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Amherst News
May 2005

Number 303

Editor Ron Adams

Wednesday Meetings
25 May Our Speaker is Noel Tatt and his subject Antartica
1 June An Amherst Evening
8 June Speaker - Graham Webb
15 June My Job - John Harland
22 June Colin Hook tells us of his visit to Amherst, Ohio
29 June Gordon's Valedictory and Presidential Handover
PARTNERS' EVENING
6 July Club Assembly. Guest: Terry Shead, Assistant District Governor

Service and Social Diary
5 June Presidential Garden Party
18 - 22 June RI Centennial Convention, Chicago
18 June Our stall at the Sevenoaks Festival
23 June Fund-raising Charity Shoot at the West Kent Shooting School, Paddock Wood
2 July District Handover at St Omer
14 July The Annual Quiz of Quizzes, Chipstead

CENTENARY YEAR COMMEMORATION
District Governor Himansu Basu is presenting Certificates of Appreciation and commemorative salvers to Club Presidents to mark their contributions to a successful Rotary year. Gordon's was presented at the Presidents and Paul Harris Fellows lunch at Nevill Golf Club last Sunday.

Officers and Committee 2005-2006
PRESIDENT DEREK WILLIAMS
1st Vice President Simon Welham
2nd Vice President Colin Hook
Secretary Ken Arthur
Treasurer Eric Matkins
Immediate Past President Gordon Johnston

COUNCIL
Tony Kemp, Graham Waldeck, Mel Ridout, Don Ingram, Bill Brickell, Malcolm Elvines
TRUSTEES Malcolm Elvines, Ray Gulliver, Geoff Brown, Graeme Gibson

MEMBERSHIP SERVICES COMMITTEE
Chairman Simon Welham
Ken Arthur, Eric Matkins, Malcolm Elvines, Ron Pike, Jane Whiting, Ron Adams, Albert Hughes, Jack Wilson

COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE
Chairman Tony Kemp
Harold Towle, Bill Brickell, Roy Thomas, Ray Gulliver, Graeme Gibson

FUND RAISING COMMITTEE
Chairman Colin Hook
Brian Lawrence, Grant Walker, Jim Solomon, John Harland, Don Ingram

INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE including FOUNDATION
Chairman Graham Waldeck
Geoff Brown, Mel Ridout, Ken Marsden, John Berwick, Gordon Johnston

NEWS FROM AMHERST INNER WHEEL
Mary Arthur and her bridge partner - Heather Barbour from Sevenoaks IW - have won the District Inner Wheel Bridge Championship.

It is with a great degree of pride that President Gladys and the members congratulate them on this success. The trophy will be presented to them at the district meeting on the 29th of June.

Valance School are endeavouring to install a safe pathway through their grounds capable of taking wheel chair users. To raise money for this project, Jeanne Stevens with the aid of Inner Wheel members is organising a "garage sale" at her home 60 Woodfields, Chipstead on July 3rd from 2.00 p.m. Items for sale will be very welcome and buyers also - so Rotarians
please come and support us.

Elizabeth who takes over from Gladys in July is busily arranging her programme for the coming IW year; and it looks as if we shall have another very enjoyable year ahead.

Ena

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Reported:
In the Rotary year our many and varied fund raising activities have raised £25,000!

GORDON’S (LAST) RELECTIONS

Centenary Gala

Twelve of us, members and wives, attended the RIBI Centenary Gala Concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

A nearly full Hall was treated to a grand evening of music with the Bands of the Coldstream and the Scots Guards and the organ, which following refurbishing is one of the largest in the world. Heather Boyd, the wife of RIBI President Gordon McInally, was the soloist singer. If you have not sung Jerusalem led by five of the original WI Calendar Girls with two bands and a full ‘choir’ of Rotarians you have missed a great experience.

The evening was sponsored by Leukaemia Research and Gordon McInally was able to present them with a cheque for £40,000, the proceeds of the concert.

Cycling Fellowship

Carolyn and I were able to enjoy Derek’s invitation to attend the dinner of the Cycling Fellowship meeting at Tenterden.

About 70 members from France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and other countries were able to enjoy three days of Derek’s outings down quiet lanes in this busy County of Kent. As I saw on the Friday in the support car, the organisation was excellent except where people did not listen to their briefings! Clearly a most successful event with strong fellowship which will continue. Congratulations, Derek.

Annual General Meeting

We heard from the Committee Chairmen what an active year the Club has had. We may have been stimulated by the challenge of the Centenary Year but we now seem to have a range of activities which lift the Club to higher levels of contribution to the community.

Tony presented an extensive list of people whom we supported both financially and through our own efforts and Derek reported on the variety of events which members have been able to enjoy through the year. However, he noted that although we had a number of guests at the Centenary Dinner there is still the need to follow up these contacts if we are to get new members.

The future strength of the Club was highlighted by Bill with the list of existing and new fundraising events which we have started and which will prosper in coming years. We are increasingly active in new areas; in particular the Battle of the Bands.

Graham is getting to grips with the vagaries of International and Foundation, especially the problems and delays in getting grants from RI.
As Geoff demonstrated, at length some said(!), we have a much greater coverage in the press this year, in several cases pages for some events.

Although partly from promoting the Centenary I feel this success was a reward for patient and diligent work in sending in ‘copy’. Ron Adams continues to produce the best newsletter in the District, scaling new heights with the Centenary edition in February.

A special feature of the AGM was the decision, by acclaim, to make Harvey an Honorary Member of the Club. This is the only appropriate way to acknowledge his loyal service to the Club from being Founding President. We have accepted his resignation but have no intention of allowing him to lose contact!

Ladies Night

Last Saturday night at the Wildernesse Club was much enjoyed by those who attended.

We invited guests to join us in appreciation of their support to the Club. Edward Oakley, with his wife Janet, for tremendous help with Cyclo Sportive; and the Secretary of Wildernesse Club Robin Foster, with his wife Georgie, for his perhaps less known support in developing the Golf Day.

Malcolm had again organised a quality evening. In recognition of this long-standing service, his contribution to many aspects of the Club and his success in raising vast amounts of money for St Olave’s School as Chairman of Governors, we awarded him a well-earned Paul Harris Fellowship.

Formally, this is my last contribution to the newsletter as President although I will write my Valedictory in the July edition. As your President I realised what others tell us that the Amherst Club is a special club

Thank you all for your support during this Centenary Year.

Gordon

Tony has received the following from St John’s School

“Dear Mr Kemp and members of the Rotary Club of Amherst.

Thank you very very very much for paying a lot of money so I can go to France for free. I’m going to really benefit from this trip because I’m thinking of being a translator for my job. I will also be going to places I have never been to before and most probably never go again, like the chocolate factory and aquarium and, I will be buying my lunch in a French market and going to a French backery and It will be my first time abroad.

Thank you very much.

Yours sincerely

Georgie On behalf of all year six.”

Kentish Invasion
70 energetic continental Rotarians landed on the beaches of Kent without any resistance from the local population, unlike 61 years ago when we tried it in the other direction.

They established a bridgehead at the London Beach Hotel at Tenterden and began unloading their equipment - cycles of all descriptions. From the lightest and most expensive machines to the typical large Dutch bikes.

All had one thing in common and that was to have four days of fellowship and cycling, meeting old and new friends, and to hopefully enjoy the programme that the Rotary Clubs of Amherst and Waterlooville had prepared.

At dinner that Wednesday evening the noise of talking and laughing happy people helped to dispel the anxiety John and myself felt about the whole project. The food and service plus beautiful views over the Kent countryside and plenty of wine helped us to feel a little more relaxed.

After a full English breakfast Thursday morning 57 cyclists set off in three groups led by non-Rotary friends who had offered their services to guide Group 1 [80 miles] and Group 2 [55 miles] around the devious route but quiet lanes I had planned for them. Group 3 [30 miles] had Eileen and myself riding tandem as their leaders. We had 15 ladies in the group plus another two males and that meant that I no longer had sole ownership of the Harem. I guess you can't win them all.

Groups l and 2 met for coffee at the Organic Garden Centre Yalding after 25 miles. Group 1 then continued into the Weald to sample some of the steepest hills while Group 2 made their way to Goudhurst where all three Groups were to have lunch at the Star and Eagle hotel.

Meanwhile my Harem was having coffee and cakes at the Iden Croft Herb Garden Staplehurst which our continental friends considered to be typically English. Eventually we all arrived back at base to debrief over a beer or two with everyone happy with the day. The back up vehicle driven by big John [killer Kwolosky] ably assisted by Bill Brickell only had one minor call out I am glad to say.

Day one over only three to go!

The weather on Friday was again sunny and warm and the Groups rode around the Romney Marshes before riding a loop into Sussex to visit Bodiam. President Gordon was the back up man in the support vehicle; thankfully they were not called upon to rescue anyone.

On Saturday Groups l and 2 rode via Lyminge through the Elham valley to Bridge near Canterbury. This is a beautiful area with quiet roads with many half-timbered Tudor buildings en route. This ride with its woods full of bluebells and other wild flowers so impressed our visitors that they could not stop talking about it. However the day was slightly marred when one of the German riders crashed on a manhole cover. However at this point the back up van came round the corner to witness the carnage with our medical man Roy Thomas as back up. Steffen was patched up and taken back to the hotel where he was examined by one of the three doctors in the group. He appeared at dinner that evening with many bruises but in good spirits.

The Friendship Dinner on Saturday evening started with an exchange of Banners by President Gordon and The Cycling Fellowship President Georges Keller and was followed by an excellent meal with entertainment by Jack Valentine who could impersonate the singing of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. It was clear that most people were enjoying themselves by the number on the dance floor.

It was only left to President Georges to present 750 Euros to John Ellwood and myself for our respective charity accounts, and with a typical gallic gesture to kiss us on both cheeks.

On behalf of John Ellwood and myself I would like to thank the following for their support: Ken Marsden, Graham Waldeck and Jim Solomon in addition to those already mentioned. Without them this International gathering of Rotarians would not have been possible.

Derek

Editor’s note. My scanner read two of the above names as Ken Marooned and Graham Wedlock.

Second Editor’s note. Did you see last week’s press coverage of the Bristol man whose “art” is the creation of jokey artefacts which he smuggles into the displays of prestigious galleries and museums?

His latest feat was the display of ‘Peckham Stone Age Cave Drawings’ in the British Museum, depicting primitive human figures and a supermarket trolley. A Museum spokesman testily admitted that they had no idea how long the work had been on display before anybody noticed.

District Assembly 14 May 2005

More than 10% of District 1120's Rotarians attended, so our three-man contribution (Derek, Geoff and Eric) was about par on numbers.

There was efficient marshalling of the car-parking and a slickly run 9.30am - 1.OOpm meeting. Everything ran to schedule, the speakers organised themselves well, and Norman Jones did a good job keeping an eye on the hitech stuff. Most of the District 1120 team were there to be shown off to us, and there were items on Mercy Ships, Hearing Dogs for the Deaf (with Ted Brierley, now retired, and his replacement Isa, starring on stage) District Conference and this year's Marmalade Jar, the Tea Caddy.

There were discussion groups as usual on most aspects of Rotary (a pity we couldn't cover more of them, to pick up the papers and the exhortations) and chances to buttonhole the management team over coffee etc. Lots of opportunities too to compare club practices. And no final lunch.

Incoming DG Tony Hodges impressed.

All in all, an excellent outing, even if I was thwarted in an attempt to be able to claim to have met more Rotarians in a week than you-know-who, by having you-know-who with me.

Geoff

Happy Families
We have heard of a lady who realised a long-standing ambition when she bought a magnificent parrot, but as she left the shop the man said “There’s one more thing I ought to tell you – Jaime comes from a house of ill-repute, as you might say, and you never know what he is going to say next.”

Jaime quickly settled into his new home. He addressed Mrs Jones as “Madam”, twittered approval of the younger daughter’s school uniform and short skirt, and characterised the elder daughter as “A nice little earner.”

When Mr Jones came home, Jaime’s eyes lit up. “Hi there, Peter” he called “you’re in early tonight.”