Geoff Watts was in the chair as President Mike & Ann were on grandparent duty; and we were pleased to welcome Brenda Watts, who kindly hosted the DG’s wife Angela. The talk by DG Duncan was very traditional telling us mainly things we already knew and had heard many time before; his main  point was that RI, RIBI & District are all there to support & strengthen Clubs  We were encouraged to Plant a Tree , support Literacy in Schools ( only problem would be CRB checks), must find new members & then keep them, and an experimental Club being trialled by Horsham  ( no formalities, meet in pub, no agenda, etc.) & Worthing trialling “Friends of Rotary” something they have had for at least 5 years already.
Also discussed Disabled Sports & need for funding , after District Committee had ignored that situation for many years; Presidential Citation and /or a Change Marker Award.
 
9th : Owing to a late programme change the speakers were Maureen Fraser & Marge Hance who informed us about the work of the “ Littlehampton Child Contact Centre”, which provides a service for children to meet their absent parent. Formed in 2005 by Andrea Wood under the auspices of the National Child Contact Centre Scheme . Meeting twice a month at the Baptist Church the fathers come in one door with the mothers using a separate door. The session is limited to 2 hours with ten children each time; and David Humphries is available to ensure that all runs smoothly. A vital service for the children in this sad situation; so well done to all those who make it possible ! Evidently the attendance of just 17 members was an all time low !!
  
16th : Ian Eastwood’s Evening – Celebrating 50 Years of Service !!
The format of the evening had been arranged at Ian’s request so the 50+ plus members & friends who had gathered to celebrate his achievement enjoyed a barbeque main course with a choice of desserts to follow. We were then entertained by an excellent talk by Tony Pratt from the Wey & Arun Canal Trust which was very well illustrated by digital photos taken from old county records, old postcards and current pictures.

We learned that the decision to construct the canal was influenced by the fact that Britain was then losing some 4/500 ships a year to French privateers not withstanding the recent Battle of Trafalgar victory; and the objective was to construct an inland route from Portsmouth Harbour to London . From Langstone Harbour the route used the Portsmouth/Arundel Canal , then into the River Arun followed by the Wey & Arun Canal and finally into the River Wey and onto the Thames.

The Hardham Tunnel was built in 1785 to allow large barges better access and the 22 miles of the canal operated until 1871. The Trust are gradually restoring sections of the canal and occasionally manages to join some stretches up together; water supply being a major challenge with each lock opening using 50,000 gallons; but this has now been greatly reduced by automatically pumping the water back up into the lock. Each 200 yards costs on average £10,000 to make waterproof,

The main event of the evening was how ever the recognition of 50 years of service to the Club & Rotary in general and the presentation was made by AG John Watkins. Prior to his presentation John reminded us that John F Kennedy was elected President of the USA & Princes Diane was born in 1961 the year Ian joined the Club. John then presented Ian with a Rotary International Certificate marking his achievement, and signed letters of congratulations from RI President Kalyan Banerjee and RIBI President Ray Burman .

President Mike Findlay then presented Ian with the Clubs award of a well deserved Paul Harris Fellowship. Ian in his reply expressed his pleasure in the certificate & letters and his shock in being made a Paul Harris Fellow; and he thanked the President & all members.       

 23rd  : The speaker this week was Robin Hargraves, Chairman of Arun Neighbourhood Watch. Robin provided an interesting & informative talk, but his visual aid Flip Chart could do with improvement. Just a note for members did you know that many insurance companies will give a 10% discount on House Insurance if you are a member of Neighbourhood Watch.

30th: A big audience of 58 , including 22 from Bognor Regis Club, for this 5th Tuesday  meeting. We were entertained by Barbara Moore with her “ Tales of Show Business” which she introduced with a few musical numbers using her keyboard. A most enjoyable evening and a good start for the 5th Tuesday meetings.

CLUB FINANCES : Having raised £69,000 from the shop by end July, 2011 we have again done well during August to take a further £3,306. The grand total since February 2010 is now £72,398. Rotarians please make an effort to help staff the shop, while I understand that after such a long period interest does diminish we are still able to raise good money but members attendance has been a bit thin lately.  Local residents continue to donate good quality items for sale, so the only potential item missing is YOU !!!
 
INNER WHEEL CLUB :  The Club now has their second President of 2011/12 for September & October the experienced Malwynne Magness will be leading the Club, having been President twice before in 1978/79 & 1998/99. Following on from the presentation to Sussex Air Ambulance the Club have now presented the local RNLI with a cheque for £650 and laptop computer, digital projector & speakers to assist with their lifeboat presentations.   The next Club event is a MacMillan Coffee Morning at 91, St. Mary’s Close on Friday 30th September.

ROTARACT CLUB :  The Club have arranged to have a display at the Town Show on Saturday 10th September to help advertise the Club, and also to be visible in the coummnity. 

TOMATO KETCHUP BY TIPTREE : Do enjoy your Tomato Sauce, provided free by Wilkin & Sons, but please remember that the idea is to assist Rotary fund raising in 2011/12. So far only two bottles have been returned, perhaps like me you are still filling yours, but Mike Ridges is looking forward to receiving your donation. The object of the scheme is to raise EXTRA funds for either Annual Giving or Polio, so when returning the bottle, full of coins we hope, indicate where the donation is to go and if it is to be Gift Aided. I have a record of all members who have recorded a Gift Aid form with RIBI at Alcester and can supply a form if you have not yet done so. You know it makes sense !

SUNDAY 23RD OCTOBER,2011    A Concert by Arun Young Musicians and the Salvation Army Band & Singers  at the Salvation Army Hall, Crescent Road, Worthing at 5pm. Please do make a note in your diary and come along to support this event which is being organised by Honorary Member Maurice Ozanne ; refreshments will be available and the retiring collection will be shared by AYM & a Salvation Army Charity.

The International Garden Party on Saturday 27th August defied the wet summer by only attracting a mere 5 minute shower. Held at the home of Maggie & David Cross (grateful thanks to you both) and organised by PP Ann provided members and spouses with a most enjoyable start to the Bank Holiday Weekend. A very successful financial result will help fund next years Uberlingen Club visit, the profit for the evening was £631.

RIBI Conference – Bournemouth 13th to 15th April, 2012
7 ( 5 members & 2 wives) have now booked to attended the 2012 Bournemouth Conference and are looking forward to interesting speakers & excellent entertainment.  So why not think of joining us for a weekend of fellowship & friendship and simple good fun. We have booked accommodation at the Trouville Hotel, just 100 yards from the BIC Conference centre, and the cost per person per night is £77.50 Bed, Breakfast & Dinner , no extra charge for singles as we stayed there last time.  We really would enjoy your company, so just ask me how you can be involved !!
         
I am sorry for the slight delay this month having been on holiday, but it does enable me to express the Clubs thanks for those who helped yesterday at the Town Show.

The Tombola raised £141 for Sophie Nugent Fund, the books etc. money sold by Rotaractors is still to be counted. Well done Geoff & Brenda, Mike Ridges, Gillian & Loiuse, Tanya & Tom from Rotaract.

I hope you found something of interest, Regards Bill      11th September, 2011

 
The aim of the monthly Bulletin is to keep members well informed about what has taken place in the past month & also future events.

SPEAKERS & EVENTS PROGRAMME :
August 2nd  Visit by DG Duncan Anderson
August 9th   To be advised owing to programme change!         
August 16th
Tony Pratt – Wey & Arun Canal plus Ian Eastwoods 50 Years in Rotary !!!!
August 23rd Robin Hargraves Arun Neighbourhood Watch 
August 27th SATURDAY BBQ AT DAVID & MAGGIE CROSS’S HOME
August 30th 5TH Tuesday Barbara Moore “ Tales of Show Business”
  
Geoff Watts does require members to suggest potential speakers so ensuring he can provide a good & varied programme.  

TILDY’S TRUST :
Following the Nick Myer “mile” as part of the “Tour de Tildy” a total of £1,200 was raised by Nick some 3% of the total the Tour raised. So well done Nick & all members who so generously sponsored him. The Trust has so far been able to donate £130,000 in memory Tildy, with £80,000 of that being used by two hospitals help establish new adolescent cancer patients rooms. The loss of a daughter is sad beyond belief, but all credit to the family for making their loss so positive!!

Club Programme in July : 5th with an attendance of just 20 members, 5 who arrived after the meal, the Club year started on a low key note. How ever we did receive good news from Nicholas Myer regarding the progress being made by the Voice of Progress as they work to try and increase the number of clients that they serve. A demo disc and leaflet explaining the service have been prepared and these will, hopefully, be given to locally visually impaired people who currently do not use the service; evidently there are 600 people a year diagnosed as visually impaired each year in the area that is served by the VOP.

The number of members attending may have been reduced as the talk was by Paul McGuire from H D Tribe’s the funeral directors; a sensitive subject at our age ! The role of a Funeral Director is all about people & how they react to the service provided. Founded in 1929 Tribe’s now carry out 1,500 funerals each year having started as cabinet makers . We learnt a lot about their Burial at Sea service particularly that this can only be provided at 3 sites in the UK; off Newhaven, The Needles in the Solent and the North East coast near Newcastle. How ever it is not to be undertaken lightly  as it will add around £3,000 to the overall cost.

 July 12th : Attendance numbers no higher, but we did have a very interesting talk by Jools Chaffer who, with his wife, founded Dizzies—the Diabetes Support Group. They started in 2005 by opening their shop in East Preston village, & now have 4 shops with 14 staff & 87 volunteers. The shops are used to act as information centres as well as raising funds. The money raised enables them to run Support Groups, a Buddy’s scheme, and provide an education service in schools in Sussex, Surrey & Hampshire. They work with 21 schools as it is forecast that by 2050 we can expect 50% of population to have diabetes owing to poor diets. Their shop in the River Ward of Littlehampton is the most valuable as they can be in contact with the 35% of the wards population that are at risk. In the last 4 years they have received 18 local & national awards    

July 19th : Before the Business Meeting Mike Harvey showed a DVD of last years Hike4Hospices to remind members of the forthcoming 2011 event.

CLUB SERVICE
Attendance again disappointing at 17 members who did how ever kindly agreed to double the amount raised by Club Service at the Town Show Tombola, all proceeds to be used to help cover young Sophie Nugent’s physiotherapy treatment costs. Geoff Watts was the first to return his Tomato Sauce bottle full of coins, which he wishes to donate to Polio eradication ( I think Brenda must let him have more pocket money than me); I will get him to complete a Gift Aid form: The Committee stall at the Town Show on September 10th will be Bottle, Tin & Jar Tombola; so all donations welcome.

INTERNATIONAL & FOUNDATION :
Ann reaffirmed the committee support for the project in Pietermaritzberg South Africa with 7 local Rotary Clubs; the project will train 93 Trainers who will then teach basic literacy skills, knowledge of HIV & Aids, food production & how to set up & run a small business. The first course will have some 1,395 trainees on it. The Club will be providing £4,000 of the project costs.

We will continue to finance Miriam’s education and a donation of £2,500 to Foundation Annual Giving is also planned; the Club Christmas Card will be arranged by Alan Moss.

YOUTH :
The Committee plan to continue to use RYLA to help provide trained young leaders for local Youth Groups, to ensure that we sponsor at least one disabled young person for a Jubilee Sailing Trust voyage, to support the Arun Youth Awards.

COMMUNITY & VOCATIONAL
The committee are planning to arrange the Club Christmas Carol Service for Thursday 15th December, so we wish them every success with this important part of the Club calendar.  And members agreed to the request to support the Littlehampton Gazette “Community Stars” event and sponsorship of £800 was agreed. 

July 26th : A much improved attendance of 25 , with 6 of these joining in after the meal. Our speaker was Alice Rendle owner of Edgecumbes a Tea & Coffee distributor on “The World of Tea”. Alice started off by reminding us that the millions of cups of tea drunk each day in the UK are very good for us owing to the anti oxidants they contain. There are over 3,000 varieties of tea, the main facts we learnt are White Tea is mainly served only in China, Green Tea should not use boiling water to brew the tea as that spoils the taste & colour, Oolong Tea is the staple tea used in Germany, our teas are mainly black being totally oxidised, and RED Bush tea as it comes from a different plant altogether. The quality of teas sold in supermarkets continues to decline as they chase price/value for money – something has to give. Tea is the only commodity that is still physically traded with no futures market, reason is that each harvest differs owing to growing conditions. A most interesting talk on what may still be Britain’s favourite brew. 

CLUB FINANCES:
Having raised £62,000 from the shop by end June, 2011 we have again done well during July to take a further £3,500 with just over £1,000 last week the best result for over 4 months. The grand total since February 2010 is now £69,062. Please make an effort to help staff the shop during August , as no doubt many members will either be on holiday or looking after their grandchildren. Local residents continue to donate good quality items for sale, so the only potential item missing is YOU !!!

INNER WHEEL CLUB :
The Club year under President Vivien Ayres got of to a busy start with the Club winning the Inner Wheel Inter Club Skittles Competition on 13th July; only one down side to holding  the Barrass Trophy is that they have to organise next years event. On the 20th a group of members supported by some Rotarian husbands travelled to Dunsfold Airport the base of Sussex Air Ambulance and presented their cheque for £5,000 the money will help train a new Doctor for the ambulance. The next event is a Coffee Morning at Angela Child’s at 10:30 am on Thursday 4th August.

ROTARACT CLUB :
Past President Louise has quickly moved onto encouraging the formation of new Rotaract Clubs in District 1250, and is listed in the District Directory as the contact for Rotaract events & potential new Clubs. We wish her every success. 

TOMATO KETCHUP BY TIPTREE :
Do enjoy your Tomato Sauce, provided free by Wilkin & Sons, but please remember that the idea is to assist Rotary fund raising in 2011/12. When returning the bottle, full of coins we hope, indicate if the donation is for Polio or Annual Giving and if it is to be Gift Aided.
   

RIBI Conference – Bournemouth 13th to 15th April, 2012
7 ( 5 members & 2 wives) attended the 2010 Bournemouth Conference and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend; interesting speakers & excellent entertainment; and the returning 2012 Conference looks to be just as interesting. So why not think of joining us for a weekend of fellowship & friendship and simple good fun. We plan to stay in the Trouville Hotel, just 100 yards from the BIC Conference centre, and the cost per person per night is £77.50 Bed, Breakfast & Dinner , no extra charge for singles as we stayed there last time. Currently 6 of us are likely to attend, led by President Mike & Past President Ann so why not break a habit of a lifetime and attend the RIBI conference !!! WE really would enjoy your company, so just ask Bill Paine how you can be involved !!

We commence another Rotary Year which President Mike Findlay hopes will provide  every member with Fun, Fellowship & Fulfilment; we can all help achieve this aim by supporting Club events both social & service so ensuring we continue to provide help and assistance to those in need both locally in Littlehampton/Rustington area but equally importantly internationally. Many Clubs do excellent work in their local community but manage to forget that they belong to ROTARY INTERNATIONAL.
My aim is for the monthly Bulletin to keep members well informed not only about what has taken place in the past month, when perhaps you were not present, but also about future events. Hopefully this may encourage better levels of participation by members.

CLUB FINANCES : During the Rotary Year 2010/11 the shop raised approximately a net £38,000, which together with the £24,000 raised from February to June, 2010 means we have been fortunate to taken a net total of £62,000 so far.

How ever the shop can only continue for that long if members make the effort to staff it, the majority of us are retired so surely one morning or afternoon per fortnight per member should be possible ! Local residents continue to donate good quality items for sale, so the only potential item missing is YOU !!!

CLUB SERVICE : The Committee have decided , in the absence of International attendance away in Uberlingen, to run a stall at the Town Show on September 10th the aim is to continue to let the Littlehampton public see the Club in action while raising some funds for the Sophie Nugent Fund.

Having had a successful operation Sophie still requires regular physiotherapy, which the NHS is not willing to provide. Arrangements have been made for the traditional Club Christmas Dinner to be held on the evening of Tuesday 13th December at 6:30 pm. 

INTERNATIONAL & FOUNDATION:
The committee plan to support a major project in Pietermaritzberg South Africa with 7 local Rotary Clubs; the project will train 93 Trainers who will then teach basic literacy skills, knowledge of HIV & Aids, food production & how to set up & run a small business. The first course will have some 1,395 trainees on it. The Club will be providing £4,000 of the project costs.

A Foundation District Simplified Grant  application has been made by the Committee at President Mike’s request, and this was approved at the District Committee meeting on the 1st June. We will receive matched funding of £500 , so with the Clubs contribution of £500 the recently reformed Littlehampton Boxing Club will be able to purchase equipment costing £1,000.

We will be hearing from the Boxing Club during the year. We will continue to finance Miriam’s education and a donation of £2,500 to Foundation Annual Giving is also planned; the Club Christmas Card will be arranged by Alan Moss.

YOUTH :
The Committee plan to continue to use RYLA to help provide trained young leaders for local Youth Groups, to ensure that we sponsor at least one disabled young person for a Jubilee Sailing Trust voyage, to support the Arun Youth Awards.

COMMUNITY & VOCATIONAL :
A number of posible donations have been left over from the last Rotary year but more information is required on some of these before a final decision is taken. One new possibility is REPOD ( Rotarians Easing Problems of Dementia)  which is a new national Rotary scheme -- but if this does not go ahead perhaps we should consider supporting the local Alzheimers Society in Worthing which achieves so much for sufferers & their families in our area.

INNER WHEEL CLUB :
The Club is experiencing , like our selves, the problem of finding members willing to take office; so in a bold & unique experiment this year they are trying a revolving Presidency.

Six members will share the office of President with each serving for 2 months each, the year commences with Vivien Ayres serving for July & August. We wish them every success with this sensible solution to an ever increasing problem for Clubs of our age & maturity.

The 85th Birthday of the Club was celebrated on 19th May at The Fox, Patching and all those attending enjoyed a very interesting talk by Mrs. Brenda Forrester entitled “ Famous for Something Else”; and the final event of their year was a Strawberry Tea on 23rd June hosted by President Barbara.

The £8,000 presented to Inner Wheel from the shop was distributed  as £5,000 to Sussex Air Ambulance, £1,000 Sussex RNLI, £1,000 Sussex Kidney Trust, £500 to Starfish Project and £500 to Chestnut Tree House. All excellent & deserving local charities.

ROTARACT CLUB :
Founding President Louise has handed over & installed James Millett as President for 2011/12. James at 21 is the Manager at Lansdale Marine Chandlery at Chichester Harbour; and he is, and has been from a young age,  involved in sailing & he teaches disabled youngsters to sail at Arun Youth Aqua Centre using the new dinghy. 

Rotaract activities planned for the next year are to take part in the Arundel Bath Tub Race, help at Arundel Festival, organise a Charitable Party & support the shop which will enable them to raise money for various local & international charities. 

TOMATO KETCHUP BY TIPTREE :
Geoff Watts has given every member a bottle of Tomato Sauce which has been provided free by Wilkin & Sons to assist Rotary fund raising in 2011/12.

The idea is that you should use the quality contents and then, after washing the bottle, fill it with coins either for Polio or Foundation Annual Giving.

So please fill your bottle with coins and pass back to Geoff for counting and recording, at the same time indicate if the donation is for Polio or Annual Giving and is it to be Gift Aided.