How Facebook can make our Rotary World bigger

Tim: A group of three Rotarians have just arrived back from Sweden after a whirl-wind and exciting visit, to formally explore and exchange our desire as the Rotary Club of Swindon to twin with the Rotary Club of Degerfors. I have been reflecting on how joining the social media network of Facebook has brought about this really exciting journey of making Rotary International more a reality in my life. So how did all this happen? It started by my initial contact with Karin Sköld on facebook (a new Rotary friend), who is the secretary of the Rotary Club of Degerfors. At that time we were all comparatively new users of Facebook and were not aware of how this network could help to make Rotary more alive, give us the ability to make new friendships and learn more about Rotary globally. About 11 years ago our club in Swindon, had a twin Club in Holland and we now wanted to explore this idea again, so I suggested to Council and the International Committee that we could ask Karin, my Rotary friend on Facebook, whether her Club in Sweden would be interested. This was agreed. Facebook is looked on a little bit with suspicion in my Club, but more and more members are now joining it, especially the Club Officers, so I had some really good support for this idea from the President and Immediate Past President. The next step was for Karin to put the idea to her Club, they also agreed enthusiastically, so things were in motion. The next question was how were we to move this forward? My suggestion to the International Chair was for us to visit the Rotary Club of Degerfors sometime in the summer, to explore and affirm our new twinning arrangements. We agreed enthusiastically and in consultation with Karin, the 11th August was chosen as this was the start of their Rotary Year and preparations started to get moving. Three of us would visit to start setting the foundations, David, Tim and Gary were ready to set forth into the unknown to make Rotary and Facebook history together.

Karin: One year ago I participated at the Rotary institute in Tammerfors, where I took part in the membership group. We were discussing how to get younger people interested in Rotary. One idea was to catch up where the young ones are and that is on Facebook. We said that we should start a group there when we went home. It didn´t go well, because our Rotarians were very suspicious about it, which made me feel sorry because I believed in the idea of being active in Facebook. One day I got a friend request from Tim Mason, Swindon in England and I felt very happy. Now the big adventure started to get friends all over the world. As Tim said, we were both new on Facebook and we helped each other to get new friends. In springtime Tim asked me if my club would be interested to be a twin club. When I talked to my club, they thought this would be fantastic! We felt very honoured that a big and old club wanted to be friends with our little club. When David phoned me the first time for a time for an appointment I felt this was a historical moment. The possibility to get friends via Facebook shows that it´s possible to make our world a little friendlier when you get friends all over the world. Peace is a very important word for Rotary.

Tim: What a fantastic trip. Our first evening in Sweden was a family meal with Karin and Gunnar, where we discussed the programme for the next day which included our visit to the Rotary Club of Degerfors, plus ideas around the twinning including not just social visits, but how we could work together as two Rotary Clubs. Karin this year is an Assistant District Governor and she was telling us about how she had helped to form and charter a new Breakfast Club.

Karin: Last autumn the District Governor asked me to help him to start a new club in my area. Soon I found people who were interested in to start a breakfast club. For young people it´s easier to have their meetings at the beginning of the day. This club now has 27 members and the average age is 45! The name of this new club is Karlskoga Möckelns Bodhar in district 2340.

Tim: It was to meet the following morning, so we asked if we could attend this as well. After a really exciting first evening in Sweden we retired to bed and sleep, looking forward to a packed programme ahead. Our visit to the Breakfast Club, chartered in January 2009 was amazing. It started with a greeting from the manager (a Rotarian) of the Bofors Hotel, who instantly recognised me as a friend on Facebook – my Rotary world now has so many friends. Then followed a meeting with the usual greetings and exchanges, but with a talk we couldn’t understand from a young woman who had been on a Youth Exchange to New York. This 14 year old gave a mastery presentation, which was impressive and really showed the power and experience gained by those who have the opportunity to take part in this Rotary programme. Although we didn’t understand we could feel her confidence and knowledge through the reaction of the Swedish members around the table. This was followed by some sight-seeing around the local area seeing the town of Degerfors, before we went to our main object of the visit, the lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of Degerfors and to meet President Gunnel Elfman-Ericson and give our President John’s greetings.

Karin: After a very pleasant presentation of Swindon and the Rotary club of Swindon we discussed that some type of project with young people would feel good for both clubs. Gary is very interested in football and Roland, one of our members, took him to our football museum. There they got the idea of youth exchange in sports. A wonderful idea to let young people come over and meet other young people in order to get new friends and to learn other cultures too. We do hope this idea will be realized soon.

Tim: The highlight of our visit for me was the fellowship and friendship offered by members of the Rotary Club of Degerfors and their enthusiasm for this new relationship, as well as our visit to the Alfred Nobel House Björkborn in Karlskoga where I learned so much about this man, his vocation and his legacy to the world. For all of us the way in which Karin and Gunnar made us feel like old friends and part of their family was really special and will not be forgotten. We can’t wait for the return visit by friends from Degerfors to Swindon and of course our continued visits to Sweden as the twinning progresses.

Karin: It was very exciting when I and my husband were waiting for our visitors from Swindon. But the very moment when they came out from the car we felt that these three guys were our friends! It has been very interesting to hear how Rotary works in England. We always learn of each other. As a matter of fact Tim and I play scrabble on Facebook. We are looking forward to come to Swindon a make a progress in the twinning.

Tim: The outcomes and future plans are for us to build the foundations of this relationship slowly and strongly with encouragement of small numbers of Rotarians to visit each other for short periods. Plans are also to develop practical projects together which may help others through Rotary’s good work, we are particularly interested in Environmental Awareness, End Polio Now and a Youth Exchange. Finally we want this to be an example of how Rotary friendships on Facebook can really help Rotary to meet some of its objectives and encourage a greater friendship and fellowship throughout the world.
Tim Mason, Hon. Secretary, Rotary Club of Swindon
Karin Sköld, Hon. Secretary, Rotary Club of Degerfors

Under Age Drinking is becoming a real concern

It was interesting that a few weeks ago the Government's Medical Officer issued new guidance that young people under 15 years shouldn't be drinking alcohol.

In the early 1980's as a Youth Worker in Worthing I was becoming concerned about young people underage drinking, at the time there were lots of campaigns against substance abuse, but alcohol was the real problem. So with a group of young people we decided to set up an Alcohol Free Bar in the centre of Worthing, with a £100 grant from a local church group. Initially no one was really interested, we obtained an old shop premises, painted the floor red, painted sand, sea and palm trees on the wall and found an excellent book on making non-alcoholic cocktails. Yes were ready for opening our new venture, especially when our appeal offering a good home for overgrown rubber and cheese plants gave us the live greenery to make our night club complete. For about 6 months we opened one night a week, attracted around 50 young people and gained publicity about this unusual venture, which had been named the Parrot & Palm Alcohol Free Club.

Unfortunately or fortunately, we came to the attention of the Borough Council through the very good publicity we were getting. What had started as a small club had grown through demand into a venture that needed to adhere to regulations, so we had to put ourselves in good order - the sign went up ' NO DANCING BY ORDER OF THE COUNCIL'. A project around providing a sophisticated meeting place for young people that was alcohol free took on a new dimension, how young people could become empowered to change things for the better. A campaign started writing letters, talking to councilors, writing to the papers, raising funds and further work on the premises to make them fit for purpose ......
.... £10,000 later, The Parrot & Palm Alcohol Free Night Club was the place young people wanted to be, a place they had created, a place they ran themselves, a place where they could meet their friends in safety and a place that provided a good time without the need for alcohol.

Twenty years on the idea of the Parrot & Palm Club is still needed today, it is no good just saying young people shouldn't be drinking alcohol - what sophisticated alternatives are we offering them today, where they able to help create and run projects themselves? We believe we need to now consider that we teach everyone that you can enjoy yourself without the need for alcohol, like the Parrot & Palm in its day, you just get high on the atmosphere of being with friends.
Would anyone be interested in exploring creating these alternatives in their area? We believe you will help in giving a more positive message about alcohol, rather than just saying NO.

Crockery on the Lawn - could this be a new game?

Fred hooted with laughter when, rather than typing 'croquet on the lawn' in the blog article about Rotary, he typed 'crockery on the lawn'.

As you can imagine this started a conversation filled with laughter about the possibilities of this new game. Someone thought it was a smashing idea!

So here's a good idea. Using blue sky thinking and thinking out of the box, can we turn this into something exciting that might catch on? Fred thinks this is s good idea, what ideas have you got about how Crockery on the Lawn can be played?

This is the kind of thinking we want to encourage. Different, out of the box, unusual, but things that capture the imagination and can lead to something BIG AND BOLD.

Rotary round the World

I've been a Rotarian since I was 27 years old, it all happened because of a car accident on the way back from holiday. At the time I lived in Norfolk, on seeking out a garage to get the car repaired and a Solicitor to get the insurance dealt with, both turned out to be Rotarians in the Aylsham Rotary Club. The Club was very typical of a market town and every profession was involved, a PDG took me under his wing and really got me interested in Rotary, by taking me to a Charter night in Cambridge, giving me a book about Paul Harris and generally making sure I felt at home, real Rotary fellowship.

Eventually we decided to move south, as Norfolk was quite cut off from my family, a shame because my time in the Aylsham Club had been a real good grounding about Rotary ways. So my next Club was Lancing in West Sussex, highlights of this club were that they sang Rotary grace every week and I remember playing cricket on Boxing Day dressed as Andy Pandy. I was involved in being one of the people who set off the firework display on the village green and helping Santa collect funds at Christmas with his sleigh around the streets, one night I had to put on the red suit, but most of that evening I was holding my beard in place as it was blowing a gale!

Moving to a new job in London, I joined the Rotary Club of St.Pancras, unfortunately I was only a member for three months, but I was made to feel really welcome in this really large London club. About a year later I was able to join the Rotary Club of Swindon for the first time, where I was working at the time for the Church of England, so with several clergy in the club there sometimes was a church table. At this club we got involved with Donkey Derbys, having people to stay from our twin club in Bergen Op Zoom in Holland and having a GSE Student stay with us from Australia, we enjoyed these international links.

Not to stay in one place too long we then moved onto Gloucester and I became a member of the Royal Forest of Dean Rotary Club, which met at Speech House in the middle of the forest. Here I eventually became President, according to a Rotarian friend it was in my year that the Club decided to move from a lunchtime meeting to evening. Croquet on the lawn and my Charter evening are highlights of my stay here.

Moving on we found ourselves on our way to London again and the Solicitor engaged to help purchase our new house was a Rotarian in the Dartford Club, where again I was invited to join. Here we were involved in a Donkey Derby where we kept the toilets topped up with water as the flushing systme had failed, really exciting stuff, and I was involved in Interact, as during my time in District 1100 (Gloucestershire) I was the District Interact Officer. I eventually had to leave Dartford due to work commitments, but later joined the Rotary Club of Sidcup (in the London Borough of Bexley), where we again hosted friends from our twin in Denmark (see picture below, visiting the Portsmouth Docks), took part in a fish and chip Barn Dance, wine tasting evening and bowls competition and back on the sleigh with Santa.

So what goes round, comes round again and after an interval of time we moved back to the South West, where I'm invited back to join the Rotary Club of Swindon. Here I've now been the secretary for two and a half years, which I enjoy doing very much. So far in Swindon we've done various projects, one being to create a Court Garden where witnesses can wait in a tranquil place, gardening is not my favourite past-time, but it was fun doing it with other Rotarians. I've been the secretary before in other clubs, Chairman of committees, served mainly on Vocational & International Committees, plus keen to see Rotary continue to grow and move forward.

Over all these years I have believed that the idea of International Fellowship & Friendship in Rotary was really important, I really enjoyed meeting the Rotarians from Holland and Denmark. From an early age I was in the Scout Movement going to Jamborees and having International pen pals, having been really lucky to go to the 14th World Jamboree in Norwary, then to continue this through Rotary activity and to now be making all these new contacts through the Internet is to me the real icing on the cake of my Rotary life. Thanks to Facebook and Twitter I'm making friends with people involved in Rotary all over the world. My hope is that many more Rotarians will see that this kind of social networking will help Rotary International grow in strength and help it fulfil its four objectives. The internet is a powerful tool and Rotary must embrace it to help move forward into a world where this form of communication plays a key role.

So thank you to all my new friends in Rotary for helping me to continue to enjoy this International part of our great organisation. My hope now is that we will one day be able to meet each other and learn more about each other's culture and countries.

Just a quicky

Just a quick note today, but I heard some new office terminology today that just made me chuckle and thought you'd like to hear them too:
For those of you so busy you carry on working and eat your lunch at your desk - you are eating 'al desko'
'Testiculating' describes someone in a meeting animatedly waving their arms around and talking bollocks
Let me know if you've heard any other new words yourselves.

First day ramblings

This morning I woke up to a beautiful dawn, with the promise of colour and life in a busy day ahead. This made a welcome change from the cold mornings we have had recently where even the spiders in the garden were having a hard time of it.

We set out in the early morning light to walk the dogs and were surprised to see some new bollards decorating the pavements. As we got closer we realised they were showing signs declaring the pavements to be for both pedestrians and cyclists. Until now the many cyclists using the pavements have showed few manners, not given us warning of their approach and on a regular basis attempted to run us down. Now the council are giving them permission to carry on with this behaviour. What happened to the good old cycle bell? What happened to a good old greeting and thank you? Why does it now have to be that the first thing you know there is bicycle behind you is when the wheel is almost wrapped around your leg? Although, I have to say that this morning we only came across one young cyclist, who we did not realise was behind us and she waited very quietly cycling slowly behind us until we noticed her presence, and she said a very nice thank you as we stood to one side to let her pass. The bizarre thing was we were walking on a pavement beside a quiet dead end road, why did she have to cycle on the pavement at all? Sometimes I think we need to just stop and think about how we are teaching young people to live, I understand about teaching them to be safe, but surely using common sense and a bit of initiative with some good old manners thrown in for good measure, is teaching them how to better get on in life.