

The main occasion coming up in Anne’s Presidential year is, of course, the centenary of Rotary in Chelmsford. We will have a valuable opprotunity to work together with the other Chelmsford Clubs to organise celebratory events and promote Rotary.

Rotary Young Musician District Final

Report by Anne Moriaty

The District Final took place in Brentwood Cathedral on Saturday 28 February in the presence of the Deputy Mayor of Chelmsford, Cllr Smita Rajesh, and her consort.

The audience were treated to a lovely concert with high standard performances from five vocalists and six instrumentalists. Sadly there could only be two winners going through to the Regional Final and after lengthy deliberations the accolades went to pianist Tailin Liu sponsored by the Rotary Club of Bishops Stortford and vocalist Harry Sunderland sponsored by the Rotary Club of Dunmow.

Our Chelmsford winners, Henrietta Lawrence and Chloe Mahler were worthy runners-up.

I had the honour of giving out the certificates and the Deputy Mayoress presented the winner and runner-up trophies.

Collection for Marie Curie

On 25 February 2026 President Graham, Francis Whitbread, Keith Dabbs, Anne Moriety and Steve, worked as a team at Morrisons Supermarket to collect monies on behalf of the Marie Curie charity. We collected a handsome sum, of which £80 was collected via card payment through the “SumUp” device. We enjoyed the day and special thanks to Francis who made the arrangements and remained all day throughout others’ slots. A photo opportunity could not go amiss.