Any
Rotarian can visit any Rotary Club in the World. Members
of Glossop Rotary Club were asked for comments and impressions
of overseas visits to other Clubs .
Visit
to Stansted Stort Valley Club January 2008 by Stephen
Kimber.
I
noticed that the Stansted Stort Valley Club met at a hotel
I was staying in for business. So I arranged to meet.
They have 23 members and President Bill and members made
me very welcome. It covers the Stort Valley Area to the
East and North of Stansted Airport. They have just had
a successful Santa collection. As a Old Stortfodian we
did speak on some of the history of the town over the
years. I also gave them a brief talk about Glossop and
presented President Bill with one of our flags. A very
enjoyable visit and an open invitation to see them anytime
I am down in the future.
Visits
in New Zealand & Australia by Rtn. Ron Bowden.
In
March, Dorothy and I went down under for a holiday in
New Zealand, a place Dorothy had wanted to visit for many
years but never been able to make it there until now.
It was probably that her twin granddaughters, Rozalynd
and Rachel had managed to get there before her that drove
her on to fulfil her desire to get there.
The girls had spent 11 months in the area on a working
/ backpacking holiday, we could only manage 3 weeks in
N.Z. and a further week in Oz.
Before going it was my intention to try and visit one
or two clubs while in the country but, although there
are clubs in most of the places we visited, we seemed
faited to be there on the day when there was no meeting.
Rotorua Has 5 clubs with meetings on each day from Monday
to Thursday, we arrived on Thursday evening just a little
too late for the meeting.
However, not to be done out of a meeting, Dorothy phoned
Prue who was recorded in the I.W. handbook as being the
district president. Dorothy told Prue that she had an
Inner Wheel Banner that she would like to present so we
were invited to a Tea/Coffee morning the following day.
On the Friday Morning a car arrived at our Hotel to take
us to Prue’s home where she and two other ladies
had prepared a magnificent spread of food. Along with
two members of the Rotorua Rotary Club we spent a very
enjoyable morning of fellowship. Without Rotary, we would
never have had the pleasure of meeting such warm and friendly
people.
That afternoon we set of on our way to Wellington but
decided to return to Rotorua in time to go to a meeting
on the Monday evening. The best laid plans can go astray
as we all know.
On our way back from Wellington on the Sunday, the journey
was going very well and we expected to arrive in Rotorua
in the afternoon. We then can to a bit of a hold-up, some
traffic was being turned back. When we eventually got
to the policeman who had taken up position in the centre
of the road, he asked, “where are you going”?
We told him, “not this way today,” he said,
“the road will be closed for at least the next two
days, you will have to go back the way you came and take
the coast road”. We had to go back about 70kil.
And then take this winding road along the coast and then
through the mountain pass. This added about 200 miles
to our journey, so it was late on Monday when we got to
Rotorua, to late to get to the meeting.
We later found out that the reason for the detour was
that the Volcano Mt. had started to erupt. What an excuse
for not getting to a meeting!.
Hannover,
Germany by Rtn Stephen Kimber at CeBIT Fair.
As
most years I vist the CeBIT Fair for business. It is the
largest IT/Communications Fair in Europe. Whilst walking
around I saw that there was a daily Rotary meeting in
one of the restaurants. On the last day I was able to
attend and met with colleagues from Germany and USA. There
are 6 clubs in Hannover area and they take it in turn
to manage the meals each day. I was quite amazed when
my host said he did not know each member of his club personally-and
then added that as there were 124 members that is why.
They
made me most welcome and I look forward to returning next
year.
NSW,
Australia by Rtn Roger Gibson.
Centenary
meeting in Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia
On 23rd February 2005-05-10
On
this date, the official 100th anniversary of the start
of Rotary, Bunty and I were visiting Bev Adoms, the International
Director (same as Chairman in the UK) of the Coffs Harbour
Daybreak club. Bev visited our club earlier in the Rotary
Year
The
centenary was celebrated by the 7 local clubs forming
Zone 1 of their district, which is massive – some
800 km square. A dinner dance was held in the local ex-Servicemen’s
club, a palatial building that is funded mainly by the
revenue from one-arm bandits. Some 300 people attended;
there were brief speeches from the assistant District
Governor, the president of the organising committee, and
the local MP who is a Rotarian. A local Rotarian was made
a Paul Harris fellow.
The
meal was excellent, and was followed by dancing to a local
16 piece band that included several Rotarians and was
donating its fee to a charitable trust set up to support
a local young family man severely injured in an Aussie
Rules football game. It was a lively affair but surprisingly
concluded at 10.30 pm when the dancing was just getting
going
Rotary
in the area seemed to be in very good heart with some
joint projects under way including building a residential
wing for relatives visiting patients in the newly constructed
local hospital.
PHILADELPHIA
Rtn
T. Mather
"Being
a member of Rotary can have advantages when traveling
on business or pleasure at home or abroad.Rotarians always
make visitors welcome at their meetings and it is always
a pleasure to find out where the local club meets and
pay a visit. If only to escape the boredom of an evening
spent in the barren atmosphere of an hotel. One club was
near Philadelphia, and I was fortunate to be present at
the induction of a new Rotarian What impressed me was
that the new Rotarian was expected to buy a Paul Harris
Fellowship (at $1000)"
