May
4th – Zoom meeting
We met again by Zoom and for the first time had a speaker on line. We missed the face to face social contact of a normal Monday but the business element and the speaker’s contribution worked as well as one could possibly wish.
Brie Logan, the business manager from the Town Council, gave an informative and inspiring talk about the good work that the Town Council are doing through the Shaftesbury Support Group and together with the Dorset Community Fund, to help Shaftesbury residents struggling with Covid related problems.
The Shaftesbury Support Group has made over a thousand telephone calls, delivered over five hundred prescriptions, done over a hundred shopping trips, and supplied food for a week to twelve families and expect to increase this to twenty families next week.
The Food Aid gives those in need three meals a day for a week with professionally designed, nutritionally planned meals with very professional looking recipe cards. Local businesses have helped and supported this.
There are plans to expand this service after its initial trial period. There are no funding problems at present thanks to access to government support.
Other organisations like Citizens Advice and Help the Aged are assisting those in need, to access the service. A leaflet delivered to every household in town has greatly helped.
The service is very sensitive to stigma, and confidentiality is a high priority
Post Covid there are plans to support the High Street. Brie and colleagues will update us in two weeks’ time.
Brie then brought us up to speed on the Neighbourhood plan. This has been submitted to the Local Planning Authority where it is to be formally examined and then submitted to a Yes/No referendum. This last stage will be delayed due to Covid – probably to May 2021 at the earliest.
The process has already provided much useful information to the Town Council about local opinion and is proving adaptable to changed circumstances eg Covid
17th May – Shaftesbury Cycle Ride Cancelled
Shaftesbury Rotary Club regret having had to cancel the 2020 Cycle Event due to Coronavirus restrictions. We hope everyone is keeping safe and well – let’s stay positive and look forward, including to next year’s 2021 event which is on Sunday 16th May 2021 (please go to our website to enrol)
For now, let’s enjoy a moment looking back at our wonderful 2019 event
19th May 2019 – Virginia Hayward sponsored North Dorset Cycle Ride 2019
On a bright sunny morning in Shaftesbury’s Park Walk, over 300 cyclists congregated to embark on the Virginia Hayward sponsored North Dorset Cycle Ride for Prostate Cancer. The 4th such event to take place, with yet another record number of cyclists entering.
The entrants had the choice of 3 distances, the punishing 50mile route taking in the severe Bulbarrow ascents before returning to Shaftesbury, or the 25 and 12mile rides designed for the more casual and family cyclists. All three distances finish cycling up the gruelling Gold Hill with their family and friends cheering them on.
The day has now become more of a social event, with entrants being able to enjoy a barbeque and beer tent, listening to live music on Park Walk.
Overall the event was a huge success with cyclists praising the organization, registration, signage, marshalling and halfway stop. Many looking forward to beating their times next year.
The event organized by Shaftesbury Rotary Club under the leadership of Paul Slimm, proved a very successful day raising record net receipts yet again, thanks to Virginia Hayward our main sponsors, a good team effort by Shaftesbury Rotary Club and many volunteers who gave up their free time.
Photos can be viewed and purchased through James Thrift and the following link:-
https://optimisedimages.com/rotary_north_dorset_bike_ride_2019
18th May – Speaker Brie Logan
We met on Zoom and heard from Brie Logan – Business Manager Shaftesbury Town Council, Philippa Davis Private Chef and Emma Field-Raynor – Film industry. Brie reported on growth of Shaftesbury Support group activity. A total of 310 shopping trips have been made. A full week of food with recipe cards has now been supplied to 49 persons. There are now 118 volunteers and 1403 telephone support sessions have been given. A total of 752 prescriptions have been delivered. A Facebook page has helped to reach many who would not otherwise have been aware and a request was even received from Uganda – but politely declined!
Phillippa Davis reported on how her menu cards provided persons on food support with a full balanced diet complete with recipe cards for a week.
Emma Field-Raynor told us about her background in the film industry and how she was now using her skills to help the support group.
We then Discussed various current topics and concluded by agreeing a donation to the Shaftesbury Support Group.
LIFE UNDER LOCKDOWN: Some thoughts on ZOOM
Shaftesbury Rotary club has now engaged in a number of zoom meetings, and for those joining in the virtual meeting world for the first time it can be a somewhat novel and unnerving experience.
Looking at each other all lined up in small squares on the screen can be disconcerting for some, given that we are allowing others a view of the interior of our homes for perhaps the first time. Your fellow zoomers can now observe the contents of your bookshelf and assess the quality of your wall art and furnishings in minute detail, and be sure, they do!! Some of course avoid this intimacy by using a digital background to obscure their environment, leaving themselves open to the question (WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?), while others simply drape a dustsheet over their mess and carry on regardless!!!
All this aside, there is another problem that has arisen which can cause even more anxiety and stress in this new technology. What is zoom etiquette and how are we to behave in this unfamiliar world? Sign in too early and you have an awkward time with three other people, sign in late and everyone else witnesses your fumbling attempts to master the joining procedure; Oh, and how do you leave a meeting?
I recently joined a zoom meeting (not in this rotary district) and soon realized that I really didn’t want to be there, what to do???? Claim you have to leave because the house is on fire? Pretend to faint (Monty Python style?)? Rudely leave and blame computer failure? Or do as I did, suffer in bored silence praying for a vaccine to arrive.
And then the answer to these myriad dilemmas hit me, DON’T TAKE IT SERIOUSLY!!
The value of humour and banter seem somehow more concentrated on the scale of the small screen. When we share a joke or funny aside, the entire group becomes more relaxed and notably at ease. During our first meeting David wore a T Shirt with the message “I don’t need Google, my wife knows everything”, a brilliant case to point. MORE T Shirts and outrageous sartorial statements in the future please.
I don’t think covid19 (I refuse to give it a capital letter) has much of a sense of humour, so we need to beat it to death with jokes, laughter and silliness.
Keep safe
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