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.