On 15th July I graced Aldershot Rotary Club with
my presence, as I accompanied the DG on an official club visit. The Club meets
at Potters International Hotel in Aldershot, which is in a very pleasant
setting, adjacent to the Army Cricket Club. The Hotel is part of the legendary Bob
Potter’s empire, which includes the famous Lakeside Club in Camberley, home of
the World Professional Darts Championship.
Potters International Hotel
Just to digress for a
moment, The Lakeside Club is a renowned entertainment venue, which I have
visited on many occasions. Probably the highlight for me was to see the Three Degrees there in the early 1980s at the height of their fame. They were fabulous, Sheila Ferguson in
particular had tremendous charisma and held the audience in the palm of her
hand (well, me at least) throughout the performance.
The Three Degrees
Our visit to the Rotary club was during Farnborough week, so
we were concerned about traffic hold ups, but although the Sat Nav took us on a
ridiculously tortuous route, there were no major problems, and we arrived at
the impressive hotel in good time. It has a gratifyingly large car park, which
seemed rather full that evening, presumably due to people from the nearby Air Show
staying at the Hotel.
Farnborough Air Show
Aldershot Rotary Club, at 86 years of age must be one of the
oldest clubs in the District. We were
welcomed very warmly by President Ian Joiner, president Elect Lynda Austin, and
of course the lovely Betty McClure, herself a past District governor of
District 1140, who we have known for many years.
Army cricket ground, as seen from the Hotel
I found myself sitting next to Lynda Austin who was very
entertaining company. I learnt about some of the events the Club gets involved
in, and interestingly, that they have been twinned with a French club for many
years, and there have been many reciprocal visits over the years. I mentioned
that our club has made a number of attempts to twin with European clubs without
success to date, but Lynda suggested we keep trying, as it has great benefits
for International fellowship.
The DG used Aldershot club as guinea pigs for a new style of presentation, whereby she didn’t give a long speech, but instead invited
comments and discussion from the club on issues such as ‘What good does Rotary
do?’ and ‘Why did you join Rotary?’ and ‘What do you get out of it?’. I thought this was a brave thing to do, as
there is a danger nobody will want to speak up. However I didn’t need to worry,
as quite a lively discussion ensued, with many members chipping in. I was even
asked why I joined Rotary. I thought she would have known that already.
I think it would be a useful exercise to record the meals eaten on these official club
visits, as it may inform future decisions on which clubs to visit. At Potters
Hotel, we had Rotary chicken with gravy and saute potatoes, and a little
unusually, Yorkshire puddings. This
quite substantial main course was followed by apple crumble and custard. Lynda
commented that it was a ‘man’s dinner’ and I can see her point, but I wasn’t
complaining.
No comments:
Post a Comment