Digital Bulletin No 85

June 2025

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June 2025

From the editor’s desk

Oh dear! Once again I find myself sitting down to prepare a Bulletin without any material for it apart from the President’s Words. That’s why you will find it includes yet another article by me.

This shortage of material is due, at least in part, to our falling numbers. Should I decrease the frequency of the Bulletin to one every two months?

Words from the President

May 1

After being away in Spain for most of March and April, my first meeting back was our AGM, which was held online via Zoom. This was a chance to reflect on my second year as President. My report has already been circulated to members, so I do not intend to go over this again, other than to say again that my biggest disappointment has been my failure to increase our membership, which was my big hope when I became President on 1 July 2023. All I can do is continue to pursue any opportunities to attract new members which come my way and hope that eventually I will have some success.

May 8

The speaker for our meeting at Ivy Hill was our own Angela Dickman, whose talk was entitled “Things Aren’t What They used To Be” and was very appropriate for the VE Day 80th Anniversary. Angela gave us her memories of VE Day, as a very young child who had never heard the word “war” until that day but knew her father was away for much of the time and always came home with his pockets full of sweets for Angela and her older sister to enjoy. Angela kindly shared with us many of her mementos of those times, including the numerous letters and cards her father sent her, particularly from France and Belgium after he was posted there following D Day. Other members shared their thoughts and memories to make an excellent meeting to mark this special anniversary.

Later in the day, I took part in a second VE Day event. After our meeting, I drove up to Yorkshire for a weekend’s cycling, and on arrival, spotted a sign advertising a walk from the village to Pinhaw Beacon, a well-known viewpoint on the Pennine Way, where one of the many beacons erected for the VE Day celebrations was to be lit at 9:30 pm. Attending a two-minute silence on the backbone of England before the beacon was lit was a good end to the day, but I should confirm to my fellow Rotarians that I did not undertake the walk in the 1940s style clothing I wore earlier in the day!

May 15

Our meeting today was a friendship and fellowship one at the Hive in Oaklands Park. Unfortunately, there were only eight of us present, which is fewer than on previous visits to the Hive, but nonetheless there was still some good conversation.

May 16

We hosted a successful quiz evening for Families In Focus, a local Chelmsford-based charity, at Writtle Sports and Social Club, which resulted in them raising over £500. As with the two quizzes we have done for The Wilderness Foundation, we provided the quiz, admin on the night, including selling an enormous number of raffle tickets, while the charity arranged the venue and invited teams. Feedback was good, so hopefully we will be able to assist Families In Focus with another quiz in the future. Special thanks to Graham Furnival and John Watkins for all their hard work on the night.

May 22

Our speaker today was Clare Martin from the Wilderness Foundation, a charity we have close ties with due to organising quizzes for them for the last two years. Clare began with a brief history of the charity, which was started in A light blue rectangles bearing the words 'Wilderness Foundation UK' with three photographs in irregular shapes beneath them South Africa in 1976 by Ian Player, who was involved in saving the white rhinoceros from extinction. Jo Roberts, the CEO of the Wilderness Foundation, was born in South Africa and worked for the charity there (then called The Wilderness Trust) before moving to the UK and establishing the charity here.

The primary aim of the charity is to teach about nature and how to look after it. As well as their headquarters at Chatham Green, there are bases at Hatfield Forest, Spains Hall Estate, Highwoods Country Park and Mann Wood at Great Leighs, approximately 90 acres of woodland which was purchased last year. To emphasise the importance of the charity’s work, Clare gave us some alarming statistics about the decline in woodland areas and the bird population in the last fifty years. We look forward to continuing to support the work of The Wilderness Foundation by hosting another quiz for them in the autumn.

May 29

Unusually, we had a fifth meeting in the month, as the normal joint Chelmsford Clubs meeting was deferred until the 3rd of June. Our meeting was held at Little Channels, who chose to seat us all around a rectangular table, which personally was a format I liked, as it works well when the number of attendees is between 12 and 16.

Our speaker was Abbie Freeman from Kidney Research UK. When I spoke to Abbie, after she had contacted us to see if we could support her charity in any way, she mentioned that she had not previously spoken in front of an audience, but she gave us a very good presentation. Kidney disease, like so many similar conditions, receives little publicity, and that is something Abbie wants to do something about. Her involvement stems from personal contact with kidney disease, as it is something her partner suffers from, and she described the back pain he has which makes sleeping difficult.

I learned quite a lot about the human kidney, such as its size and shape, which is like a clenched fist. Abbie also explained that when a person has a kidney transplant, the original kidney is not removed, so it is possible to have more than two kidneys. Conversely, many people can live a perfectly healthy life with only one functioning kidney.

Looking back

Keith Otter

A comprehensive record

Thanks to David Axon, we have a list of all our meetings from 2002-03 onwards: who spoke, their subject and who proposed the vote of thanks. It also reveals that our link with the Ivy Hill Hotel goes back further than you might think. Our President’s Night was held there on 24 June 2004. Chris Burr was the President that year.

The dates of the job talks gives a rough guide as to when some of our current members and honorary members joined the Club: Jenny Black, Angela Dickman and Mo Sadiq in 2002-03, Keith Dabbs and John Knott in 2003-04, Philip Smith in 2004-05, Peter Kemp in 2006-07, President Francis in 2008-09, Janice and Philip Goodman in 2009-10, Graham Furnival and me in 2012-13, Alison and Philip Moses in 2016-17, Maureen Benson in 2018-19, Ajay Sinha in 2020-21 and Geoff Dickman in 2021-22. There were also several job talks over the years by people who, for one reason or another, are no longer part of our Club.

Although Philip Smith gave his job talk in 2004-05, two years earlier he gave us a talk on the history of the world. That sounds like a daunting subject to fit into 20 minutes!

And I am sorry to have missed the talk his late wife, Vivienne, gave in 2011-12: “Adventures in world plumbing”. It sounds intriguing.

A pair of Victorian semi-detached houses We have, of course, had a large number of talks from charities. Another link that goes back surprisingly far is with CHESS. The first talk on that was given by the then manager, Hilary Spriggs, on 19 February 2004. In those days CHESS just operated the Chelmsford Night Shelter for homeless people.

Looking outwards

Many talks have been about other countries. Some of these have been from young people whose overseas trips we have supported. Some have been about other people’s experiences overseas. We’ve heard from charities with an overseas focus. Some talks have been about Rotary work overseas, including our own Club projects.

How many foreign countries have we heard about over the years? I counted 32: Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, China, Costa Rica, France, Iceland, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya A flag showing black, red and green horizontal bands with an African shiled superimpposed , Lesotho, Malaysia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Romania, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, Ukraine, the United States and Zambia.

That includes presentations by the High Commissioners of Tanzania (2003-04) and Lesotho (2006-07). It doesn’t include two talks that Keith Dabbs gave, one on visiting all the countries of Europe and the other on the British Overseas Territories.

Looking forwards

We’ve had a small number of talks about the future of various organisations or undertakings. In 2002-03 the then manager of the Marconi Club gave a talk on their future. At that point the new building may already have been in the plans but I doubt he foresaw that the club would close less than twenty years later.

The other talks about the future were in 2002-03 on waste, investment and the Boy Scout movement, in 2003-04 on the future of the Chelmsford CAB and development planning in Chelmsford, in 2004-05 on Hylands House, and in 2006-07 on Chelmsford’s future, It would be interesting to know what the speakers said and whether or not the future panned out as they expected. There have been no talks specifically on the future since 2006-07 so perhaps speakers learned to be more circumspect. When our then member Stan Keller became District Governor in 2013-14 he restricted his talk to the year ahead.

It may not be that risky to speak about the future. David’s list of talks includes many I remember attending but it is only in the rare case that I can recall what the speaker said.

A crystal ball with cogwheels inside it One talk about the future I do remember was nothing to do with Rotary. It was part of an international conference in Canada that I attended in the late 1980s. We had a talk by a “Futurologist” about imminent technical developments. I was unimpressed at the time; he only spoke about one topic I knew anything about and he got that wrong.

Two of his forecasts proved spectacularly wrong. One was that mobile phones would be abandoned in favour of the Rabbit system then available in London and Hong Kong. (Remember that? It didn’t last long.) The other was that ceramic knives would replace metal knives because they retain their sharpness. They may do but so far they have proved too brittle for everyday use.

One prophecy that might still prove true is that we will all find ourselves carrying around plastic cards which contain loads of information about us. I guess our smartphones already do that – if we’re not careful.

Random jottings

I know they say that money talks, but all mine says is “Goodbye”.

I was wondering why the Frisbee kept getting bigger and bigger, but then it hit me.

Most people are shocked when they find out how bad I am as an electrician.

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kickboxing.

I don’t suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.

Virtual walk

During the Covid lockdowns it was illegal for us to meet face to face. This did not only affect our weekly meetings. It also made it impossible for us to arrange any Club walks. To compensate some members contributed “virtual walks” to the Bulletin.

Here is one from Anne Moriaty. It starts at Barnes Mill Lock, which is not far from Anne’s home and close to the Fox & Raven. It goes from there to Sandford Lock and returns via Chelmer Village.

Anne commented that she and Steve are lucky to have the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation on their doorstep. She reported that when she did the walk the highlights were canal boats at Sandford Lock, four camera-shy Orange Tip butterflies, a banner supporting the NHS and a glorious wisteria.

Perhaps one day we can do that as a real Club walk, with lunch at the Fox & Raven. Is there a volunteer to organise it?

Six photographs showing canal scenes