101st Charter Night (Saturday 2 March 2024)

The 101st club Charter Night rook place at the OGH Hotel on Saturday 2 March with 78 members and guests in attendance. The black-tie event was attended by the Bailiff, Sir Richard McMahon, representatives from sponsors of the club, Saffery Trust and Butterfield and Rotarian John Riley & his wife Chrystine from the Brit Valley club near Exeter.

The speaker for the evening was Lt Col Colin Vaudin, who provided a thought-provoking talk on “Lessons from the Russia Ukraine war and what that might mean for the West". Colin was the first Guernsey man since WWII to command a regiment on operations and a founder member of the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry memorial charity.

Following our speaker, the club President Andy Salisbury provided a brief summary of his year before presenting a number of awards.

In his absence Phil Ball was presented the Alex Forty award for service to the club for his work on the club website on a daily basis for many, many years and ensuring events like this are recorded and promoted for the public to see what the club does.

The Geoff Norman award for community service went to Butterfield for their continued support of the Tree of Joy and more recently providing advice and pro bono company secretary services for the Club benevolent fund LBG. The award was received by Edward Jones from Butterfield who congratulated the club on the many charitable initiatives we had achieved.
 
Finally, the club honoured Mike Le Conte with a Paul Harris award for services to Rotary, both locally (as a Past President and former assistant secretary & communications officer, as well as the countless other things over the last 27 years), and District level where he served on the District Executive for many years as the editor in chief of the district newsletter.  He also represents various other Guernsey charities and has also done so over many years.
 
A good time was had by all as you would expect from a Rotary event, assisted in no small way by the staff and the venue provided by the OGH.

A special thanks was given to Dave Parish for organising such a great evening.