Dear Rotarians

 

Over the coming weeks, we are going to be planning our Changeover ceremony and hoping it can be a real event in a real venue and we’ll be able to have one of those rare things called a gathering.  A changeover ceremony on Zoom doesn’t feel right, so watch this space!

 

Changeover will be a celebration, but on the other hand we do have a little challenge because we don’t currently have a nominee to be Club President for the following year commencing mid 2021.  This person normally would have been chosen and confirmed by December 2019.  Pam Broadhead will move into the President's role in the middle of this year, and lead the Club through till winter 2021, but we do not yet have a member willing to be President for the 2021-22 year, in spite of having canvassed widely within the club.  

 

Obviously if you are reading this and thinking that you would like to take on this role, then Pam or Neroli would be delighted to hear from you ;).  

 

As a contingency plan the current Directors are considering an alternative way of moving forward from the middle of 2021 that would involve changing the size of the President’s role, having them focusing still on being the Leader of the club and managing the business of the club, but the responsibility for running the meetings would rotate round different members of the club.  Leading each meeting could in effect be an additional duty on our roster.  It could be that the directors potentially be rostered first to create the new pattern, and then other members could be slowly added to this new rostered position.  We think this would better share the work of, and responsibility for our Club over a wider range of people and lessen the size of the Presidential role. It would also gradually draw more members into the club processes and give us all a share in, and a taste of, a fuller range of current club processes.  We see it as another stage in Rotary Cromwell’s continuing development into a club geared to face the challenges of the 2020s and beyond, and our preparedness to grow a stronger member base. 

 

We welcome any thoughts you might have.  The current board ends its term at the end of June this year and Pam is well prepared for her year starting this July.  The new way of running meetings would start in July next year, 2021, but if there is general support for the concept it could well be that you could see some different faces leading the meetings in the run up to the 2021 Rotary year.  Call it a little practice if you will ;)

 

We look forward to your ideas about our suggestion.  

 

Best wishes

 

Neroli & Pam

 

While we are missing our club meetings, activities and catching up with other members we are also saving a bit of money! An idea from other clubs is for members to donate money they would have been spending on meeting nights to a cause. I have 3 suggestions that cover international, our zone & local (with further information below).

Reference: Your name  Code: As below

 

Any donations to the food bank are welcome as we use these to fund the purchases of fresh fruit and veges, which are the things people always ask for. They are the biggest expense for most families  along with meat.

 

Currently we are collecting food items and warehousing them as the CODC is issuing food vouchers to applicants under level 4 restrictions but we suspect we’ll get very busy as the levels decrease to 3 and then eventually to 2 when unemployment and other forms and hardship surface and we suspect, soar.

 

So, yes....we’d welcome any donations from Rotary, thank you. Our sincere thanks in anticipation of Rotary’s assistance.

Adrienne Heal. Food Bank