October 2015

5th October - Rtn Gerald Wright - Our Club Past and Present

Monday 5th October had been designated a Fellowship Meeting and President Bob had invited Gerald as the Club’s Archivist to present some historical information about the Club as a basis for a discussion about present trends.

Gerald reminded us that it was the Club’s 80th Anniversary in March 2016.  It was, therefore, fitting that four members of Walsall Rotary, our Mother Club, were present.   Gerald and John MacPherson are presently working on producing a book to mark this notable milestone.

Gerald started by giving some details about the original membership [15 members].    He then gave comparative statistics on [i] number of members [ii] the split between Senior Active and Working  [iii] attendance percentage and [iv] money raised [adjusted for inflation]   for 1937, 1940, 1954 1964, 1973 and 1993.    He concluded that, in very broad terms, in terms of size of membership, attendance and money raised things had remained the same.    The main difference was in the increased number of Senior Active members.

Those present were then invited to comment on what they had heard.    Chris Cutchey reminisced about when he joined in 1983 [nominated by Arthur Greenhalgh] and suggested that in those days the Club was more focussed on local matters than now.    This prompted Gerald to do some reminiscing and one could only marvel at the extent of his knowledge of the history of the Club.    I am sure that his and John’s book will be fascinating.

 Everyone was disappointed when President Bob called a halt to matters at 2.00 pm.    A big thank you must go to Gerald for the hard work and thought that he had clearly put into preparing his Talk.   It was also something different so well done to President Bob for having the idea.

12th October - The Harvey Girls - a talk by Ian North and Jane Wall

'harvey girls' was created in 2004 and has been offering group support to young mums & mums to be covering issues that affect young mums. harveygirls offer a welcoming, non-judgemental service, and the age group covered is 14 to early 20s.

Dads4Dads is a support group that has empowered young dads since 2011.  Dads, dads-to-be, and their children find support in a group setting.  Practical and fun sessions cover appropriate skills and knowledge.

We were impressed with the successes of these organisations, covering a challenging area with an  understanding yet realistic programme.'

Rtn. Peter Barnett gave the vote of thanks and IPP Rod is shown here with Jane and Ian.

19th October - Elaine Pritchard introduced us to Social Media for Dummies

An amusing and informative talk on Social Media with emphasis on Facebook and Twitter. To open a gallery of the slides shown by Elaine please click on this link PowerPoint Show . Elaine is shown here with Past President William Saunders.

26th October - a talk by Alan Parson - Social Media, is it the future?

It was good to welcome back to the Club a well known goatee beard.  Attached to the beard was Alan Parsons who had recklessly agreed to talk about how our newly acquired social media skills [Elaine Pritchard – 19th October] could be applied for the benefit of Rotary.

Sensing, I suspect, the resistance of many members to the whole idea of social media [SM] he started his talk by arguing that we all use it as e mailing, texts and the internet fall within the definition.   Again, probably for the same reason, he emphasised [as he did four or five times] that concerns about privacy are unfounded and that SM can be used to communicate with as few or as many people as you chose.   He likened making an unrestricted post on SM as akin to writing a letter to The Times!

Alan argued that among the advantages of SM are

1. It is intellectually stimulating and helps to keep you alert and informed

2. It is a cheap and easy form of communication and as such is of particular benefit to those who are housebound or isolated.

3. Helps to give support and boost confidence.

Alan explained that there are hundreds of SM sites.    He chose to speak about and [usefully] show examples of pages of five.    These were, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and WhatsApp.   He strongly recommended that the Club considered using WhatsApp for inter member communications.

He made a convincing case for SM on the basis that these sites, and in particular, Facebook and Twitter have achieved such high levels of market penetration throughout the world.     Put another way, young people now see SM sites as an integral part of their lives and regard their use as normal.    Us oldies will have to accept this and adapt or……………….

Alan’s presentation was highly professional and to my mind pitched at just the right level.   Sadly it was not possible for him to actually go on line and give practical demonstrations which I think we would have found informative.

Mike Redshaw gave the vote of thanks and in the process admitted being an afficianado of three of the recommended sites and that he was off home to look at the other two. 

Alan is shown here with President Bob.

Graham Dean