Minutes of Rotary Club of Gloucester’s Council meeting on Monday, February 12th, 2018
Club number 19313 | Charity number 274097
1. PRESENT
President Sue Smith, Jan Layton-Smith, Chris Soane, David Seed, Peter Nesbitt. John Weygang, John Smith, Matt Cass, Frank Lloyd Murray and John Lovell.
2. APOLOGIES
Jeremy Keck, Martin Henshaw, Amanda Chamberlayne and Rob Hall
3. MINUTES
The minutes of the December meeting were signed without amendment
4. MATTERS ARISING
Any matters arising were dealt with under other agenda headings.
5. PRESIDENT’S REPORT
President Sue said she had accepted an invitation from Alan Myatt for the club to take part in the Gloucester Day procession on September 1st.
She said she had received an inquiry from the Rotary at Kingsholm president asking whether our club might be interested taking part in staging a firework display. After discussion it was decided not to take part.
Sue said the identity of some lunchtime speakers and their subjects were not being conveyed to Jeremy K for inclusion on the club’s website. It was agreed Sue would meet with Graham H and Jeremy as well as mentioning it at the next business meeting. Frank L-M suggested that a flow chart might be useful.
6. IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
No report
7. PRESIDENT ELECT’S REPORT
Chris S reported on a recent Distirct meeting. Matters raised included – Seven pull up Rotary banners available via assistant district governor for display purposes; Rotary GB&I reviewing all youth projects; 2018 District conference at Torquay 15th – 17th March 2019; District money available for membership initiatives.
Chris said he had spoken with Keith Annis of Redrow regarding using the Civil Service ground for rugby match day parking but this will not be possible. Matt C said the Gala Club had agreed to make parking available for match days. There would be a trial there at the Bath match on April 28th. He raised the possibility that Inner Wheel volunteers might be available should club volunteers be stretched. Sue also agreed to approach the university. It appears the club is likely to lose Imperial car parking from February 2019.
8. JUNIOR PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Matt said that because of personal circumstances he might not be available for a period of time including the date of the Senior Citizens’ Party (April 8th). Although he would be issuing invitations he had handed back the organisation of the event to Rob Hall.
9. SECRETARY’S REPORT
John L reported Leaves of Absence requests from Amanda Chamberlayne from 20.01.18 until 06.04.18; Colin Rogers and David Seed from 20.03.18 until 21.04.18; John Smith from 21.03.18 until 13.05.18 and John Sargent from 26.01.18 until 27.04.18. These were agreed.
10. TREASURER’S REPORT
In his absence Jeremy submitted the following report:
As regards the accounts, Nigel Halls has started the audit and will probably have completed by the end of the month. We need to reconvene the SGM for some date so that the 16/17 accounts can be presented to the members. It might be best to leave this until Nigel has completed them.
As regards the current year’s accounts, everything is up to date and reconciled.
Balances are as follows:
General Account £5,485.47
General Savings £6,007.31
Lunch Account £10,969.50
Lunch Savings £0.09
Charity Account £12,660.29
Charity Savings £21,638.48
Total Income on Charity Account including everything £28,340.00
Total Charitable spend to date £17,507.00
11. COMMITTEE REPORTS
Membership
Peter N said the club was in ‘good shape’. Over the past six months membership had hovered around the 50 mark with an average of of 67 and an overall club attendance of 68%. Five new members had been inducted in this Rotary year although two members had resigned. A prospective new member – Veronica Cooper – had been interviewed and with council’s approval the secretary would circulate a seven day letter. This was agreed. A further prospective member will be progressed following his third lunch.
There were 13 registered Friends, four of whom are active with fund raising while other support club events. Membership would assess the value of Friends activities and comment at year end.
Peter said his committee had decided not to hold a social evening for new members. It was up to Sports and Social should they wish to do so.
Frank L-M spoke about the importance of the new Data Protection Regulations and stressed that failure to adhere to new rules was a criminal offence. All information had to be current and kept under review……is it relevant…what do we do with it?………what procedures do we have in place? At Peter suggestion it was unanimously agreed that Frank become the club’s new Data Protection officer and address a future lunchtime meeting about how the club should comply with the new legislation.
Community/Youth
David S said he had received an e-mail which raised significant issues over safeguarding. The e-mail had suggested the club’s liability extended not only to events organised by our club but also to organisations which received donations – such as those receiving grants from the Rotary Community Awards scheme. This raised a number of quesitons – should we check if organisations receiving Rotary money had safeguarding policies in place? – are we covered by Rotary GB&I policies? The secretary was asked to contact Rotary GB&I to seek guidance.
David said that a lead Rotarian would be needed for the RYLA scheme following Chris Chatterton’s resignation. It was also suggested that nominations for the two RYLA places should be extended to uniform organisations. David said he would raise the issue at the next business meeting in the hope of finding someone willing to oversee the project.
It was reported that all 8 primary schools in ‘deprived commuinities’ in the city area had been invited to this year’s Kids Out event at Cattle Country on June 13th. Total attending last year (2017) was kids 682, helpers 174, Rotarians from other clubs 59. In addition to our members and those from Inner Wheel there were around 950 people on site.
David said he had received excellent feedback from two of the three city schools assisted by our club following the Young Voices event at the NEC in January with one teacher describing it as ‘simply brilliant’.
Fundraising
In the absence of Amanda C there was no formal report. Earlier Matt C said Martin Chidgey (husband of Rotarian Helen) had volunteered to take over the organisation of the Santa Fun Run later this year.
Sports and Social
A report from Colin Rogers was circulated by the secretary prior to the meeting.
International
John S reported that with the filling of 50 aquaboxes this would take the club’s total contribution to the scheme to 1505 boxes – a magnificent achivement and testament to the work put in by Ken Watson. A celebration was in order. John added that Ken had wanted to be relieved of this project but no-one had offered themselves. A job spec had been drawn up and John would raise the issue at the next business meeting. If no volunteer was forthcoming his committee would consider alternatives to aquaboxes such as Shelter Boxes, Water Aid, Water Survival Boxes and Toilet Twinning.
John said £10,000 had been received by The Model Town Charitable Trust in Fiji which will be used to provide equipment for a medical centre in memory of Colin Eynon. Colin’s widow Ros had said that Colin would have been thrilled to know such a worthwhile project was being done in his name. Following on from this it was agreed by council that £1,000 be allocated in next year’s budget for further equipment. Hopefully this would be supplemented by a district grant.
John said he understood that there had been a record number of district clubs applying for grants this year. He wondered how many of these clubs had made contributions to Rotary Foundation. President Sue agreed to write to District asking specific questions as to how many clubs donated to Foundation and how many had received grants. An earlier enquiry had not elicited a clear answer.
Fellowship/House
Jan reminded members that Roden Rotarians would be visiting the club for the weekend beginning on Friday, May 4th.
Communications
Nothing to report
Any Other Business
Centenary matters – Matt C outlined progress on the Docks wishing well project for the centenary and said that he was still awaiting final costings from Graham Howell following which his committee would be able to seek sponsoship.
David S/John S and John L expressed concerns about various aspects of the centenary. It was agreed that committee reports be circulated and taken as read prior to the March meeting and that following the officers’ reports the remainder of the March meeting be devoted to centenary matters. It was further suggested that Rotarian Jason Smith, Chief Executive of Marketing Gloucester be invited to the March meeting.
Date of next meeting – Monday, March 12th 2018 at 6pm at Matt Cass’s office. Please ensure any committee reports are sent to the secretary for circulation prior to this meeting where it is hoped that such reports will be taken as read to allow time for centenary matters.