February

Mar 2, 2019 by Shaftesbury RC

4th – Quiz Night

We met for a social evening and light-hearted quiz at the Shaftesbury School boarding house. Shaftesbury Rotary is proud of its links with Shaftesbury School. They have helped us with some of our events, for example Gold Hill Fair and we are happy to work with them for example doing mock interviews.

Perhaps many people who live in the town do not realise how far the reputation of our school spreads. Living in the boarding house here are young persons from all over the world. My wife and I were teamed for the quiz with three young people, one each from Hong Kong, Nigeria and Germany. We enjoyed an excellent evenings company including light refreshments.

11th – Speaker meeting at Fleur de Lys

Nigel Barnfield was our speaker. He is the District Foundation chair.

Many Rotary members are less well informed than should be the case about Foundation which is Rotary’s very own charity. During the past 100 years, the Foundation has spent $3 billion on life-changing, sustainable projects, the greater part of that in recent years.

Over 90% of funds go to good causes with only a little under 10% spent on administration. This efficiency is recognised by Charity Navigator who award our Foundation their highest possible rating.

Members are encouraged to contribute personally but this is voluntary. Clubs like our own also donate funds and can claim money back in support of projects. These can be either relatively small and supported through District grants or may be large and international. Strict criteria apply to such grants to ensure the money is well spent. They can finance a well for a village that lacks clean water, improve the environment or provide scholarships to educate the next generation.

Pictured: Bernice, Nigel and President Guy

The grants and programs available to Rotarians allow them to realise Rotary’s humanitarian mission throughout the world, including its number-one goal of eradicating polio. Rotary initiated this in 1985, when it was the first to have the vision of a polio-free world. For every $1 Rotary commits to polio eradication, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $2.

We were pleased to welcome Rob from NatWest Bank and Genette from Rutter’s solicitors as our guests.

18th – Business Meeting

We were happy to welcome Genette of Rutters Solicitors as our guest for the second time.

President Guy announced that his President’s evening would be at Castleman Hotel on either June 8th or 9th and members were asked to state their preference.
Richard announced details of a possible horse racing social on April 3rd. Members were asked to provide an indication of their interest.
Tony Morgan was pleased to confirm that Business partner membership had increased over last year and now stands at 81 including rotary members businesses.
Cycle Speedway: Making progress with Charity Commissioners and conclusion expected soon.

On conclusion of the Business meeting David introduced our speaker for the evening.

Pictured: David, Brie and President Guy

We were pleased to welcome Brie Logan, who is the Business Manager for Shaftesbury Town Council. She attended to bring us up-to-date regarding the town’s Neighbourhood Plan. A considerable amount of work has been undertaken by the eight members of the Neighbourhood Plan Advisory Committee (skilled community volunteers) facilitated by Brie. The Advisory Committee are now seeking feedback from various groups on the policy intentions in advance of writing the detailed policies. Later in the Spring/ early Summer once the policy content has been developed, there will be a formal consultation period prior to the examination stage. Once the examiner has approved the plan then the last stage of the process is a public referendum to vote on ‘adopting’ the Shaftesbury plan.

Shaftesbury Rotary members care deeply about the future of our community and we recognise how important this document is. In the absence of such a plan developers and central government could apply generic policies to our town but the Neighbourhood Plan will provide the ‘decision makers’ with Shaftesbury specific knowledge about the unique character of our town. With such an evidence based plan in place, we will be better able to protect our town from inappropriate development, while hopefully facilitating the creation of what is needed to keep our town special for us and future generations.

Contributions from community organisations are vital to ensure the plan is informed and robust so we look forward to playing our part.

25th – This is Alfred

The club were treated to an interesting talk on the internet podcast /radio station ‘This is Alfred’ on the 25th February. Keri Jones, who founded the site and is currently leading the way to a Shaftesbury local radio station which will be found on FM, gave an exhilarating talk on both formats. Keri who has been in radio all his working life, including 9 years running Radio Scilly expressed the importance of local radio to the community. Dorset is the only county without a local community radio!

The evening was packed with interesting facts and humour. We were even treated to an insight of Island life!!! Keri even appeared in two episodes of ‘An Island Parish’ when it was based on The Isles of Scilly. We hope to have Keri back to talk more on the subject of Island life and wish all the success he deserves with the new Radio Station.