Presidential Handover to John Ardley

St. Andrews Rotary Club 

The club lunch meeting held on 6^th July was the occasion of the Presidential Handover, with President Arthur Griffiths handing over the Chains of Office to John Ardley for the year 2016-17.

In doing so, Arthur took the opportunity to look back on some of the highlights of his year in office. Many of these were events where the club had been involved in sponsoring or organising activities involving local schools. Amongst many others, these included Youth Leadership Awards; visits to the EU parliament in Strasbourg; the Primary Schools quiz competition; interschool debates and the Young Chef of the Year competition. Involvement in these had reinforced Arthur’s view that the more youngsters have the chance to do something extra, the more they respond in positive ways.

Moving slightly up the age spectrum, amongst many other notable events over the year was the Christmas Lunch for overseas students and the Senior Citizens Afternoon Tea. On an international perspective, one example was the project to support the ‘Abandoned Girls School’ in India and another was the ‘End Polio Now’ project.

Arthur had particularly enjoyed the International Golf Week when Rotarians from across the world came to St Andrews to play golf and enjoy the company of fellow Rotarians.

As outgoing President, Arthur thanked the various members and conveners who had given him so much support over the year and then handed over the Chains of Office to John Ardley, wishing him and his team all the best for the coming year.

John then gave a most amusing address outlining how he had now found himself in the position of President and his plans and priorities for the year ahead. He then congratulated Arthur on all that had been achieved in the past year, a sentiment that was enthusiastically supported by all members present.

Other office bearers for the year 2016-2017 are:

Senior Vice President - Gordon Wowk

Junior Vice President - Kim Keeble White

Treasurer - Ian Dochard

Secretary - Austin Dunn