Our Third Decade 2010 - 2019

2010 - 2011 Denis Bacon was President. He was a founder member of our club and  treasurer from 1993 until 1997. He was Concert Chairman for two years and steered our partnership with the Nottingham Youth Orchestra to two successful concerts at the Royal Concert Hall. Before taking on the role as Junior Vice President, Denis was Secretary for 5 years. Following his Presidential year Denis introduced The Vale’s Got Talent and continues to chair the organising committee for this annual event. For all his efforts he was awarded the Paul Harris Award in 2013. Here are some of the activities that took place in Denis' year as President:

Roy's induction                Our First Walk                    A summary of Denis' Year       

annual quiz           M&S Fashion show

Cheque Presentation to Prostate Cancer Appeal       Charter Night 2010

2010 Young Enterprise - our world                              Youth Speaks

At the end of his year Denis said: "This year has been another successful year for the Vale of Belvoir Club and I’m proud to have had the opportunity to have been its President. July and August- The year started as usual in early Summer at Radcliffe Carnival where we helped set up the bar and raise some cash with our Key Box and our new partner, ‘Splat the Rat’, a device beautifully engineered by Trevor and Sandra. Our speakers gave us an insight into the organisation of the Paralympics and undertaking voluntary surgical work in Africa and we enjoyed a guided walk around Bottesford.

The early part of the year was taken up by our nomadic existence trying to find a suitable venue for our meetings. When it eventually came to voting on the venue we were thankfully saved the intricacies of the Alternative Vote or the Single Transferable Vote options as The VOBI won by the tried and tested ‘first past the post’ system. Well done to Duncan and Alan for getting us a home at last.

September was ‘International Month’ where Mary gave us an insight into ‘Teaching in Jamaica’, Tony Waltham entertained us with his experiences in North Japan and we hosted a great team of GSE characters from Chennai, introducing them to the highlights of British culture – the National Trust, village pubs and the game of skittles. October saw us getting involved in our first ‘Vale’s Got Talent’ with 42 acts auditioning for the competition. Many thanks to the Committee for working so hard to get the event off the ground and for everyone else for supporting at the semi-final and Final stages.

Conference was at Southport and we took over a small hotel near to the Conference Centre, enjoyed some good dining and danced the night away on Saturday. I would like to thank those members and their wives who supported me at Southport and made it such an enjoyable weekend for Marjorie and myself.

November is M&S Fashion Show time and while numbers were slightly down on previous years it still proved to be a very successful evening and we presented cheques of £750 to the Nottingham University Hospital Prostate Cancer Appeal, the Alzheimer’s Society, Marie Curie and Wish Upon a Star. December saw us return to M&S for the bag packing fund raiser. Santa’s Sleigh performed well, despite the need for a new battery. Given the economic situation it was great that our collections at these events maintained the levels of previous years.

Our decorated Christmas tree again appeared to much acclaim at St Mary’s Church in Bingham. Duncan and Alan organised a lovely Christmas Dinner at Ashmores and Marjorie and I hosted an open house drinks and nibbles evening between Christmas and New Year. We were sorry to lose Simon Honeybourne, mainly due to his work commitments but he has an open invitation to return to Club should his situation change.

In January we had an excellent evening with Mark Edworthy the ‘Tiger Moth’ man and we challenged West Bridgford, Mapperley, Newark Castle, Bingham and Carlton Rotary Clubs to a Frog-Race Olympics, an event won by Newark Castle. We cancelled our first ever meeting in 21 years due to predicted heavy snow falls in our area – which never materialised. I wouldn’t mind but the Met Office has one of the most expensive weather forecasting computers in the World. February saw us taking on the Stock Market with only Jack’s team making any real ‘monopoly’ money out of the very entertaining event presented by Mike Storr.

This was followed by our first Valentine’s Night’ extravaganza where the men (largely) created the food for the ladies. A great event organised by Duncan and Alan (plus their wives). Some very novel games played and I can’t remember who won the Musical Chairs as I was too busy trying to get the creases out of my trousers and massage some feeling back into my thighs. I didn’t know Jane weighed so much!

The month ended with the secrets of Rome being exposed by Jen Cresswell and our District Governors visit. In March Marjorie and I hosted the Pot Luck Supper on 26th, which did mean I had the perfect excuse to get everyone out of the house before midnight, otherwise I would have had to include them all on my census return. This was followed by another very successful Community Quiz and an excellent talk by the ladies of Balfour Beatty providing an update on the A46 road programme Just avoiding April Fools Day,

Roy Morledge joined us on 31st March to become the 5th member of the Cropwell Mafia. In April we cancelled the Frog Race. It was rumoured that this was because no-one would commit until they knew if Doug was going the have the small or large Fish & Chip Supper. May started at a pace (well at a walk actually) when we joined with the two Newark Clubs on our jointly organised sponsored walk for the local Rainbows Children’s Hospice. An excellent first attempt supported by much hard work by Sandra, Ian, Doug and Derek G with funds raised for Rainbows at £6,000 and rising.

Our Charter was held at The Country Cottage Hotel in Ruddington which is about 3 miles from Trent Bridge as the crow flies. Luckily it was a clear night and from Room 17 you could just see the top of the Trent Bridge cricket ground floodlights (if you stood on your tip-toes), so it wasn’t all bad! June was once again ‘outside events’ month with our annual Boules competition (won by John Spence), and the Treasure Hunt (won by Team Taylor / Valentine), the first of the village fairs at Bingham and East Bridgford and the Rotary Showcase event held is Slab Square Nottingham, supported by a number of acts from the various Talent Competitions organised by Rotary in our District over the past 2 years. The 350+ ‘Dictionary’s 4 Life’ arrived for distribution to Year 6 children at junior schools in our catchment area, thanks to a District Simplified Grant matching our own donation. Donations: Club has also made donations to support Bridge2Aid, Sight Savers, Shelter Box, Aqua Box, the Nepal Project, the District Governor’s India Project, Life Education and Polio Plus. Donations from the Community Fund included individuals involved with the National Youth Theatre, the Downs Syndrome European Swimming Championships, World Challenge India, the 2nd Radcliffe Rangers, Kings Village Project Ghana and the Bingham and District Audio scheme. Thank You’s: I would like to acknowledge the hard work put in by committee chairs and their members. Everyone’s commitment has again contributed to a successful and rewarding year. Thanks to the Youth Team who have had a brilliant year supporting initiatives at Bingham Toot Hill School getting teams through to the area final in Hull (Youth Speaks) and the Nottingham final (Young Enterprise). Thank you to those of you who supported me at Charters throughout the year. I would also ask you to please pass on my gratitude for the support provided by your wives (and husband Keith) in the various fund raising and social events we have undertaken. Congratulations once again to Rob and Gordon M as very deserving recipients of Paul Harris Fellowships. Finally, many thanks to Duncan for his unflappable support and for Alan for providing an excellent programme of events and speakers as well as all the other things they threw themselves into. Can I wish them and Ludwig all the very best for the coming Rotary year."

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2011 - 2012 saw Duncan Garment as Club President's year.  HANDOVER NIGHT 30TH JUNE 2011
This year a group of us participated in Movember - check out our before & after mug shots.
Our Movember donation
A Marathon - Maggie did it.
Another successful Vale's Got Talent.
Of course we were out on the Christmas Float prior to Christmas Eve
On 25th April President Duncan Garment attended a celebration concert at Candleby Lane Junior School
In May we celebrated our Charter 22nd Dinner at Welbeck Banqueting Hall
Southwell Races
A summary of what we did in Duncan's Year
Duncan's farewell - Where Did The Year Go?

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2012 - 2013 Alan Folwell was President

Handover to Alan and his team

At his handover Alan said “I am looking forward to another busy year for the Vale of Belvoir Rotary Club, using the money we raise from our charity fundraising events to support a wide range of good causes. Whilst we will continue to support some international causes, like Rotary's drive to complete the worldwide eradication of polio, our main focus will be on supporting causes which benefit our local communities in the Vale. As well as raising funds, our members will continue to work on service projects including working with local primary and secondary schools in a variety of ways, like Young Enterprise and providing Dictionaries4Life to primary school students. Our popular and successful "The Vales Got Talent" show will run again in the autumn and we will be out with our Christmas Float and Santa in the weeks before Christmas. The men and women of our Club get great enjoyment, satisfaction and fellowship from our activities and we aim to make our contribution to the health and happiness of our communities over the coming year."

Mansfield Midsummer Madness Annual Charity Golf Competition 
wish upon a star golf day at The Nottinghamshire
14th July we had a stall at Radcliffe Carnival
Nottingham showcase - They Done Us Proud
Presentation of Year Book to Duncan
Bar-B-Q at Stan's - Part 1
BBQ Part II (the battle for the paparazzi)
BBQ Part III (The third chef)
On 8th September we had a great Social Night at our Pot Luck Supper
We took part in the District ten pin bowling Competition and later in the year the Annual District Bowls Competition.
District Conference 2012 at Southport 
Annual Challenge match v Nwk Castle
Once again Vale's Got Talent was a great success (see "What we do pages" for more information about this year's event)
Skittles with West Bridgford Rotary Club
we set off for a walk in november
On 4,5 & 8 November we were collecting alongside the British Legion for Poppy Week - an event organised by Ian Torr.
Before we could set about our Christmas float we had to undertake critical repairs to Rudolph
Once repaired we were ready to set off on our Annual Christmas Float. 
As usual we had a successful Meal at Ashmores to celebrate Christmas.
 In 2013 we welcomed  two new members into our Club
On 12th March 2013 we held our Annual Quiz

Our 23rd Annual Charter was held on 2nd May 2013 at The Welbeck Banqueting Hall, West Bridgford. 

Just to keep all 127 attendees on their toes President Alan had re-jigged the programme – roll call and apologies, greetings from the Mayor of Rushcliffe – being held before the meal. Alan gave greetings from Past President and Paul Harris Fellow Harry Thompson and then introduced Rotarians Bacon and Goodacre who were recipients of the Paul Harris Award this year. Both Denis and Derek were overwhelmed with their awards swelling the number of PHF’s in the Vale of Belvoir to eight.Rami Seth (Sherwood Forest) had been clearing out his loft and stumbled upon a bundle of documents relating to the “birth of The Vale of Belvoir Club”. He presented these to Alan to join the rest of the club’s archive material.

The meal was efficiently served and by 9.45 all had reconvened to listen to the toasts to Rotary international (Ludwig Auer), the Vale of Belvoir (Dave Ashley), the guests (Alan Folwell) and the response on behalf of the guests (George Grime). 

Wing Commander George Grime is a scouser from West Kirby whose early claim to fame is that he went to school with John Lennon. He trained as a dentist and for 27 years was a dental officer in the RAF. He’s been involved in umpiring professional tennis for 37 years, umpired the opening match at the Seoul Olympics And is one of only 3 chair umpires to have umpired the Big 5 at Wimbledon (Ladies Single in ‘82, Men’s single in ‘86, Men’s Double in ‘89, Ladies Doubles in ‘90 and Mixed Doubles in ’91).

He told me that his after dinner speaking career had been sparked off my an incident in 1981 when he was umpiring the infamous McEnroe and found himself on the receiving end of a classic McEnroe insult (You’re a disgrace to mankind – lower than dirt).George gave us a potted history of the game of tennis and Wimbledon interspersed with his own experiences in umpiring the game. His passion for the game was evident in his speech.    The Charter was closed by Alan just after 11.00pm

On 7th June we held our first Cabaret Evening with The Opera Dudes

On June 8th we attended Bingham Fair

At  the end of his year Alan said "The Rotary Year 2012/13 has been immensely enjoyable and rewarding for Sue and I. The Club is in excellent heart with plenty of activity evident in fundraising, support for good causes and service. Our social programme has been well supported and we have enjoyed strong fellowship both within our membership and in shared activities with other Clubs.   

The death of Harry Thompson after an illness borne with immense courage and fortitude and, characteristically for Harry, with no little humour was the low spot of the year. Our donations to the Motor Neurone Disease support organisation for Nottinghamshire were,in a small way, evidence of the Clubs affection for Harry.  

Our regular major fundraising events (Christmas Float, Bagpacking at M&S, The Vale's Got Talent and the Community Quiz) were augmented by a cabaret style performance by "The Opera Dudes", adding what I hope will be a regular June event for the Club. This enabled us to maintain our donations to a variety of communirty, local and international causes.   

We welcomed three new members during the year, all of whom have made an early contribution to the life of the Club.    May I conclude by offering my thanks to the members of the Vale of Belvoir Rotary Club for their support, friendship and hard work which made my Presidential year so personally memorable."

What we did in the first half of Alan's Year

What we did in the 2nd half of the year 

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2013 - 2014 Ludwig Auer was President

On 29th May 2013 club members entered an annual Rotary Golf Competition …

On 7th June we staged a Charity Concert with the Opera Dudes

8th August 2013 our club presented two Rotary Youth Leadership awards (RYLA awards) to members of the KK Boxing Club. In August 2013 we donated £250 to Cotgrave Parents in Action. They made good use of the funds...

5th September 2013 - Barry Newman & Gordon Oldham re-join our club.

8th September 2013 - two teams go bananas in annual bowls competition ….

September 2013 - we set about creating a nostalgia garden in Cotgrave ………..

October 2013 - as the schools start back we deliver Dictionaries4life to the primary schools in our area……….. 1st November 2013 we headed north to Worksop to run a frog Race……. In December we presented a defibrillator, for use in Bingham, to the Vales First Responders. We hold our Annual Vale's Got Talent.

19th December we had our Christmas Meal at Ashmore’s in Radcliffe-on-Trent

Summary of what we did: in the first half of Ludwig's year

                                      in the 2nd half 

Due to ill-health Ludwig was unable to continue his life in Rotary. He was made an honorary member in 2014 - 15 as a recognition of his work as President

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2014 - 2015 Steve Carson was Club President in our 25th Year & in the absence of Ludwig, President 2013-14, Alan Folwell (President in 2012 – 13) “did the honours” and presented the chain of office to Steve.
 
Steve said that  “It is with a great deal of pride that I take over as President of Vale of Belvoir Rotary Club, and to have the opportunity of leading an active, friendly and enthusiastic membership for the next 12 months. I am looking forward to a continuance of the fun and fellowship that is such a feature of this club, and to the furtherance of our fund raising activities and service commitments. 

The scope of those commitments includes both local and international elements, but I think it is essential that we continue the targeted assistance in our local community through our Community Fund initiative. 
As always we seek fresh blood, and I cordially invite anyone interested in finding out what we do and how we do it to contact us and possibly join us at one of our regular weekly meetings.”

Mary Bridge-Collyns and Jennie Henley assumed the roles as senior-vice and junior-vice presidents respectively.
 
Steve went on to say" Our club was delighted to hear that we’d been awarded two trophies this year. The first for our Community Services over the year 2013 – 14 and the second for the work undertaken by John Spence to encourage many Rotary Clubs in the District to join us in support a Sand Dam Project in Africa. Our contributions were “price matched” so we more than doubled our contribution for this important scheme to provide water in what were previously drought areas"

Steve introduced Gerry Thompson as a new member. Later in the year we welcomed bacK Clive Rees, a former President and founder member of the club. Clive had been living over in France for several years and although he kept in touch he was unable to continue his Club Membership from a distance!

10th July 2014 - Steve Lawes, District Governor and Past President of the Vale of Belvoir made his “formal” visit to the club. To mark the occasion cameras were flashing and the video whirring. 

In December 2014 we held our fifth Vale's Got talent.

The 1st half of Steve's year

In April 2015 we welcomed a new Member to our Club. Victoria MacFarren has been working for the National Trust since 2001 and is currently based at Belton House near Grantham. She has worked in 6 Trust properties and is in her 10th role within the organisation. She’s going to be a great asset to our club but we’ll be a little wary about asking her to step in at short notice as we’ve heard about the time when she had to step into the role as the Red Queen in an interactive performance of Alice in Wonderland. Apparently her “angry performance” was so realistic that she had children, parent & grandparent quaking in their shoes! Victoria is already renown for her wide range of hats !

In May 2015 we celebrated our 25th Birthday ! Two Rotarians, Chris Netherwood & Doug Downing were awarded Paul Harris Fellowsships 

The 2nd half of Steve's year (December 2014 - June 2015)

AT the end of the year Steve summarised his year:

 
The year was always likely to be overshadowed by Steve Lawes’ term of office as District Governor, and so my year actually started in the preceding April with the District Assembly. We had the responsibility of stewarding the event, and for some time I was concerned that we would not get the numbers out to do the job effectively. I should have known better – as the weekend loomed the number of members confirming their availability mushroomed to the extent that we probably had too many people – but better too many than too few. The feedback from District and other clubs was overwhelmingly positive, so a job well done. My main duty was the introduction of Steve as DG to Assembly. That was a daunting prospect, though just for once I had a plan – my sincere thanks to Jan Lawes for providing me with some old photos, with Steve’s predilection for wearing a selection of headgear providing the basis for a script. Was I nervous? Brick production in overdrive – but for some reason the actuality of addressing a full theatre of Rotarians on the day blew away any stagefright. My thanks to everyone for their kind words, but I was left a little disappointed to hear that there had been complaints from the audience that they couldn’t hear me clearly – a sign of things to come?
 
And so to the start of my Presidential year itself, and Handover at John Deere. It was a great fellowship evening, capped for me by the induction of Gerry Thompson as a new member. My recollection of her induction centred on 2 things – the fact that I had a flying start to my personal target for new members during the year – and where and how to pin the new member’s badge. Suffice to say I bottled the second element!
 
I am not going to go into a meeting by meeting account of the year, but I would like to thank both Mary and Jennie for their hard work in setting up such an interesting and varied selection of speakers. Again, there is a balance to be struck between our community/charitable obligations and our enjoyment of fellowship and fun, and the extent to which Mary and Jennie have achieved that balance is reflected in the increase in average numbers attending meetings during the year, coupled with the generally relaxed atmosphere in club – it has been a pleasure to chair meetings during the year, which is not something I expected to be able to say at the start of the year. I must make special mention of the Trevor Quiz evenings – just when you think that the scoring systems have reached the limits of anarchy, he manages to surpass himself ! How long it is before he is physically roughed up by one of his glamorous assistants is the question that I suspect is bound to be answered in the coming year.

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2015 -2016 Mary Bridge-Collyns took over the reins from Steve Carson. Mary said  “I am delighted to be taking on the role of the first woman president of the Vale of Belvoir Rotary Club and proud to be leading an enthusiastic group of men and women, who work hard through fund raising and service to improve the local community and support and help international projects. Our Memory Café is living proof of the service our members give to local people. I am heartened by our members keen willingness to enrich the lives of the young people in our community through Dictionaries for life and grants from the Community Fund towards young peoples activities. I am especially looking forward to our clubs involvement in the “World’s Greatest Meal to End Polio” event on the 13th September and the now renowned Vales Got Talent in October.”

19th July we were all invited by Steve Lawes, Immediate Past District Governor, to “a do” at The Grange, Radcliffe-on-Trent. It was his way of thanking all club members and their partners for the support given to him during his time as DG. A “good time was had by all” and as a finale Savinnah Quelcuti, the winner of The Vale’s Got Talent in 2013, sang a medley of songs.

August 2015 we had a trip to the National Holocaust Centre and later in the month Presented a cheque to Jake Gollings from Bingham

29th August the Bingham Telephone Kiosk Defibrillator was officially opened in Bingham Market Square 

September was all enjoyed the annual “Pot Luck Supper” hosted by President Mary. As always the members and wives produced an amazing  array of delicious dishes.

October - we gave a grant to the Bingham and District Audio Magazine to help them purchase new mixing decks.

The first weekend in October a number of Rotarians and wives headed off to the District Conference in Southport for inspiring talks and social events.

On the15th October we held an Open Evening at our meeting venue to enhance our profile in the Community and show others what our club does. The Open Evening was well attended and Duncan produced an excellent video of our achievements.

November many members volunteered to help with selling poppies in Nottingham and this again was well organised by Ian Torr. 

December 2015 we held our sixth Vale's Got Talent.

8th December 2015 Mary Bridge-Collyns visits Ash Lea School

December 17th we celebrate Christmas with a dinner at Ashmore’s  

This year we raised a total of over £5000 with ouChristmas Collection. Thanks to everyone who gave so generously.

We had a busy 1st six months …..

We held our inter-club Frog RaceChallenge in January 2016 We were joined by Melton Aurora Rotary club for the first time along with our other Rotary club friends and also Roger Sumner our DG joined our team. It was a great evening with good banter but very noisy!

In February 2016 we made a presentation to the local guiding association and welcomed Chris Henleyas a full member of our club 

Later on in February we welcomed David Eldrdige, a previous member of Reading Rotary, into our club.

March 2016 we held our Annual Charity Frog Race at The British legion Radcliffe-on-Trent.

Details of the Junior School Art Competition were announced in October 2015 and following over 70 entrants the winners were announced at the Annual Art Exhibition (with which we assisted Bingham Rotary for the first time) . We raised over £1000 for the Air Ambulance and local charities and also displayed the art work of local school children. 

May 2016 we celebrated our "birthday" at the Nottinghamshire Golf Club, Cotgrave. Lydia Messam delighted us with her singing and Canon Alan Haydock had us rolling with laughter with his after dinner speech. It was lovely to have many Rotarians support us from other clubs.

In Late May we set off “Litter picking” in Cotgrave and managed to clear bags and bags of litter and household articles from an area of Cotgrave. This was a great community project as is our monthly Memory Cafe. The following night we held our annual Cabaret evening at The Grange. . Alan and his team worked hard to put on a great show with Tripliquette and Judith Hibbett entertaining us and also one of our own Vale’s Got Talent winners starting the show.

And finally here’s a summary of the 2nd half of Mary's Presidential Year

2016 - 2017 Jennie Henley was President and she said at her first meeting: I’m delighted and fortunate to inherit an active club with a growing membership, a full and established programme of events, an embedded commitment to fundraising and translating the ideals of Rotary into practice in our community of the Vale of Belvoir. 

My personal priority is to see Club continue to thrive by carrying on .. with what we already do well; by reflecting .. on where we might be able to refresh our thinking; by consolidating .. our new initiatives of the last few years.

Things we do well? ... the Cabaret Evening, Vale’s Got Talent and the Frog Race

Refreshing our thinking ... Summer Fairs and tailoring the website to meet the Club’s requirements
Consolidation ... Solar lights in Uganda, the Art and Craft Show, Memory Cafe and the litter picking evening.

As you know, my own journey through Rotary started in Lincoln;  little did I know then that I would be giving my inaugural speech to a thriving Club in the Vale of Belvoir. To conclude, I would like to turn to a different Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln, who said in his inaugural address at the beginning of his second term as President of the United States :  “With malice towards none, with charity for all .. let us strive to finish  the work we are in, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and  lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

And … finally … as we move into our Club Assembly ... I take my inspiration from Walt Disney :   “The way to get started is to quit talking … and begin doing!”

This is a summary of what happened in the 1st half of Jennie's year as President.

In October, following an application to the Community Fund, we awarded a cheque to Harrison Dowzell to purchase tap shoes. Harrison was the first winner of The Vale’s Got Talent in 2010 and it was great to see this young man (who has starred in the West End as the Young Billy Elliott) is still pursuing his dream.

In November we had another successful inter-club frog race challenge. Everyone enjoyed the night and we also raised a bit of money for our charity fund. Team leader, Doug, graciously accepted the winner’s trophy (well he would have done if Newark Castle had returned it! December was a busy month with the final of Vale's Got Talent, The Christmas Float and the Christmas Party at Ashmore’s. Trevor Richmond was awarded the prestigious Bernie Ashman Trophy by President Jennie

Yet another successful Rotary Art Exhibition and Craft Fair was held at Grange Hall Radcliffe-on-Trent

Our Junior Art Competition was even bigger for its second years. It was open to all the Junior Schools in Radcliffe / Bingham / Cotgrave and the Vale which feed into Toot Hill and South Nottinghamshire Academy Senior Schools.The theme this year was “My Favourite season “and the children were split into two age group categories: Years 3 / 4 and years 5 / 6. The response this year was excellent with 8 schools entering the competition.The winning and all other art work from over the 170 entries submitted  was exhibited at the Radcliffe on Trent Art Exhibition and Craft Fair run jointly with ourselves and the Bingham and Radcliffe Rotary Club and held at the Grange, Radcliffe on Trent 29th and 30th April.

Years 3 & 4 Winner: Niamh O’Brien (Robert Miles) Highly commended: Lina Rahhouni  (Radcliffe on Trent); Breige Larcombe (Archbishop Cranmer Academy).  Years 5 & 6 Winner: Ginty Allan  (Robert Miles), Highly commended: Scarlett Soloman (Radcliffe on Trent); Joshua Radmall (Radcliffe on Trent) Presentations were made at the winning schools in their assemblies and the Winners were also presented with their winning pictures, framed by Long Acre Studios of Bingham , by the Mayor of Rushcliffe at the Opening ceremony for the Art Exhibition and Craft Fair at Grange Hall on Saturday 29th April. This  Fair is organised and run jointly by the two Rotary clubs of the Vale of Belvoir and Bingham and Radcliffe over that weekend. Prizes of a £50 / £25 vouchers to spend at Hobby Craft were awarded to the Winners and Highly commended placings respectively together with the winning school also receiving a matching £50 contribution to their art department.

Our Annual Birthday Party was held at Cotgrave Place on Thursday 4th May (or as two of our speakers pointed out National Star Wars Day - “May the fourth be will you”)

Both David Valentine & Duncan Garment were made Paul Harris Fellows.  This is a summary of the 2nd half of Jennie's Presidential Year.

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2017 - 2018 Adrian Cresswell was president.

end of his year President, Adrian said "At the end of yet another successful year for the Vale of Belvoir Rotary Club, and as I handover the Club to Trevor, the incoming President for 2018-19, I would like to reflect on some of activities and achievements of the past year.

12 months ago, I described our Club as “a lively, boisterous club enjoying both our weekly meetings, and a full and varied social calendar”. We have certainly maintained that tradition during the past year, with a very varied and interesting speaker programme, and a multitude of other social activities, including a popular club away weekend to York.

The past year has been both very varied and very busy, perhaps too much! We have had considerable success with our involvement in the local community with our many activities and fundraising events.

Our ever popular Memory Café for sufferers of Dementia goes from strength to strength, our very successful Art & Craft Fair raised a significant donation for the Air Ambulance, our annual Vales Got Talent competition once again surpassed all expectations with outstanding contributions from all of the acts, and yet again, our ever popular Santa Claus Float was well received and supported in the local community.

Once again we have had considerable success with our relationship with local schools, with the distribution of Dictionaries for Life to junior schools, a well-supported junior Art Competition, and ending the year with the formation and chartering of a Rotakid’s Club, the first in our District.

And Internationally, we have once more supported the Rotary Foundation Charity in its campaign to eradicate Polio, supplying solar lamps for schools in Uganda, as well as again purchasing Aquaboxes and Shelterboxes for international disaster relief.

All of this activity was only possible due to the considerable involvement of each and every member of the Club, and I would like to thank everyone for their support and assistance during the year. We have had a very busy and successful year, all due to your efforts – a massive thank you to you all

Finally, I would like to wish the new President, Trevor , and all of his team, every success in the forthcoming year, and hope that they enjoy next year as much as I have enjoyed representing the Vale of Belvoir Rotary Club this year."

Our first 2 months (July - August 2017)

Our second 2 months (September - October 2017) 

Our third 2 months (November - December 2017)

Our Christmas Party at Ashmores December 2017 

Burns' Night Celebration January 2017

Our fourth 2 months(January - February 2018

Our fifth 2 months(March-April 2018)

Our sixth 2 months(May-June 2018)

Here's Adrian's message at the beginning his year as the Club President for 2017-18:

"I am delighted to welcome you to the Vale of Belvoir Rotary Club website

Our Club is currently thriving with over 40 active members, including 8 lady members. We come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and are able to contribute in many different ways with the skills and experience we have gained over many years.

We are a lively, boisterous club enjoying both our weekly meetings, and a full and varied social calendar.

However, our main philosophy is in providing assistance for communities and charities, both locally and internationally. We all share a great deal of enthusiasm for fund raising through a range of activities and events, such as our annual Vale’s Got Talent contest, our Santa Claus Sledge, and our Cabaret night and Charity Frog Race Evening. All are great fun, and visitors are always welcome to any of our events.

This year we are raising money for a diverse selection of local causes including: Dictionaries for Life, Memory Café ,Life Education Caravan ,Ash Lea Special Needs School, Notts Air Ambulance, First Responders, Village Defibrillators, Bingham Audio Project, Medical Detection Dogs and the Friary Homeless Drop In Centre. We will also be running once again our successful Art competition in local primary schools.

And internationally, as well supporting the global Rotary project to eradicate polio from the face of the planet, we are also supporting the Fishtail Project in Nepal, a scheme for providing schools in Uganda with Solar Lamps, and we are also purchasing Aquaboxes and Shelterboxes for help in disaster areas.

We have a busy year ahead of us, and you will find more information on all our fundraising events, and our charitable donations in our website.

Why not come and see us? We will always welcome guests and indeed new members. We meet every Thursday evening, and you can be sure of a warm welcome at any of our meetings."

21st June 2018 Club Assembly

28th June 2018 - Handover to Trevor was a brief, low key affair with none of the usual confusion - other than Trevor dropped his chain of office, Maggie & Jane looked bewildered when Trevor asked that they both join him to receive the regalia for Senior Vice president. The usual "photo call" took place and the meeting was closed at just after 8.30.

At the beginning of Trevor's year he said:

"Our New Year, will it be a good year? I hope so.

Ours is an innovative Club, we take on many challenges and help people in our Community and Internationally.

I hope our work with the Community continues, particularly the newly established RotaKids, with Robert Miles Primary School in Bingham. The School has an enthusiastic group of pupils who have shown they can come up with good ideas. We will support them, where they want us.

The Memory Café continues its work with those experiencing memory problems. It is good to have a strong group of Rotarians and family volunteers, who run and present monthly entertainment.

As I write this the detailed planning work for the 9^th Vale’s Got Talent Show, has already begun. Each year the competitors astound us with their talents. Sponsors and advertisers in our Programme help fund the event, which also raises money for our Community and International work.

Our annual Charity Programme will shortly be confirmed. This year, more than ever, we will need to balance the effort required to raise Charity Funds and the Programmes of donations we can afford to support.

There are already procedural changes in hand to review how we assess the work of charities we may support. Ensuring that we introduce Conflict of Interest in the way we work will be important for now and in the future. There may be other new requirements to consider. Internally we have had to adopt new forms of working within our Club to ensure day-to-day management continues to run smoothly.

During the recent, visit by our new District Governor, Dr. Cheryle Berry, she recognised that we were an inspirational Club, and one which has a positive attitude. I know this spirit will continue.

Thanks to the Members of the Vale of Belvoir Rotary Club for their hard work."                            MM

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2018 - 2019 Trevor Richmond was our President and handover to Trevor was a brief, low key affair with none of the usual confusion - other than Trevor dropped his chain of office, Maggie & Jane looked bewildered when Trevor asked that they both join him to receive the regalia for Senior Vice president. The usual "photo call" took place and the meeting was closed at just after 8.30.

At the beginning of Trevor's year he said:

"Our New Year, will it be a good year? I hope so.

Ours is an innovative Club, we take on many challenges and help people in our Community and Internationally.

I hope our work with the Community continues, particularly the newly established RotaKids, with Robert Miles Primary School in Bingham. The School has an enthusiastic group of pupils who have shown they can come up with good ideas. We will support them, where they want us.

The Memory Café continues its work with those experiencing memory problems. It is good to have a strong group of Rotarians and family volunteers, who run and present monthly entertainment.

As I write this the detailed planning work for the 9^th Vale’s Got Talent Show, has already begun. Each year the competitors astound us with their talents. Sponsors and advertisers in our Programme help fund the event, which also raises money for our Community and International work.

Our annual Charity Programme will shortly be confirmed. This year, more than ever, we will need to balance the effort required to raise Charity Funds and the Programmes of donations we can afford to support.

There are already procedural changes in hand to review how we assess the work of charities we may support. Ensuring that we introduce Conflict of Interest in the way we work will be important for now and in the future. There may be other new requirements to consider. Internally we have had to adopt new forms of working within our Club to ensure day-to-day management continues to run smoothly.

During the recent, visit by our new District Governor, Dr. Cheryle Berry, she recognised that we were an inspirational Club, and one which has a positive attitude. I know this spirit will continue.

Thanks to the Members of the Vale of Belvoir Rotary Club for their hard work."

Our first 2 months(July-August 2018)

Our Second 2 months(September-October 2018)

Our third 2 months(November-December2018)

Our fourth 2 months(January-February2019)

2 May 2019Our 29^th Charter Night Our 29th Charter Night was held at The Nottinghamshire Golf and Country Club. There were 70 of us for dinner and President Elect Maggie gave us a heartfelt toast to Rotary International, mentioning our Child Aid Uganda involvement and the solar Lighting project. DG Cheryle gave the Club a glowing report for our establishment of the first Rota kids Club in the district at Robert Miles school, Bingham. She explained that this had inspired other Clubs and she was anticipating about a further 18 Rota Kids Clubs to be announced this year.  A special mention was also made about our Memory Cafe that takes place each month in Cotgrave and to this end President Trevor announced the award of a Paul Harris Fellow to Mrs Gerry Thompson. She has been involved from the start of the Cafe, about 4 years ago and drives all the organisation and teamwork in maintaining an interesting programme for this successful activity at the Cafe. Following the standard speeches we were entertained by Grace H-Y, the winner of our ninth Vale's Got Talent, with powerful renditions of "I didn't Plan it", "The Wizard" and "She used to be me", which were much appreciated by all. Grace has recently successfully auditioned for the main role in ”Sister Act - The Musical" which will be staged at the Playhouse on 12th & 13th July 2019. 

All in all another very successful Charter                                                                                                                                                                                                                AR

9 May 2019Visit to Anaerobic Digester at Stoke Bardolph ‘The Concrete Cow’ – John Jackson, Farms manager and Plant Manager

Rob Gray organised a superb visit to this interesting site, where we were presented by John with a very informative video and slide performance followed by a tour of “The Concrete Cow”, as John referred to it.

The video was good background information on ‘Delivering the future of Water’, which put into perspective their main regulated water business and their ‘renewable Energy’ businesses of CHP and Severn Trent Green Power Ltd. John questioned the audience on their views as to whether ‘Climate Change’ is a real issue or just a business driven opportunity.  The majority convinced it is a real issue.  Currently the Anaerobic plant at Stoke Bardolph is fed from crops: 80% maize silage and 20% Rye silage, but in the future there will be a Government Driven strategy to use food waste. The history of this site was outlined going back to 1880, when it was compulsory purchased and used for dumping sewage for Nottinghamshire.  As the regulations were not as stringent as present times, over the years there has been extensive use of the farm land for the recycling of sewages the ‘business/industrial/ community, so no crops for ‘human consumption’ can be grown on this vast farming area due to elevated metal levels within the soils..  So the crops for feeding the anaerobic digester on this Severn Trent land at Stoke Bardolph are used to feed the concrete cow  and currently supplemented by about 36 local farmers. The crop feed goes through the 3 ‘stomachs’ over about 70 days at a temperature between 38 and 42 oC and 7.8 PH, allowing the ‘bugs’ to do their work to release 54% methane gas.  Some of which is used to go through the CHP engines to feed electricity into the grid and the rest is ‘upgraded’ to ‘town’ gas at 98% methane content, supplemented by some propane to produce the required calorific values demanded by Cadent and the gas grid.  The plant is manufactured by Schmack, a German company as they are the leaders in these systems with about 8000 operating in Germany, compared to 350 in the UK.  John shared their business plans with us with 15.2 GWh being generated in the first plan,, rising to 23GWh pa in 2013 to 2016 and currently targeting 44 GWh pa.

We were then transported by tractor trailer to tour the actual plant, which operates 24/7 mainly automatically, other than the diggers that feed the crop stock into the feed tank. A number of questions were put to John regarding costs, operation efficiency, crops for human consumption v crops for energy generation, all of which he handled effectively with great knowledge and professionalism, which was much appreciated by the 22 Rotarians present.

Rob provided a Vote of thanks and a ‘bottle’ and we all trooped off for our supper at The Earl of Chesterfield well prepared after this “appetiser” with its mouth-watering aromas!       AR

16 May 2019Scatter night

23 May 2019Committee week

30 May 2019 Hedgehog Rehabilitation – Angela Hall

Before the meal started President Elect Jane made a cheque presentation to 15 year old Marth Harris, who despite her disabilities has been competing in wheelchair tennis and has the ambition to reach the next Paralympics.

Next Past President Adrian explained that his daughter Jennifer had started running, losing over 4 stone in weight and completed the Edinburgh Half Marathon last week end.  Naturally Dad Ade and brother Peter joined her to give her support and a Sponsor sheet was circulated to be donated to The Notts/Lincs Air ambulance, which was well supported by members present.

Rob reported on his visit to Mapperley RC Charter and also mentioned that he and Chris had helped the Robert Miles Rota Kids with their Litter picking on the Bingham Linear walk last Thursday.

Angela Hall, a Bingham Chiropodist, has been helping orphaned and injured hedgehogs for 14 years after her husband found an injured hedgehog on their front lawn. Angela qualified as a registered Hedgehog Rehabilitator at the Vale Wildlife Hospital in Gloucestershire. She is one of around 700 such people in the UK. The animals are closely related to the vole/shrew, have poor eyesight but have good hearing and sense of smell. She explained that these animals are becoming endangered due mainly to the reduction in the number of hedgerows/use of pesticides. In 1950 there were estimated to be 30 million and the figure is now nearer 1 million. With great enthusiasm and humour she talked about some of the issues faced in trying to rescue and release back into the wild rescued hedgehogs. In particular she recounted the magical experience of feeding young at 3.00 in the morning and the dangers of flying poo! Often it is dehydration that is the issue with ‘poorly’ hedgehogs and the remedy is 2 or 3 injections of saline solutions, which is not an easy process alone as you have to pinch the skin in which to insert the needle. If we encounter a hedgehog in our gardens she told us not to feed it with bread or milk and definitely not fish but instead put down cat or dog food. This was a very entertaining and informative talk appreciated by all at club.                                CN

Thursday 20^th June - Document Management System John Carr

Rotarian John Carr DG for the Derwent Group and next year’s District secretary spoke about the introduction of DMS (Document Management System) for administration in Rotary.  This system replaces APAC. John was very informative, enthusiastic and confident that this was the best system for the way forward in Rotary. He guided us through the system step by step and explained its advantages.  All Rotarians can use DMS but need to log on with their Rotary password.

Once we all understand DMS it will be easy to use. It has lots of new features and will be time saving for club secretaries and presidents.  This next year there will be no District Handbook so Rotarians will need to access DMS to acquire information about other clubs and we will be able to make our own club handbook at the touch of a button. . As long as club secretaries regularly update new information the system will always be more accurate than the yearly handbook information.

John brought the greeting of his Bretby club and best wishes from President Carol Moralee.   MBC

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2019 -2020 a first, with Maggie & Jane being Joint Presidents.

1. Angela will be walking the Leicestershire round, which is the equivalent of walking four marathons over ten days; she will donate all the funds she raises to EMICS.

1. On the 1^st. June there will be a charity gala concert at the Newark palace theatre in aid of EMICS and the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire air ambulance.

John gave a detailed and interesting talk on the restoration of the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway. He also related the history of the line and it’s use placing the same in the context of social history of the area. A huge project over many years owes a lot to a number of volunteers including our own Chris Beale. The fundraising has been on a large scale and the restoration is impressive and of a superior quality.

The line is now used by many thousands of people on an annual basis and a number of themed events take place”                                                                                                  IT

Before the meeting started a cheque presentation was made to Kieron Cooper, a Senior Patrol Leader Scout from Radcliffe for his trip in August 2020 to the Gdansk Jamboree.

The Secretary brought to our attention the Rotary Expo next 1 to 3 May (Free for Rotarians). He also requested that the Council Minutes be again be posted on the Club Web site.(AR to refer to Webmaster Mike M)

Anne delivered the accounts without question.

In David V’s absence Gordon outlined planned activities re VGT and Christmas Float

Stan mentioned the crocus planting in Radcliffe, planned for 17^th October

Derek went through the duties for volunteers at the Memory Café

Chris H encouraged discussion on various issues raised in his report, in particular the importance of a successful 30^th Charter celebration next May, supported by Stuart and John

Chris had identified 3 roles that need to be filled next year: Secretary; Charter Secretary and Attendance Secretary

Trevor covered the “Conflict of Interest Policy” and “Due Diligence policy” re Charity donations, both voted into the Clubs Constitution/points of Order.                                                                         AR

  Club Admin edit

Social Night - Trevor/Roy Quiz evening

Thu 26th September 2019 at 07.00 - 09.00

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10 October 2019Osteoporosis - Fiona Cooper -The Royal Osteoporosis Society, Development Manager.

Fiona is obviously passionate about her subject and started her talk by saying that the Society started out as the National Osteoporosis Society in 1986.  It then changed to its current title, gaining royal status, when it was championed by Camilla Parker-Bowles, as she then was.  Camilla became involved following the diagnosis of her mother with the disease.

Fiona gave us a detailed description of this debilitating disease.  Great emphasis was laid on preventative measures we can all take from diet to our general well-being in the form of daily weight bearing and muscle strengthening exercises.  It is a sad fact that today many children/teenagers spend far too much time on social media and the like and not enough time outside in the sunshine replenishing their Vitamin D supplies.

Following diagnosis of the diseasethere are a range of drug treatments available -and all are effective at reducing fracture risk

It is fairly common knowledge that our skin undergoes a complete rejuvenation however it was a great surprise to many present that our entire skeletal system also undergoes an eight to nine year complete regeneration. One puts on bone mass until mid 2o’s, then plateaus up to 40, then comes the age related dip, but there is a misconception that Osteoporosis is a female problem.

This Charity is fortunate to have Fiona Cooper in their team.  She asked us to make sure our families and friends are made aware of the preventative measures to take to avoid becoming crippled with this disease in later life.

Further details about the condition and to access support please visit theros.org.uk                    CC

17 October 2019The Chesterfield Canal – Michael Edwards

Our visiting speaker, Michael, gave us a most interesting talk on the restoration of the Chesterfield Canal. Michael had, as befits someone whose second career is in photography, a lavish selection of photographs which memorably showed the “Before” and “After” of the impressive restoration of locks, tunnels and the environs of the canal. 
Using a range of funds, the first 12 miles of the section from Worksop to Chesterfield has been restored by the Chesterfield Canal Trust, which adds to the already navigable section from the Trent at West Stockwith to Worksop. The Trust has the ambition of completing the remaining renovations within the next 10 years, and also plans to construct a link via the Rother Valley to the South Yorkshire Navigation, thereby enabling canal users to achieve a “circular” trip

Most of us had no knowledge of the Chesterfield Canal before the talk, but it was clear from the enthusiastic reception that many Club members will seek it out in the not-too-distant future.        AF

24 October 2019Cambodia – Samuel Mark

Mike Bell, IPP of Southwell Rotary Club, visited to thank us for our support to his race event at Southwell Races to raise funds for DMRC (Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre)at Stanford Hall, which raised £17k.  So they are repeating it this year and also at Doncaster and Haydock Park Races. Assistant Governor Trent, Susan Pickford also had a message about the importance of our delegates voting on the 16^th November.

Our Speaker tonight was Samuel, an 18 yr. old student in his 2^nd year at Brackenhurst Campus, Nottingham Trent University, who recently returned home after completing a 4 week student volunteer program (Camps International) working in Cambodia, with the help of our £250 support cheque. He competently delivered a very interesting talk about his work experience in the rural areas around Siem Reap supported by a well-chosen collection of supporting photos.

He neatly conveyed to the audience what the daily living conditions were like – the heat, the humidity, insects, roads etc. and the friendliness of the Cambodian people.

Supported by his photos he covered the range of projects he was able to participate in during his time there.

These comprised:

1. Building a sanitary toilet unit for a family which was badly needed as the youngest daughter was dangerously ill with dengue fever- she survived thanks to medicines the group raised funds to provide.

1. Upgrading of a road so that food vehicles (and others) could supply the village during the rainy season.

1. Bricklaying to help in the construction of a new house for the family and constructing a chicken coop.

1. Assisting in the planting out of rice plants in the paddy fields.

1. Replanting in a rain forest.

He also gained his PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) card which is his international licence permitting him to go SCUBA diving. They also managed a school visit as well as a trip to the World heritage site at Angkor Wat.                       DG/AR

31 October 2019 - "Radioactivity - friend of foe?"

14 November 2019 The origins of everyday sayings – Peter Hammond

Peter arrived half way through the meal due to localised floods but gave an enthusiastic and well delivered presentation on the derivation of many day to day sayings that we take for granted.  He frequently engaged the audience looking for suggestions for the meaning of the huge variety of sayings. But do we ever wonder where they come from? Some date back to the Tudor period, while many others are nautical in origin. Peter told us about some of the fascinating and sometimes surprising origins of many of our everyday sayings, and reminded us too of the many local ones such as 'It's black over Bill's mothers' and 'Get to bed before the 10 o'clock horses come.'; ‘pulling your leg’ referred to finishing off people who had been hanged, by pulling their legs! The evening really wasn't a load of Codd’s wallop!              AR/CR/PJ/PH

21^st November 2019 Life Education Nottingham – Guy Molyneux

Prior to the speaker presentation a cheque was presented to Sian Ashburn who is putting on a Dance Show to raise awareness of mental health issues called “Sincerity is Scary” with a further 20 pupils from her school.  Sian has appeared twice in The Vales got Talent and has suffered herself from Anxiety over a period of 4 years, so is very conscious of the mental pressures facing students of her age and wants to do something to help.

Bill Banner set the scene for Guy’s presentation reminding us of the initial instant 30 years ago when Prince Charles visited Australia and came across charity work that he brought back to the UK attempting to set up a similar project through The Princes Trust. Eventually adopted by Rotary as Life Education, which Bill, Stephen Kitch, Roy Parsons and Earnest Pappin brought to our District in 1995.

Guy then picked up the baton, explaining that as a charity fund raising and depleting school budgets brought about the amalgamation with Coram on a National level.  Coram being the oldest children’s charity in the UK, dealing with fostering and adoption, so making Rotary Life education the Education arm of Coram. It is now international with Shetlands, Finland, Australia and New Zealand all operational.

They still use their “Life Buses” to take into schools with Harold the Giraffe still playing a major role, but fluffy and more colourful now. They also have the ‘Life Space’ tent, as an alternative, but there have been many changes over the years, with the SCARF programme, which offers 270 lesson plans for teachers to follow up on the fantastic work that Guy and his colleagues do. Safety Caring Achievement Resilience Friendship being built on the foundations of the 5 steps: 1.connect with other people 2.Physical activity 3. Learn new skills 4. Give to others 5. Pay attention to the present moment (Mindfulness)

Another important development is “Family Learning” with parents, proving successful in relating some of the modern health issues: sugar based drinks, junk food, exercise, mental health and inevitably, the internet.

It’s easy to see why this project is successful and still developing with people like Guy connecting with children in such an informative, enthusiastic and inspiring way.

Our continued support was demonstrated with a cheque for £1000 presented to Guy at the conclusion of his excellent presentation.                                                                                                 AR

Thu 28th November 2019 Weekly Meeting

Special General Meeting and Business Meeting

Prior to our SGM and Business meetings, two cheque presentations were made.

1. To Pat Harland, Chair of Bingham & District Audio Magazine.  This is an annual gift to cover the production of December's Magazine each year.

2. To Emma Lodder, representing Fay and Matt, the parents of Harry, a 6 year old boy who has suffered serious medical issue since contracting MRSA when he was 1 year old.  He has a very rare EOE condition, which make hime allergic to fruit and vegetables, affects his white blood cell count and mass cell syndrome, sleep apnia, severe asthma and has difficulty walking. The NHS cannot cope with him so the parents with the help of friends are working to raise £10k to cover private health care.

Jane opened with her "food for thought"- "Friendship - the foundation upon which Rotary is built; Tolerance - no more explanation required!"

Peter Jordan took us through the accounts, which were carried. 

Officer nominees: Gordon Marsh as President Nominee; Anne Daly as Treasurer.  We are still awaiting a nominee for Secretary.

Community - David E. brought some discussion on whether there should be a donation to EMICS, which could be achieved by diverting the £1k from Candleby Lane school.  Changes had taken place at the Head and Deputy level, so they were unable to progress their outdoor proposals. A proposition was made to this effect and was carried.  Mike Morris to take over as Chair of Community next year.

Chris Henley stimulated some discussion about the changes regarding the Charity Commissions Advice note, such that we have separate parts of our Business Meetings: Club Meeting and a Charity Trust Meeting..5 Trustees to oversee the Charity Trust Account, with further discussion on the liability of the Trustees, clarified from a legal perspective by Ian.

Discussion with regard to Council Minutes concluded that it was best to circulate them before future Business Meetings, rather than on our Club Website.

5th December2019 Christmas Float  No Thursday Meeting

Bingham Carnarvon Estates Christmas Float route

12th December Christmas Float  No Thursday Meeting

Cotgrave Daleside Christmas Float Route

19 December 2019  Christmas Dinner

Mike Twells started the official proceedings with a “Christmas Grace”, using the first letters from Christmas to spell out aspects of Rotary, a thoughtful ‘starter for 10’….out of 10! We progressed through our excellent Dinner presented by Ashmores and their efficient ‘serving wenches’. Gordon then updated us on our Christmas Float performances with a total of £5291.30, £103 up on last year and with our Garden Centre returns of £2476.21(so far!, this week end to come!). Overall an exceptional year, to which our ‘new’ Rudolph float will, no doubt, have contributed to. Gordon offered his thanks to Towers, Santas, Collectors and David V/Jon Sheppard for the ‘new float’, but without Gordon’s hard work, it would not be possible.

Denis also gave an update on our 10th year of the Vales Got Talent, again thanking all the Rotarians and their husbands/wives and partners for their continued support.

Then followed “Here come the Girls” surprise special entertainment singing 5 songs ranging from “With a little help from my friends”, “Hi Ho Silver Lining” and finishing with “Jingle Bells Rock” with excellent keyboard accompaniment from Margaret Fell.  The ‘Secret Choir’ was composed entirely of14 Rotarian’s partners, all excellently organised and rehearsed by Carmel and Derek, thanks folks!

The Bernie Ashman Trophy was then presented to a very worthy winner in the enthusiastic manner in which he engages all the Club, the effervescent Chris Henley (…or should it be “Dame Christine Henley??”

The Club also showed their appreciation to Jo, Mark and their Ashmore team for their service throughout the year.

The Annual Sergeant at Arms Special from Alan F and Rob, generally extracting the fun from various individual’s Float performances/experiences, all very entertaining.

Finally guitarist David V lead our Festive sing song, Dinging and Donging, followed by Silence and ending by “wishing you a Merry Christmas”                                                AR

9 January 2020Discussion Evening

Joint Presidents Jane and Maggie wanted to open up discussion on our forthcoming Big Birthday 30th Charter celebration evening on the 30th April following some suggestions made by members. Do we produce some form of historical brochure or simply a ‘continuously rolling PowerPoint Presentation’; after considerable healthy discussion a vote was taken and the PowerPoint presentation would be prepared. Various initiatives and events were identified and in particular invitation to former members (any names to be channelled through President Elect Chris Henley). The speaker for the evening was announced as Gary Bell (he was born the son of a Nottinghamshire coalminer. He left school at the age of 16 without sitting any exams and did a variety of jobs including coalminer, apprentice mechanic, fork lift truck driver, fireman, bricklayer and pork pie factory production line worker. During the 1970s he was a football hooligan and general reprobate and ended up going to prison in 1979. He then spent the next two years living rough and travelling around Europe before going back into education aged 21. Seven years later he graduated with a degree in Law from Bristol University and became a criminal barrister. He has been at the Bar for 30 years and became a QC in 2012. Ever restless he has continued to try and add new strings to his bow. He tried stand-up comedy and was Midlands Comedian of the Year in 2008. He also qualified as a pilot, presented his own show (The Legalizer) on BBC1, writes for a number of newspapers and magazines and has written two books, Animal QC (an autobiography) and Beyond Reasonable Doubt (a legal thriller which has been optioned by the BBC.) The Spectator described him, very unfairly in his view, as the rudest man in Britain.)

The question of whether we should invite the winners of VGT, Harriet and Tilly, to sing at the beginning of the evening, which was enthusiastically agreed.  Jenny suggested we should produce a brief A5 Flyer about the event that members could take with them on our ‘Scatter Evening’, programmed for the 30th January, or for use generally to promote the event as widely as possible. They mentioned the Social Event planned for 2 April and were looking for ideas (Great Central Railway trip, Theatre Evening…?)

Mary then brought us up to date with the plans for the Art and Craft Fair at the Blue Diamond Garden centre on 4/5th July.  A number of emails had been exchanged with Bingham & R RC without much progress.  So a communication was to be made to arrange for our President/s to meet the Bingham Club to finalise arrangements.  Discussion took place as to how we could thank The Blue Diamond for all the help they have given us: a donation to their own Charity (believed to be Notts/Lincs Air Ambulance) or a framed certificate for them to display showing our appreciation and how much money we had been able to raise at their premises over the Christmas period.

Chris H then talked about the Murder Mystery event on the 8th February at Whatton Village Hall (£10 per ticket including Lasagne supper), which is a fund raising initiative to pay for our new Rudolph.

Rob G then asked if future ‘Social’ events could involve more ‘mingling’, a suggestion was to move tables after each course.

Allen R, Stuart, Duncan and Mike M agreed to try and put a suitable PowerPoint Presentation together ASAP                                                                    AR

16 January 2020 Social Evening - Call my Bluff

Prior to the meeting Presidents Jane and Maggie presented a cheque for £150 to David Curtis to enable hime to attain his level 2 training qualification, so that he can continue his dedicated work teaching disabled students to swim.

Steve C reminded us about the District Quiz and hoped that our team could getter better results than the bowling squad, who had a good 'thrashing' from Trent Bridge RC, but had good fun and fellowship in the process!

Jane had received a cheque for £100 from David Strange at Newark Castle towards our solar lights project in Uganda.

Allen gave us an update on progress on the Special 30th Charter video, requesting more information from a number of members to get things up to date regarding "what good we have done" over the 30 years. The A5 Flyer for promoting our 30th Charter evening was shown and since distributed to all members to be used at the 'Scatter night' due on the 30th January.

Maggie then organised the 'Call my Bluff' event, getting 3 volunteers from each of the 5 tables who would be reading out their chosen "words" for the member to decide who was telling the truth and who was 'bluffing'.

With such words as "shaberoon", "Choller", "jobler", "cultrivorous" and "capernoiting", it was not an easy task producing a tie for 3 tables...top table winning the 'sudden death' question, but sharing the 'spoils' with all present.                                                                                                                          AR

23 January 2020 Burns Supper Celebration with Bruce Liddle (Piper) and Jim Costello (speaker)

The Club Officers excelled themselves with a great night of fellowship and entertainment. What organisation, the tables were beautifully dressed in keeping with the theme (tartan everywhere, with a ‘wee dram’ at each setting!).