On 8 June 2016, the Club held its annual Assembly. In plain terms, an Assembly is a meeting where the heads of department present the programmes their committees have committed to for the coming 12 months .
The meeting started with one minute’s silence in memory of Past Inner Wheel District 13 Chairman Valerie Bunn, spouse of our Club Member Robert. Valerie was a great supporter of Inner Wheel, and was well known to nearly every member of our Club. She will be sadly missed.
We then had a report on our Kids Out Day project which had taken 25 pupils and 12 staff to Paradise Wild Life Park in Hertfordshire for the day. We also had a report on the collection of clothing and toiletries made by Felsted Aid at the weekend. Felsted Aid have appealed again for more toiletries and four AA size batteries. They are planning an extra trip to The Revival Centre in Chernihiv between now and Christmas.
We then shuffled chairs and Eric started the Club Assembly. He laid out his plans for the year based on rejuvenating the membership of the Club. This would require Club members to work at re-connecting the Club with the community, reshaping the way our Club operates and tightening up our meetings. ‘Millennials’ now represent the largest group at work (people who started work after 2000), and we have to have something to offer that group if we are to return to our former self.
The Treasurer gave a brief report and asked that all dues for 2016-2017 are paid by the end of July 2016 at the latest. The Secretary and Assistant Secretary were not at the meeting. A request for photos of any events was made so that our website and social media postings can be kept up to date.
A new push on involving schools is to take place so that our competitions are better supported in 2016-2017. Youth Exchange seemed to remain a problem with parental reluctance to let children exchange with pupils in other countries.
Our local community programme will repeat last year’s events, and a new venture will be proposed with local Job Centres for our vocational programme.
Our international programme will continue as before with the addition of a proposed visit from our contact club in northern Italy. The Rotary Foundation programme will feature the centennial celebrations of the Rotary Foundation.
This will all require funds, and a plan to raise the necessary money was proposed by our fundraising chairman. Assistant Governor Scott ably providing a summary and compared it to the Goals proposed by next year’s World President of Rotary. And with that we were done!
