Abergele Rotary Club

*The Latest News from Abergele Rotary Club* Stop Press At the November District Meeting our Club President Peter Hughes was appointed, unopposed, to the office of Assistant District Governor. Well-done Peter! The club will be behind you! Good luck in your new Rotary role. ****	OUR PRESS REPORTS FROM 2005 TO 2009 Santa wants your help around Abergele Have you ever thought that you would like the opportunity to bring a little joy to Abergele in the run up to Christmas, whilst raising funds for good causes at the same time? If you have then why not think about helping Santa collect door to door, during his musical sleigh ride of the town and outlying areas. If you can spare a couple of hours on one or more evenings in December, you could be invited to join in the fun by the Abergele Rotary club. Just leave your contact details, a member of the Rotary team will then contact you in the next day or so, with details of the event and where you can meet members of clubs near you. If you decide to help you can treat this as a one off act of Christmas good will, or as an opportunity to find out more about Rotary and what being a member of a Rotary club involves. President of the club Dr David Gozzard said, We are hoping that a few of the people that will turn out to help us and the Round Table with our Christmas float, will take the opportunity to find out how being a member of a Rotary Club can be an enormously fulfilling experience. giving members a way to make a world of difference to the lives of others, make new friends and be sure of a warm welcome at any Rotary meeting in the UK and just about any country throughout the world. If you ring us and for whatever reason, you are not contacted successfully within the next 5 days, please let us know by e-mailing: pro@abergelerotary.org 23rd November A rare joint meeting was held at Kinmel Manor on 23rd November when 27 members from the Inner Wheel and Rotary Clubs of Abergele came together to hear a presentation from Mr Philip Hughes, the North Wales co-ordinator of the charity Help for Heroes. Philip, himself a retired soldier from Denbigh, told how Help for Heroes was started by Bryn and Emma Parry after a profoundly moving visit to Selly Oak Hospital in the summer of 2007. Their original purpose was to raise funds to build a private swimming pool for the soldiers to exercise in, as they had to use a public pool. This was quickly raised and since then help for Heroes has expanded into supporting wounded service men and women in many ways, including providing accommodation for relatives whilst visiting their wounded and giving grants to the right organisations to ensure the best type of help is given. Philip has worked as a volunteer since the start of the charity and he and the other volunteers are passionate about the work they are doing, and the difference they are making to the lives of some extraordinary young men and women. Philip assured the Clubs that there was no intention of building large reserves, as the money comes in it is spent, and that virtually all the money raised goes to the cause, expenses being mainly met by money raised through the sale of products through H4H. During the course of his talk Philip played several short videos which showed the work done by Help for Heroes and told the stories of the young-looking wounded soldiers some with multiple amputations who attend Headley Court for rehabilitation . Following the talk a vote of thanks was given by Rotarian John Newcombe, following which the President of Inner Wheel, Sybil Newcombe presented a cheque to Philip for £300 from the proceeds of Inner Wheel's recent coffee morning. It is hoped that this amount can be supplemented by Rotary following their next business meeting. *********** "ShelterBox" 3rd November 2009 Since April 2000 when the Rotary charity "ShelterBox" was launched many Rotary Clubs around the UK, including the Rotary Club of Abergele, have been supporting the project by fund raising, but the club meeting on the 3rd November was the first time most members of the club have had a chance of seeing a box and it's typical contents close up, thanks to the display provided by the clubs guest speaker Peter Hodgson, who is the "ShelterBox" coordinator for the District. Peter, who had travelled from his home in Llansantffraid, Powys, told the club that each box can supply an extended family of up to 10 people with a tent and essential equipment to use while they are displaced or homeless. The ability to respond instantly to natural and manmade disasters by delivering boxes of aid to those who are most in need is the top priority of the charity. One of the ways this is achieved is through the "ShelterBox" Response Teams. These teams are made up of volunteers, acting as spokespeople for "ShelterBox" and are its eyes and ears on the ground. They determine if the boxes are needed, where to send them and how to best get them to the victims. They even accompany the delivery to the disaster zone and oversee the distribution of the boxes, to ensure that he boxes reach the right hands. Peter said that this is the key in enabling "Shelterbox" keep its overheads to less than 10% of its income, far less than most other charities. Since January 2009 when 200 Shelter boxes were packed for distribution to Gaza where thousands of people were left homeless by conflict, boxes have been sent to over 20 disaster destinations as diverse as the Sumatra earthquake, China typhoon, India floods & mudslides, and the Australia fires. Peter explained that the contents of the box can be varied according to local conditions and what is most urgently needed, and that box itself can have many useful functions from food container to cot. The DVD and powerpoint presentation given by Peter was extremely moving and motivating, the club will try to arrange a day when the box and its typical contents can be displayed locally, in order that the public can see the work done by "ShelterBox" and have an opportunity to donate. In the mean time if anyone wants to know more about "ShelterBox" they can see details on www.shelterbox.org and if you want to get involved with Abergele Rotary Club please contact the club or see the club website, www.abergelerotary.org ****** Summer Quiz winner We would like to thank all the people who took part in the Abergele Rotary Club Summer Quiz and all the businesses that sold the quiz entry forms on behalf of the clubs. After paying out the prize money of £50, we have raised a total of £196.50p, this will be split equally between Local and International good causes. Only 24 quiz forms were returned for marking, none had all the 75 answers correct and only one from Ms. Kath Williams, of Rhos-On-Sea had 74 answers correct. So no draw was needed and Ms. Kath Williams was declared the winner, and invited to attend the next meeting on the 6th of October to receive the winners certificate from the club President David Gossard. The answers to this years quiz are displayed on the "What's new" page of the club web www.abergelerotary.org Photo of the prize winner Ms. Kath Williams (Left) and club president David Gossard (Right) “The Gresford Letters” 6th October 2009 On the 6th of October the speaker at the meeting of Abergele Rotary Club was the writer Beverley Tinson, who lives in Prion. She has just written a book entitled “The Gresford Letters” to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Gresford Colliery Disaster, that happened in September 1934, when 266 men lost their lives. The book that is based on research Bev did for her MA degree at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1998, contains many on the letters written during the aftermath of the disaster. Bev told the club that “The Gresford Letters” was published thanks to a number of individuals and clubs, including Abergele Rotary Club, having made donations of £5 and upwards toward the cost of publishing, and that all the donors are listed in the book, which was launched on September 24 at the Gresford Colliery Social Club. Bev told the club members that she had just started her research for the book when she interviewed Blodwen Bryan, she had been the last surviving widow of the Gresford mining disaster, her story of how she lost her husband is included in the book. Bev had interviewed Mrs Bryan from Coedpoeth when she was aged 96, she described the awful moment that she was told about the blast, that happened during a night shift her husband was working on, the consequence of the disaster was not only the loss of her husband but also the loss of her baby daughter Isobel, who she believed died of grief at the loss of her father just seven weeks to the day after the disaster. Following this moving account of her interview with Mrs Bryan, Bev went on to read a small selection of the letters she has included in her book, from the 10,000 letters that she had discovered.during her research. After the talk one member described how as a small child he had visited Gresford Colliery and that it had left him with a feeling of claustrophobia that still persists to this day. A number of questions followed before President David gave the vote of thanks, saying, that he enjoyed talking to Bev during the meal and had found her illustrated talk very interesting, as he came from a mining family himself, having a father and two brothers that had worked in the mining industry. Photo of the prize winner Ms. Kath Williams (Left) and club president David Gossard (Right) Club Meeting on The 15th September At the Abergele Rotary Club Meeting on The 15th September, the club members accepted the club council's recommendation to give a £50 donation to the brain injuries charity B.I.R.D. The treasurer announced a successful conclusion to the clubs bingo season, with the club having raised over £1,000, for the good causes account. The remaining "summer fun quiz" forms were collected in from members, prior to marking, in readiness for the draw which will take place at the next meeting, when the winner of the £50 prize will be selected. Following the meal, fun and fellowship were the order of the day, with the Abergele club hosting Llandudno Rotary Club, in the a first round of the Annual Rotary District 1180 quiz. The competition which was held on neutral ground, at the Red Lion, Llanfairt Talhaiarn was a close run thing, but the Abergele Club eventually proved successful in going through into the next round of the competition, where they will play either Prestatyn, or Bangor, Rotary Club, depending on which of these clubs club wins their heat. Despite the meeting finishing a lot later than normal, probably due to the friendly banter that ensued throughout the evening, both clubs agreed they had thoroughly enjoyed the evening and the competition. Club meeting on the 1st of September 2009 At the Abergele Rotary Club meeting on the 1st of September President David Gozzard introduced the guest speaker, David Poppitt, who told the club that following a career in Medical Research, he became the Appeals Director at Manchester`S Christie Hospital. He built a team of 15 responsible for an income of about £3 million per annum including successful cause related marketing deals with the BBC, sports companies, retail and brewing companies. He then moved to his old School, Bolton School as Development Director for five years. He told the club that following this he realised that he had built up many valuable contacts, that he could put to good use, on behalf of other charities, that needed help in setting up an efficient fund raising operation. He decided to start up his own consultancy. He is now a consultant specialising in all aspects of income generation in both health and education sectors, and has successfully worked with over 50 organisations in this capacity in addition to having written a book called “The School Fundraiser” aimed at helping head teachers, school governors and PTA members generate extra revenue. David then went on to describe some of the celebrities that he had worked with and some of the funny and interesting things that had happened to him over the years. Before telling the club about the charity he is working with at the moment “B.I.R.D” He first explained that is nothing to do with birds, it was in fact originally a pioneering approach to the treatment of children with Brain Injury at the centre in Broughton, that was set up in 1982 by the founder of the charity, Dr David McGlown. The aim of B.I.R.D, is to help as many patients as it can to improve the quality of their lives by helping them to develop skills never before present, or lost through injury or accident. The improvements in many of the children who joined the treatment programme were so significant that the treatment programme was extended to people of all ages who had suffered many different forms of brain injury. Today, the BIRD Centre covers two distinctly separate areas of work: the first tackles all forms of neurological impairment and brain injury, whiles the second covers learning development work treating children who are failing educationally due to any of a variety of conditions, or with no obvious cause. David answered a number of questions before the club President gave the vote of thanks, which he followed with a reminder to the members that any outstanding question forms for club’s summer fun quiz need to be handed in or posted to arrive by the closing date of the 15th of September ************* 4th of August 2009. At the Abergele Rotary Club meeting on the 4th of August the community service chairman advised members that the club would be arranging an evening of classical music to be played by musicians from the St. Asaph International Music Festival. This will take place at St Michaels Parish Church Abergele on Thursday the 27th of August at 7.00pm. The ticket price will be £4.00 and these will be available from club members, St Michaels Parish Church and from Abergele Town Hall, any unsold tickets will be made available on the door. The chairman also reminded members that the clubs fund raising bingo evenings are well under way at Towyn Community Centre on Friday evenings and will continue until the end of August. He asked members on duty to arrive one hour before the 8.00pm start to ensure the room is set up in time. The club’s summer fun quiz which is also available at the bingo sessions, as well as from members and a number of pubs and clubs around Abergele, is going well with a number of members selling all of their allocation of quiz forms. Then the club president Dr David Gozzard introduced Mervyn Richards the guest speaker, although Mervyn is well known to many of the members, it was not as well known that after Mervyn had retired from teaching he and his wife went to live and work teaching music to teachers in Botswana. He started his very interesting talk by explaining that Botswana is completely land-locked and became independent of Britain in 1966 It is currently the only African country that pays into the IMF, due to the wealth provided by its vast diamond mines. At independence only 20% of school age children were enrolled in primary school and only 8% of those went on to secondary school. Great strides have been made since then in providing the necessary school infrastructure in all parts of the country thereby allowing all children of school age to attend school. Although most parents see the value of education and send their children to school there are still one or two pockets, in rural areas, where the parents have not yet appreciated the value of education. Nevertheless, all the children are enrolled in school and education is given the highest priority in the allocation of resources. Mervyn then went on to talk about a few of the many funny, exciting and often embarrassing experiences he had had whilst teaching and on safari in the country. All of which would make for a good read if ever he decided to set them down in a book. The club secretary gave the vote of thanks and was also able to thank Mervyn for his assistance in organising the District 1180 Area 3 [east] Rotary/Côr Meibion Trelawnyd Ty Gobaith fundraising concert in Llandudno recently. ******** At our first meeting of the new Rotary year on Tuesdays the 7th of July retiring President Peter Hughes was delighted to welcome five guests, which included the president and members of the Rotary club of Prestatyn. Peter delivered his valedictory address to the club and said that, he had enjoyed his year as President. He went on to thank all of the Committee Chairmen, Club Council and all of the members that had contributed to the many Club activities during this past year, he thanked everyone for the encouragement and support . The retiring president then installed the incoming President Dr David Gozzard and wished him every success for the coming Rotary year. President David thanked Peter and presented him with a gift from the club, wishing him well on behalf of the members, as he starts his first year as assistant district governor. President David then went on to install the clubs Vice President Richard Arrowsmith before introducing the guest speaker for the evening, Kevin Gaskell; Photo David and Kevin by reading out his impressive entry in Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia. Kevin, whose father lives in Abergele, and joined him as a guest of the club, was born in Macclesfield 1958. Having played representative cricket at county and international level he is now a keen skier, scuba diver, clay pigeon shot and enjoys playing in a rock band for relaxation. Kevin is a confirmed adventurer, in 2006 he was part of a team that walked unaided to the North Pole and in so doing he raised over £80,000 for the North Wales Cancer Treatment Centre at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd and the Leukaemia Research charity. To celebrate his 40th birthday he spent four weeks climbing Everest. In 2009 together with his son, he completed an unsupported trek to the South Pole, which made his son one of the youngest ever to achieve this feat. Again, this adventure was intended to raise funds for Leukaemia Research and has so far £20,000 has been raised. His most interesting talk to the club was about both of the walks to the poles and they were very well illustrated by photographs, but it was Kevin’s vivid descriptions of the trials and tribulations of the two adventures that kept all of the members spell bound for the whole presentation._End Please see Wikipedia entrey below for: Kevin Gaskell **************************************************************************************************** Kevin Gaskell British. Born Macclesfield 1958. Connahs Quay High School 1973-77. Undergraduate of the University of Bradford in Civil and Structural Engineering 1977-81; Scholarship MBA student at the Bradford School of Management 1982-83. RM Douglas Construction Ltd, Civil Engineer, 1977-84. Dow Corning Ltd, Management Accountant, 1984-1987. Joined Porsche GB Ltd in 1987, appointed Managing Director in 1992, aged 33. Over the next five years he was responsible for the turnaround of the UK business and the growth and development of the Porsche marque. 1995-97 concurrently Managing Director of Lamborghini GB Ltd. In November 1996 he took the position of Managing Director of BMW (GB) Ltd with responsibility for all UK operations. He led the business to three successive years of record growth. In 1999 BMW sales in the UK exceeded 70,000 cars with a combined turnover in excess of £1.5 billion. In 1998 Gaskell was recognised as one of the top 40 managers under 40 in the United Kingdom. He left BMW in 2000 and established Epyx / 1link, [1] the UK’s leading fleet sector ecommerce platform where today he is a non executive director and shareholder. He joined EurotaxGlass's as Group CEO in April 2001 [2]and has led the expansion and growth of the company into 30 countries. In 2006 he conducted an MBO of the group supported by Candover in a deal worth over 480 million euros. He stepped down from operational responsibility in December 2007 when he became President of the EurotaxGlass's Group. In 2008 appointed Chairman of Achilles Group Limited, [3] a multinational provider of procurement audit services. In 2009 appointed Chairman of Motoring.co.UK [4]a leading online automotive marketing platform. Gaskell is a confirmed adventurer. In 2006 he was part of a team that walked unaided to the North Pole to raise funds for cancer research, and to celebrate his 40th birthday he spent four weeks climbing on Everest. In 2009, together with his son, he completed an unsupported trek to the South Pole which made his son one of the youngest ever to achieve this feat[5]. Having played representative cricket at county and international level he is now a keen skier, scuba diver, shoots clays/game and plays in a rock band for relaxation. *********************************************** OUR PRESS REPORTS FROM 2005 TO 2009 A Paul Harris Fellowship for .John McKinlay At the meeting on the 2nd of June members were pleased welcome Assistant District Governor Rtn. Howard Ferdinando, a Past President of the Rhyl Rotary Club, who was attending the meeting to receive details of this coming years club activities, on behalf of the District Governor. Following the meal, Club President Rtn. Peter Hughes, handed the meeting over to President Elect Rtn. David Gozzard. David started the proceedings by [informing] the club his plans for the coming year. David then introduced the chairman of Club Service, Community Service, Youth & Vocational Service, and International Service in turn, to give the members an outline of their plans. David then invited the Assistant District Governor to comment on the club's plans for social and service activities for the coming year. Howard told the club that he was very pleased that we had planned such a full programme that was designed to improve the fun and fellowship of the club and at the same time help so many different people. He was particularly pleased that so much of the work the club planned to undertake concentrated on children, both in the community and internationally, and that Water Aid was one of the club's top priorities, as one child dies through lack of clean water every second. He ended by saying that he had enjoyed his visit to the club very much, and that as he lived locally, he would like an invite to the club's social events and that he would definitely be visiting the club again later in the year. President Elect David thanked Howard for his kind comments and then handed the meeting back to President Peter, who then had a big surprise in store for Rtn. John McKinlay. John will be retiring from his post as club sectary at the end of the month, after holding the post for 12 years. In recognition of his hard work the club council felt it was appropriate to present him with a Paul Harris Fellowship. In the UK The PHF, is in the most part used by Rotary Clubs to honour a member of the club who in the opinion of the club deserve recognition for outstanding work in keeping with Rotary ideals. Rotarians thus nominated have $1000 contributed in their name to the Fellowship for the purpose of doing good in the world. Each new Paul Harris Fellow receives a commemorative certificate and a pin, which were presented to John. He was very surprised and almost lost for words, other than to say thank you to the members for giving him such a special award. - End In Care Evening at the Kinmel Manor Hotel Members of the Abergele Rotary Club staged their annual In Care Evening at the Kinmel Manor Hotel on Tuesday the 26th May. The Members welcomed over 140 guests who are residents of care homes, or from support groups and clubs in the Abergele area. The evening consists of a supper and concert which is an excellent opportunity for the guests to socialise with each other and to meet Rotary members. The evenings entertainment started with a medley of popular tunes played on the piano by Fiona Williams a pupil of Ysgol Emrys AP Iwan. After supper it gave members great pleasure to see their guests enjoying the entertainment provided by Cor Meibion Bro Aled. One visitor staying at the hotel was so impressed by the event that he spontaneously donated £40 to Rotary funds. Vice President David Gozzard ended the evening by giving a vote of thanks to all of those that helped or performed thereby ensuring the success of the evening. - END Tuesday the 5th of May 2009 On Tuesday the 5th of May Abergele Rotary Club had the pleasure of listening to an excellent and entertaining after dinner speaker, Rtn. Robert Sproston. A Past President of the Rotary Club of Crewe and Nantwich, Rob described how he has spent 35 years in the sporting industry, first as a very successful professional sports photographer and then a sport Consultant and Agent. His talk was entitled "A Sporting Life", and explained how he left school at the age of 16, with no qualifications, but with a strong determination to make a living from one of his childhood passions, either Sport, or Photography. As it turned out, it was both. Through a willingness to work hard and learn his trade, Rob quickly climbed through the ranks to become one of the country's top sports photographers, travelling the world and rubbing shoulders with many of the sports personalities of the day in virtually every kind of sport. Rob told the club a few of the many interesting things that happened to him over the years, as a photographer, and how he had been able to help a number of the older and less well paid sporting stars of yesterday have a second career from personal appearances and or as after dinner speakers. Rob who has spoken at many Rotary Club meetings and Charter Dinners, in his quest to purchase Guide Dogs for the Blind, left the members wanting to hear more, and asking him a number of questions about his fascinating life. In a vote of thanks Rtn Prys Jones, thanked Rob for his talk. Saying, that he wished we could have had number of 16 year old school leavers listening to this, as he was sure that it would have been an inspiration to any one that had not been able to achieve academic qualifications, to hear how is was possible to achieve your ambitions through hard work and dedication. ***** Tuesday the 7th of April, On Tuesday the 7th of April, members of the Abergele Rotary club held a Meeting at Kinmel Manor Hotel. After dinner and the business part of the meeting, the President introduced, the speaker for the evening. Mr John Wood, of North Wales Brewery, a local business that is located at Ty Tan-y-Mynydd, Moelfre, Abergele. John explained how he had started in business a number of years ago by starting a plastics recycling re-cycling company, in Hyde Cheshire, before being persuaded to sell up to start brewing with a business partner in Snowdonia. Now a brewer with 12 years experience John started North Wales Brewery in 2008. Brewing Beers such as Abergele Ale, Bodelwyddan Bitter, Welsh Stout, & Dragon's Wheat, He explained that these are sold mostly in bottles at Farmers Markets, Food Festivals and Seasonal Shows both locally, at events like the Woodfest, and further a field at events like Southport Show. John went on to fully out line the way he makes his beers, this included telling the members that, he has a local source of excellent quality water that is used in the brewing process, and that for the first time last year he had been able to harvest a crop of hops, on the hillside of Moelfre, overlooking Abergele. He also told the club that the company was also utilizing the same water to produce a unique range of non-alcoholic drinks, including Dandelion & Burdock, Spiced Apple, Raisin, and Ginger Beer. Following his talk John offered samples of the bears and soft drinks to the members, these where tasted with pleasure, with a number of members asking John for details of how they could obtain further supplies. ********************************* From AG District 9600 News letter "The International Toast on 12 March was given to the Rotary Club of Abergele, Wales. The Abergele club has 35 members and was chartered in 1972. It meets at the Kinmel Manor Hotel at 7pm Tuesdays under the direction of President Peter Hughes. We have toasted Abergele before and did so again because of their marvellous gesture in raising £ 500 for the Victorian bushfire victims. Club members sought donations from local Tesco supermarket customers over two days and then sent the money (topped up to 500 pounds by club members) direct to the Lord Mayor of Melbourne's bushfire appeal where it will be put to good use. Abergele Rotarians deserve our thanks, as do all the people of Abergele (population 17,500), for their generosity to folk living half a world away from Wales." Horrific Bushfires In Australia. With the kind permission of the store manager, Abergele Rotary Club set up a stand in Tesco's entrance over two days to mount an appeal on behalf of the victims of the recent horrific bushfires in Victoria, Australia. In spite of the current economic strains the store's customers contributed an astonishing £444 to the appeal. Additionally the Inner Wheel Club of Abergele donated a furtther £50. The combined sum, rounded off to £500, is now on its way to the Lord Mayor of Melbourne's Charitable Foundation which is coordinating the Recovery Fund, together with our warmest best wishes.. On behalf of the Rotary Club may I thank Tesco's and its magnificent customers for their outstanding generosity. Yours faithfully John Newcombe. ***************** “Chernobyl Children Life Line”. The speaker at the Abergele Rotary Club meeting on the 3rd of February, was Gerrie Bayley, From the Prestatyn / Rhyl Link of the “Chernobyl Children Life Line”. Gerrie explained that the link is part of a national charity founded in 1992 by Victor Mizzi M.B.E. And that since then over 150 "Links" have been established throughout the United Kingdom, raising money to support the children of Belarus and Ukraine, whose lives continue to be affected by The aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. She went on to say that the goal of the Prestatyn / Rhyl link is to raise funds to bring new children over to our area each year. The children stay with host families living in the area between Trefriw and Holywell, for 1 month. This stay strengthens the children’s weakened immune systems and can add years to their lives. During her well illustrated presentation, Gerrie showed a number of thought Provoking photographs of the conditions the children live in, and before and after pictures of the children, taken when thy arrive in North Wales And when They return home. The difference in the health of the children was obvious for all to see, and remarkable that in such a short stay, breathing clean air, Playing and having fun whilst eating wholesome uncontaminated food, such a difference would be so apparent. She told the club that the Prestatyn / Rhyl Link started in February 2004 with the arrival the first two girls. Thanks to unending support from local Rotary and Inner Wheel local businesses, other Clubs and the local people, this year, the link will be welcoming 28 more children. The Rotary Club of Abergele, Club Council will consider what help can be given to this project at the next meeting. ********** President Peter Presents Wheel Chairs On Friday the 23rd of January President Peter Hughes, officially presented two special wheel chairs to the Red Cross; These chairs are to be used locally. The club agreed to fund the special chairs at a cost of £500, after a recent visit members made to the Red Cross offices in Abergele. The Rotary club decided to help, after members where told that, in the last year almost 1800 people, through out North Wales had benefited from the wheel chair hire service. However, that there was a shortage of the special stronger chairs for lager people in and around Abergele. Photo Left to right: Peter Hughes,Lisa Pollard, Kharyn Mitchell, ********************* Other recent donations made by the club have included £200 each to Ty Gobiath Hospice and MacMillan Cancer Care, £200 for the Eye Laser Fund, and £100 to Llanfair TH Senior Citizens. In addition, £200 in sponsorship for St Kentigerns Hospice was given via a local man running in the New York marathon. The club would like to say thank you to all that helped with the Rotary & Round Table Christmas float, over the festive season and to Abergele Tesco, for their hospitality and for allowing the collection day to take place. Despite the adverse economic climate, the collecting tins were as full as ever. Good news for the many good causes that will benefit from this collection in the coming year. Making the hard work carried out Last November by community service team well worth while, this had involved much needed upgrading work on the Christmas float at a cost of £591, adding to the safety of Santa and the enjoyment all. On the 6th of January our first speaker meeting of 2009, had to be cancelled, due to ice on local roads making it unwise to travel. On a brighter note, at the following Rotary club council meeting, our Vocational Service Chairman reported that 12 pupils from Ysgol Emrys ap Iwan had taken up the club-sponsored "Junior Leadership Scheme at a cost to the club of £440 and that all 12 were on target to receive the award! He also reported that the school is interested in helping with the next Abergele Rotary club In-Care Evening. If you would like to help us with any of our activities, or you would like to know how you could be invited to join Rotary or would like information about Abergele Rotary club or Rotary International, please see our web site: www.abergelerotary.org We meet at: Kinmel Manor Hotel for dinner at 7-30 pm with a speaker on the 1st Tuesday of each month and a business meeting on the 3rd Tuesday, visiting Rotarians are always welcome. **************************** On Thursday 27th November 2008 Abergele Rotary Club's quiz team visited the Anglesey Arms, Menai Bridge, to play the Rotary Club of Bangor, in the first round of the Rotary District 1180 quiz. The Abergele team enjoyed the fellowship of a normal Bangor Rotary Club meeting, which included a meal of cottage pie, followed by bread and butter pudding, being served, before taking part in the competition. This hospitality may go some way in accounting for the disappointing performance of the Abergele team, at the start of the twelve round event, which found Abergele struggling to score over the first two rounds. By the time, the Abergele team members had regained their composure; it was too late to make a difference to the final out come. The result was, a clear victory for the Bangor team. Leaving Abergele with the consolation of not having to travel to the subsequent rounds of the quiz, over what look like being a cold, cold winter. *********** Alzheimer's Society 4th of November 2008 On The 4th of November, Members were pleased to welcome Margaret Tuzuner, from Anglesey speaking about the Alzheimer's Society. Margaret told the members that the Alzheimer's Society is the leading care and research charity for people with all forms of dementia. She went on to say that the Society that was formed about 30 years ago offers information, guidance and support to hundreds of thousands of people affected by dementia and their families and carers. Margaret described the ongoing vision of the Society as a radically improved world for people with dementia. A world where they have their rights recognised, where they can fully contribute to family and community life and where they can live with dignity, free from discrimination. A world where they, and those who care for them, have their needs fully met. After describing some of the facilities provided by the society locally and the work done by volunteers she ended by saying that she was well aware of the wonderful things achieved by Rotary Clubs, and that she some times felt that without such voluntary work and fund raising Britain would surely grind to a halt. The vote of thanks was given By Rtn. Mike Mason, who thanked Margaret for travelling from Anglesey on such a cold night, to speak to the club on this important subject. He told her that many members had some experience of the condition, either with family members or friends and acquaintances, but that it was apparent from the questions members asked following her talk, that not many members where aware of the scale of the problem that is increasing as the population ages. He ended by thanking her for bringing this to the club's attention, and expressed his hope that the club would be able to help the Society locally in some way. British Red Cross 28th of October 2008 Members of Abergele Rotary Club visited the British Red Cross on the 28th of October at their new offices on the North Wales Business Park, Abergele, for a presentation given by Bob Cotton, British Red Cross Senior Services Manager. Bob told the club that most people knew of the role of Red Cross in assisting at times of international disaster, but the services provided for local people were less well known. Services such as wheelchair hire, support in the home and first aid, are amongst the other activities that are provided by volunteers helping the British Red Cross maintain the ability to respond to local emergencies such as the flooding that had happened last year in several parts of the country. Ty Gobaith Childrens Hospice Earlier in the month, Rotary members enjoyed a presentation given by Beverley Bradley, the Appeals Organiser for Ty Gobaith Childrens Hospice. She told the club that the Hospice opened in 2004 and helps about 70 families each year, providing regular periods of respite care to terminally ill children living in the North Wales area. She went on to explain that the Hospice is run along similar lines to its sister Hospice, Hope House, but is sensitive to the needs of the local population, many of whom speak Welsh as a first language. Despite the fact that Abergele Rotary Club have made a number of donations to the Hospice over the last 4 years, members where surprised to hear that the Hospice costs approximately £1,000,000 each year to run. They were even more surprised to hear that less than 5% of the cost of running Ty Gobaith comes from the government - the balance has to be raised from donations. In his vote of thanks, Rtn Prys Jones thanked Beverly, for her excellent talk and praised the dedication of staff of Ty Gobaith. Annual golf fundraising day The results of the annual golf fundraising day held at the Abergele Golf Club are as follows; 1st prize - A Bell, P Lloyd & A Pierce with 88 points [this team have won three times over the past 5 years and were obviously in form this year] 2nd - E Davies [coached by the club's match secretary brother Colin] T Riley & D Brown with 84 points 3rd - Rtn Dave Hughes, G Jones & N Rowlands with 81 points [on the back nine] 4th - Rtn Peter Williams, P Strang & Adam Runcie [Adam played extremely well himself with a 64 gross] team score was 81 points 5th - S Roberts, H Sharkey & P Lee with 80 points [this was one of 8 teams from Flixton Golf Club] The president and members of the Abergele Rotary Club extend their congratulations to all prize winners and their grateful thanks to all participants. They also wish to thank the staff, officers and members of the Abergele Golf Club for their support in making this years fund raiser a huge success - £1,200 was raised on the day. Next years event will be at the same venue on Wednesday September the 16th 2009 so please make a note in your diaries. ************* Quiz Winner 2008 Following the Abergele Rotary Club business meeting that took place on 16th September at The Kinmel Manor Hotel, President Peter Hughes was asked to make the draw for the winner of the club's summer fun quiz. 26 entries and been received in all, 5 of which had all the questions answered correctly. The draw was made from these five and the winner of the £50 prize was Ms. C Rodgers, of Colwyn Bay. Rotarian Chris O'Brien, the organiser of the quiz, was pleased to report to the club, that quiz had raised over £150 that will be split equally between local good causes and Rotary International's ongoing battle against polio throughout the world. He also advised the club that a letter of thanks is being sent to the businesses in and around the Abergele area that helped the club in promoting the quiz by displaying a stand of quiz forms and a collecting box in their premises. Chris also thanked the members that had sold forms over the summer season, and told them that that all the correct answers to the quiz, can now be found on the club web site: *************** 28th of August 2008The Abergele Rotary Clubs "Golf dream-team" went to round two of the Rotary District 1180, Golf competition at Caldy Golf Club on the Wirral on the 28th of August. The club had been unable to field a team for the Spring Meeting held at Wrexham Golf Club, so they found that they were at a disadvantage in the team event, because the scores from both meetings are added together. Nevertheless the team did their best. The course was in very good condition, but with a gusty wind and tricky yardages, the course got the better of them on the day. Alas, as last year's winners, they had to watch, whilst the team trophy they had taken with them, was presented to the Wrexham Erddig Rotary Club. The team says that they enjoyed the fellowship and hospitality and that is what it is all about. ********** International Service Chairman 2nd September 2008 Abergele Rotary Clubs speaker on Tuesday the 2nd September was Rtn K Prabhakaran (Prabu ), the clubs International Service Chairman. He recently returned from a holiday in India, where he had been visiting relatives and friends. With the aid of a power point presentation, he told the club that he had been pleased to take 3 days out of his holiday, to visit the Abergele Rotary clubs new sister club, The Rotary Club Of Nanganullur, Tamil Nadu and the recently completed computer literacy project, that had been provided by a Rotary matching grant, in the Village Irumaram. The welcome Prabu had received was fantastic with a band and garlands of flowers, followed by a breakfast feast, that he unfortunately had to forgo due to a stomach bug, being only able to drink a little of the coconut water, that is the traditional drink of the region on such occasions. Prabu, told the club that the reception he had received was similar to one that would normally be reserved for a visiting dignitary, or top ranking politicians. It made him so proud to be representing Abergele Rotary Club and all the Clubs that had cooperated in this International project. It made him realise the importance that our new sister club placed on the project, that we had started in the region and how much they valued our continued fellowship. Later that day, Prabu and his family were taken to the village of Irumaram, to view the computer facilities. He inspected the computer room containing 15 top spec computers, together with all the desks and software needed for the project. He took a photo of the room that he showed to the members during his talk, this confirmed his opinion, that the installation had been an excellent job. Shortly after Prabu had returned from India, the club received conformation that the services of an instructor had been secured and that the first two students had been enrolled on the project, that we hope will provide the IT skills needed in order that this generation of children can become self-sufficient, and help the village out of the poverty trap. **** Our speaker on the 19th of September was Martin Coates, the Rotaract National Membership & Extension Officer. Martin, who lives in Prestatyn gave us a very informative talk about his work travelling about the UK trying to help form new Rotaract clubs and how he is trying to encourage Rotary clubs like ours, to help establish new Rotaract club's, as part of Rotaract's 40th anniversary celebrations. Rotaract is a world wide youth movement, established by Rotary International and is an organisation for 18-30 year olds with clubs throughout the world. It enables members to meet new people, try new activities, and make a difference in the their local community and the world. Rtn Richard Arrowsmith, the clubs Youth and Vocation Service Chairman, proposed a vote of thanks. Club President Peter Hughes, told Martin that our club would look closely at cooperating with other Rotary clubs in the district on this project. Peter then told the members that a club visit to the Rotary Club of Irlam will take place. on the 25th September. We will be departing about 5.30 p.m. transport to be arranged. He also told the club that our wives are also invited to a meeting and meal with Irlam Inner Wheel, at the same time Tuesday 5th August 2008 Speaker - VP David presented a talk which he called "lessons from America" based on his sabbatical year at Harvard College in Boston - he left this country June 28th 2007 and said his first challenge was to obtain a visa from the American embassy in London - there he said he had had quite an experience? During his stay he said he was thankful that the terrain was flat, the result of a civil engineering project to increase space by filling many creeks, he had cycled 1000miles and lost 1 stone during his past year. He spoke about the heritage and history of the area but he predominantly spoke of his sponsored sabbatical and the intense training the focus of which was patient safety and care. He had experienced long days 8-5 and many hours 25 or so of weekly homework. He had been able to closely study the American health care system and make comparisons, he said that the main difference was that in the US patients pay for their health care on average the 300 million residents receive about $7,000 worth of care each compared with the UK where patients get about half that much spent on them. In the US some 60% are insured 20% aren't and 20% are under insured so the system has a massive imbalance. He spoke about many scenarios both at home and in the US and elsewhere in the world - in conclusion David said that if Ysbyty Glan Clwyd was somehow transported to the US it would be a centre of excellence there. He reassured us that we have every right to be proud of our National Health Service and it needed to be very carefully preserved. In the US some patients could be waiting to be seen in A&E for 24 hours - in the UK the maximum wait is 4 hours. After questions and answers a vote of thanks to David was given by Kevin Brown. **** 1st July 2008 Rtn. Peter Hughes J.P. Takes The Chair A Brief History My wife Christine and I spent 30 years in the pub / restaurant business, before retiring in 2005. due to my health problems My Rotary life began just over 15 years ago, when I was invited to join the Rotary Club of Irlam, after giving them a talk " So you want a boozer ". While at Irlam I chaired most committees, was social secretary, and attendance officer. I also started the club holiday, which is still running after 10 years. I worked on District membership Committee, and also along with a dear friend Jack Beck ran the District Quiz. I was also involved with District Conference, attended every year by over 1000 people, 30 of which were from Irlam. I transferred to Abergele Rotary Club four years ago, having lived in the area part of the time for the last 20 years. I was International Chair before being elected to Vice President last year. I was sworn in as a J.P. in 2006 at mold crown court. I now serve as a magistrate in Llandudno Court. I am also member of the Probation Liaison Committee, and the Magistrates Executive Committee. ******************************************************** < 1st July 2008 installation of officers Incoming President Rtn. Peter Hughes with Rtn Kevin Brown At the meeting on Tuesday's the first of July Abergele Rotary Clubs, retiring President Rtn Kevin Brown, addressed the Club saying that, he had enjoyed his year as President and that he had learned a lot about Rotary in the last year. He went on to thank the Committee Chairmen, the Club Council and all the members that had contributed in any way to Club activities, for the encouragement, and support, they had given him, He then presented the chain of office to the incoming President Rtn. Peter Hughes, and wished him every success for the coming Rotary year.- President Peter thanked Kevin, for a very enjoyable year and told the members that he was looking forward to his term of office, and that he was pleased to note that at the start of a new Rotary year the club had new members in the pipeline. He then thanked the club for electing him as President, and then went on to install the clubs Vice President Rtn David Gozzard and Junior Vice President Rtn. Richard Arrowsmith. Peter then introduced the nine guests that had travelled from the Rotary Club of Irlam, to see him receive his President's badge of office. Peter explained that his membership of Rotary began just over 15 years ago, when he was invited to join the Rotary Club of Irlam, and that despite moving to the Rishton and Gt.Harwood area near Blackburn for a while, and visiting the local Rotary Clubs there, he still travelled to Irlam twice a month. Then when he and his wife Christine who had been in the pub/restaurant business, in a number of locations over 30 years, moved to Warrington, he had gone back to Irlam Club, and stayed with them, despite later moving to Chester. At the latter end of his time at Chester, when he was due to be elected President of the Irlam Club his early retirement due to ill health became inevitable. So he transferred his membership of Rotary to Abergele, having had a holiday home in the area for a number of years and where he and Christine now live. Moving on to the club's normal business Peter reminded members that the club had started its season of bingo at the Towyn Community Centre on Friday nights until the 5th of September. Before closing the meeting Peter called upon Rtn Chris O'Brien to explain about the help needed from the members in distributing the Summer Fun Quiz, a new fund raising venture that the club is running over the summer. It is hoped that in addition to the members promoting the quiz to friends and family that a number of pubs and clubs will display the quiz. A cash prize of £50 is offered and all the proceeds will be split 50% to local good causes and 50% to Rotary's on going plan to eradicate polio. Rotary and its global partners are committed to reaching every child with the vaccine and ending this disease worldwide. Major gains have been made in the global fight against polio: In the 1980s, the disease infected 1,000 children every day. Today, polio cases have declined by 99 percent, with fewer than two thousand cases reported in 2006. So far, two billion children have been immunized, five million have been spared disability, and over 250,000 deaths from polio have been prevented 3rd of June 2008 At the meeting on the 3rd of June members were pleased welcome Assistant District Governor Rtn. George Kurian, a member of the Bangor Rotary Club, who was attending the meeting to receive details of this coming years club activities, on behalf of the District Governor. Following the meal, Club President Rtn. Kevin Brown, handed the meeting over to President Elect Rtn. Peter Hughes. Peter started the proceedings by telling the club his plans for the coming year. Peter then introduced the chairmen of Community Service, Youth & Vocational Service, and International Service in turn, to give the members an outline of their plans. Peter then invited the Assistant District Governor to comment on the club's plans for the coming year. He told the club that he was very pleased that we had planned such a full programme that was designed to help so many different people. He was particularly pleased that so much of the work the club planned to undertake concentrated on children, both in the community and internationally. He ended by saying that he had enjoyed his visit to the club very much and that he would definitely be visiting Abergele again later in the year. In care evening 2008 . At their last meeting in May, members of Abergele Rotary Club, once again welcomed 150 guests, including residents of care homes from around the Abergele area, to the clubs annual in care evening, a concert and supper that was held at Kinmel Manor Hotel. It gave members great pleasure to see their guests, the oldest of which was 104, having a good time, thanks to the entertainment provided by Betws- yn- Rhos Male Voice Choir. Once the super had been served, President Kevin Brown, ended the evening by giving a vote of thanks to all that helped make the evening a success. 20th May 2008 At the meeting due 20th May, members will be asked to donate club funds to Shelterbox, a grassroots disaster relief organization, set up by Rotary members in the UK. The International Chair of the Abergele Club, Chris O'Brien, will ask the club to make an immediate response, whilst at the same time he will be advising the club that Shelterbox, a charity that the club has supported many times in the past, was among the first charities to reach the affected area of cyclone ravaged Myanmar in Burma. As other agencies continue to struggle to gain access, more than 1,000 ShelterBoxes were flown out to Myanmar on Wednesday 14th May. Four specially trained volunteers have been on the ground since Thursday (May 8th). Shelterbox founder and Rotary club member Tom Henderson from Cornwall says: "Our team of volunteers are working in cooperation with local groups in Myanmar to line up transportation and determine where the shelters will do the most good amid the massive devastation. We have received tremendous support from Rotarians and would like to extend our thanks. Without the support of our Rotary friends we would not be able to carry out this essential work." If anyone would like to donate money to "Shelterbox" that is helping the victims of Cyclone Nargis that ripped across the coast of Myanmar (Burma), bringing misery & devastation to tens of thousands on 2 May 2008 you can do so by contacting your local rotary club Or go to www.shelterbox.org for more information - End Notes to editor Each ShelterBox containers each provide a tent, blankets, a multi-fuelled stove, a water purification kit, tools and other necessities to help a family of 10 survive for six months. Some containers carried two 10-person tents, doubling the shelter capacity. ShelterBox started in 2001 as a modest project by the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard, England, and quickly garnered support among Rotary clubs worldwide. To date Shelterbox has raised £15.5 million ($29 million) and delivered aid to 40 countries in response to more than 70 disasters. Each Shelterbox container costs an estimated £490 to sponsor, and Rotary clubs provide more than half of the charity's funding. Visit www.shelterbox.org for more information. For more information contact Rotary PR Officer Karen Jones on 01789 768126. 6th May 2008 At the Abergele Rotary Club meeting on 6th May held at the Kinmal Manor Hotel members and guests were initially disappointed when that the speaker advertised in the club's programme failed to materialise. However the club secretary John McKinlay stepped into the breach at the last-minute, giving the club as a fascinating talk about his first sea voyage across the Atlantic as a navigator. He compared each stage of the voyage to the stages in life from birth to death. So fascinating was this comparison that all feelings of disappointment were immediately put to one side, with the members and guests thoroughly enjoying the evening. 30th March To 1st April 2008 Members together with wives and friends enjoyed an International lunch and Quiz, on Sunday 30th March, at the Spice Of India Restaurant, Bodelwyddan. The Club's International Chairman, Rtn Chris O' Brien, would like to thank the proprietors of the restaurant for allowing us to stage this event during their normal Sunday opening. The event raised in excess of £150 towards the club's recent international computer literacy project. The winner of the quiz received a glass globe of the world. The presentation of this prize took place at the club's meeting on Tuesday the 1st April. The speakers at that meeting were from the Wylfa Nuclear Power Station Anglesey the world's largest Magnox nuclear reactor, which supplies enough electricity daily to provide for the combined needs of two cities like Manchester and Liverpool. They gave the club an illustrated talk entitled, "Wylfa Past, Present and Future" which showed how the plant was originally built and the facilities that are currently provided for visitors and educational purposes. The talk also described the planned decommissioning of the reactor, which is due to start in 2010, and explored the possibility of this being delayed, and the probability that the facility may even be replaced in the not too distant future. The speakers told the club that many locals are calling for a new power station to be built next to the existing plant, and that in view of the growing concerns over climate change, as well as the need for local jobs this is seriously under consideration. The presentation triggered many questions, which the presenters answer, where possible, in a very satisfactory manner. This fact was much appreciated by the members and was reflected in the vote of thanks given by Vice President Rtn. Peter Hughes 4th of March 2008 The speakers at our meeting on the 4th of March were Rtn. Mark and Mrs Philpot, from Mold Rotary Club. They provided us with what can only be described as a multimedia experience. This presentation vividly described a "Trip of a life time" that turned out to be an extended adventure cruise to Antarctica, which included in it's itinerary: History, in South Georgia, that is synonymous with Sir Ernest Shackleton's rescue of the crew of Endurance in 1904. Wild life in the form of encounters with land birds, seals, and whales, Geology with volcanoes, Evolution in the footsteps of Darwin and lots of ice and wonderment. We soon found out that this was no mere pleasure cruise but an in-depth educational cruise with trips ashore in a Zodiac, not everyone's idea of a holiday! But thanks to the speakers expertise with the camera, that they seemed to have had ready at all times of the day and night, they managed to convey some of the splendour of what for them must have been an unforgettable experience. Our members were captivated by the many high quality photographs they had taken whilst walking with penguins, or cruising the rocky coastlines watching the curiosity of seals, and the grace of whales swimming past vast icebergs, reflected in still black water. I am sure that by the end of the presentation our members where persuaded that it was indeed a holiday of a life time, and I suspect that one or two of them may even now, be thinking about forgoing the sunshine next year in favour of the ice of Antarctica 27th February 2008 Members, together with their wive's and friends enjoyed a hotpot supper and social evening, that had been organised by Vice-President Peter Hughes, at Abergele Golf Club. Brian "licorice" Locking provided the entertainment for the evening. Brian, who in the Sixties was part of the famous Shadows, he now regularly sings and plays harmonica, in various styles from classical to jazz, a talent that he displayed through the course of evening, much to the enjoyment of the audience. 19th February 2008 At the Business Meeting members watched two power point presentations prepared by the Clubs International Chairman, Chris O'Brien. The first presentation was on "Riders for Health" a charity that not only provide vehicles to Africa, but also provide training and suitable reliable maintenance systems for four and two wheeled motor vehicles, that have bean tried, tested and costed with the potential to be replicated across Africa. The members where told that this means that aid and health delivery need never be undermined by vehicles failing however harsh the conditions. The second presentation was on "LifeStraw" a low-cost portable personal water purifier that can be carried on a cord around the neck, giving the wearer easy access to safe and clean drinking water. It kills and removes 99.99 % of water-borne bacteria and 98.7 % of water-borne viruses and last for up to year. At the end of the presentations, the club members voted to support both of these charities. . Tuesday the 5th of February 2008 Members of the Abergele Rotary held a meeting at Kinmel Manor Hotel. After the business part of the meeting, the President introduced the speaker for the evening, Mrs Delyth MacRae. She spoke of the book she is planning to produce, about the many people of note that have lived in the town of Abergele over the years, the talk was supplemented by a number of photos, and it was apparent that she must have spent many hours researching her subject. This fact was much appreciated by the members and was reflected in the vote of thanks. Tuesday January the 29th 2008 Abergele Rotary Club had a visit to Abergele Town Hall. The Club President and Past Mayor of Abergele Rtn Kevin Brown gave the Club members a short presentation about the Chamber and role of the Town Council. Then we had the opportunity for a debate "council style" with the President sitting in the Mayor's chair and the members sitting in the Council Members seats. The debate was about the club's organisation and how we can improve our club, in order to attract new members and help retain members, in addition to assessing the service our Rotary Club gives to the local community. It was a very different club night, the members were very interested in the history of the Town Council and impressed with the facilities provided in the building. The debate was very positive in nature and could have gone on all night, but we had to close the meeting, by 9-15 pm. 30th JAN 2008 The Area 3 East Computer Literacy Project Funds In Place Matching grant funds have now been deposited in the project bank account in India, so the Area 3 East Computer Literacy Project for Tamil Nadu can now start its work. This project was awarded a matching grant at the end of the last Rotary year. It was funded by the co-operation of the Area 3 East Rotary Clubs of Abergele, Colwyn Bay, Llandudo, Rhos-On-Sea and Rhyl, and included additional funding from Denbigh Rotary club and individual donations. The project was initially funded by the £2,375, raised by the participating clubs. This amount was then passed through the matching grant scheme, gaining extra funding at each stage, firstly to our District, then RIBI. They then passed it on to RI in the USA, who in turn passed it on to the project bank account, that had been set up by our international partners in India with their $100 contribution, all adding up to the final total of $16,444 US. This fund will provide a suite of computers, all the hardware, furniture and software needed to enable successive generations of children and young people to have the opportunity of learning the IT skills they need if they are to find work that can pay them a living wage and help the villages out of the poverty trap. Why this project was chosen. Work in health care, education and sanitation has taken place since 1989 in the villages of Irumaram and Kanchipuram, in the region of Tamil Nadu, India. Many Rotary & Inner Wheel members together with a large number of other people in this part of North Wales, have helped fund these improvements, which have included bringing fresh water and electricity supplies to the village, obtaining the title deeds to the villager's huts etc. The establishment of a health facility in the villages was always considered as the first step on the road to self-sustainability. It was never considered necessary, nor in the best interests of the villagers, to support them in the long term. Indeed, training of villagers in simple health care has occurred and some villagers have been sent away for further education. Dr. Vizwanathan, formerly a Consultant Psychiatrist in North Wales, was asked to be our advisor on a possible project in the villages as he had made many visits to the villages since 1989, when he had provided the original medical input and guidance to the villages. He believed that the best use of any extra funding of this kind would be to try to find a way in which the current and successive generations of children in the villages could become self-sufficient. Relatively well-paid work in India's growing IT industry was available near by. But what facilities existed for IT training were too far away and too expensive for the villagers to even consider on there subsistence incomes, so if the village children where to have a chance at obtaining this kind of work in the future a computer training suite in the village would be needed. We agreed that this should form the basis of our bid for the Area 3 matching grant. To this end the then Abergele Club President, Mike Mason, prepared a synopsis of the proposition. Rtn Chris O'Brien produced a power point presentation that described the bid and the workings of the matching grant system. In November 2006 of the next Rotary year, Chris and Rtn. Peter Hughes (Abergele International Chair 2005-2007) were given the opportunity to present the power point presentation to the Area 3 Club Presidents. After answering questions on the project, the mood of the meeting was in favour of the project. The then District Governor, Gerry Heaslip, who was attending this meeting, expressed his personal approval of the project Encouraged by this, our sub-committee, headed by Mike Mason, contacted two Rotary Clubs in India in the hope that one would agree to oversee the project should approval be received. Both clubs eventually responded favourably and we selected one club, the Rotary Club of Temple City, to be our international partner. We then asked our contacts in the villages to obtain a detailed costing from a reputable company in the region. With this estimate, Mike was able to finalise the draft project. With the help of Kevin Morris, District Grants Officer, and the help he obtained by e-mail from the DG for the Temple City club, the agreement was signed and E-mailed back to us just before the closing date for submission. 18th December 2007 This was the club's Christmas lunch, This replaced the normal evening meeting so as not to interfere with the members manning of the Rotary & Round Table Christmas float, that has become a popular feature of the pre-Christmas festivities in and around Abergele. Members were pleased to hear from the Secretary that despite the inclement weather of recent weeks the collections from the float were on target to match last year's total. Following the meal, Vice President Peter Hughes invited Rev. David Woodward to speak to the club. He told the club that he pleased to hear that, two members had birthdays so close to Christmas, and reminded the club that it was 300 years since the birth of Wesley; who, amongst his other achievements, was the author of Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Possibly one of the most sung Christmas carols of all time. David went on to remind the club that whilst Christmas was a magical time for children, it was not just for children. He went on to speak on the Christmas theme in a joyful and obviously well prepared manner that was much appreciated by the members. For a number of members, about 15 in all, this was the second Christmas meal this year at Kinmel Manor Hotel, as they had attended the Inner Wheel Club of Abergele's Christmas dinner the previous week. This had been a most enjoyable evening, starting with an excellent programme of entertainment given by a local Brownie troop. Followed by good food and fellowship, topped off with a round of carol singing. Vice President Peter, closed the meeting by giving the club the Christmas greetings of President Kevin, who was unable to attend due to work commitments. He then ended by proposing the toast "Rotary and Peace the world over". *************************************** November 20th 2007 We were pleased to welcome Assistant District Governor Mike Clutton to the November Business Meeting at Kinmel Manor Hotel. Abergele Club President, Kevin Brown, was pleased to advise the Club that at the recent District 1180 Council Meeting in Wrexham, it had been announced that Mike Clutton had been appointed District Governor Nominee. Mike will continue to chair group meetings until June when he takes over as District Governor Elect, He will be in office as District Governor in the year 2009 - 10. In his address to the Club Mike said that he was pleased to hear that the Club Service Committee were planning to hold a review of the Club's way of working and meetings, to see if things could be improved in order to encourage new members to join and improve membership retention. He said that these things need to be addressed by all Clubs from time to time, and it is a good sign that your Club is willing to consider the workings of the Club at a time when all Rotary activities in the Club seem to be in fine form. Abergele Club has been represented at several functions held by other Clubs of late including Prestatyn Club's 80th Charter Night, and Rhyl Club's Taste of Indian Event. A Club social night was held on the 28th of November. Several members are planning to attend theMold Rotary Club Charter Night early in December. ************** 2nd of October 2007 On Tuesday the 2nd of October our speaker was Rtn. Sam Reeves the chief engineer of the Snowdon Mountain Railway. During his beautifully illustrated talk using projected photographs both old and new Sam told the club about the history of the railway from 16th November 1894 when the Snowdon Mountain Tram road and Hotels Co. Ltd was formed to build the railway, right up to the present day with the building of the new cafe on the summit. He told how a rack and pinion system was used to provide a smooth and constant operation that is achieved by a double-racked rail used with a rotating toothed pinion. The pinion is mounted underneath the locomotive. He told the club that a unique feature of rack railways, is that the locomotive always pushes the carriage up the mountain and, for safety reasons, is never coupled to the train, the carriage having its own set of brakes that would bring the carriage to a standstill if it disengages from the locomotive. Sam went on to describe how Miss Enid Assherton Smith cut the first sod, at Llanberis station, in December 1894. he told the club how the men working on the track With nothing more than picks, shovels and dynamite finished it in time for the railways public opening at Easter 1896. He then went on to describe how the railway has become a major tourist attraction over the years and that it is hoped that it will be even more popular when the new summit building is completed next year. Despite a poor turn out of members on that evening the members present should there appreciation of Sam's excellent presentation with a loud round of applause followed by a number of searching questions on the subject. 27 September 2007 Update Kevin Brown President of the Abergele Rotary Club was pleased to be able to present a cheque for £2,250 to Mr Arwel Roberts, Chairman of the Abergele Fundraising Committee for the 2008 Urdd Eisteddfod which is to be held in Penrhyn Bay next May. Also present at the presentation was Mr Dilwyn Price Chairman of the Conwy Executive Committee. The money was raised by the Rotary Club when it organised a concert in Llandudno, at Venue Cymru, last July. The amount the club were able to donate is due in the main to the generosity of the many local businesses that sponsored the evening in particular our printers Design2print. and to the generosity those taking part which were; Hogiau's Wyddfa, Annette Bryn-Parri, Eden and Stephan Rhys Williams, Côr Bro Aled, Côr Colwyn, The Hawarden Singers, The Gele Singers, the Conwy Dancers and the Children of Ysgol Glan Morfa. Compere for the evening was Abergele Rotarian and local personality Prys Jones. ************************************************************************* President Kevin was engaged on Rotary business again on Tuesday the 25th of September when he captained the clubs quiz team, in the first round of this year's Rotary District Quiz. Both teams enjoyed great fellowship throught the evening but despite Abergele having the home advantage by hosting the event at the Kinmel Manor Hotel the club's HQ, the result was disappointing from the start with the team from Banger Rotary Club, wining the toss putting the home team to the disadvantage of starting first. The fanal result was a win for the visiting team who will go on to the next round. The Quiz Team ******************************** September 17th 2007 Update Abergele Rotary Club held their 35th Charter celebration, at the Kinmel Manor Hotel on the 7th September. This event is effectively a birthday celebration signifying 35 years of Rotary service to the Abergele Community. Over 100 well-wishers attended the event, including the Lady Mayor of Abergele, the Rotary District Governor, Presidents and members of other Rotary Clubs, the President of Abergele Inner Wheel and members of Abergele Round Table. Abergele Rotary Club President, Rtn. Kevin Brown, welcomed the guests, and after the usual round of toasts and a short speech from the District Governor, the Master of Ceremonies introduced the guest speaker, Mr Brian Locking. Brian, gave a brief history of his early life in show business, starting with him being a soap-box bass player, in a skiffle band, leading him in to show business proper as a full-time occupation. He had an early chart success as a member of Marty Wilde's backing group, the Wild Cats. He had been on the Oh Boy TV show, and he told of how he had met and played alongside many of the top rock and rollers of the day. But that it was his friendship with Brian Bennett, the drummer, who was to later join the Shadows, that would become the most significant factor in his career. It was through Brian Bennett that he was given the chance to join the Shadows as ' bass guitarist, after Jet Harris left them to pursue his solo career in spring of 1962. An all-round musician, Brian's nickname "Licorice' Locking" was a result of his proficiency with the clarinet. His version of 'Stranger on the Shore' was a regular feature of Shadows stage performances of 1962/3, He also provided variety to the 'Shadows Sound' by occasionally playing the harmonica, notably on his own composition 'Licorice' and, perhaps the best of all, his harmonica features heavily on the track 'Dakota' on the 'Sounds of the Shadows' LP. Although he only stayed with the Shadows for eighteen months, it was a golden time for the group, as it included them taking part in the making of the film "Summer Holiday" with Cliff Richard. Brian's final appearance with the Shadows was at the London Palladium in November 1963. Following the talk Brian entertained with several classical tunes on the harmonica and acoustic guitar that where extremely well received by the audience as was demonstrated by the thunderous applause he received at the close of the evening. - ******** 29th August 2007 Update, The Club was well represented in the summer round of the Rotary District Golf Tournament that was held at Heswall Golf Club on the 29th August, despite the first team being unable to attend. The Club's team was made up of Club President Kevin Brown, Prabu, and Dave Hughes. Prabu was 3rd in the individual competition and President Kevin won the most challenging competition of the day - nearest to the pin - Abergele were third in the team event [on the day] and second in the combined spring and summer team events. So, they did the Club proud. The responsibility of the main acceptance speech fell on the Abergele team. The president stepped into the hot seat, as he felt it was the least he could do, as he had scored less than the other team players. a very good day was had by all - the next District golf event is the autumn meeting at Ruthin Pwll Glas ***************** 21st August 2007 Update District Governor, Rtn. Anthony Cotton, was our guest speaker on the 21st of August. Tony has been a Rotarian since 1989 and is a member of the Rotary Club of Birkenhead. For his talk, he chose to emphasise the fun side of Rotary, showing the club photographs and a video of his recent visit to San Diego in the USA, where he attended the incoming District Governors training sessions. He assured the club that despite his presentation concentrating on the social side of the event, much hard work had taken place during the day in preparing District Governors from all over the world, for their term of office. However it was apparent from his presentation that much fun had taken place in the evenings, particularly from the video of the World Wide talent show, where he had joined forces with other District Governors from the UK, in full fancy-dress, to present to a version of The Time Warp, from the Rocky Horror Show. He ended his talk by urging the club to attend the District Conference on the 19th and 20th of October, in Liverpool. Where he assured the club that fun would be very much on the agenda in the evenings, A massed pipe band will escort us into Dinner on the Friday and Saturday will have a Moulin Rouge theme, hosted on by a famous presenter, with a full cabaret programme of entertainment, including the can-can, plus a band and dancing. Despite Tony having under-stated the working side of his visit to the USA, he proved his knowledge of Rotary, by answering several members' questions regarding the workings of Rotary International and the funding of Rotary's worldwide humanitarian projects. Tony also presented a banner to our Club President, Kevin Brown, which contained this year's Rotary slogan. "Share Rotary" this is intended to remind clubs to work together sharing fellowship, and to encourage members to invite service minded people to Rotary meetings so that they can find out more about what Rotary does, both in local community and internationally. Two pieces of good news have reached the club this week, regarding "ShelterBox", the Cornwall-based disaster relief charity, set up by the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard, and which the Rotary Club of Abergele have supported on a regular basis. The first news is that it has reached a major milestone, a consignment of aid sent to help victims of monsoon floods in Nepal brought the total number of people assisted by the charity to an estimated 500,000. The second piece of news is that the Duchess of Cornwall is to become President of "ShelterBox". The announcement of a Royal Patron, follows an official visit in July, when The Duchess toured ShelterBox's premises in Helston and met many of the volunteers who make the charity's work possible. -End Note for Editor During 2006-2007, Rotary Clubs in Britain & Ireland contributed 30% of ShelterBox's funds, ShelterBox also gets fundraising support from international affiliates set up by Rotary clubs in the USA, Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Denmark and Norway. These affiliates now raise around 25% of the charity's funds, with 45% coming as direct public donations. *************** Meeting on the 3rd July 2007 Rtn. John McKinlay (R) was presented with a bottle of Scotch by Phil Cato (L) this was Phil's last act as Presedent and was to say thank you for 10 years service as club secretary. The in coming secretary Rtn. Stephen Cooper is seated in the center of the picture. Rtn. Kevin Brown is the new President of Abergele Rotary Club. (Please see the What's new page) He was presented with the Rotary Club President's badge of office at 3rd of July meeting and by the end of the clubs Saturday evening concert "Voices At The Venue" on the 7th, he had already sung for his supper twice on behalf of the club. Once with the Bro Aled male voice choir and once with the Gele Singers, a mixed choir from Abergele, before beeing called upon to give the vote of thanks to the cast and the club's orrganising committee. The show which was originally Kevin's brain child was certainly a success as an evening of bilingual entertainment, with a long list of top quality performers. we hope to be able to annouce the amount raised by the concert next week. ************************ 2007- 2008 *********************************** Rotary Club Meeting June 5th District Governors assistant Rtn. Mike Clutton Rotary Club Meeting June 5th President Rtn. Phil Cato, introduced our guest for the evening, the District Governors assistant Rtn. Mike Clutton,. Who was attending the meeting to hear details of the coming years programme of activities from the various committee chairman. Following this introduction, President Phil temporarily handed the meeting over to president-elect Rtn.Kevin Brown, to outline his plans for the comeing year. Kevin went on to introduce the new chairmen of the sub-committees, to read their proposals . After which, Kevin handed the proceedings back to president Phil, who thanked various in coming chairmen and, and then invited our guest to comment on the proposals, after Mikes encouraging remarks. President Phil closed at the meeting by asking the members to give their full support to the clubs forthcoming concert “voices at the venue” . He reminded the club that help was needed in delivering posters and flyers in and around Llandudno, up to and including the day of the show on the 7th of July. Since that meeting the annual season of Friday night bingo at Towyn community centre as started and members are reminded to check the rota in order that the hall is fully manned.- ‘In Care Evening’ The Kinmel Manor Hotel was the venue for an other successful and enjoyable ‘In Care Evening’ organized by the members of Abergele Rotary Club last week.. It gave the club members attending the event great pleasure to see 150 guests having a good time, thanks to the entertainment provided by The Gele Singers, and the musical contribution from Rtn David Gozzard on the piano. David was also responsible for arranging this years event. The excellent food was served to our guests by members of the club who also distributed small gifts of chocolate to the guests. President elect Kevin Brown ended the evening by gave the vote of thanks._ 'Ladies Night' The 25th of April was the club's annual 'Ladies Night' held at Abergele Golf Club, with 40 members and their ladies attending. Mrs Battersby president of the Inner Wheel Club of Abergele was welcomed as a guest of the club and was presented with a bouquet of flowers. She responded with a short speech of thanks on behalf of the ladies and the Inner Wheel Club. Rotary Club President Phil Cato decided to dispense with the normal speech and just ended the evening by just thanking Rotarian Dr David Gozzard, for organising the event and then proposing the toast to "Rotary and peace the world over". Dr Gozzard was again in the limelight the following Tuesday when he gave the after dinner speech to the club. During which he explained how Hospital Glan Clwyd is now leading the world in patient safety. The members enjoyed the power point presentation and talk that was part of a longer talk that Dr Gozzard has given to various prestigious medical institutions around the world. It was well received by the club and members were pleased to learn that our hospital is held in such high esteem throughout the medical profession. Rtn. D Prys Jones, gave the vote of thanks on behalf of the club, complementing David, not only on the well laid out structure of his talk, but also on the excellent project the hospital has taken on board. The Rotary District 1180 Spring Golf Competition was held at Abergele Golf Club, on Wednesday 2nd May, with golfing Rotarians in teams of three, representing clubs from throughout our District, that stretches from Southport to Anglesey. It was a gloriously sunny day and one that the members of Abergele Rotary Club will remember for a long time particularly because a team made up of three of our members won the trophy! Some of the events that the club have in the pipeline are: a visit by members to Broughton Jet Service, with buffet lunch, on Tuesday 15th May; followed by the club's annual 'In Care Evening' on Tuesday, 22nd May, at Kinmel Manor Hotel. When the housebound and individuals in care are invited to share an evening of entertainment and a buffet. On Tuesday the 20th March Members held a Business Meeting at Kinmel Manor Hotel. The President introduced the chairmen of the various committees who presented their progress reports. Giving details of the forthcoming events currently in the process of being arranged, including the club's annual in care evening, the forthcoming grand concert "Voices at the Venue" on 7th July at Venue Cymru, Llandudno and confirmation of the clubs Friday night bingo season starting in Towyn Community Centre in July. The President then moved on to the question of donations that had been recommended the previous week at the Club Council meeting. The members approved the first donation of £250 to the North Wales Deaf Association. A second donation of £200 in favour of the hospital radio was also approved. Both organisations had provided excellent speakers at previous meetings and the membership were satisfied that the money donated would be put to good use in the community. Following the business meeting, members were pleased to welcome an additional speaker to the normal programme, the Rotary District Foundation Chairman Rtn. Mr. Colin Winstanley. Colin spent the rest of the evening explaining the value of giving to Rotary's charity " The Rotary Foundation". He told the club that whilst giving to other charities and community-based organisations was a very laudable activity, many Rotary clubs forget the value of the Rotary Foundation humanitarian programmes, where Rotary Clubs around the world ensure that all the money raised for a particular project is spent properly, on that project and in a timely manner. He emphasised that the Foundation relies on the enthusiastic support of Rotarians voluntarily giving generously of their time and money, and has become one of the foremost non-governmental foundations in the world. Every minute of every day, Rotary will touch the lives of millions somewhere in the world. The Rotary Foundation is now one of the world's leading charitable foundations and each Rotarian can be justly proud of its achievements in the past, present and in the future. He went on to ask the club to take advantage of the availability of the Foundation scholars that regularly attend Bangor University, as part of the Foundation educational programmes. This suggestion will no doubt be acted upon at subsequent meeting On Tuesday 6th of March Members were pleased to have 3 guest speakers from the North Wales Deaf Association. President Phil introduced the first to speak, Jane, she briefly explained that the Association's Community Support Services represents the rights, wishes and needs of, and is available to, profoundly deaf, deafened, deaf-blind and hearing-impaired people. The four counties of Conwy, Gwynedd, Anglesey and Flintshire fund the service. This means that there is no charge to use the service in these areas. She told the club that the service can provide information about a wide range of benefits and allowances, help with the completion of forms, translate letters and help write replies, make telephone calls or arrange interpreters and even accompany people to appointments with official bodies She then introduced Jacky herself a deaf person working for the service, who explained she was wearing two hats, in the first she explained the aim of the befriending scheme this is to alleviate isolation and loneliness amongst deaf and hard of hearing people. To improve the confidence of people with a hearing loss, to encourage them to meet other people and join in social activities and so reduce stress and anxiety, and to encourage greater independence and improve their quality of life. She then showed the members the equipment available to help deaf people such as doorbells, telephone ringers, smoke detectors and baby and toddle monitors, usually amplified, or fitted with a vibration device or flashing lights. Following this she changed to her second hat and gave the club a demonstration in lip reading and a test that resulted in the members producing quite similar drawings of the face she had described, with out using words. After this she handed over to Jane again to introduce Keith, he explained how some parts of the work the Association undertake are not funded and depends on donations and voluntary helpers and that it was his job to bring in the funds needed each year, he gave some examples of how this is achieved such as the 200 Club, raffles and coffee mornings. The members where very impressed with all three speakers and asked a number of searching questions Meeting on the 6th February 2007 At the Club Meeting on the 6th February the Club's Vice President Rtn David Gozzard took the meeting, as the President had suffered a mishap whist helping push a car from a ditch. After wishing President Phil a speedy recovery David went on to deal with the business of the club, before introducing the speaker for the evening, Mr. Andy Hays, who is a volunteer and DJ at Radio Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, the Hospital Radio Service at Glan Clwyd Hospital. Andy, with the aid of a power point presentation, told the club that the radio service was started in 1976 and has proved immensely popular with patients of all ages since its inception. It is entirely staffed by volunteers who give unstintingly of their time to provide the day-to-day running of the service furnishing programmes, news items, local information, music aimed at all ages, ward visiting etc. He also told the club how the outdated relay system had been updated in the summer of 2000 by an AM frequency system that ensured all the patients are able to access Hospital Radio at all times. He told the club that studio equipment needs to be upgraded from time to time and that the target tuners, that are used by patients to listen to the service, have to be replaced. So shortfalls in funding can happen. Unfortunately the old ambulance that was used to provide Outside Broadcasts at various charity events, around North Wales, in order to raise funds for the upkeep and maintenance of Radio station, had failed it's MOT. With this in mind the radio service committee are constantly pursuing new avenues of funding in order to maintain this valuable service. Andy's presentation was well received and he was asked to answer a number of questions before the Vice President introduced Rtn Kevin Brown to propose a vote of thanks. *********************** Meeting on the 16th January 2007 The Club's President Rtn Phil Cato told members that the Annual Bowling Match with Round Table had been arranged for Tuesday 27th February at Llandudno followed by a buffet at the George & Dragon, Abergele. The Secretary advised the members that a receipt had been received for the clubs recent donation to the Jaipur Lim Project. And that letters from Child Line Wales, Abergele Blind Club and the Bus Stop Project had been received seeking financial assistance. The club Council recommended that £200 be allocated in each case, this amount was agreed by the members for the first two requests, however following a discussion on the mater of the Abergele Blind Club a donation of £250 was suggested and agreed. The members also agreed that the president explore the possibility of giving some direct assistance to the Osprey Project, following the recently well received talk on the subject that had been given to the club. Jun.Vice Chairman Kevin informing the members that the Clubs Grand Concert would be held on the 7th July at Venue Cymru, Llandudno. Hogiau'r Wydda would appear as our Special Guests. This year's event will be in aid of the Urdd Eisteddfod. Vocational Service Chairman Richard reported that the Rotary Junior Award Scheme was now underway and going well and that Kevin would soon attend a meeting on the project at Ysgol Glan Morfa with the coordinator and Year 6 pupils. International Chairman Peter told the club that District Foundation Chairman Rtn. Colin Winstanley wished to attend a business meeting to address the Club on the work of the Rotary Foundation, and that there had been no progress on the Tamil Nadu Project. Community Service Chairman Colin reported that a debriefing session on the Christmas Float had been held and that the clubs charitable fund had benefited from the collection by £2,275. He considered this to be an excellent result considering the inclement weather experienced throughout the collecting weeks. He recommended that some thought be given to the manning of the float next year as some members felt that they were unable to cope satisfactorily with the longer routes. He told the members that they may need to seek assistance next year from our partners, Inner Wheel and ex-members and other service minded individuals that could be willing to help. He also felt that the provision of improved music on the float would also need to be addressed. Club Service In the absence of Vice Chairman David the Secretary reported that the Club Charter Dinner would be held on Friday 7th September. -END 2nd January 2007 On Tuesday the 2nd of January the Rotary Club of Abergele held its first meeting of the new year with the majority of the membership in attendance, together with a large number of guests who had been invited by members to hear the speaker, Mr Emyr Evans, the Osprey Project officer with the RSPB Cymru. He told the meeting how the Glaslyn Osprey Project had this last year welcomed more than 55,000 visitors to its viewing site at Pont Croesor, since opening in April and, most importantly, how two osprey chicks fledged successfully from the nest. He recommended the club to visit the site next season, as it is the only osprey breeding site in Wales, and is situated in the Glaslyn Valley - one of the most scenic and biodiversity rich areas in country. He went on to show the club a power point presentation that not only vividly demonstrated to the club the beauty of the birds and the nesting site but also how the many visitors throughout the summer had enjoyed views of the nesting osprey, via high-powered telescopes at a hide and on a large, wide-screen plasma monitor, which receives broadcasts of live images from a nest cam directly above the nest. It also showed people taking in the views of Snowdonia mountain range and how they had put the picnic tables to full use over the summer. Following the presentation the members asked a number of questions during which Mr Evens told the club how the project is funded by the European Union's Objective One programme through the Welsh Assembly Government (European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund) and Enfys, funded by the Big Lottery Fund and administered by the Wales Council for Voluntary Action. He ended by saying that we have been fortunate to have had great support from the local community, and from our wonderful volunteers, who have given almost 4,000 hours of time between them to help make the viewing site and the protection scheme run smoothly. A vote of thanks was given followed by a resounding round of applause in appreciation of the speaker. 5th of December 2006 At a Special general meeting heald on the 5th of December the clubs officers for nest year were proposed and adopted by the members. Club President Phil Cato took the opportunity to advised the members that the club council had approved donations help 3 local pensioners clubs hold Christmas parties, this was whole heartedly endorsed by the members. 21 of November 2006 At a recent meeting of Abergele Rotary Club International chairman Peter reported that a cheque to the value of £490 had been sent to "Shelterbox", and that the receipt indicated that a box had been dispatched to Islamabad in Pakistan in the name of the club. Peter also reported that he and Chris attend a meeting of Area 3 Presidents, to present a talk on the Tamil Nadu Joint Project. This seemed to be well received by the meeting. Peter also told the club that following the talk given by Colin James on the work of the Jaipur Limb Centre a donation had been proposed. This was put to the Club at the Business Meeting and a donation of £250 was agreed by the members Community Service reported that the Race Night held in November had been poorly attended but had still been a reasonably successful fund raising event, and that the rota for the Christmas Float had been distributed to all members and pointed out that the planned Saturday collection at Tescos would not take place. The collection would take place on the Bee forecourt between 10am and 2pm on Saturday 16th and possibly at Tescos on Sunday 17th between 10am and 2pm. Vocational Service Chairman Richard reported that a committee meeting had been held. The committee suggest that the proposed entry fee of £3 for the "The Rotary Junior Community Awards" project. should be retained by the schools at least for this year the cost being meet by the club and from sponsorship and that the presentation of the certificates will be at the schools own presentation evening. This was agreed . Club Meeting on the 7th November 2006 "Rotary Jaipur Limb Project" President, Rtn. Phil Cato, introduced our guest for the evening, past District Governor, Rtn. Colin James, from the Rotary Club of Southport Links. Colin gave a talk on the "Rotary Jaipur Limb Project", which was formed in 1985 and became a registered charity in 1995. The bulk of the projects work is in India and revolves around the travelling Limb camps, with as many as 3000 patients turning up for help in a typical year. Colin who is a trustee of the project told the club that the Jaipur Limb is an artificial leg, developed at the Mahaveer hospital in Jaipur, India. He gave a power point presentation made up from photographs he had taken during his visits to the limb camps. He explained that limbs are fitted and maintained free of charge enabling the recipient to walk and work again and return to a normal family life. Saying one of the major differences between the Jaipur technology and western technology is the cost - whereas a western limb will cost between £1,000.00 and £2,000.00, a Jaipur limb can be made and fitted for as little as £25. to £35. The Jaipur limb is hardwearing and will last for three or four years, longer if worn with a shoe. Having passed out samples of the limbs for the members to inspect, he went on to tell the club that the project support work in other countries, with permanent centres established in Bangladesh, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Panama, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Africa and other countries outside India we establish new permanent centres and provide on-going support for them by way of technician training, materials and equipment. Following Colin's talk the President thanked him and invited questions on the project. Then before closing the meeting members were reminded the club had a fund rising social event imminent, in the form of a Race Night. This is on Thursday the 17th November at Slater's Citroen car showroom from 7-30 pm tickets are £2.50p. Some races and horses were still available for sponsorship and that volunteers from the membership where needed for the bar, tote and door. Touchstones12 On Tuesday 3rd of October 2006 members of the Abergele Rotary Club were pleased to have Mr. Danie Strydom as the guest speaker. Danie told the Club that he had been appointed Project Director of Touchstones12 in January 2005. and that the organisation is a registered charity based in Colwyn Bay that provides abstinence based support for individuals who are homeless and suffering from substance misuse problems. He went on to say that Touchstones12 helps individuals from all walks of life and is the only abstinence based rehabilitation service in North Wales. The name comes from the twelve step rehabilitation programme used by the organisation, which he went on to explain as fully as possible given the time constraints. Many of the club's members where surprised by some of the distressing facts Danie quoted regarding the way the criminal justice system works in the UK and the apparent lack of proper coordination in helping to rehabilitate offenders with a substance misuse problems. However the various facts and figures Danie provided seemed to suggest that the Touchstones12 approach is very cost effective and seems to be working far better than many of the other ways of tackling this problem throughout the UK. The members where very impressed By Danie and asked a number of searching questions of him, which he answered frankly. Before returning to his duties at the Colwyn Bay HQ, Danie invited the members to visit the premises to see for them- selves what a difference the project is making, an offer that a number of member are intent on taking up as soon as possible, whilst other members asked for details of the charity's web site, so that any members that were absent could find out just what they had missed, this was given as: www.Touchstones12.org.uk Barbecue was a successful social event At the Abergele Rotary Club Meeting on 3rd September, club President Phil Cato, advised the club that the barbecue held the previous Sunday had been a very successful social event, that had been virtually unaffected by the inclement weather, thanks to the organisers hard work on behalf of the club. North Wales Police Speaker He then went on to introduce our guest speaker Superintendent Phil Thompson from North Wales Police. Phil told the club that he was pleased to be speaking to the Rotary Club of Abergele. He said, "In a way it is like coming home, I was brought up and educated in Abergele". He gave the club a brief history of his 28 years' Police Service, before he went on to explain some of the history of policing in the UK and how in the early days it had been initially manned by locally based Beat Officers protecting and looking after the interests of local residents. He then went on to explain to the club how in the recent past the introduction of various levels of technology had been responsible for the distancing of the Police Officers from their community. "This process was now being reversed", he assured the club, "In effect you could say we have come full circle." Whilst the necessary technology remains in place to help the Police detect modern-day criminals and protect the public from the terrorist threat, North Wales Police now has one of the highest percentages of visible uniformed Officers compared to other Police Forces in England and Wales. The service is committed to delivering a visible and local policing service. To ensure this the force now uses a network of ward based Community Beat Managers. Officers who are visible, accessible, locally known and who will be able to devote time and energy to listening to the needs and concerns of local people. They work with the community in tackling the issues that matter most to local people. This is intended to increase a sense of confidence and security within communities. He concluded his talk by encouraging the club members to get involved with their individual Community Beat Managers. Let them know when you're going on holiday and tell them if you see anything suspicious, they will appreciate your input. Following his talk Phil answered a large number of questions posed by the members, this is a sign of an interesting and informative talk. After all the questions had been answered a senior member of the club, who was him-self a retired Police Officer proposed the vote of thanks in an amusing but sincere way. District Governor At the Abergele Rotary Club Meeting on the 15th August the Club's President, Rtn. Phil Cato, introduced our guest for the evening, our new District Governor, Rtn. Gerry Heaslip PHF, from the Rotary Club of Liverpool Garston. Gerry was attending the meeting as part of his initial round of visits to all 62 Clubs in the District. He told the members that one of his first duties had been that of welcoming R I B I (Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland) President, Rtn. Peter Offer, and his wife Janis to our District on 5th and 6th July. Gerry recommended that as many members as possible take the opportunity to meet with Peter when he is back in the area to attend the Rotary Club of Mold's 70th Charter Dinner in November. Next he went on to talk about two new Rotary preferred projects for the new Rotary year the first being a partnership with the "Wheelchair Foundation (GB & I)" that Rotary will be helping to continue providing wheelchairs to Africa and countries in Eastern Europe that are taking part in the project. The second project he recommended to the club was "Impact" a project that takes hospital facilities by road rail or boat to people living in remote regions. This is a cost efficient charity with low overheads and it has treated the causes of preventable disability in many countries. Finally Gerry congratulated the Clubs new member who he had seen inducted in to Rotary service earlier in the evening, saying: "Welcome to Rotary. I hope you will enjoy Rotary and the fellowship it brings to you in Abergele and throughout the world." President Phil thanked the District Governor for taking the time to speak to the Club and concluded the meeting by reminding members to check the rota for the Clubs fund-raising bingo at Towyn to ensure that the hall is fully manned each Friday. Tom Jones from the Conwy Bus Stop At last Tuesday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Abergele the speaker was Tom Jones from the Conwy Bus Stop Project. With the help of a Powerpoint presentation he explained that “Bus Stop” is a free and confidential mobile information unit for children and young people. It travels to schools, housing estates and towns throughout Conwy, providing information to help children and young people. He told the club that many children and young people find themselves in difficult situations perhaps with drugs or alcohol abuse, or worries about sexually related problems or employment difficulties and may need help, advice or information. Sometimes friends and family can help. But what if they are causing the problems? What if there are no friends or family? Or what if someone would prefer not to talk to them? To be able to talk to some one who can give up-to-date information can be of great benefit. No one is naïve enough to think that simply talking to someone will instantly make problems disappear, but it can certainly help. The project carry a large range of leaflets that are kept up-dated in line with the ever changing legislation and if they don't have the information needed, they will make sure that the young person is put them in touch with someone who does. He then went on to tell the club that the funding for the project was coming to an end later this year and that there was a distinct possibility that this valuable service could be lost to the young people of Conwy. The club was very interested in this project and will pass Tom’s details on to other clubs in the District in the hope that they will be able to consider supporting this very worthwhile project. Updated 22-07-06 Mike Hands over to Phil President Mike's Valedictory Address Well, it all began a little over a year ago and, it seems, all too soon it's come to an end just as I was enjoying myself! All good things etc Given a spell of poor health it wasn't the best of beginnings for this presidential year; indeed in many respects given other health problems within my immediate family it has at times been a very difficult period of my life. But let me say how very impressed Joan and I have been by the support and encouragement that we have received from all quarters of the Club and elsewhere within Rotary. In terms of the Club and the impact that I may have had on it, well, not much has been broken and as far as I can see nothing has fallen off, so I guess something has gone right and, after all, President Phil has something left to inherit. Anyhow, I now look forward to future years in the belief that may still something to offer the Club. All in all it was an enjoyable presidency, and I hope that you've had a good time too. It can't have been too bad a year, as we were awarded a Presidential Certificate in recognition of our performance. I'm all for audit, scrutiny and evaluation, but I hadn't reckoned on the framed certificate that came with the accolade! I was very disappointed when my wife refused to hang this over our mantel piece! I hope that Phil has more success, and yes Phil, it's waiting for you in the car! A key concern for your Council has been how we improve our appeal to potential members. This gave rise to some examination of what it is that we are as a Club and what it is that make us Rotarians. There is always a danger in indulging in too much introspection, but at least we have made a start and have been brave or insightful enough to generate a debate within Council and to a greater or lesser extent with the Club at large. I wish that we could have made more progress; I would certainly recommend that we regularly set time aside to examine ourselves so that we might do all that we can to ensure that we meet our Rotary objectives and are perceived as being a relevant local organisation that, within a very competitive sector when considering the time commitment that people are prepared to give, others are keen to join. Of great help to our profile and hopefully our membership has been the Club Information Leaflet produced by Rtn.Chris O'Brien. This together with revisions to our website, the bilingual nature of information about the Club and the sterling attempts by Rtn. John Newcombe and now Chris O'Brien to give information about our activities to the press, can only be to our benefit.In his role as Speakers Coordinator Chris has provided us with excellent speakers who have covered a wide range of issues, and it has been particularly gratifying that we have been able to give financial assistance to many of the organisations.We have been more involved in providing financial assistance to meet need in three International disasters. This has been quite exceptional and one can only hope that this level of need will not be repeated for a long while.We have been innovative, with our first ever Grand Choir Concert held last month. This was truly a wonderful night and the whole exercise was accomplished with seemingly great ease by Rtn. Kevin. Many lessons have and will be learned, but I am sure that this will become a regular event and something good with which we can be associated and recognised for. This year we even attracted one new member and there is every likelihood of others to follow and this is particularly good news. We have continued with our trademark events including the Christmas Float, Bingo, the annual In Care evening with even more success than previously. A great deal of effort has been given to enhancing our involvement with young people and their schools. I think that this represents opportunities in future to establish new activities for which we can be justifiably proud to be associated with.The social events including the Ladies Evening, and BBQ were enjoyed by all participants. These events would have been possible without your input and effort. So, to all our Committee Chairmen who were the driving force behind our achievements this year and to others who have contributed in any way to Club activities - my thanks, to the Council for their encouragement and support - my thanks, and turning to individuals I record special thanks To Rtn. John our Secretary and to Rtn. Bob in his role as our TreasurerTo Rtn. John Morris in his role as Almoner, for providing timely and effective support to those of us who have been unwell during the year.To Len for compiling the Newsletter so efficiently To immediate Past President Clive for his availability and to have someone to gain experienced advice from.To President Elect Phil and Vice-President David for their wise counsel over the past 12 months. Their individual qualities, when placed together, augurs well for the year ahead. And within the year ahead I look forward to playing my part, and I hope that each and every one of you play yours. For any individuals who think that they deserve mention and that I have not named. Your omission is not intentional and I apologise, but you know that I am very grateful for your efforts. Finally and most importantly to you all - the membership of the Rotary Club of Abergele. I thank you for the honour and opportunity that you have afforded me. It will be my proud boast for all my years that I have served as your President. Thank-you. Up Dated June 20th 2006 On Friday night the 16th June Abergele Rotary Club produced a wonderful show at the Rhyl Pavilion, in the form of a grand concert. following the last performance, the club's President Rtn. Mike Mason, was called upon to speak. Standing from his seat in the auditorium, Mike, thanked the audience for supporting the event saying " This has been the most enjoyable evening of my year as President of the Abergele Rotary Club. And I believed that the concert had been a success on many levels. Firstly the quality of the entertainment has been first class, judging by the thunderous applause following each part of the program this fact has been appreciated by you the audience. Secondly we have provided an opportunity for the general public to experience some of the culture of Wales, the traditional Welsh choirs and wonderful soloists and instrumentalists from within those choirs." He went on to thank our compere, Mr Glyn Owen and the special guest performer Mr Trebor Edwards, whose pure Welsh tenor voice had held the audience spellbound. He then thanked Rotarian Kevin Brown who had been the inspiration for the event and leading member of the clubs organising team. Saying "Kevin has put in an enormous amount of work to make this splendid evening happen." Then with the five choirs and the rest of the company assembled on stage for the finale, the microphone was passed to Rtn Kevin Brown, He thanked the club's President for his kind words and all the Rotary club members for all the help and support they had given in planning the show. Then he told the audience that the club had hoped to be able to produce a similar event on a regular basis, and that it was a pity that with such a great show the theatre had not been full to capacity." This comment produced a spontaneous round of applause. Kevin, continued saying "It maybe that it is not viable to produce a show like this every year, but every two years could be a distinct possibility!" The compare Mr Glyn Owen, then reintroduced choirs, asking them to lead the audience in a rousing version of the "Hymn Guide Me Oh Thou Great Redeemer", with alternate verses in Welsh and English. This was a particularly uplifting ending to a wonderful night of entertainment. NB: The Abergele Rotary Club would like to thank the Choirs. The Compere and our special guest, the sponsors, and all the business premises around Abergele, Rhyl and Prestatyn that assisted us by displaying posters and last but not least The Rhyl Pavilion management and staff for their help and advice. The President's Notes - June 2006 We're in the final stages of our Rotary year and this willl be my last note to you as your President, your next newsletter will be from President elect Phil. I have enjoyed my year a great deal and I hope that you will also have enjoyed the activities we have shared in the past twelve months, Since my last note we have had our Ladies Night and our annual "In Care Evening". Both were, I felt, very successful and enjoyable occasions. Thanks to all members who helped with the; "[n Care Evening", and particular thanks are due to Vice President. Phil and his team, Kevin for his role as M.C. for the evening, arid David who entertained our guests on the pianoforte. Once again the Betws yn Rhos Male Voice Choir were magnificent, and their singing enjoyed by all. I would also like to offer a Big Thank You to our anonymous donor for his generous support for the "ln Care Evening". We nee meet for our Club Assembly. Could I, on behalf of President Elect Phil, remind all next years' Committee Chairmen to have their proposed programmes (with a copy) available for presentation to AGM John McDowell when he visits the Club on 6th June. This year we've attempted to review what it is that makes us the Club we are and identify what, if airy; changes are required in order to ensure that we are an attractive proposition for those who night wish to join the Club. At the last Business Meeting we had an opportunity to involve all members present in giving ideas to Committee Chairmen for possible inclusion in programmes for next year. Not surprisingly this produced further ideas for social, fellowship, and hand-raising activities, some of which will involvee all three! It was suggested that we ought to promote a significant community activity for which the Club will become well known. The considerable progress made this year by Kevin and Vocational Service in developing a relationship with local school facilities in the area was considered to be the most appropriate initiative to explore in this respect. I really hope that Club Council will continue to examine the extent to which the Club remains relevant to current and potential members and ,more importantly, the community we serve. Yours in Rotary President Mike Our Speaker for March was Nicky Litchfield from "Hearing Dogs For Deaf People" With her local geust Speaker Sharon Evans and her hearing dog Ike This stimulated an interesting round of questions. The annual 10-pin bowling match against Round Table took place at Llandudno on February 28, with a follow-up social gathering at the George and Dragon The Club also agreed to a donation of £200 to (MAG) the Mines Action Group, following an excellent presentation by Rhian Cooke, last January. New Member** At our business meeting in the Kinmel Manor Hotel on February 21, the newest member, Peter Williams, was welcomed and formally inducted in to the club. Reports from the four sub-committees were received before president Mike announced that a wide-ranging review of the Clubs is to be instigated. The council had agreed to re-examine the Club's aims and objectives especially in relation to the pressing issues of its functional structure, the problems of recruitment, and the age profile factor in light of its more physically demanding commitments 1 to the community. The proposed Male Voice Choir concert to the held at the Pavilion, Rhyl on the 16th June 2006 is now taking shape. February 2006 We had a most interesting talk given by "The Bank Of England Agency For Wales" regarding the mechanics of the Bank of England, and the measures taken to gather information in order to set the Base Rate. It was good to know that local businesses can have their say and bring about some influence Jan 2006 We started the New Year in a sober mood, with a talk , delivered by Rhian Cooke, regarding the work of the Mines Action Group. This stimulated an interesting debate regarding the use of mines in the arena of war. Differing views are and will be held, but there is an enthusiasm for a purposeful response by the Club in terms of supporting MAG in their relief work. We can now confirm that the Christmas Float raised £4523.25, the highest sum ever collected. Our thanks are due to Round Table for their support and we will be able to express our thanks at the Rotary/Round Table Ten Pin Bowling Challenge Match to be held on the 28th February. Please come along and support your Team Rtn. Kevin has a "Chairs Group" supporting his efforts in bringing about a Male Voice Choirs Festival, to be provisionally held on the 16th June at the Pavilion, Rhyl. Planning for this continues, but this will be a major opportunity for fundraising , so please put this date in your diaries. Rtn. Peter meets regularly with International and Foundation Chairs in our Area, in a group convened by Tony Cotton, Assistant District Governor, who we welcomed to our Council meeting in January. It is likely that support will be given to one or more projects that the group will select, creating the opportunity for Clubs to combine resources, possibly attracting Rotary match funding. International Committee will soon discuss the needs and suitability of the Tamil Nadu Child Development Centre Project, supported by Rtn. Srini and other Rotarians, as a possible submission for consideration. Council has begun to consider our current pattern of meetings. This pattern has been in place for two years or so, and Council agreed that we should provide a fresh opportunity to take account of the feelings of the Club. Council will consider this in more detail this month, and it is intended that a debate will be held at the Business Meeting to be held on the 21st March. I hope that there will be a good attendance on that occasion.
	Abergele Rotary Club News December news By now Christmas is past and we have entered into a New Year, 2006. I sincerely hope that Christmas was truly happy for you and your families and that 2006 will prove to be healthy for you and peaceful for all. In the run up to Christmas it was good that we had a very good attendance at our Christmas luncheon, when John McKinlay entertained us to what I can only describe as a picture in words. His winter nautical story was truly magnificent and he drew out so effectively how in nature you can experience he enormity of creation. Thank you John for a most enjoyable talk. As we go to press it would seem that the Christmas Float takings are, if anything, slightly up on 2004 which in itself was a record year. Many thanks to all who gave their support this time. It was good to see Norman Kirkham back with us in December, but we missed Tudor Jones who was in hospital. Also Srini "hopped" into our Christmas lunch having sustained a most unfortunate accident at home last month. Our best wishes go to Tudor and Srini for their quick return to good health. We next meet on January 3rd when we will have a talk about the Land Mines Project so I hope that we have a good turn out for that. ************************************* Pakistan Earthquake Appeal. A concert by the Llanddulas male voice choir has been arranged by our Club It will take place at the Presbyterian Church, Hawarden Road, Colwyn Bay on Thursday 17th November commencing at 7.30 pm. Tickets are priced at £5.00, All profits will be donated to the Pakistan Earthquake Appeal. ************************************* November Newsletter What a month it's been again On the world stage, following the Asian earthquake disaster ! Our willingness and ability to support those in need remains strong and I'm pleased that we are able to fund a Shelter Box that hopefully will soon be on its way to Pakistan. On the home front The Club is to donate £250 towards the funds of Abergele Blind Club. *************************** At the beginning of the month we heard from Gill Ford who told us of the problems faced by young people who have the responsibility of caring for relatives. It's not that our Health and Social Services don't provide help; the fact is that, for some families, where there is illness or disability, caring is a 24 hour responsibility and sometimes it is only the youngsters present who are able to do this. I hope that we can consider how we can get involved in providing some assistance for youngsters helping in this way in Abergele. ********************** It was good to see David Roberts, Edward Lyons and John Newcombe back on their feet. Keep up the good work chaps and the best wishes. We have been fairly involved on the District front this month Peter Hughes attended a meeting of Foundation/International Chairmen and I attended a meeting of Area 3 Presidents. Keep a look out for details of how these new initiatives may help us to share experience and resources. ************** Eexpect details regarding this years' Christmas Float in the next newsletter. ****************************** Life and times of Alfred Nobel Chris O'Brien entertained us to a talk about the life and times of Alfred Nobel. I was not on my own in learning much about the considerable enterprise and intellect of Nobel and of the legacy he left in recognising the contribution that many can and do make particularly in the field of peace, reconciliation and understanding. ******** Visit from District Governor It was good to have a visit from District Governor Goff Uttley who told us that so far in his year he had attended no fewer than 88 Rotary events! Phew! And it's only September! It's useful to have sound links with District for mutual benefit whereby we can stimulate Rotary activity at Club level and further a field. ******************* Chrysalis Trust Much nearer to home we heard from Kay Parry-Jones, who works for the Chrysalis Trust I at nearby Glan Clwyd Hospital, where the information, counselling and support needs of children who face considerable medical problems, and their parents and carers, are met by Chrysalis. I cannot remember too many occasions in my time with the Club where the immediacy of the need was responded to so quickly and generously. *********************** Rotary Golf Money out requires money in, and it was a delight to attend the prize giving following the Abergele Rotary Golf Charity Match last week in which some 23 teams had taken part. Thanks are due to Bob Walford for his work in bringing this together for us. It's always good to see people having a good time, but also remembering those less fortunate. Close to £1,000 from that event alone, so well done to all! ****************** 1st A Tsunami Disaster Now The American Gulf Our thoughts this month have again been focused upon the needs of other facing, emergencies abroad. Having been confronted by the enormity of the Tsunami Disaster at the beginning of the year, little did we know that people would, as the saying goes, "be in harms way" as a result of natural disaster as evidenced in the American Gulf area. It was our privilege as a Club, once more, to be generous in supporting the needs of those less fortunate in terms of responding to needs as presented to us. Mike Takes The Chair 19/07/2005 It was good to see this year's president, Mike Mason at this week's meeting and even better to see that he was able to receive his Presidential Chain of Office, illness had prevented him being able to takeover the office at the turn of the Rotary year. Mike introduced our first Speaker of the new season Rotarian Colin Winstanley who is this year's district International chairman. Colin explain some of the International projects and recommended that we all read the projects book, to see if we can find suitable project that could enable us to make use of the matching grants system, whereby a project that raises £1,000 locally could be turned into £3,500 by the time it reaches it destination. It would be true to say that Colin gave the club quite a lot to think about. **************** Annual Club Assembly Following the club's annual in care evening. the next meeting on Tuesday 7th June will be the Annual Club Assembly, when our guest will be Rotary Assistant District Governor, Tony Cotton. ***************** In Care Evening The 24th May will see the club's annual in care evening. When we entertain those residents of our immediate vicinity who are in care homes, to an evening of entertainment, in an environment different to their norm. In previous years this has been well appreciated by our guess and as proved a highly rewarding evening of service for those Rotarians that have been able to attend. We are sure that this year's event will be no different. *************** Bowling evening the 17th when the club were to meet Denbigh Rotary Club members for a bowling evening at Betws-yn-Rhos Boling Club, following which the clubs were to enjoy a meal together at the wheat sheaf. Double meeting Tuesday May 10th was a double meeting evening for members who attended both a club council meeting and the formal club meeting that followed at Kendal Manor. This unusual occurrence was created in order to facilitate a social evening the following Tuesday "Business Eye" *********** On 3rd May the club was pleased to receive Ms Linda Peel from Business services in Wales, otherwise known "Business Eye". Despite a technical problem that meant the club was not able to see the audio-visual presentation that Linda had planned the, evening turned out to be a very worthwhile experience particularly for those members who are in business or planning to start a new venture. It was clear from the description given of the services Business Eye provided, that they understand the issues facing business in Wales and are able to offer help and advice to both large and small businesses wherever they are in Wales. At the conclusion of the talk members were invited to seek further information from the Business Eye Website: www.businesseye.org.uk. ****************** Annual General Meeting We have had quite an active time over the last few weeks starting with the Annual General Meeting, at which the membership confirmed the appointment next year's president Mike Mason and his management team for the coming Rotary year and July 2005-2006.
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*The Latest News from Abergele Rotary Club* Stop Press At the November District Meeting our Club President Peter Hughes was appointed, unopposed, to the office of Assistant District Governor. Well-done Peter! The club will be behind you! Good luck in your new Rotary role. ****	OUR PRESS REPORTS FROM 2005 TO 2009 Santa wants your help around Abergele Have you ever thought that you would like the opportunity to bring a little joy to Abergele in the run up to Christmas, whilst raising funds for good causes at the same time? If you have then why not think about helping Santa collect door to door, during his musical sleigh ride of the town and outlying areas. If you can spare a couple of hours on one or more evenings in December, you could be invited to join in the fun by the Abergele Rotary club. Just leave your contact details, a member of the Rotary team will then contact you in the next day or so, with details of the event and where you can meet members of clubs near you. If you decide to help you can treat this as a one off act of Christmas good will, or as an opportunity to find out more about Rotary and what being a member of a Rotary club involves. President of the club Dr David Gozzard said, We are hoping that a few of the people that will turn out to help us and the Round Table with our Christmas float, will take the opportunity to find out how being a member of a Rotary Club can be an enormously fulfilling experience. giving members a way to make a world of difference to the lives of others, make new friends and be sure of a warm welcome at any Rotary meeting in the UK and just about any country throughout the world. If you ring us and for whatever reason, you are not contacted successfully within the next 5 days, please let us know by e-mailing: pro@abergelerotary.org 23rd November A rare joint meeting was held at Kinmel Manor on 23rd November when 27 members from the Inner Wheel and Rotary Clubs of Abergele came together to hear a presentation from Mr Philip Hughes, the North Wales co-ordinator of the charity Help for Heroes. Philip, himself a retired soldier from Denbigh, told how Help for Heroes was started by Bryn and Emma Parry after a profoundly moving visit to Selly Oak Hospital in the summer of 2007. Their original purpose was to raise funds to build a private swimming pool for the soldiers to exercise in, as they had to use a public pool. This was quickly raised and since then help for Heroes has expanded into supporting wounded service men and women in many ways, including providing accommodation for relatives whilst visiting their wounded and giving grants to the right organisations to ensure the best type of help is given. Philip has worked as a volunteer since the start of the charity and he and the other volunteers are passionate about the work they are doing, and the difference they are making to the lives of some extraordinary young men and women. Philip assured the Clubs that there was no intention of building large reserves, as the money comes in it is spent, and that virtually all the money raised goes to the cause, expenses being mainly met by money raised through the sale of products through H4H. During the course of his talk Philip played several short videos which showed the work done by Help for Heroes and told the stories of the young-looking wounded soldiers some with multiple amputations who attend Headley Court for rehabilitation . Following the talk a vote of thanks was given by Rotarian John Newcombe, following which the President of Inner Wheel, Sybil Newcombe presented a cheque to Philip for £300 from the proceeds of Inner Wheel's recent coffee morning. It is hoped that this amount can be supplemented by Rotary following their next business meeting. *********** "ShelterBox" 3rd November 2009 Since April 2000 when the Rotary charity "ShelterBox" was launched many Rotary Clubs around the UK, including the Rotary Club of Abergele, have been supporting the project by fund raising, but the club meeting on the 3rd November was the first time most members of the club have had a chance of seeing a box and it's typical contents close up, thanks to the display provided by the clubs guest speaker Peter Hodgson, who is the "ShelterBox" coordinator for the District. Peter, who had travelled from his home in Llansantffraid, Powys, told the club that each box can supply an extended family of up to 10 people with a tent and essential equipment to use while they are displaced or homeless. The ability to respond instantly to natural and manmade disasters by delivering boxes of aid to those who are most in need is the top priority of the charity. One of the ways this is achieved is through the "ShelterBox" Response Teams. These teams are made up of volunteers, acting as spokespeople for "ShelterBox" and are its eyes and ears on the ground. They determine if the boxes are needed, where to send them and how to best get them to the victims. They even accompany the delivery to the disaster zone and oversee the distribution of the boxes, to ensure that he boxes reach the right hands. Peter said that this is the key in enabling "Shelterbox" keep its overheads to less than 10% of its income, far less than most other charities. Since January 2009 when 200 Shelter boxes were packed for distribution to Gaza where thousands of people were left homeless by conflict, boxes have been sent to over 20 disaster destinations as diverse as the Sumatra earthquake, China typhoon, India floods & mudslides, and the Australia fires. Peter explained that the contents of the box can be varied according to local conditions and what is most urgently needed, and that box itself can have many useful functions from food container to cot. The DVD and powerpoint presentation given by Peter was extremely moving and motivating, the club will try to arrange a day when the box and its typical contents can be displayed locally, in order that the public can see the work done by "ShelterBox" and have an opportunity to donate. In the mean time if anyone wants to know more about "ShelterBox" they can see details on www.shelterbox.org and if you want to get involved with Abergele Rotary Club please contact the club or see the club website, www.abergelerotary.org ****** Summer Quiz winner We would like to thank all the people who took part in the Abergele Rotary Club Summer Quiz and all the businesses that sold the quiz entry forms on behalf of the clubs. After paying out the prize money of £50, we have raised a total of £196.50p, this will be split equally between Local and International good causes. Only 24 quiz forms were returned for marking, none had all the 75 answers correct and only one from Ms. Kath Williams, of Rhos-On-Sea had 74 answers correct. So no draw was needed and Ms. Kath Williams was declared the winner, and invited to attend the next meeting on the 6th of October to receive the winners certificate from the club President David Gossard. The answers to this years quiz are displayed on the "What's new" page of the club web www.abergelerotary.org Photo of the prize winner Ms. Kath Williams (Left) and club president David Gossard (Right) “The Gresford Letters” 6th October 2009 On the 6th of October the speaker at the meeting of Abergele Rotary Club was the writer Beverley Tinson, who lives in Prion. She has just written a book entitled “The Gresford Letters” to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Gresford Colliery Disaster, that happened in September 1934, when 266 men lost their lives. The book that is based on research Bev did for her MA degree at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1998, contains many on the letters written during the aftermath of the disaster. Bev told the club that “The Gresford Letters” was published thanks to a number of individuals and clubs, including Abergele Rotary Club, having made donations of £5 and upwards toward the cost of publishing, and that all the donors are listed in the book, which was launched on September 24 at the Gresford Colliery Social Club. Bev told the club members that she had just started her research for the book when she interviewed Blodwen Bryan, she had been the last surviving widow of the Gresford mining disaster, her story of how she lost her husband is included in the book. Bev had interviewed Mrs Bryan from Coedpoeth when she was aged 96, she described the awful moment that she was told about the blast, that happened during a night shift her husband was working on, the consequence of the disaster was not only the loss of her husband but also the loss of her baby daughter Isobel, who she believed died of grief at the loss of her father just seven weeks to the day after the disaster. Following this moving account of her interview with Mrs Bryan, Bev went on to read a small selection of the letters she has included in her book, from the 10,000 letters that she had discovered.during her research. After the talk one member described how as a small child he had visited Gresford Colliery and that it had left him with a feeling of claustrophobia that still persists to this day. A number of questions followed before President David gave the vote of thanks, saying, that he enjoyed talking to Bev during the meal and had found her illustrated talk very interesting, as he came from a mining family himself, having a father and two brothers that had worked in the mining industry. Photo of the prize winner Ms. Kath Williams (Left) and club president David Gossard (Right) Club Meeting on The 15th September At the Abergele Rotary Club Meeting on The 15th September, the club members accepted the club council's recommendation to give a £50 donation to the brain injuries charity B.I.R.D. The treasurer announced a successful conclusion to the clubs bingo season, with the club having raised over £1,000, for the good causes account. The remaining "summer fun quiz" forms were collected in from members, prior to marking, in readiness for the draw which will take place at the next meeting, when the winner of the £50 prize will be selected. Following the meal, fun and fellowship were the order of the day, with the Abergele club hosting Llandudno Rotary Club, in the a first round of the Annual Rotary District 1180 quiz. The competition which was held on neutral ground, at the Red Lion, Llanfairt Talhaiarn was a close run thing, but the Abergele Club eventually proved successful in going through into the next round of the competition, where they will play either Prestatyn, or Bangor, Rotary Club, depending on which of these clubs club wins their heat. Despite the meeting finishing a lot later than normal, probably due to the friendly banter that ensued throughout the evening, both clubs agreed they had thoroughly enjoyed the evening and the competition. Club meeting on the 1st of September 2009 At the Abergele Rotary Club meeting on the 1st of September President David Gozzard introduced the guest speaker, David Poppitt, who told the club that following a career in Medical Research, he became the Appeals Director at Manchester`S Christie Hospital. He built a team of 15 responsible for an income of about £3 million per annum including successful cause related marketing deals with the BBC, sports companies, retail and brewing companies. He then moved to his old School, Bolton School as Development Director for five years. He told the club that following this he realised that he had built up many valuable contacts, that he could put to good use, on behalf of other charities, that needed help in setting up an efficient fund raising operation. He decided to start up his own consultancy. He is now a consultant specialising in all aspects of income generation in both health and education sectors, and has successfully worked with over 50 organisations in this capacity in addition to having written a book called “The School Fundraiser” aimed at helping head teachers, school governors and PTA members generate extra revenue. David then went on to describe some of the celebrities that he had worked with and some of the funny and interesting things that had happened to him over the years. Before telling the club about the charity he is working with at the moment “B.I.R.D” He first explained that is nothing to do with birds, it was in fact originally a pioneering approach to the treatment of children with Brain Injury at the centre in Broughton, that was set up in 1982 by the founder of the charity, Dr David McGlown. The aim of B.I.R.D, is to help as many patients as it can to improve the quality of their lives by helping them to develop skills never before present, or lost through injury or accident. The improvements in many of the children who joined the treatment programme were so significant that the treatment programme was extended to people of all ages who had suffered many different forms of brain injury. Today, the BIRD Centre covers two distinctly separate areas of work: the first tackles all forms of neurological impairment and brain injury, whiles the second covers learning development work treating children who are failing educationally due to any of a variety of conditions, or with no obvious cause. David answered a number of questions before the club President gave the vote of thanks, which he followed with a reminder to the members that any outstanding question forms for club’s summer fun quiz need to be handed in or posted to arrive by the closing date of the 15th of September ************* 4th of August 2009. At the Abergele Rotary Club meeting on the 4th of August the community service chairman advised members that the club would be arranging an evening of classical music to be played by musicians from the St. Asaph International Music Festival. This will take place at St Michaels Parish Church Abergele on Thursday the 27th of August at 7.00pm. The ticket price will be £4.00 and these will be available from club members, St Michaels Parish Church and from Abergele Town Hall, any unsold tickets will be made available on the door. The chairman also reminded members that the clubs fund raising bingo evenings are well under way at Towyn Community Centre on Friday evenings and will continue until the end of August. He asked members on duty to arrive one hour before the 8.00pm start to ensure the room is set up in time. The club’s summer fun quiz which is also available at the bingo sessions, as well as from members and a number of pubs and clubs around Abergele, is going well with a number of members selling all of their allocation of quiz forms. Then the club president Dr David Gozzard introduced Mervyn Richards the guest speaker, although Mervyn is well known to many of the members, it was not as well known that after Mervyn had retired from teaching he and his wife went to live and work teaching music to teachers in Botswana. He started his very interesting talk by explaining that Botswana is completely land-locked and became independent of Britain in 1966 It is currently the only African country that pays into the IMF, due to the wealth provided by its vast diamond mines. At independence only 20% of school age children were enrolled in primary school and only 8% of those went on to secondary school. Great strides have been made since then in providing the necessary school infrastructure in all parts of the country thereby allowing all children of school age to attend school. Although most parents see the value of education and send their children to school there are still one or two pockets, in rural areas, where the parents have not yet appreciated the value of education. Nevertheless, all the children are enrolled in school and education is given the highest priority in the allocation of resources. Mervyn then went on to talk about a few of the many funny, exciting and often embarrassing experiences he had had whilst teaching and on safari in the country. All of which would make for a good read if ever he decided to set them down in a book. The club secretary gave the vote of thanks and was also able to thank Mervyn for his assistance in organising the District 1180 Area 3 [east] Rotary/Côr Meibion Trelawnyd Ty Gobaith fundraising concert in Llandudno recently. ******** At our first meeting of the new Rotary year on Tuesdays the 7th of July retiring President Peter Hughes was delighted to welcome five guests, which included the president and members of the Rotary club of Prestatyn. Peter delivered his valedictory address to the club and said that, he had enjoyed his year as President. He went on to thank all of the Committee Chairmen, Club Council and all of the members that had contributed to the many Club activities during this past year, he thanked everyone for the encouragement and support . The retiring president then installed the incoming President Dr David Gozzard and wished him every success for the coming Rotary year. President David thanked Peter and presented him with a gift from the club, wishing him well on behalf of the members, as he starts his first year as assistant district governor. President David then went on to install the clubs Vice President Richard Arrowsmith before introducing the guest speaker for the evening, Kevin Gaskell; Photo David and Kevin by reading out his impressive entry in Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia. Kevin, whose father lives in Abergele, and joined him as a guest of the club, was born in Macclesfield 1958. Having played representative cricket at county and international level he is now a keen skier, scuba diver, clay pigeon shot and enjoys playing in a rock band for relaxation. Kevin is a confirmed adventurer, in 2006 he was part of a team that walked unaided to the North Pole and in so doing he raised over £80,000 for the North Wales Cancer Treatment Centre at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd and the Leukaemia Research charity. To celebrate his 40th birthday he spent four weeks climbing Everest. In 2009 together with his son, he completed an unsupported trek to the South Pole, which made his son one of the youngest ever to achieve this feat. Again, this adventure was intended to raise funds for Leukaemia Research and has so far £20,000 has been raised. His most interesting talk to the club was about both of the walks to the poles and they were very well illustrated by photographs, but it was Kevin’s vivid descriptions of the trials and tribulations of the two adventures that kept all of the members spell bound for the whole presentation._End Please see Wikipedia entrey below for: Kevin Gaskell **************************************************************************************************** Kevin Gaskell British. Born Macclesfield 1958. Connahs Quay High School 1973-77. Undergraduate of the University of Bradford in Civil and Structural Engineering 1977-81; Scholarship MBA student at the Bradford School of Management 1982-83. RM Douglas Construction Ltd, Civil Engineer, 1977-84. Dow Corning Ltd, Management Accountant, 1984-1987. Joined Porsche GB Ltd in 1987, appointed Managing Director in 1992, aged 33. Over the next five years he was responsible for the turnaround of the UK business and the growth and development of the Porsche marque. 1995-97 concurrently Managing Director of Lamborghini GB Ltd. In November 1996 he took the position of Managing Director of BMW (GB) Ltd with responsibility for all UK operations. He led the business to three successive years of record growth. In 1999 BMW sales in the UK exceeded 70,000 cars with a combined turnover in excess of £1.5 billion. In 1998 Gaskell was recognised as one of the top 40 managers under 40 in the United Kingdom. He left BMW in 2000 and established Epyx / 1link, [1] the UK’s leading fleet sector ecommerce platform where today he is a non executive director and shareholder. He joined EurotaxGlass's as Group CEO in April 2001 [2]and has led the expansion and growth of the company into 30 countries. In 2006 he conducted an MBO of the group supported by Candover in a deal worth over 480 million euros. He stepped down from operational responsibility in December 2007 when he became President of the EurotaxGlass's Group. In 2008 appointed Chairman of Achilles Group Limited, [3] a multinational provider of procurement audit services. In 2009 appointed Chairman of Motoring.co.UK [4]a leading online automotive marketing platform. Gaskell is a confirmed adventurer. In 2006 he was part of a team that walked unaided to the North Pole to raise funds for cancer research, and to celebrate his 40th birthday he spent four weeks climbing on Everest. In 2009, together with his son, he completed an unsupported trek to the South Pole which made his son one of the youngest ever to achieve this feat[5]. Having played representative cricket at county and international level he is now a keen skier, scuba diver, shoots clays/game and plays in a rock band for relaxation. *********************************************** OUR PRESS REPORTS FROM 2005 TO 2009 A Paul Harris Fellowship for .John McKinlay At the meeting on the 2nd of June members were pleased welcome Assistant District Governor Rtn. Howard Ferdinando, a Past President of the Rhyl Rotary Club, who was attending the meeting to receive details of this coming years club activities, on behalf of the District Governor. Following the meal, Club President Rtn. Peter Hughes, handed the meeting over to President Elect Rtn. David Gozzard. David started the proceedings by [informing] the club his plans for the coming year. David then introduced the chairman of Club Service, Community Service, Youth & Vocational Service, and International Service in turn, to give the members an outline of their plans. David then invited the Assistant District Governor to comment on the club's plans for social and service activities for the coming year. Howard told the club that he was very pleased that we had planned such a full programme that was designed to improve the fun and fellowship of the club and at the same time help so many different people. He was particularly pleased that so much of the work the club planned to undertake concentrated on children, both in the community and internationally, and that Water Aid was one of the club's top priorities, as one child dies through lack of clean water every second. He ended by saying that he had enjoyed his visit to the club very much, and that as he lived locally, he would like an invite to the club's social events and that he would definitely be visiting the club again later in the year. President Elect David thanked Howard for his kind comments and then handed the meeting back to President Peter, who then had a big surprise in store for Rtn. John McKinlay. John will be retiring from his post as club sectary at the end of the month, after holding the post for 12 years. In recognition of his hard work the club council felt it was appropriate to present him with a Paul Harris Fellowship. In the UK The PHF, is in the most part used by Rotary Clubs to honour a member of the club who in the opinion of the club deserve recognition for outstanding work in keeping with Rotary ideals. Rotarians thus nominated have $1000 contributed in their name to the Fellowship for the purpose of doing good in the world. Each new Paul Harris Fellow receives a commemorative certificate and a pin, which were presented to John. He was very surprised and almost lost for words, other than to say thank you to the members for giving him such a special award. - End In Care Evening at the Kinmel Manor Hotel Members of the Abergele Rotary Club staged their annual In Care Evening at the Kinmel Manor Hotel on Tuesday the 26th May. The Members welcomed over 140 guests who are residents of care homes, or from support groups and clubs in the Abergele area. The evening consists of a supper and concert which is an excellent opportunity for the guests to socialise with each other and to meet Rotary members. The evenings entertainment started with a medley of popular tunes played on the piano by Fiona Williams a pupil of Ysgol Emrys AP Iwan. After supper it gave members great pleasure to see their guests enjoying the entertainment provided by Cor Meibion Bro Aled. One visitor staying at the hotel was so impressed by the event that he spontaneously donated £40 to Rotary funds. Vice President David Gozzard ended the evening by giving a vote of thanks to all of those that helped or performed thereby ensuring the success of the evening. - END Tuesday the 5th of May 2009 On Tuesday the 5th of May Abergele Rotary Club had the pleasure of listening to an excellent and entertaining after dinner speaker, Rtn. Robert Sproston. A Past President of the Rotary Club of Crewe and Nantwich, Rob described how he has spent 35 years in the sporting industry, first as a very successful professional sports photographer and then a sport Consultant and Agent. His talk was entitled "A Sporting Life", and explained how he left school at the age of 16, with no qualifications, but with a strong determination to make a living from one of his childhood passions, either Sport, or Photography. As it turned out, it was both. Through a willingness to work hard and learn his trade, Rob quickly climbed through the ranks to become one of the country's top sports photographers, travelling the world and rubbing shoulders with many of the sports personalities of the day in virtually every kind of sport. Rob told the club a few of the many interesting things that happened to him over the years, as a photographer, and how he had been able to help a number of the older and less well paid sporting stars of yesterday have a second career from personal appearances and or as after dinner speakers. Rob who has spoken at many Rotary Club meetings and Charter Dinners, in his quest to purchase Guide Dogs for the Blind, left the members wanting to hear more, and asking him a number of questions about his fascinating life. In a vote of thanks Rtn Prys Jones, thanked Rob for his talk. Saying, that he wished we could have had number of 16 year old school leavers listening to this, as he was sure that it would have been an inspiration to any one that had not been able to achieve academic qualifications, to hear how is was possible to achieve your ambitions through hard work and dedication. ***** Tuesday the 7th of April, On Tuesday the 7th of April, members of the Abergele Rotary club held a Meeting at Kinmel Manor Hotel. After dinner and the business part of the meeting, the President introduced, the speaker for the evening. Mr John Wood, of North Wales Brewery, a local business that is located at Ty Tan-y-Mynydd, Moelfre, Abergele. John explained how he had started in business a number of years ago by starting a plastics recycling re-cycling company, in Hyde Cheshire, before being persuaded to sell up to start brewing with a business partner in Snowdonia. Now a brewer with 12 years experience John started North Wales Brewery in 2008. Brewing Beers such as Abergele Ale, Bodelwyddan Bitter, Welsh Stout, & Dragon's Wheat, He explained that these are sold mostly in bottles at Farmers Markets, Food Festivals and Seasonal Shows both locally, at events like the Woodfest, and further a field at events like Southport Show. John went on to fully out line the way he makes his beers, this included telling the members that, he has a local source of excellent quality water that is used in the brewing process, and that for the first time last year he had been able to harvest a crop of hops, on the hillside of Moelfre, overlooking Abergele. He also told the club that the company was also utilizing the same water to produce a unique range of non-alcoholic drinks, including Dandelion & Burdock, Spiced Apple, Raisin, and Ginger Beer. Following his talk John offered samples of the bears and soft drinks to the members, these where tasted with pleasure, with a number of members asking John for details of how they could obtain further supplies. ********************************* From AG District 9600 News letter "The International Toast on 12 March was given to the Rotary Club of Abergele, Wales. The Abergele club has 35 members and was chartered in 1972. It meets at the Kinmel Manor Hotel at 7pm Tuesdays under the direction of President Peter Hughes. We have toasted Abergele before and did so again because of their marvellous gesture in raising £ 500 for the Victorian bushfire victims. Club members sought donations from local Tesco supermarket customers over two days and then sent the money (topped up to 500 pounds by club members) direct to the Lord Mayor of Melbourne's bushfire appeal where it will be put to good use. Abergele Rotarians deserve our thanks, as do all the people of Abergele (population 17,500), for their generosity to folk living half a world away from Wales." Horrific Bushfires In Australia. With the kind permission of the store manager, Abergele Rotary Club set up a stand in Tesco's entrance over two days to mount an appeal on behalf of the victims of the recent horrific bushfires in Victoria, Australia. In spite of the current economic strains the store's customers contributed an astonishing £444 to the appeal. Additionally the Inner Wheel Club of Abergele donated a furtther £50. The combined sum, rounded off to £500, is now on its way to the Lord Mayor of Melbourne's Charitable Foundation which is coordinating the Recovery Fund, together with our warmest best wishes.. On behalf of the Rotary Club may I thank Tesco's and its magnificent customers for their outstanding generosity. Yours faithfully John Newcombe. ***************** “Chernobyl Children Life Line”. The speaker at the Abergele Rotary Club meeting on the 3rd of February, was Gerrie Bayley, From the Prestatyn / Rhyl Link of the “Chernobyl Children Life Line”. Gerrie explained that the link is part of a national charity founded in 1992 by Victor Mizzi M.B.E. And that since then over 150 "Links" have been established throughout the United Kingdom, raising money to support the children of Belarus and Ukraine, whose lives continue to be affected by The aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. She went on to say that the goal of the Prestatyn / Rhyl link is to raise funds to bring new children over to our area each year. The children stay with host families living in the area between Trefriw and Holywell, for 1 month. This stay strengthens the children’s weakened immune systems and can add years to their lives. During her well illustrated presentation, Gerrie showed a number of thought Provoking photographs of the conditions the children live in, and before and after pictures of the children, taken when thy arrive in North Wales And when They return home. The difference in the health of the children was obvious for all to see, and remarkable that in such a short stay, breathing clean air, Playing and having fun whilst eating wholesome uncontaminated food, such a difference would be so apparent. She told the club that the Prestatyn / Rhyl Link started in February 2004 with the arrival the first two girls. Thanks to unending support from local Rotary and Inner Wheel local businesses, other Clubs and the local people, this year, the link will be welcoming 28 more children. The Rotary Club of Abergele, Club Council will consider what help can be given to this project at the next meeting. ********** President Peter Presents Wheel Chairs On Friday the 23rd of January President Peter Hughes, officially presented two special wheel chairs to the Red Cross; These chairs are to be used locally. The club agreed to fund the special chairs at a cost of £500, after a recent visit members made to the Red Cross offices in Abergele. The Rotary club decided to help, after members where told that, in the last year almost 1800 people, through out North Wales had benefited from the wheel chair hire service. However, that there was a shortage of the special stronger chairs for lager people in and around Abergele. Photo Left to right: Peter Hughes,Lisa Pollard, Kharyn Mitchell, ********************* Other recent donations made by the club have included £200 each to Ty Gobiath Hospice and MacMillan Cancer Care, £200 for the Eye Laser Fund, and £100 to Llanfair TH Senior Citizens. In addition, £200 in sponsorship for St Kentigerns Hospice was given via a local man running in the New York marathon. The club would like to say thank you to all that helped with the Rotary & Round Table Christmas float, over the festive season and to Abergele Tesco, for their hospitality and for allowing the collection day to take place. Despite the adverse economic climate, the collecting tins were as full as ever. Good news for the many good causes that will benefit from this collection in the coming year. Making the hard work carried out Last November by community service team well worth while, this had involved much needed upgrading work on the Christmas float at a cost of £591, adding to the safety of Santa and the enjoyment all. On the 6th of January our first speaker meeting of 2009, had to be cancelled, due to ice on local roads making it unwise to travel. On a brighter note, at the following Rotary club council meeting, our Vocational Service Chairman reported that 12 pupils from Ysgol Emrys ap Iwan had taken up the club-sponsored "Junior Leadership Scheme at a cost to the club of £440 and that all 12 were on target to receive the award! He also reported that the school is interested in helping with the next Abergele Rotary club In-Care Evening. If you would like to help us with any of our activities, or you would like to know how you could be invited to join Rotary or would like information about Abergele Rotary club or Rotary International, please see our web site: www.abergelerotary.org We meet at: Kinmel Manor Hotel for dinner at 7-30 pm with a speaker on the 1st Tuesday of each month and a business meeting on the 3rd Tuesday, visiting Rotarians are always welcome. **************************** On Thursday 27th November 2008 Abergele Rotary Club's quiz team visited the Anglesey Arms, Menai Bridge, to play the Rotary Club of Bangor, in the first round of the Rotary District 1180 quiz. The Abergele team enjoyed the fellowship of a normal Bangor Rotary Club meeting, which included a meal of cottage pie, followed by bread and butter pudding, being served, before taking part in the competition. This hospitality may go some way in accounting for the disappointing performance of the Abergele team, at the start of the twelve round event, which found Abergele struggling to score over the first two rounds. By the time, the Abergele team members had regained their composure; it was too late to make a difference to the final out come. The result was, a clear victory for the Bangor team. Leaving Abergele with the consolation of not having to travel to the subsequent rounds of the quiz, over what look like being a cold, cold winter. *********** Alzheimer's Society 4th of November 2008 On The 4th of November, Members were pleased to welcome Margaret Tuzuner, from Anglesey speaking about the Alzheimer's Society. Margaret told the members that the Alzheimer's Society is the leading care and research charity for people with all forms of dementia. She went on to say that the Society that was formed about 30 years ago offers information, guidance and support to hundreds of thousands of people affected by dementia and their families and carers. Margaret described the ongoing vision of the Society as a radically improved world for people with dementia. A world where they have their rights recognised, where they can fully contribute to family and community life and where they can live with dignity, free from discrimination. A world where they, and those who care for them, have their needs fully met. After describing some of the facilities provided by the society locally and the work done by volunteers she ended by saying that she was well aware of the wonderful things achieved by Rotary Clubs, and that she some times felt that without such voluntary work and fund raising Britain would surely grind to a halt. The vote of thanks was given By Rtn. Mike Mason, who thanked Margaret for travelling from Anglesey on such a cold night, to speak to the club on this important subject. He told her that many members had some experience of the condition, either with family members or friends and acquaintances, but that it was apparent from the questions members asked following her talk, that not many members where aware of the scale of the problem that is increasing as the population ages. He ended by thanking her for bringing this to the club's attention, and expressed his hope that the club would be able to help the Society locally in some way. British Red Cross 28th of October 2008 Members of Abergele Rotary Club visited the British Red Cross on the 28th of October at their new offices on the North Wales Business Park, Abergele, for a presentation given by Bob Cotton, British Red Cross Senior Services Manager. Bob told the club that most people knew of the role of Red Cross in assisting at times of international disaster, but the services provided for local people were less well known. Services such as wheelchair hire, support in the home and first aid, are amongst the other activities that are provided by volunteers helping the British Red Cross maintain the ability to respond to local emergencies such as the flooding that had happened last year in several parts of the country. Ty Gobaith Childrens Hospice Earlier in the month, Rotary members enjoyed a presentation given by Beverley Bradley, the Appeals Organiser for Ty Gobaith Childrens Hospice. She told the club that the Hospice opened in 2004 and helps about 70 families each year, providing regular periods of respite care to terminally ill children living in the North Wales area. She went on to explain that the Hospice is run along similar lines to its sister Hospice, Hope House, but is sensitive to the needs of the local population, many of whom speak Welsh as a first language. Despite the fact that Abergele Rotary Club have made a number of donations to the Hospice over the last 4 years, members where surprised to hear that the Hospice costs approximately £1,000,000 each year to run. They were even more surprised to hear that less than 5% of the cost of running Ty Gobaith comes from the government - the balance has to be raised from donations. In his vote of thanks, Rtn Prys Jones thanked Beverly, for her excellent talk and praised the dedication of staff of Ty Gobaith. Annual golf fundraising day The results of the annual golf fundraising day held at the Abergele Golf Club are as follows; 1st prize - A Bell, P Lloyd & A Pierce with 88 points [this team have won three times over the past 5 years and were obviously in form this year] 2nd - E Davies [coached by the club's match secretary brother Colin] T Riley & D Brown with 84 points 3rd - Rtn Dave Hughes, G Jones & N Rowlands with 81 points [on the back nine] 4th - Rtn Peter Williams, P Strang & Adam Runcie [Adam played extremely well himself with a 64 gross] team score was 81 points 5th - S Roberts, H Sharkey & P Lee with 80 points [this was one of 8 teams from Flixton Golf Club] The president and members of the Abergele Rotary Club extend their congratulations to all prize winners and their grateful thanks to all participants. They also wish to thank the staff, officers and members of the Abergele Golf Club for their support in making this years fund raiser a huge success - £1,200 was raised on the day. Next years event will be at the same venue on Wednesday September the 16th 2009 so please make a note in your diaries. ************* Quiz Winner 2008 Following the Abergele Rotary Club business meeting that took place on 16th September at The Kinmel Manor Hotel, President Peter Hughes was asked to make the draw for the winner of the club's summer fun quiz. 26 entries and been received in all, 5 of which had all the questions answered correctly. The draw was made from these five and the winner of the £50 prize was Ms. C Rodgers, of Colwyn Bay. Rotarian Chris O'Brien, the organiser of the quiz, was pleased to report to the club, that quiz had raised over £150 that will be split equally between local good causes and Rotary International's ongoing battle against polio throughout the world. He also advised the club that a letter of thanks is being sent to the businesses in and around the Abergele area that helped the club in promoting the quiz by displaying a stand of quiz forms and a collecting box in their premises. Chris also thanked the members that had sold forms over the summer season, and told them that that all the correct answers to the quiz, can now be found on the club web site: *************** 28th of August 2008The Abergele Rotary Clubs "Golf dream-team" went to round two of the Rotary District 1180, Golf competition at Caldy Golf Club on the Wirral on the 28th of August. The club had been unable to field a team for the Spring Meeting held at Wrexham Golf Club, so they found that they were at a disadvantage in the team event, because the scores from both meetings are added together. Nevertheless the team did their best. The course was in very good condition, but with a gusty wind and tricky yardages, the course got the better of them on the day. Alas, as last year's winners, they had to watch, whilst the team trophy they had taken with them, was presented to the Wrexham Erddig Rotary Club. The team says that they enjoyed the fellowship and hospitality and that is what it is all about. ********** International Service Chairman 2nd September 2008 Abergele Rotary Clubs speaker on Tuesday the 2nd September was Rtn K Prabhakaran (Prabu ), the clubs International Service Chairman. He recently returned from a holiday in India, where he had been visiting relatives and friends. With the aid of a power point presentation, he told the club that he had been pleased to take 3 days out of his holiday, to visit the Abergele Rotary clubs new sister club, The Rotary Club Of Nanganullur, Tamil Nadu and the recently completed computer literacy project, that had been provided by a Rotary matching grant, in the Village Irumaram. The welcome Prabu had received was fantastic with a band and garlands of flowers, followed by a breakfast feast, that he unfortunately had to forgo due to a stomach bug, being only able to drink a little of the coconut water, that is the traditional drink of the region on such occasions. Prabu, told the club that the reception he had received was similar to one that would normally be reserved for a visiting dignitary, or top ranking politicians. It made him so proud to be representing Abergele Rotary Club and all the Clubs that had cooperated in this International project. It made him realise the importance that our new sister club placed on the project, that we had started in the region and how much they valued our continued fellowship. Later that day, Prabu and his family were taken to the village of Irumaram, to view the computer facilities. He inspected the computer room containing 15 top spec computers, together with all the desks and software needed for the project. He took a photo of the room that he showed to the members during his talk, this confirmed his opinion, that the installation had been an excellent job. Shortly after Prabu had returned from India, the club received conformation that the services of an instructor had been secured and that the first two students had been enrolled on the project, that we hope will provide the IT skills needed in order that this generation of children can become self-sufficient, and help the village out of the poverty trap. **** Our speaker on the 19th of September was Martin Coates, the Rotaract National Membership & Extension Officer. Martin, who lives in Prestatyn gave us a very informative talk about his work travelling about the UK trying to help form new Rotaract clubs and how he is trying to encourage Rotary clubs like ours, to help establish new Rotaract club's, as part of Rotaract's 40th anniversary celebrations. Rotaract is a world wide youth movement, established by Rotary International and is an organisation for 18-30 year olds with clubs throughout the world. It enables members to meet new people, try new activities, and make a difference in the their local community and the world. Rtn Richard Arrowsmith, the clubs Youth and Vocation Service Chairman, proposed a vote of thanks. Club President Peter Hughes, told Martin that our club would look closely at cooperating with other Rotary clubs in the district on this project. Peter then told the members that a club visit to the Rotary Club of Irlam will take place. on the 25th September. We will be departing about 5.30 p.m. transport to be arranged. He also told the club that our wives are also invited to a meeting and meal with Irlam Inner Wheel, at the same time Tuesday 5th August 2008 Speaker - VP David presented a talk which he called "lessons from America" based on his sabbatical year at Harvard College in Boston - he left this country June 28th 2007 and said his first challenge was to obtain a visa from the American embassy in London - there he said he had had quite an experience? During his stay he said he was thankful that the terrain was flat, the result of a civil engineering project to increase space by filling many creeks, he had cycled 1000miles and lost 1 stone during his past year. He spoke about the heritage and history of the area but he predominantly spoke of his sponsored sabbatical and the intense training the focus of which was patient safety and care. He had experienced long days 8-5 and many hours 25 or so of weekly homework. He had been able to closely study the American health care system and make comparisons, he said that the main difference was that in the US patients pay for their health care on average the 300 million residents receive about $7,000 worth of care each compared with the UK where patients get about half that much spent on them. In the US some 60% are insured 20% aren't and 20% are under insured so the system has a massive imbalance. He spoke about many scenarios both at home and in the US and elsewhere in the world - in conclusion David said that if Ysbyty Glan Clwyd was somehow transported to the US it would be a centre of excellence there. He reassured us that we have every right to be proud of our National Health Service and it needed to be very carefully preserved. In the US some patients could be waiting to be seen in A&E for 24 hours - in the UK the maximum wait is 4 hours. After questions and answers a vote of thanks to David was given by Kevin Brown. **** 1st July 2008 Rtn. Peter Hughes J.P. Takes The Chair A Brief History My wife Christine and I spent 30 years in the pub / restaurant business, before retiring in 2005. due to my health problems My Rotary life began just over 15 years ago, when I was invited to join the Rotary Club of Irlam, after giving them a talk " So you want a boozer ". While at Irlam I chaired most committees, was social secretary, and attendance officer. I also started the club holiday, which is still running after 10 years. I worked on District membership Committee, and also along with a dear friend Jack Beck ran the District Quiz. I was also involved with District Conference, attended every year by over 1000 people, 30 of which were from Irlam. I transferred to Abergele Rotary Club four years ago, having lived in the area part of the time for the last 20 years. I was International Chair before being elected to Vice President last year. I was sworn in as a J.P. in 2006 at mold crown court. I now serve as a magistrate in Llandudno Court. I am also member of the Probation Liaison Committee, and the Magistrates Executive Committee. ******************************************************** < 1st July 2008 installation of officers Incoming President Rtn. Peter Hughes with Rtn Kevin Brown At the meeting on Tuesday's the first of July Abergele Rotary Clubs, retiring President Rtn Kevin Brown, addressed the Club saying that, he had enjoyed his year as President and that he had learned a lot about Rotary in the last year. He went on to thank the Committee Chairmen, the Club Council and all the members that had contributed in any way to Club activities, for the encouragement, and support, they had given him, He then presented the chain of office to the incoming President Rtn. Peter Hughes, and wished him every success for the coming Rotary year.- President Peter thanked Kevin, for a very enjoyable year and told the members that he was looking forward to his term of office, and that he was pleased to note that at the start of a new Rotary year the club had new members in the pipeline. He then thanked the club for electing him as President, and then went on to install the clubs Vice President Rtn David Gozzard and Junior Vice President Rtn. Richard Arrowsmith. Peter then introduced the nine guests that had travelled from the Rotary Club of Irlam, to see him receive his President's badge of office. Peter explained that his membership of Rotary began just over 15 years ago, when he was invited to join the Rotary Club of Irlam, and that despite moving to the Rishton and Gt.Harwood area near Blackburn for a while, and visiting the local Rotary Clubs there, he still travelled to Irlam twice a month. Then when he and his wife Christine who had been in the pub/restaurant business, in a number of locations over 30 years, moved to Warrington, he had gone back to Irlam Club, and stayed with them, despite later moving to Chester. At the latter end of his time at Chester, when he was due to be elected President of the Irlam Club his early retirement due to ill health became inevitable. So he transferred his membership of Rotary to Abergele, having had a holiday home in the area for a number of years and where he and Christine now live. Moving on to the club's normal business Peter reminded members that the club had started its season of bingo at the Towyn Community Centre on Friday nights until the 5th of September. Before closing the meeting Peter called upon Rtn Chris O'Brien to explain about the help needed from the members in distributing the Summer Fun Quiz, a new fund raising venture that the club is running over the summer. It is hoped that in addition to the members promoting the quiz to friends and family that a number of pubs and clubs will display the quiz. A cash prize of £50 is offered and all the proceeds will be split 50% to local good causes and 50% to Rotary's on going plan to eradicate polio. Rotary and its global partners are committed to reaching every child with the vaccine and ending this disease worldwide. Major gains have been made in the global fight against polio: In the 1980s, the disease infected 1,000 children every day. Today, polio cases have declined by 99 percent, with fewer than two thousand cases reported in 2006. So far, two billion children have been immunized, five million have been spared disability, and over 250,000 deaths from polio have been prevented 3rd of June 2008 At the meeting on the 3rd of June members were pleased welcome Assistant District Governor Rtn. George Kurian, a member of the Bangor Rotary Club, who was attending the meeting to receive details of this coming years club activities, on behalf of the District Governor. Following the meal, Club President Rtn. Kevin Brown, handed the meeting over to President Elect Rtn. Peter Hughes. Peter started the proceedings by telling the club his plans for the coming year. Peter then introduced the chairmen of Community Service, Youth & Vocational Service, and International Service in turn, to give the members an outline of their plans. Peter then invited the Assistant District Governor to comment on the club's plans for the coming year. He told the club that he was very pleased that we had planned such a full programme that was designed to help so many different people. He was particularly pleased that so much of the work the club planned to undertake concentrated on children, both in the community and internationally. He ended by saying that he had enjoyed his visit to the club very much and that he would definitely be visiting Abergele again later in the year. In care evening 2008 . At their last meeting in May, members of Abergele Rotary Club, once again welcomed 150 guests, including residents of care homes from around the Abergele area, to the clubs annual in care evening, a concert and supper that was held at Kinmel Manor Hotel. It gave members great pleasure to see their guests, the oldest of which was 104, having a good time, thanks to the entertainment provided by Betws- yn- Rhos Male Voice Choir. Once the super had been served, President Kevin Brown, ended the evening by giving a vote of thanks to all that helped make the evening a success. 20th May 2008 At the meeting due 20th May, members will be asked to donate club funds to Shelterbox, a grassroots disaster relief organization, set up by Rotary members in the UK. The International Chair of the Abergele Club, Chris O'Brien, will ask the club to make an immediate response, whilst at the same time he will be advising the club that Shelterbox, a charity that the club has supported many times in the past, was among the first charities to reach the affected area of cyclone ravaged Myanmar in Burma. As other agencies continue to struggle to gain access, more than 1,000 ShelterBoxes were flown out to Myanmar on Wednesday 14th May. Four specially trained volunteers have been on the ground since Thursday (May 8th). Shelterbox founder and Rotary club member Tom Henderson from Cornwall says: "Our team of volunteers are working in cooperation with local groups in Myanmar to line up transportation and determine where the shelters will do the most good amid the massive devastation. We have received tremendous support from Rotarians and would like to extend our thanks. Without the support of our Rotary friends we would not be able to carry out this essential work." If anyone would like to donate money to "Shelterbox" that is helping the victims of Cyclone Nargis that ripped across the coast of Myanmar (Burma), bringing misery & devastation to tens of thousands on 2 May 2008 you can do so by contacting your local rotary club Or go to www.shelterbox.org for more information - End Notes to editor Each ShelterBox containers each provide a tent, blankets, a multi-fuelled stove, a water purification kit, tools and other necessities to help a family of 10 survive for six months. Some containers carried two 10-person tents, doubling the shelter capacity. ShelterBox started in 2001 as a modest project by the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard, England, and quickly garnered support among Rotary clubs worldwide. To date Shelterbox has raised £15.5 million ($29 million) and delivered aid to 40 countries in response to more than 70 disasters. Each Shelterbox container costs an estimated £490 to sponsor, and Rotary clubs provide more than half of the charity's funding. Visit www.shelterbox.org for more information. For more information contact Rotary PR Officer Karen Jones on 01789 768126. 6th May 2008 At the Abergele Rotary Club meeting on 6th May held at the Kinmal Manor Hotel members and guests were initially disappointed when that the speaker advertised in the club's programme failed to materialise. However the club secretary John McKinlay stepped into the breach at the last-minute, giving the club as a fascinating talk about his first sea voyage across the Atlantic as a navigator. He compared each stage of the voyage to the stages in life from birth to death. So fascinating was this comparison that all feelings of disappointment were immediately put to one side, with the members and guests thoroughly enjoying the evening. 30th March To 1st April 2008 Members together with wives and friends enjoyed an International lunch and Quiz, on Sunday 30th March, at the Spice Of India Restaurant, Bodelwyddan. The Club's International Chairman, Rtn Chris O' Brien, would like to thank the proprietors of the restaurant for allowing us to stage this event during their normal Sunday opening. The event raised in excess of £150 towards the club's recent international computer literacy project. The winner of the quiz received a glass globe of the world. The presentation of this prize took place at the club's meeting on Tuesday the 1st April. The speakers at that meeting were from the Wylfa Nuclear Power Station Anglesey the world's largest Magnox nuclear reactor, which supplies enough electricity daily to provide for the combined needs of two cities like Manchester and Liverpool. They gave the club an illustrated talk entitled, "Wylfa Past, Present and Future" which showed how the plant was originally built and the facilities that are currently provided for visitors and educational purposes. The talk also described the planned decommissioning of the reactor, which is due to start in 2010, and explored the possibility of this being delayed, and the probability that the facility may even be replaced in the not too distant future. The speakers told the club that many locals are calling for a new power station to be built next to the existing plant, and that in view of the growing concerns over climate change, as well as the need for local jobs this is seriously under consideration. The presentation triggered many questions, which the presenters answer, where possible, in a very satisfactory manner. This fact was much appreciated by the members and was reflected in the vote of thanks given by Vice President Rtn. Peter Hughes 4th of March 2008 The speakers at our meeting on the 4th of March were Rtn. Mark and Mrs Philpot, from Mold Rotary Club. They provided us with what can only be described as a multimedia experience. This presentation vividly described a "Trip of a life time" that turned out to be an extended adventure cruise to Antarctica, which included in it's itinerary: History, in South Georgia, that is synonymous with Sir Ernest Shackleton's rescue of the crew of Endurance in 1904. Wild life in the form of encounters with land birds, seals, and whales, Geology with volcanoes, Evolution in the footsteps of Darwin and lots of ice and wonderment. We soon found out that this was no mere pleasure cruise but an in-depth educational cruise with trips ashore in a Zodiac, not everyone's idea of a holiday! But thanks to the speakers expertise with the camera, that they seemed to have had ready at all times of the day and night, they managed to convey some of the splendour of what for them must have been an unforgettable experience. Our members were captivated by the many high quality photographs they had taken whilst walking with penguins, or cruising the rocky coastlines watching the curiosity of seals, and the grace of whales swimming past vast icebergs, reflected in still black water. I am sure that by the end of the presentation our members where persuaded that it was indeed a holiday of a life time, and I suspect that one or two of them may even now, be thinking about forgoing the sunshine next year in favour of the ice of Antarctica 27th February 2008 Members, together with their wive's and friends enjoyed a hotpot supper and social evening, that had been organised by Vice-President Peter Hughes, at Abergele Golf Club. Brian "licorice" Locking provided the entertainment for the evening. Brian, who in the Sixties was part of the famous Shadows, he now regularly sings and plays harmonica, in various styles from classical to jazz, a talent that he displayed through the course of evening, much to the enjoyment of the audience. 19th February 2008 At the Business Meeting members watched two power point presentations prepared by the Clubs International Chairman, Chris O'Brien. The first presentation was on "Riders for Health" a charity that not only provide vehicles to Africa, but also provide training and suitable reliable maintenance systems for four and two wheeled motor vehicles, that have bean tried, tested and costed with the potential to be replicated across Africa. The members where told that this means that aid and health delivery need never be undermined by vehicles failing however harsh the conditions. The second presentation was on "LifeStraw" a low-cost portable personal water purifier that can be carried on a cord around the neck, giving the wearer easy access to safe and clean drinking water. It kills and removes 99.99 % of water-borne bacteria and 98.7 % of water-borne viruses and last for up to year. At the end of the presentations, the club members voted to support both of these charities. . Tuesday the 5th of February 2008 Members of the Abergele Rotary held a meeting at Kinmel Manor Hotel. After the business part of the meeting, the President introduced the speaker for the evening, Mrs Delyth MacRae. She spoke of the book she is planning to produce, about the many people of note that have lived in the town of Abergele over the years, the talk was supplemented by a number of photos, and it was apparent that she must have spent many hours researching her subject. This fact was much appreciated by the members and was reflected in the vote of thanks. Tuesday January the 29th 2008 Abergele Rotary Club had a visit to Abergele Town Hall. The Club President and Past Mayor of Abergele Rtn Kevin Brown gave the Club members a short presentation about the Chamber and role of the Town Council. Then we had the opportunity for a debate "council style" with the President sitting in the Mayor's chair and the members sitting in the Council Members seats. The debate was about the club's organisation and how we can improve our club, in order to attract new members and help retain members, in addition to assessing the service our Rotary Club gives to the local community. It was a very different club night, the members were very interested in the history of the Town Council and impressed with the facilities provided in the building. The debate was very positive in nature and could have gone on all night, but we had to close the meeting, by 9-15 pm. 30th JAN 2008 The Area 3 East Computer Literacy Project Funds In Place Matching grant funds have now been deposited in the project bank account in India, so the Area 3 East Computer Literacy Project for Tamil Nadu can now start its work. This project was awarded a matching grant at the end of the last Rotary year. It was funded by the co-operation of the Area 3 East Rotary Clubs of Abergele, Colwyn Bay, Llandudo, Rhos-On-Sea and Rhyl, and included additional funding from Denbigh Rotary club and individual donations. The project was initially funded by the £2,375, raised by the participating clubs. This amount was then passed through the matching grant scheme, gaining extra funding at each stage, firstly to our District, then RIBI. They then passed it on to RI in the USA, who in turn passed it on to the project bank account, that had been set up by our international partners in India with their $100 contribution, all adding up to the final total of $16,444 US. This fund will provide a suite of computers, all the hardware, furniture and software needed to enable successive generations of children and young people to have the opportunity of learning the IT skills they need if they are to find work that can pay them a living wage and help the villages out of the poverty trap. Why this project was chosen. Work in health care, education and sanitation has taken place since 1989 in the villages of Irumaram and Kanchipuram, in the region of Tamil Nadu, India. Many Rotary & Inner Wheel members together with a large number of other people in this part of North Wales, have helped fund these improvements, which have included bringing fresh water and electricity supplies to the village, obtaining the title deeds to the villager's huts etc. The establishment of a health facility in the villages was always considered as the first step on the road to self-sustainability. It was never considered necessary, nor in the best interests of the villagers, to support them in the long term. Indeed, training of villagers in simple health care has occurred and some villagers have been sent away for further education. Dr. Vizwanathan, formerly a Consultant Psychiatrist in North Wales, was asked to be our advisor on a possible project in the villages as he had made many visits to the villages since 1989, when he had provided the original medical input and guidance to the villages. He believed that the best use of any extra funding of this kind would be to try to find a way in which the current and successive generations of children in the villages could become self-sufficient. Relatively well-paid work in India's growing IT industry was available near by. But what facilities existed for IT training were too far away and too expensive for the villagers to even consider on there subsistence incomes, so if the village children where to have a chance at obtaining this kind of work in the future a computer training suite in the village would be needed. We agreed that this should form the basis of our bid for the Area 3 matching grant. To this end the then Abergele Club President, Mike Mason, prepared a synopsis of the proposition. Rtn Chris O'Brien produced a power point presentation that described the bid and the workings of the matching grant system. In November 2006 of the next Rotary year, Chris and Rtn. Peter Hughes (Abergele International Chair 2005-2007) were given the opportunity to present the power point presentation to the Area 3 Club Presidents. After answering questions on the project, the mood of the meeting was in favour of the project. The then District Governor, Gerry Heaslip, who was attending this meeting, expressed his personal approval of the project Encouraged by this, our sub-committee, headed by Mike Mason, contacted two Rotary Clubs in India in the hope that one would agree to oversee the project should approval be received. Both clubs eventually responded favourably and we selected one club, the Rotary Club of Temple City, to be our international partner. We then asked our contacts in the villages to obtain a detailed costing from a reputable company in the region. With this estimate, Mike was able to finalise the draft project. With the help of Kevin Morris, District Grants Officer, and the help he obtained by e-mail from the DG for the Temple City club, the agreement was signed and E-mailed back to us just before the closing date for submission. 18th December 2007 This was the club's Christmas lunch, This replaced the normal evening meeting so as not to interfere with the members manning of the Rotary & Round Table Christmas float, that has become a popular feature of the pre-Christmas festivities in and around Abergele. Members were pleased to hear from the Secretary that despite the inclement weather of recent weeks the collections from the float were on target to match last year's total. Following the meal, Vice President Peter Hughes invited Rev. David Woodward to speak to the club. He told the club that he pleased to hear that, two members had birthdays so close to Christmas, and reminded the club that it was 300 years since the birth of Wesley; who, amongst his other achievements, was the author of Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Possibly one of the most sung Christmas carols of all time. David went on to remind the club that whilst Christmas was a magical time for children, it was not just for children. He went on to speak on the Christmas theme in a joyful and obviously well prepared manner that was much appreciated by the members. For a number of members, about 15 in all, this was the second Christmas meal this year at Kinmel Manor Hotel, as they had attended the Inner Wheel Club of Abergele's Christmas dinner the previous week. This had been a most enjoyable evening, starting with an excellent programme of entertainment given by a local Brownie troop. Followed by good food and fellowship, topped off with a round of carol singing. Vice President Peter, closed the meeting by giving the club the Christmas greetings of President Kevin, who was unable to attend due to work commitments. He then ended by proposing the toast "Rotary and Peace the world over". *************************************** November 20th 2007 We were pleased to welcome Assistant District Governor Mike Clutton to the November Business Meeting at Kinmel Manor Hotel. Abergele Club President, Kevin Brown, was pleased to advise the Club that at the recent District 1180 Council Meeting in Wrexham, it had been announced that Mike Clutton had been appointed District Governor Nominee. Mike will continue to chair group meetings until June when he takes over as District Governor Elect, He will be in office as District Governor in the year 2009 - 10. In his address to the Club Mike said that he was pleased to hear that the Club Service Committee were planning to hold a review of the Club's way of working and meetings, to see if things could be improved in order to encourage new members to join and improve membership retention. He said that these things need to be addressed by all Clubs from time to time, and it is a good sign that your Club is willing to consider the workings of the Club at a time when all Rotary activities in the Club seem to be in fine form. Abergele Club has been represented at several functions held by other Clubs of late including Prestatyn Club's 80th Charter Night, and Rhyl Club's Taste of Indian Event. A Club social night was held on the 28th of November. Several members are planning to attend theMold Rotary Club Charter Night early in December. ************** 2nd of October 2007 On Tuesday the 2nd of October our speaker was Rtn. Sam Reeves the chief engineer of the Snowdon Mountain Railway. During his beautifully illustrated talk using projected photographs both old and new Sam told the club about the history of the railway from 16th November 1894 when the Snowdon Mountain Tram road and Hotels Co. Ltd was formed to build the railway, right up to the present day with the building of the new cafe on the summit. He told how a rack and pinion system was used to provide a smooth and constant operation that is achieved by a double-racked rail used with a rotating toothed pinion. The pinion is mounted underneath the locomotive. He told the club that a unique feature of rack railways, is that the locomotive always pushes the carriage up the mountain and, for safety reasons, is never coupled to the train, the carriage having its own set of brakes that would bring the carriage to a standstill if it disengages from the locomotive. Sam went on to describe how Miss Enid Assherton Smith cut the first sod, at Llanberis station, in December 1894. he told the club how the men working on the track With nothing more than picks, shovels and dynamite finished it in time for the railways public opening at Easter 1896. He then went on to describe how the railway has become a major tourist attraction over the years and that it is hoped that it will be even more popular when the new summit building is completed next year. Despite a poor turn out of members on that evening the members present should there appreciation of Sam's excellent presentation with a loud round of applause followed by a number of searching questions on the subject. 27 September 2007 Update Kevin Brown President of the Abergele Rotary Club was pleased to be able to present a cheque for £2,250 to Mr Arwel Roberts, Chairman of the Abergele Fundraising Committee for the 2008 Urdd Eisteddfod which is to be held in Penrhyn Bay next May. Also present at the presentation was Mr Dilwyn Price Chairman of the Conwy Executive Committee. The money was raised by the Rotary Club when it organised a concert in Llandudno, at Venue Cymru, last July. The amount the club were able to donate is due in the main to the generosity of the many local businesses that sponsored the evening in particular our printers Design2print. and to the generosity those taking part which were; Hogiau's Wyddfa, Annette Bryn-Parri, Eden and Stephan Rhys Williams, Côr Bro Aled, Côr Colwyn, The Hawarden Singers, The Gele Singers, the Conwy Dancers and the Children of Ysgol Glan Morfa. Compere for the evening was Abergele Rotarian and local personality Prys Jones. ************************************************************************* President Kevin was engaged on Rotary business again on Tuesday the 25th of September when he captained the clubs quiz team, in the first round of this year's Rotary District Quiz. Both teams enjoyed great fellowship throught the evening but despite Abergele having the home advantage by hosting the event at the Kinmel Manor Hotel the club's HQ, the result was disappointing from the start with the team from Banger Rotary Club, wining the toss putting the home team to the disadvantage of starting first. The fanal result was a win for the visiting team who will go on to the next round. The Quiz Team ******************************** September 17th 2007 Update Abergele Rotary Club held their 35th Charter celebration, at the Kinmel Manor Hotel on the 7th September. This event is effectively a birthday celebration signifying 35 years of Rotary service to the Abergele Community. Over 100 well-wishers attended the event, including the Lady Mayor of Abergele, the Rotary District Governor, Presidents and members of other Rotary Clubs, the President of Abergele Inner Wheel and members of Abergele Round Table. Abergele Rotary Club President, Rtn. Kevin Brown, welcomed the guests, and after the usual round of toasts and a short speech from the District Governor, the Master of Ceremonies introduced the guest speaker, Mr Brian Locking. Brian, gave a brief history of his early life in show business, starting with him being a soap-box bass player, in a skiffle band, leading him in to show business proper as a full-time occupation. He had an early chart success as a member of Marty Wilde's backing group, the Wild Cats. He had been on the Oh Boy TV show, and he told of how he had met and played alongside many of the top rock and rollers of the day. But that it was his friendship with Brian Bennett, the drummer, who was to later join the Shadows, that would become the most significant factor in his career. It was through Brian Bennett that he was given the chance to join the Shadows as ' bass guitarist, after Jet Harris left them to pursue his solo career in spring of 1962. An all-round musician, Brian's nickname "Licorice' Locking" was a result of his proficiency with the clarinet. His version of 'Stranger on the Shore' was a regular feature of Shadows stage performances of 1962/3, He also provided variety to the 'Shadows Sound' by occasionally playing the harmonica, notably on his own composition 'Licorice' and, perhaps the best of all, his harmonica features heavily on the track 'Dakota' on the 'Sounds of the Shadows' LP. Although he only stayed with the Shadows for eighteen months, it was a golden time for the group, as it included them taking part in the making of the film "Summer Holiday" with Cliff Richard. Brian's final appearance with the Shadows was at the London Palladium in November 1963. Following the talk Brian entertained with several classical tunes on the harmonica and acoustic guitar that where extremely well received by the audience as was demonstrated by the thunderous applause he received at the close of the evening. - ******** 29th August 2007 Update, The Club was well represented in the summer round of the Rotary District Golf Tournament that was held at Heswall Golf Club on the 29th August, despite the first team being unable to attend. The Club's team was made up of Club President Kevin Brown, Prabu, and Dave Hughes. Prabu was 3rd in the individual competition and President Kevin won the most challenging competition of the day - nearest to the pin - Abergele were third in the team event [on the day] and second in the combined spring and summer team events. So, they did the Club proud. The responsibility of the main acceptance speech fell on the Abergele team. The president stepped into the hot seat, as he felt it was the least he could do, as he had scored less than the other team players. a very good day was had by all - the next District golf event is the autumn meeting at Ruthin Pwll Glas ***************** 21st August 2007 Update District Governor, Rtn. Anthony Cotton, was our guest speaker on the 21st of August. Tony has been a Rotarian since 1989 and is a member of the Rotary Club of Birkenhead. For his talk, he chose to emphasise the fun side of Rotary, showing the club photographs and a video of his recent visit to San Diego in the USA, where he attended the incoming District Governors training sessions. He assured the club that despite his presentation concentrating on the social side of the event, much hard work had taken place during the day in preparing District Governors from all over the world, for their term of office. However it was apparent from his presentation that much fun had taken place in the evenings, particularly from the video of the World Wide talent show, where he had joined forces with other District Governors from the UK, in full fancy-dress, to present to a version of The Time Warp, from the Rocky Horror Show. He ended his talk by urging the club to attend the District Conference on the 19th and 20th of October, in Liverpool. Where he assured the club that fun would be very much on the agenda in the evenings, A massed pipe band will escort us into Dinner on the Friday and Saturday will have a Moulin Rouge theme, hosted on by a famous presenter, with a full cabaret programme of entertainment, including the can-can, plus a band and dancing. Despite Tony having under-stated the working side of his visit to the USA, he proved his knowledge of Rotary, by answering several members' questions regarding the workings of Rotary International and the funding of Rotary's worldwide humanitarian projects. Tony also presented a banner to our Club President, Kevin Brown, which contained this year's Rotary slogan. "Share Rotary" this is intended to remind clubs to work together sharing fellowship, and to encourage members to invite service minded people to Rotary meetings so that they can find out more about what Rotary does, both in local community and internationally. Two pieces of good news have reached the club this week, regarding "ShelterBox", the Cornwall-based disaster relief charity, set up by the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard, and which the Rotary Club of Abergele have supported on a regular basis. The first news is that it has reached a major milestone, a consignment of aid sent to help victims of monsoon floods in Nepal brought the total number of people assisted by the charity to an estimated 500,000. The second piece of news is that the Duchess of Cornwall is to become President of "ShelterBox". The announcement of a Royal Patron, follows an official visit in July, when The Duchess toured ShelterBox's premises in Helston and met many of the volunteers who make the charity's work possible. -End Note for Editor During 2006-2007, Rotary Clubs in Britain & Ireland contributed 30% of ShelterBox's funds, ShelterBox also gets fundraising support from international affiliates set up by Rotary clubs in the USA, Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Denmark and Norway. These affiliates now raise around 25% of the charity's funds, with 45% coming as direct public donations. *************** Meeting on the 3rd July 2007 Rtn. John McKinlay (R) was presented with a bottle of Scotch by Phil Cato (L) this was Phil's last act as Presedent and was to say thank you for 10 years service as club secretary. The in coming secretary Rtn. Stephen Cooper is seated in the center of the picture. Rtn. Kevin Brown is the new President of Abergele Rotary Club. (Please see the What's new page) He was presented with the Rotary Club President's badge of office at 3rd of July meeting and by the end of the clubs Saturday evening concert "Voices At The Venue" on the 7th, he had already sung for his supper twice on behalf of the club. Once with the Bro Aled male voice choir and once with the Gele Singers, a mixed choir from Abergele, before beeing called upon to give the vote of thanks to the cast and the club's orrganising committee. The show which was originally Kevin's brain child was certainly a success as an evening of bilingual entertainment, with a long list of top quality performers. we hope to be able to annouce the amount raised by the concert next week. ************************ 2007- 2008 *********************************** Rotary Club Meeting June 5th District Governors assistant Rtn. Mike Clutton Rotary Club Meeting June 5th President Rtn. Phil Cato, introduced our guest for the evening, the District Governors assistant Rtn. Mike Clutton,. Who was attending the meeting to hear details of the coming years programme of activities from the various committee chairman. Following this introduction, President Phil temporarily handed the meeting over to president-elect Rtn.Kevin Brown, to outline his plans for the comeing year. Kevin went on to introduce the new chairmen of the sub-committees, to read their proposals . After which, Kevin handed the proceedings back to president Phil, who thanked various in coming chairmen and, and then invited our guest to comment on the proposals, after Mikes encouraging remarks. President Phil closed at the meeting by asking the members to give their full support to the clubs forthcoming concert “voices at the venue” . He reminded the club that help was needed in delivering posters and flyers in and around Llandudno, up to and including the day of the show on the 7th of July. Since that meeting the annual season of Friday night bingo at Towyn community centre as started and members are reminded to check the rota in order that the hall is fully manned.- ‘In Care Evening’ The Kinmel Manor Hotel was the venue for an other successful and enjoyable ‘In Care Evening’ organized by the members of Abergele Rotary Club last week.. It gave the club members attending the event great pleasure to see 150 guests having a good time, thanks to the entertainment provided by The Gele Singers, and the musical contribution from Rtn David Gozzard on the piano. David was also responsible for arranging this years event. The excellent food was served to our guests by members of the club who also distributed small gifts of chocolate to the guests. President elect Kevin Brown ended the evening by gave the vote of thanks._ 'Ladies Night' The 25th of April was the club's annual 'Ladies Night' held at Abergele Golf Club, with 40 members and their ladies attending. Mrs Battersby president of the Inner Wheel Club of Abergele was welcomed as a guest of the club and was presented with a bouquet of flowers. She responded with a short speech of thanks on behalf of the ladies and the Inner Wheel Club. Rotary Club President Phil Cato decided to dispense with the normal speech and just ended the evening by just thanking Rotarian Dr David Gozzard, for organising the event and then proposing the toast to "Rotary and peace the world over". Dr Gozzard was again in the limelight the following Tuesday when he gave the after dinner speech to the club. During which he explained how Hospital Glan Clwyd is now leading the world in patient safety. The members enjoyed the power point presentation and talk that was part of a longer talk that Dr Gozzard has given to various prestigious medical institutions around the world. It was well received by the club and members were pleased to learn that our hospital is held in such high esteem throughout the medical profession. Rtn. D Prys Jones, gave the vote of thanks on behalf of the club, complementing David, not only on the well laid out structure of his talk, but also on the excellent project the hospital has taken on board. The Rotary District 1180 Spring Golf Competition was held at Abergele Golf Club, on Wednesday 2nd May, with golfing Rotarians in teams of three, representing clubs from throughout our District, that stretches from Southport to Anglesey. It was a gloriously sunny day and one that the members of Abergele Rotary Club will remember for a long time particularly because a team made up of three of our members won the trophy! Some of the events that the club have in the pipeline are: a visit by members to Broughton Jet Service, with buffet lunch, on Tuesday 15th May; followed by the club's annual 'In Care Evening' on Tuesday, 22nd May, at Kinmel Manor Hotel. When the housebound and individuals in care are invited to share an evening of entertainment and a buffet. On Tuesday the 20th March Members held a Business Meeting at Kinmel Manor Hotel. The President introduced the chairmen of the various committees who presented their progress reports. Giving details of the forthcoming events currently in the process of being arranged, including the club's annual in care evening, the forthcoming grand concert "Voices at the Venue" on 7th July at Venue Cymru, Llandudno and confirmation of the clubs Friday night bingo season starting in Towyn Community Centre in July. The President then moved on to the question of donations that had been recommended the previous week at the Club Council meeting. The members approved the first donation of £250 to the North Wales Deaf Association. A second donation of £200 in favour of the hospital radio was also approved. Both organisations had provided excellent speakers at previous meetings and the membership were satisfied that the money donated would be put to good use in the community. Following the business meeting, members were pleased to welcome an additional speaker to the normal programme, the Rotary District Foundation Chairman Rtn. Mr. Colin Winstanley. Colin spent the rest of the evening explaining the value of giving to Rotary's charity " The Rotary Foundation". He told the club that whilst giving to other charities and community-based organisations was a very laudable activity, many Rotary clubs forget the value of the Rotary Foundation humanitarian programmes, where Rotary Clubs around the world ensure that all the money raised for a particular project is spent properly, on that project and in a timely manner. He emphasised that the Foundation relies on the enthusiastic support of Rotarians voluntarily giving generously of their time and money, and has become one of the foremost non-governmental foundations in the world. Every minute of every day, Rotary will touch the lives of millions somewhere in the world. The Rotary Foundation is now one of the world's leading charitable foundations and each Rotarian can be justly proud of its achievements in the past, present and in the future. He went on to ask the club to take advantage of the availability of the Foundation scholars that regularly attend Bangor University, as part of the Foundation educational programmes. This suggestion will no doubt be acted upon at subsequent meeting On Tuesday 6th of March Members were pleased to have 3 guest speakers from the North Wales Deaf Association. President Phil introduced the first to speak, Jane, she briefly explained that the Association's Community Support Services represents the rights, wishes and needs of, and is available to, profoundly deaf, deafened, deaf-blind and hearing-impaired people. The four counties of Conwy, Gwynedd, Anglesey and Flintshire fund the service. This means that there is no charge to use the service in these areas. She told the club that the service can provide information about a wide range of benefits and allowances, help with the completion of forms, translate letters and help write replies, make telephone calls or arrange interpreters and even accompany people to appointments with official bodies She then introduced Jacky herself a deaf person working for the service, who explained she was wearing two hats, in the first she explained the aim of the befriending scheme this is to alleviate isolation and loneliness amongst deaf and hard of hearing people. To improve the confidence of people with a hearing loss, to encourage them to meet other people and join in social activities and so reduce stress and anxiety, and to encourage greater independence and improve their quality of life. She then showed the members the equipment available to help deaf people such as doorbells, telephone ringers, smoke detectors and baby and toddle monitors, usually amplified, or fitted with a vibration device or flashing lights. Following this she changed to her second hat and gave the club a demonstration in lip reading and a test that resulted in the members producing quite similar drawings of the face she had described, with out using words. After this she handed over to Jane again to introduce Keith, he explained how some parts of the work the Association undertake are not funded and depends on donations and voluntary helpers and that it was his job to bring in the funds needed each year, he gave some examples of how this is achieved such as the 200 Club, raffles and coffee mornings. The members where very impressed with all three speakers and asked a number of searching questions Meeting on the 6th February 2007 At the Club Meeting on the 6th February the Club's Vice President Rtn David Gozzard took the meeting, as the President had suffered a mishap whist helping push a car from a ditch. After wishing President Phil a speedy recovery David went on to deal with the business of the club, before introducing the speaker for the evening, Mr. Andy Hays, who is a volunteer and DJ at Radio Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, the Hospital Radio Service at Glan Clwyd Hospital. Andy, with the aid of a power point presentation, told the club that the radio service was started in 1976 and has proved immensely popular with patients of all ages since its inception. It is entirely staffed by volunteers who give unstintingly of their time to provide the day-to-day running of the service furnishing programmes, news items, local information, music aimed at all ages, ward visiting etc. He also told the club how the outdated relay system had been updated in the summer of 2000 by an AM frequency system that ensured all the patients are able to access Hospital Radio at all times. He told the club that studio equipment needs to be upgraded from time to time and that the target tuners, that are used by patients to listen to the service, have to be replaced. So shortfalls in funding can happen. Unfortunately the old ambulance that was used to provide Outside Broadcasts at various charity events, around North Wales, in order to raise funds for the upkeep and maintenance of Radio station, had failed it's MOT. With this in mind the radio service committee are constantly pursuing new avenues of funding in order to maintain this valuable service. Andy's presentation was well received and he was asked to answer a number of questions before the Vice President introduced Rtn Kevin Brown to propose a vote of thanks. *********************** Meeting on the 16th January 2007 The Club's President Rtn Phil Cato told members that the Annual Bowling Match with Round Table had been arranged for Tuesday 27th February at Llandudno followed by a buffet at the George & Dragon, Abergele. The Secretary advised the members that a receipt had been received for the clubs recent donation to the Jaipur Lim Project. And that letters from Child Line Wales, Abergele Blind Club and the Bus Stop Project had been received seeking financial assistance. The club Council recommended that £200 be allocated in each case, this amount was agreed by the members for the first two requests, however following a discussion on the mater of the Abergele Blind Club a donation of £250 was suggested and agreed. The members also agreed that the president explore the possibility of giving some direct assistance to the Osprey Project, following the recently well received talk on the subject that had been given to the club. Jun.Vice Chairman Kevin informing the members that the Clubs Grand Concert would be held on the 7th July at Venue Cymru, Llandudno. Hogiau'r Wydda would appear as our Special Guests. This year's event will be in aid of the Urdd Eisteddfod. Vocational Service Chairman Richard reported that the Rotary Junior Award Scheme was now underway and going well and that Kevin would soon attend a meeting on the project at Ysgol Glan Morfa with the coordinator and Year 6 pupils. International Chairman Peter told the club that District Foundation Chairman Rtn. Colin Winstanley wished to attend a business meeting to address the Club on the work of the Rotary Foundation, and that there had been no progress on the Tamil Nadu Project. Community Service Chairman Colin reported that a debriefing session on the Christmas Float had been held and that the clubs charitable fund had benefited from the collection by £2,275. He considered this to be an excellent result considering the inclement weather experienced throughout the collecting weeks. He recommended that some thought be given to the manning of the float next year as some members felt that they were unable to cope satisfactorily with the longer routes. He told the members that they may need to seek assistance next year from our partners, Inner Wheel and ex-members and other service minded individuals that could be willing to help. He also felt that the provision of improved music on the float would also need to be addressed. Club Service In the absence of Vice Chairman David the Secretary reported that the Club Charter Dinner would be held on Friday 7th September. -END 2nd January 2007 On Tuesday the 2nd of January the Rotary Club of Abergele held its first meeting of the new year with the majority of the membership in attendance, together with a large number of guests who had been invited by members to hear the speaker, Mr Emyr Evans, the Osprey Project officer with the RSPB Cymru. He told the meeting how the Glaslyn Osprey Project had this last year welcomed more than 55,000 visitors to its viewing site at Pont Croesor, since opening in April and, most importantly, how two osprey chicks fledged successfully from the nest. He recommended the club to visit the site next season, as it is the only osprey breeding site in Wales, and is situated in the Glaslyn Valley - one of the most scenic and biodiversity rich areas in country. He went on to show the club a power point presentation that not only vividly demonstrated to the club the beauty of the birds and the nesting site but also how the many visitors throughout the summer had enjoyed views of the nesting osprey, via high-powered telescopes at a hide and on a large, wide-screen plasma monitor, which receives broadcasts of live images from a nest cam directly above the nest. It also showed people taking in the views of Snowdonia mountain range and how they had put the picnic tables to full use over the summer. Following the presentation the members asked a number of questions during which Mr Evens told the club how the project is funded by the European Union's Objective One programme through the Welsh Assembly Government (European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund) and Enfys, funded by the Big Lottery Fund and administered by the Wales Council for Voluntary Action. He ended by saying that we have been fortunate to have had great support from the local community, and from our wonderful volunteers, who have given almost 4,000 hours of time between them to help make the viewing site and the protection scheme run smoothly. A vote of thanks was given followed by a resounding round of applause in appreciation of the speaker. 5th of December 2006 At a Special general meeting heald on the 5th of December the clubs officers for nest year were proposed and adopted by the members. Club President Phil Cato took the opportunity to advised the members that the club council had approved donations help 3 local pensioners clubs hold Christmas parties, this was whole heartedly endorsed by the members. 21 of November 2006 At a recent meeting of Abergele Rotary Club International chairman Peter reported that a cheque to the value of £490 had been sent to "Shelterbox", and that the receipt indicated that a box had been dispatched to Islamabad in Pakistan in the name of the club. Peter also reported that he and Chris attend a meeting of Area 3 Presidents, to present a talk on the Tamil Nadu Joint Project. This seemed to be well received by the meeting. Peter also told the club that following the talk given by Colin James on the work of the Jaipur Limb Centre a donation had been proposed. This was put to the Club at the Business Meeting and a donation of £250 was agreed by the members Community Service reported that the Race Night held in November had been poorly attended but had still been a reasonably successful fund raising event, and that the rota for the Christmas Float had been distributed to all members and pointed out that the planned Saturday collection at Tescos would not take place. The collection would take place on the Bee forecourt between 10am and 2pm on Saturday 16th and possibly at Tescos on Sunday 17th between 10am and 2pm. Vocational Service Chairman Richard reported that a committee meeting had been held. The committee suggest that the proposed entry fee of £3 for the "The Rotary Junior Community Awards" project. should be retained by the schools at least for this year the cost being meet by the club and from sponsorship and that the presentation of the certificates will be at the schools own presentation evening. This was agreed . Club Meeting on the 7th November 2006 "Rotary Jaipur Limb Project" President, Rtn. Phil Cato, introduced our guest for the evening, past District Governor, Rtn. Colin James, from the Rotary Club of Southport Links. Colin gave a talk on the "Rotary Jaipur Limb Project", which was formed in 1985 and became a registered charity in 1995. The bulk of the projects work is in India and revolves around the travelling Limb camps, with as many as 3000 patients turning up for help in a typical year. Colin who is a trustee of the project told the club that the Jaipur Limb is an artificial leg, developed at the Mahaveer hospital in Jaipur, India. He gave a power point presentation made up from photographs he had taken during his visits to the limb camps. He explained that limbs are fitted and maintained free of charge enabling the recipient to walk and work again and return to a normal family life. Saying one of the major differences between the Jaipur technology and western technology is the cost - whereas a western limb will cost between £1,000.00 and £2,000.00, a Jaipur limb can be made and fitted for as little as £25. to £35. The Jaipur limb is hardwearing and will last for three or four years, longer if worn with a shoe. Having passed out samples of the limbs for the members to inspect, he went on to tell the club that the project support work in other countries, with permanent centres established in Bangladesh, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Panama, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Africa and other countries outside India we establish new permanent centres and provide on-going support for them by way of technician training, materials and equipment. Following Colin's talk the President thanked him and invited questions on the project. Then before closing the meeting members were reminded the club had a fund rising social event imminent, in the form of a Race Night. This is on Thursday the 17th November at Slater's Citroen car showroom from 7-30 pm tickets are £2.50p. Some races and horses were still available for sponsorship and that volunteers from the membership where needed for the bar, tote and door. Touchstones12 On Tuesday 3rd of October 2006 members of the Abergele Rotary Club were pleased to have Mr. Danie Strydom as the guest speaker. Danie told the Club that he had been appointed Project Director of Touchstones12 in January 2005. and that the organisation is a registered charity based in Colwyn Bay that provides abstinence based support for individuals who are homeless and suffering from substance misuse problems. He went on to say that Touchstones12 helps individuals from all walks of life and is the only abstinence based rehabilitation service in North Wales. The name comes from the twelve step rehabilitation programme used by the organisation, which he went on to explain as fully as possible given the time constraints. Many of the club's members where surprised by some of the distressing facts Danie quoted regarding the way the criminal justice system works in the UK and the apparent lack of proper coordination in helping to rehabilitate offenders with a substance misuse problems. However the various facts and figures Danie provided seemed to suggest that the Touchstones12 approach is very cost effective and seems to be working far better than many of the other ways of tackling this problem throughout the UK. The members where very impressed By Danie and asked a number of searching questions of him, which he answered frankly. Before returning to his duties at the Colwyn Bay HQ, Danie invited the members to visit the premises to see for them- selves what a difference the project is making, an offer that a number of member are intent on taking up as soon as possible, whilst other members asked for details of the charity's web site, so that any members that were absent could find out just what they had missed, this was given as: www.Touchstones12.org.uk Barbecue was a successful social event At the Abergele Rotary Club Meeting on 3rd September, club President Phil Cato, advised the club that the barbecue held the previous Sunday had been a very successful social event, that had been virtually unaffected by the inclement weather, thanks to the organisers hard work on behalf of the club. North Wales Police Speaker He then went on to introduce our guest speaker Superintendent Phil Thompson from North Wales Police. Phil told the club that he was pleased to be speaking to the Rotary Club of Abergele. He said, "In a way it is like coming home, I was brought up and educated in Abergele". He gave the club a brief history of his 28 years' Police Service, before he went on to explain some of the history of policing in the UK and how in the early days it had been initially manned by locally based Beat Officers protecting and looking after the interests of local residents. He then went on to explain to the club how in the recent past the introduction of various levels of technology had been responsible for the distancing of the Police Officers from their community. "This process was now being reversed", he assured the club, "In effect you could say we have come full circle." Whilst the necessary technology remains in place to help the Police detect modern-day criminals and protect the public from the terrorist threat, North Wales Police now has one of the highest percentages of visible uniformed Officers compared to other Police Forces in England and Wales. The service is committed to delivering a visible and local policing service. To ensure this the force now uses a network of ward based Community Beat Managers. Officers who are visible, accessible, locally known and who will be able to devote time and energy to listening to the needs and concerns of local people. They work with the community in tackling the issues that matter most to local people. This is intended to increase a sense of confidence and security within communities. He concluded his talk by encouraging the club members to get involved with their individual Community Beat Managers. Let them know when you're going on holiday and tell them if you see anything suspicious, they will appreciate your input. Following his talk Phil answered a large number of questions posed by the members, this is a sign of an interesting and informative talk. After all the questions had been answered a senior member of the club, who was him-self a retired Police Officer proposed the vote of thanks in an amusing but sincere way. District Governor At the Abergele Rotary Club Meeting on the 15th August the Club's President, Rtn. Phil Cato, introduced our guest for the evening, our new District Governor, Rtn. Gerry Heaslip PHF, from the Rotary Club of Liverpool Garston. Gerry was attending the meeting as part of his initial round of visits to all 62 Clubs in the District. He told the members that one of his first duties had been that of welcoming R I B I (Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland) President, Rtn. Peter Offer, and his wife Janis to our District on 5th and 6th July. Gerry recommended that as many members as possible take the opportunity to meet with Peter when he is back in the area to attend the Rotary Club of Mold's 70th Charter Dinner in November. Next he went on to talk about two new Rotary preferred projects for the new Rotary year the first being a partnership with the "Wheelchair Foundation (GB & I)" that Rotary will be helping to continue providing wheelchairs to Africa and countries in Eastern Europe that are taking part in the project. The second project he recommended to the club was "Impact" a project that takes hospital facilities by road rail or boat to people living in remote regions. This is a cost efficient charity with low overheads and it has treated the causes of preventable disability in many countries. Finally Gerry congratulated the Clubs new member who he had seen inducted in to Rotary service earlier in the evening, saying: "Welcome to Rotary. I hope you will enjoy Rotary and the fellowship it brings to you in Abergele and throughout the world." President Phil thanked the District Governor for taking the time to speak to the Club and concluded the meeting by reminding members to check the rota for the Clubs fund-raising bingo at Towyn to ensure that the hall is fully manned each Friday. Tom Jones from the Conwy Bus Stop At last Tuesday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Abergele the speaker was Tom Jones from the Conwy Bus Stop Project. With the help of a Powerpoint presentation he explained that “Bus Stop” is a free and confidential mobile information unit for children and young people. It travels to schools, housing estates and towns throughout Conwy, providing information to help children and young people. He told the club that many children and young people find themselves in difficult situations perhaps with drugs or alcohol abuse, or worries about sexually related problems or employment difficulties and may need help, advice or information. Sometimes friends and family can help. But what if they are causing the problems? What if there are no friends or family? Or what if someone would prefer not to talk to them? To be able to talk to some one who can give up-to-date information can be of great benefit. No one is naïve enough to think that simply talking to someone will instantly make problems disappear, but it can certainly help. The project carry a large range of leaflets that are kept up-dated in line with the ever changing legislation and if they don't have the information needed, they will make sure that the young person is put them in touch with someone who does. He then went on to tell the club that the funding for the project was coming to an end later this year and that there was a distinct possibility that this valuable service could be lost to the young people of Conwy. The club was very interested in this project and will pass Tom’s details on to other clubs in the District in the hope that they will be able to consider supporting this very worthwhile project. Updated 22-07-06 Mike Hands over to Phil President Mike's Valedictory Address Well, it all began a little over a year ago and, it seems, all too soon it's come to an end just as I was enjoying myself! All good things etc Given a spell of poor health it wasn't the best of beginnings for this presidential year; indeed in many respects given other health problems within my immediate family it has at times been a very difficult period of my life. But let me say how very impressed Joan and I have been by the support and encouragement that we have received from all quarters of the Club and elsewhere within Rotary. In terms of the Club and the impact that I may have had on it, well, not much has been broken and as far as I can see nothing has fallen off, so I guess something has gone right and, after all, President Phil has something left to inherit. Anyhow, I now look forward to future years in the belief that may still something to offer the Club. All in all it was an enjoyable presidency, and I hope that you've had a good time too. It can't have been too bad a year, as we were awarded a Presidential Certificate in recognition of our performance. I'm all for audit, scrutiny and evaluation, but I hadn't reckoned on the framed certificate that came with the accolade! I was very disappointed when my wife refused to hang this over our mantel piece! I hope that Phil has more success, and yes Phil, it's waiting for you in the car! A key concern for your Council has been how we improve our appeal to potential members. This gave rise to some examination of what it is that we are as a Club and what it is that make us Rotarians. There is always a danger in indulging in too much introspection, but at least we have made a start and have been brave or insightful enough to generate a debate within Council and to a greater or lesser extent with the Club at large. I wish that we could have made more progress; I would certainly recommend that we regularly set time aside to examine ourselves so that we might do all that we can to ensure that we meet our Rotary objectives and are perceived as being a relevant local organisation that, within a very competitive sector when considering the time commitment that people are prepared to give, others are keen to join. Of great help to our profile and hopefully our membership has been the Club Information Leaflet produced by Rtn.Chris O'Brien. This together with revisions to our website, the bilingual nature of information about the Club and the sterling attempts by Rtn. John Newcombe and now Chris O'Brien to give information about our activities to the press, can only be to our benefit.In his role as Speakers Coordinator Chris has provided us with excellent speakers who have covered a wide range of issues, and it has been particularly gratifying that we have been able to give financial assistance to many of the organisations.We have been more involved in providing financial assistance to meet need in three International disasters. This has been quite exceptional and one can only hope that this level of need will not be repeated for a long while.We have been innovative, with our first ever Grand Choir Concert held last month. This was truly a wonderful night and the whole exercise was accomplished with seemingly great ease by Rtn. Kevin. Many lessons have and will be learned, but I am sure that this will become a regular event and something good with which we can be associated and recognised for. This year we even attracted one new member and there is every likelihood of others to follow and this is particularly good news. We have continued with our trademark events including the Christmas Float, Bingo, the annual In Care evening with even more success than previously. A great deal of effort has been given to enhancing our involvement with young people and their schools. I think that this represents opportunities in future to establish new activities for which we can be justifiably proud to be associated with.The social events including the Ladies Evening, and BBQ were enjoyed by all participants. These events would have been possible without your input and effort. So, to all our Committee Chairmen who were the driving force behind our achievements this year and to others who have contributed in any way to Club activities - my thanks, to the Council for their encouragement and support - my thanks, and turning to individuals I record special thanks To Rtn. John our Secretary and to Rtn. Bob in his role as our TreasurerTo Rtn. John Morris in his role as Almoner, for providing timely and effective support to those of us who have been unwell during the year.To Len for compiling the Newsletter so efficiently To immediate Past President Clive for his availability and to have someone to gain experienced advice from.To President Elect Phil and Vice-President David for their wise counsel over the past 12 months. Their individual qualities, when placed together, augurs well for the year ahead. And within the year ahead I look forward to playing my part, and I hope that each and every one of you play yours. For any individuals who think that they deserve mention and that I have not named. Your omission is not intentional and I apologise, but you know that I am very grateful for your efforts. Finally and most importantly to you all - the membership of the Rotary Club of Abergele. I thank you for the honour and opportunity that you have afforded me. It will be my proud boast for all my years that I have served as your President. Thank-you. Up Dated June 20th 2006 On Friday night the 16th June Abergele Rotary Club produced a wonderful show at the Rhyl Pavilion, in the form of a grand concert. following the last performance, the club's President Rtn. Mike Mason, was called upon to speak. Standing from his seat in the auditorium, Mike, thanked the audience for supporting the event saying " This has been the most enjoyable evening of my year as President of the Abergele Rotary Club. And I believed that the concert had been a success on many levels. Firstly the quality of the entertainment has been first class, judging by the thunderous applause following each part of the program this fact has been appreciated by you the audience. Secondly we have provided an opportunity for the general public to experience some of the culture of Wales, the traditional Welsh choirs and wonderful soloists and instrumentalists from within those choirs." He went on to thank our compere, Mr Glyn Owen and the special guest performer Mr Trebor Edwards, whose pure Welsh tenor voice had held the audience spellbound. He then thanked Rotarian Kevin Brown who had been the inspiration for the event and leading member of the clubs organising team. Saying "Kevin has put in an enormous amount of work to make this splendid evening happen." Then with the five choirs and the rest of the company assembled on stage for the finale, the microphone was passed to Rtn Kevin Brown, He thanked the club's President for his kind words and all the Rotary club members for all the help and support they had given in planning the show. Then he told the audience that the club had hoped to be able to produce a similar event on a regular basis, and that it was a pity that with such a great show the theatre had not been full to capacity." This comment produced a spontaneous round of applause. Kevin, continued saying "It maybe that it is not viable to produce a show like this every year, but every two years could be a distinct possibility!" The compare Mr Glyn Owen, then reintroduced choirs, asking them to lead the audience in a rousing version of the "Hymn Guide Me Oh Thou Great Redeemer", with alternate verses in Welsh and English. This was a particularly uplifting ending to a wonderful night of entertainment. NB: The Abergele Rotary Club would like to thank the Choirs. The Compere and our special guest, the sponsors, and all the business premises around Abergele, Rhyl and Prestatyn that assisted us by displaying posters and last but not least The Rhyl Pavilion management and staff for their help and advice. The President's Notes - June 2006 We're in the final stages of our Rotary year and this willl be my last note to you as your President, your next newsletter will be from President elect Phil. I have enjoyed my year a great deal and I hope that you will also have enjoyed the activities we have shared in the past twelve months, Since my last note we have had our Ladies Night and our annual "In Care Evening". Both were, I felt, very successful and enjoyable occasions. Thanks to all members who helped with the; "[n Care Evening", and particular thanks are due to Vice President. Phil and his team, Kevin for his role as M.C. for the evening, arid David who entertained our guests on the pianoforte. Once again the Betws yn Rhos Male Voice Choir were magnificent, and their singing enjoyed by all. I would also like to offer a Big Thank You to our anonymous donor for his generous support for the "ln Care Evening". We nee meet for our Club Assembly. Could I, on behalf of President Elect Phil, remind all next years' Committee Chairmen to have their proposed programmes (with a copy) available for presentation to AGM John McDowell when he visits the Club on 6th June. This year we've attempted to review what it is that makes us the Club we are and identify what, if airy; changes are required in order to ensure that we are an attractive proposition for those who night wish to join the Club. At the last Business Meeting we had an opportunity to involve all members present in giving ideas to Committee Chairmen for possible inclusion in programmes for next year. Not surprisingly this produced further ideas for social, fellowship, and hand-raising activities, some of which will involvee all three! It was suggested that we ought to promote a significant community activity for which the Club will become well known. The considerable progress made this year by Kevin and Vocational Service in developing a relationship with local school facilities in the area was considered to be the most appropriate initiative to explore in this respect. I really hope that Club Council will continue to examine the extent to which the Club remains relevant to current and potential members and ,more importantly, the community we serve. Yours in Rotary President Mike Our Speaker for March was Nicky Litchfield from "Hearing Dogs For Deaf People" With her local geust Speaker Sharon Evans and her hearing dog Ike This stimulated an interesting round of questions. The annual 10-pin bowling match against Round Table took place at Llandudno on February 28, with a follow-up social gathering at the George and Dragon The Club also agreed to a donation of £200 to (MAG) the Mines Action Group, following an excellent presentation by Rhian Cooke, last January. New Member** At our business meeting in the Kinmel Manor Hotel on February 21, the newest member, Peter Williams, was welcomed and formally inducted in to the club. Reports from the four sub-committees were received before president Mike announced that a wide-ranging review of the Clubs is to be instigated. The council had agreed to re-examine the Club's aims and objectives especially in relation to the pressing issues of its functional structure, the problems of recruitment, and the age profile factor in light of its more physically demanding commitments 1 to the community. The proposed Male Voice Choir concert to the held at the Pavilion, Rhyl on the 16th June 2006 is now taking shape. February 2006 We had a most interesting talk given by "The Bank Of England Agency For Wales" regarding the mechanics of the Bank of England, and the measures taken to gather information in order to set the Base Rate. It was good to know that local businesses can have their say and bring about some influence Jan 2006 We started the New Year in a sober mood, with a talk , delivered by Rhian Cooke, regarding the work of the Mines Action Group. This stimulated an interesting debate regarding the use of mines in the arena of war. Differing views are and will be held, but there is an enthusiasm for a purposeful response by the Club in terms of supporting MAG in their relief work. We can now confirm that the Christmas Float raised £4523.25, the highest sum ever collected. Our thanks are due to Round Table for their support and we will be able to express our thanks at the Rotary/Round Table Ten Pin Bowling Challenge Match to be held on the 28th February. Please come along and support your Team Rtn. Kevin has a "Chairs Group" supporting his efforts in bringing about a Male Voice Choirs Festival, to be provisionally held on the 16th June at the Pavilion, Rhyl. Planning for this continues, but this will be a major opportunity for fundraising , so please put this date in your diaries. Rtn. Peter meets regularly with International and Foundation Chairs in our Area, in a group convened by Tony Cotton, Assistant District Governor, who we welcomed to our Council meeting in January. It is likely that support will be given to one or more projects that the group will select, creating the opportunity for Clubs to combine resources, possibly attracting Rotary match funding. International Committee will soon discuss the needs and suitability of the Tamil Nadu Child Development Centre Project, supported by Rtn. Srini and other Rotarians, as a possible submission for consideration. Council has begun to consider our current pattern of meetings. This pattern has been in place for two years or so, and Council agreed that we should provide a fresh opportunity to take account of the feelings of the Club. Council will consider this in more detail this month, and it is intended that a debate will be held at the Business Meeting to be held on the 21st March. I hope that there will be a good attendance on that occasion.
	Abergele Rotary Club News December news By now Christmas is past and we have entered into a New Year, 2006. I sincerely hope that Christmas was truly happy for you and your families and that 2006 will prove to be healthy for you and peaceful for all. In the run up to Christmas it was good that we had a very good attendance at our Christmas luncheon, when John McKinlay entertained us to what I can only describe as a picture in words. His winter nautical story was truly magnificent and he drew out so effectively how in nature you can experience he enormity of creation. Thank you John for a most enjoyable talk. As we go to press it would seem that the Christmas Float takings are, if anything, slightly up on 2004 which in itself was a record year. Many thanks to all who gave their support this time. It was good to see Norman Kirkham back with us in December, but we missed Tudor Jones who was in hospital. Also Srini "hopped" into our Christmas lunch having sustained a most unfortunate accident at home last month. Our best wishes go to Tudor and Srini for their quick return to good health. We next meet on January 3rd when we will have a talk about the Land Mines Project so I hope that we have a good turn out for that. ************************************* Pakistan Earthquake Appeal. A concert by the Llanddulas male voice choir has been arranged by our Club It will take place at the Presbyterian Church, Hawarden Road, Colwyn Bay on Thursday 17th November commencing at 7.30 pm. Tickets are priced at £5.00, All profits will be donated to the Pakistan Earthquake Appeal. ************************************* November Newsletter What a month it's been again On the world stage, following the Asian earthquake disaster ! Our willingness and ability to support those in need remains strong and I'm pleased that we are able to fund a Shelter Box that hopefully will soon be on its way to Pakistan. On the home front The Club is to donate £250 towards the funds of Abergele Blind Club. *************************** At the beginning of the month we heard from Gill Ford who told us of the problems faced by young people who have the responsibility of caring for relatives. It's not that our Health and Social Services don't provide help; the fact is that, for some families, where there is illness or disability, caring is a 24 hour responsibility and sometimes it is only the youngsters present who are able to do this. I hope that we can consider how we can get involved in providing some assistance for youngsters helping in this way in Abergele. ********************** It was good to see David Roberts, Edward Lyons and John Newcombe back on their feet. Keep up the good work chaps and the best wishes. We have been fairly involved on the District front this month Peter Hughes attended a meeting of Foundation/International Chairmen and I attended a meeting of Area 3 Presidents. Keep a look out for details of how these new initiatives may help us to share experience and resources. ************** Eexpect details regarding this years' Christmas Float in the next newsletter. ****************************** Life and times of Alfred Nobel Chris O'Brien entertained us to a talk about the life and times of Alfred Nobel. I was not on my own in learning much about the considerable enterprise and intellect of Nobel and of the legacy he left in recognising the contribution that many can and do make particularly in the field of peace, reconciliation and understanding. ******** Visit from District Governor It was good to have a visit from District Governor Goff Uttley who told us that so far in his year he had attended no fewer than 88 Rotary events! Phew! And it's only September! It's useful to have sound links with District for mutual benefit whereby we can stimulate Rotary activity at Club level and further a field. ******************* Chrysalis Trust Much nearer to home we heard from Kay Parry-Jones, who works for the Chrysalis Trust I at nearby Glan Clwyd Hospital, where the information, counselling and support needs of children who face considerable medical problems, and their parents and carers, are met by Chrysalis. I cannot remember too many occasions in my time with the Club where the immediacy of the need was responded to so quickly and generously. *********************** Rotary Golf Money out requires money in, and it was a delight to attend the prize giving following the Abergele Rotary Golf Charity Match last week in which some 23 teams had taken part. Thanks are due to Bob Walford for his work in bringing this together for us. It's always good to see people having a good time, but also remembering those less fortunate. Close to £1,000 from that event alone, so well done to all! ****************** 1st A Tsunami Disaster Now The American Gulf Our thoughts this month have again been focused upon the needs of other facing, emergencies abroad. Having been confronted by the enormity of the Tsunami Disaster at the beginning of the year, little did we know that people would, as the saying goes, "be in harms way" as a result of natural disaster as evidenced in the American Gulf area. It was our privilege as a Club, once more, to be generous in supporting the needs of those less fortunate in terms of responding to needs as presented to us. Mike Takes The Chair 19/07/2005 It was good to see this year's president, Mike Mason at this week's meeting and even better to see that he was able to receive his Presidential Chain of Office, illness had prevented him being able to takeover the office at the turn of the Rotary year. Mike introduced our first Speaker of the new season Rotarian Colin Winstanley who is this year's district International chairman. Colin explain some of the International projects and recommended that we all read the projects book, to see if we can find suitable project that could enable us to make use of the matching grants system, whereby a project that raises £1,000 locally could be turned into £3,500 by the time it reaches it destination. It would be true to say that Colin gave the club quite a lot to think about. **************** Annual Club Assembly Following the club's annual in care evening. the next meeting on Tuesday 7th June will be the Annual Club Assembly, when our guest will be Rotary Assistant District Governor, Tony Cotton. ***************** In Care Evening The 24th May will see the club's annual in care evening. When we entertain those residents of our immediate vicinity who are in care homes, to an evening of entertainment, in an environment different to their norm. In previous years this has been well appreciated by our guess and as proved a highly rewarding evening of service for those Rotarians that have been able to attend. We are sure that this year's event will be no different. *************** Bowling evening the 17th when the club were to meet Denbigh Rotary Club members for a bowling evening at Betws-yn-Rhos Boling Club, following which the clubs were to enjoy a meal together at the wheat sheaf. Double meeting Tuesday May 10th was a double meeting evening for members who attended both a club council meeting and the formal club meeting that followed at Kendal Manor. This unusual occurrence was created in order to facilitate a social evening the following Tuesday "Business Eye" *********** On 3rd May the club was pleased to receive Ms Linda Peel from Business services in Wales, otherwise known "Business Eye". Despite a technical problem that meant the club was not able to see the audio-visual presentation that Linda had planned the, evening turned out to be a very worthwhile experience particularly for those members who are in business or planning to start a new venture. It was clear from the description given of the services Business Eye provided, that they understand the issues facing business in Wales and are able to offer help and advice to both large and small businesses wherever they are in Wales. At the conclusion of the talk members were invited to seek further information from the Business Eye Website: www.businesseye.org.uk. ****************** Annual General Meeting We have had quite an active time over the last few weeks starting with the Annual General Meeting, at which the membership confirmed the appointment next year's president Mike Mason and his management team for the coming Rotary year and July 2005-2006.
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