Presidents Diary

Well what a roller-coaster of a start to my year as President of the Rotary Club of Tettenhall.

Monday 4^th July 2011 was the Valedictory and hand-over evening and I wish to offer my sincere congratulations to Immediate Past President Jim Murphy on an excellent year as President. He has guided the Club well and left it stronger than when he started. He will be a hard act to follow. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the Induction evening when Ian Rigby became the President Elect and Sammy Chung the Vice President. The incoming Secretary is John Margetts and the Treasurer is Brian Tranter. We have a very strong Club and I am looking forward to a very strong year.

On Tuesday 5^th July I visited Wolverhampton St. Georges for the induction of Chris Barry as the incoming President and enjoyed breakfast with a very active group of Rotarians.

At lunchtime I went onto the Rotary Club of Wolverhampton for the induction of Richard Green as their new President. Wolverhampton are a very strong Rotary Club and over 80 Rotarians sat down to lunch.

On Thursday 7^th July I visited the Rotary Club of Sedgley and Wombourne for the induction of Rotarian Richard Garbett as President. Sedgley and Wombourne are a much smaller Club but have excellent spirit.

Sunday 10^th July was the Rotary Club b.b.q. which, unfortunately, I missed due to a D.V.T. in my left leg and my admittance to New Cross Hospital. The b.b.q. raised £837.00 for a Water Project in Africa.

My stalwart Vice-President stood in for me at what should have been my first meeting but I am hoping to be fit enough to attend our meeting on 18^th July.

Wolverhampton Armed Forces Day

Today was Armed Forces Day an opportunity to raise public awareness of the contribution made to our country by those who serve and have served in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, and an opportunity for the City to show its support for the men and women who make up the Armed Forces community: from currently serving troops to Service families and from veterans to cadets - all embodying the Rotary ideal of Service Above Self.

Regular, reserve, and cadet forces paraded through Wolverhampton today together with ex servicemen (including Club members John Wain and Les Bouts). The salute was taken by City Mayor Councillor Bert Turner and Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of West Midlands, Paul Sabapathy CBE before an outdoor drumhead service in St Peter’s Square.

New Inner Wheel President

Congratulations to Lynne Cave who has now taken over as President of the Inner Wheel Club of Tettenhall from Shirley Jones.

Shirley has had a great year at the helm and its been a pleasure to spend time with her and with the other members of the Inner Wheel Club. During the course of the year the ladies of Tettenhall Inner Wheel have supported through their fundraising the West Midlands Lupus Group (Lupus UK), the Alzheimer’s Society, Motor Neurone Disease Association, National Osteoporosis Society, Compton Hospice, Acorns and the Air Ambulance.

Originally founded in 1923 by a group of ladies who decided that they wanted to help with the work of their Rotarian husbands the objects of Inner Wheel are to promote true friendship, to encourage the ideals of personal service and to foster international understanding. The Tettenhall Club exemplifies these qualities.

Inner Wheel is an all female organisation with membership open to female relatives of Rotarians or former Rotarians, Inner Wheel members and Rotaract. Lynne is the wife of Club member David Cave and I have no doubt that they will make a formidable team over the coming year.

Ladies Weekend 2011 - Dinner

A traditional part of every Ladies Weekend is the Saturday black tie dinner. This year we were based at the University Arms Hotel in Cambridge and our dinner was held in its Newton Rom which overlooks Parker's Piece - its a perfect venue for this type of occasion, the food was good and the staff really took care of us so our thanks to all of them.

The toast to the Ladies was formally proposed by President Jim in recognition of all of the invaluable support which they give to the members during the year - a vital part of this Club's success. The Presidents Lady, Alison, thanked the members for all of the support which they had given to Jim and herself during his year of office and for making it such an enjoyable time before the ladies toasted the members of the Club.

Clearly weekends such as these don't just happen and the success of this Ladies Weekend is due to the hard work of Peter and Pat Maddox who put a tremendous amount of time into preparing the event and selflessly gave of their time during the weekend to make sure that everything ran smoothly. Alison and I, together with the other members attending, are all extremely grateful to them for making such a great weekend and leaving us with such happy memories.

New Member - Jag Gill

There are few happier moments for a Club than the induction of a new member and this evening I and the other members of the Rotary Club of Tettenhall were pleased to welcome Jagjit Gill to our number.

Jag runs a successful company specialising in the laying of roads, car parks and driveways and the installation of groundworks. In joining our Club Jag has committed to the Rotary Objects to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:

FIRST. The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;

SECOND. High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, and the dignifying of each Rotarian's occupation as an opportunity to serve society;

THIRD. The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian's personal, business, and community life;

FOURTH. The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.

We alll welcome Jag to the worldwide family of Rotary and look forward to working with him.

Club Meeting - Skittles Competition

Monday saw the latest of the Club’s away days as members competed in the Club skittles championship at the Swan Hotel in Brewood.

The Swan has an excellent skittles alley and that, and a ready supply of good beer, made for a great night of fellowship.

Despite Club Secretary Ivan Hill having led the competition from the out the championship was claimed by Ken Rees who with a perfect mix of aggression and skill scored a record 15 points in the last round of the competition to clinch the title. Well done Ken.

Club Meeting- Tea Glorious Tea

When I saw that we were to have a speaker talking about the History and Development of England's Favourite Beverage I was expecting to hear all about the proud history of Guinness but speaker John Borthwick had a different drink in mind.



Having developed his interest in tea whilst stationed with the RAF in Lincoln John took the Club on a journey through three thousand years of the drinks history and recounting the birth of the drink when according to legend leaves from a nearby tea shrub blew into a cauldron of water being boiled for Chinese emperor and renowned herbalist Shen Nung so brewing the first pot of tea.

John encouraged members to venture beyond the classic tea bag and experience the wide range of teas available.



Our thanks to John for a very informative talk.

Club Meeting - Birch Thompson Memorial Fund

The Birch Thompson Memorial Fund was established in memory of two former teachers at Colton Hills Community School, Graham Birch and John Thompson, who both died of heart attacks in 1980.

The Fund maintains Gelliwig, a residential centre in Porthmadog, North Wales. Gelliwig can accommodate up to 30 people and is used by the school and by youth groups and other voluntary organisations in Wolverhampton - thousands of local children have benefited from the Centre since its opening in 1989.

The Tettenhall Club has been a long time supporter of the Fund and when it became aware that money was needed for a replacement minibus to take children to the Centre Eric Johnson and Doug Evans arranged a fundraising bar-be-que which raised £700 towards the total. We were joined this evening by Keith Berry who accepted the donation on behalf of the Fund and who confirmed that they would shortly be taking delivery of the new vehicle.

New Vice President

It was a pleasure this evening to be able to present Ian Rigby with his chain of office as an officer of the Club for the remainder of this Rotary year.

Ian is in his second year as our Club's sports officer and he has taken the Club's sporting achievements to new heights - Tettenhall are now District Croquet and District Darts champions. Not content with these achievements Ian has agreed to take on the role of the Junior Vice President and will serve as President of the Club for the 2012 -2013 Rotary year. Congratulations on your appointment Ian - you will have our full support over the coming years.

Wombourne Crawl 2010

Our August Fellowship month came to an end this evening with a walk around the beautiful Staffordshire Village of Wombourne.

Clearly focused on the liquid refreshment awaiting us at the Red Lion members showed a truly amazing turn of speed completing the circuit in a record time.

Our thanks to Fellowship officer Mike Kilvert who has kindly organised this successful series of August events.

Pakistan Floods - Disaster Relief

Working with other Rotary Clubs and with the World Water Works charity the Tettenhall Club has helped to ship 200 Water Survival Boxes to the flood affected areas in Pakistan.

These boxes are filled with new items that people who have lost everything would need to survive - including mugs to drink out of, cooking pots, bowls to eat from, spoons, anti-septic spray, cotton materials and needles and thread, basic tools, tarpaulin and bungee cords to make simple shelters.

The Water Survival Box itself is a rigid, reinforced 54 litre plastic container that becomes a receptacle for water when emptied of these survival items, it includes a filtration pack including chlorine tablets – enough for family of 4 for some 4 months.



Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) has launched an appeal to help the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the Pakistan floods. Donations will be used to aid the long-term rebuilding of communities in the affected areas. If you'd like to donate to this appeal follow the link here.

District Darts Champions

As a result of the rigorous training regime introduced by Club Sports Officer, Ian Rigby, the Club's sporting success continues.

Following a tightly fought battle with the Kidsgrove club - only settled by a shoot out between the team captains - Tettenhall emerged victorious as District Darts Champions.

Well played Kidsgrove and congratulations to our team on the night - team captain Ian Rigby, Bob Archer, Paul Westwood, David Eaton, Doug Evans and John Whitten.

Club Meeting - Phil Jennings - Rest in Peace

We had the pleasure this evening of hearing from one of the Club's own members, Phil Jennings.

Phil was until a few years ago the owner of Jennings Funeral Directors - a Wolverhampton establishment founded in 1848.

With a lifetime of experience Phil gave us an informative insight into his career and life as a funeral director.

Tom Warren City Fellowship Meal

Each year the five Rotary Clubs of Wolverhampton come together to celebrate the life of Tom Warren. A member of Wolverhampton Rotary Club Tom was Rotary International Association for Great Britain and Ireland 's President in 1937-38 and Rotary International President 1945-46 - the second of only five Britons to hold that office.

As president of Rotary International Tom had a reputation as a great mediator and was a tireless campaigner for world peace both during and after the Second World War.

This years event was hosted by the Rotary Club of Wolverhampton - our mother Club. We were pleased to welcome one of Tom's successors, immediate past Rotary International President John Kenny, as the keynote speaker. In his first official function since stepping down as President John paid tribute to the work which Tom had carried out and spoke of the inspirational work of ordinary Rotarians which he himself had witnessed during his year of office.

Youth Orchestra Concert

Today saw the pre tour concert of the Wolverhampton Youth Orchestra and the Wolverhampton Youth Wind Orchestra. This is the sixteenth year that the five Rotary clubs of Wolverhampton have come together to support the Orchestras summer tour and once again we were treated to a truly outstanding performance.

Prior to the concert musicians and Rotarians were invited to attend a civic reception with Councillor Malcolm Gwinnett the current Mayor of Wolverhampton.

During the concert the considerable achievements of these young musicians was recognised by the award of a number of certificates - and the presentation of the Young Musician of the Year award to Rafal Gerard-Gierut.

The Orchestras are now travelling to Slovenia where they will participate in a number of music festivals.

Our best wishes to the Orchestras for a successful tour.

Rotary Dictionary for Life

The promotion of literacy has been an emphasis of Rotary International since 1986.



Each year the Tettenhall Rotary Club supports this by distributing free dictionaries to local school children who are leaving their primary schools.

The Rotary Dictionary 4 Life helps children to develop their language skills. By using dictionaries efficiently children explore spellings, meanings and derivations for example by using alphabetical order, abbreviations and definitions with understanding. One of the most positive aspects of being able to use a dictionary is that it helps to develop autonomy and confidence — one of the core goals of education.

Throughout this week members of the Club have been visiting local schools to distribute the dictionaries and my thanks go to Ray Hill, Izeham Chedan, Bert Finch and David Earp for the giving of their time and to Brian Barnwell for his work in organising this years distribution.

Inner Wheel Visit

One of the more pleasant duties that befalls a President of the Rotary Club of Tettenhall is to visit the Tettenhall Inner Wheel Club to deliver a life talk.

The Inner Wheel organisation was originally formed by wives of Rotarians to support the work of their Rotarian husbands. It is an all female organisation and membership is open to female relatives of Rotarians or former Rotarians, Inner Wheel members and Rotaract. Inner Wheel aims to promote true friendship, encourage the ideals of personal service and to foster international understanding.

The Tettenhall Rotary Club has been greatly strengthened by the support given to it by the ladies of the Inner Wheel Club and we thank President Shirley and her members for that support and look forward to working with them in the future.

Club Meeting - Halfpenny Green Vineyard

Our monthly fellowship meeting this month was held at the Halfpenny Green Vineyard near Bobbington.

Members of the Club were treated to a tour of the Vineyard's production facilities and learnt how the wine is produced and how an Englishman is really to thank for the invention of champagne.

Growing from a small half acre plot the vineyard is now amongst the largest in the UK producing prize winning wines which the members were pleased to sample.

Thanks go to Ken Swash and Mike Unwin for organising the evening.

Wightwick Hall School

Wightwick Hall School caters for students with a wide range of individual needs from the ages of 11 to 19 and since September 2008 the school has been a Business & Enterprise Specialist College.

For the second year running Tettenhall Rotary Club has been pleased to sponsor the School’s Young Enterprise competition. This competition aims to help students develop confidence, ability and ambition to succeed - qualities which will help them as they move into the world of work.

The success of last years competition had encouraged many more schools to enter the competition and I am sure that the team at the school will continue to build on this in years to come.

Through the week members of the Tettenhall Club were involved in judging the businesses which the students had developed prior to the prize ceremony on Friday when I was joined by BBC Apprentice finalist Claire Young to award the trophies to the winning contestants.



The School held a BBQ event in the evening where the students had the opportunity to test the market with their products and which was well supported by members of the Club.

Thanks go to Chris Kraushar, Brian Barnwell, Eric Johnson, John Lochhead, Ernie Edwards, Derek Evans, John Whitten, Bert Finch, David Eaton and Doug Evans for their work in making the competition such a success for the students and special mention to David Cave who stepped in at the last minute to help the School with photography

Fordhouses ATC visit

It was a pleasure to visit 1046 Squadron again today.

Over the past few years, thanks mainly to the work of Club member Les Bouts, we have developed a close relationship with the Squadron helping with the purchase of a minibus for their activities and supporting their overseas trips.

The ATC aims to encourage a spirit of adventure and to develop qualities of leadership and good citizenship - aims which the Rotary movement shares and which the Tettenhall Club looks to encourage. I was pleased to be able to hand over a £500 cheque to help the squadron along to reaching its fundraising target for its next visit to the Battlefields and Service Cemeteries of Normandy - which I know from previous visits has a great effect on the Cadets.

Thanks to Les Bouts and Ian Rigby who accompanied me on the visit.