Club Assembly

Our Club Assembly was attended by David Willis, who did not know he was coming until last night, the intended District visitor, David Eagles, tested positive for Covid. As is traditional, after opening the meeting President Peter passed the chairmanship to our next President, 1st Vice President Mo Sadiq. As you might guess from Mo’s photograph, it was a sweltering day and our male members removed their jackets (or in one case sensibly didn’t come with a jacket at all).

Mo set out his hopes and plans for the year ahead, acknowledging that we, like many Clubs, are finding it difficult to retain members. Sadly three of our members died in 2021-22 and attendance figures have been disappointingly low, although they has improved during the last couple of weeks.

He then invited the incoming Chairs of our Committees to explain their Committees’ hopes and plans for the forthcoming year.

Despite the problems the Committees generally had a positive view of the year ahead. The Community & Vocational Committee, for example, already has plans for the Senior Guests’ Summer Party and Panto Trip well in hand. The Public Image & Membership Committee continues to be active on social media and through the Club website. The Foundation & International Committee, having completed some very successful overseas projects in 2021-22, looks forward to working on further projects with sister Rotary Clubs in Nepal.

Among other things, our Environment Committee has ongoing projects with Beaulieu Park School, made arrangements for members to recycle used blister packs and will contribute articles on environmental issues for the Bulletin.

The Youth Service Committee was not able to do much during the lockdowns because of restrictions on schools and youth organisations. It now aims to restart, concentrating at first on:

• the Rotary Young Musician competition;
• holding a Special Young Chef competition at Thriftwood School in memory of our late member John Scammell; and
• working with the Environment Committee to strengthen our links with Beaulieu Park School.

1st Vice President Mo then handed the chairmanship back to President Peter, who invited David Willis to speak. David acknowledged the problems all the Clubs are experiencing in maintaining membership and praised many of the things we are involved with, including community projects both locally and overseas and our work on Rotary Young Musician. He also paid tribute to our website and Bulletin.

After he spoke there was a brief debate on future venues. It was unanimously decided that all future business meetings should be held at the Chelmsford Rugby Club, subject to their agreement.