Richard Withers District Vocational Chair
Tue, Oct 13th 2015 at 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Speaker:- Richard Withers Stewards:- Lead Denis Parton 2nd John Fishburne ( Meeting Report)
Visit of the District Vocational Chairman Richard Withers
Richard visited the Club on 13th October 2015.
He began his talk with a brief resume of his own background and his introduction to Rotary. One thing he mentioned was the fact that at one time he was involved in Show Business, which was readily apparent in the clear and concise presentation which followed.
He began by reminding those present of one of the cornerstones of Rotary. “The Four Way Test”. He pointed out that if business had followed Rotary guidelines, many of the painful scandals of recent years could well have been avoided if the principles of that simple guideline had been followed. He urged us to discuss how ethical we are in our dealings and also to ensure we spread ethics into our local community.
He asked us to update our rotary profiles on the club website. Most of us are either too modest, or lazy! He said we all have skills, even though we may not appreciate them. These could help others. If Rotary had these details on the worldwide database voluntary help would be so much more readily available.
He next widened his remit and talked about “Lifestraws”. A ceramic filter used by the Danish Cravendale company to purify milk to a high degree, greatly increasing its shelf life. The same principle had been introduced into a series of filters which could be used to decontaminate polluted water making it quickly potable and safe. Not only that, the life of the filters was considerable and they were cheap. They were a godsend to countries like Africa where water contamination was endemic in some places. He suggested that if we had spare funds, we could do worse than donate some to this cause.
LifeStraw Personal
LifeStraw Personal is a portable water purifier for prevention of common diarrhoeal disease. It can be carried around for easy access to safe and clean drinking water. It is just 25 cm long and 29 mm in diameter and can be hung around the neck. LifeStraw requires no electrical power or spare parts.
John Fishburne
