Camberley with Ash & Blackwater Valley

19^th August.  For the first time I visited 2 clubs at the same time tonight. The Rotary Club of Camberley (25 members) were joined by their neighbours Ash & Blackwater Valley Rotary Club (14 members), for this official visit, at which I was accompanied by the DG. The local Rotaract club were also represented, with their president  Will Wright attending with two  Rotaract members.  Camberley Rotary Club  meet at the Camberley Cricket club, situated in a very pleasant, leafy part of the town. Their president Chrissie Lawson, who is in her second consecutive year as President  (I didn’t ask why), met us as we arrived by car. A parking space had been blocked with traffic cones, and I hadn’t realised the space was reserved for us until Chrissie pointed it out. By that time the DG was already in the building.  The clubhouse is a fine, modern-looking building, and the dining room where the club meets is on the first floor, with a panoramic view of the cricket pitch. Fortunately there was a lift up to the first floor for the DG’s use.

                       Camberley Cricket Club

We were soon joined by members of Ash & Blackwater Valley club, including president Andy Paterson. They are a small club but have recently held a very successful membership push which has significantly increased their numbers.  I was looking forward to asking how this was achieved, in case it is something that my own club could replicate.  They told me that there were 2 stages to their campaign. Firstly selected areas and housing estates were targeted with a leaflet campaign, which itself produced one or two members. Stage 2 was quite a shock to me, in that  it involved ‘cold-calling’ these same selected areas. Members actually went and knocked on doors to tell residents about Rotary and inviting them to one of their meetings. I thought this was immensely brave, and I doubted whether I could persuade my club to do something similar. However, a number of new members joined directly as a result of this initiative, so it proved to be a very worthwhile exercise.

                         Cricket pitch seen from clubhouse

Earlier in the day, the DG had informed me that Camberley Rotary Club have some distinguished honorary members. It seems that none other than the Earl and Countess of Wessex are in this category, as is former Education Minister Michael Gove.  None of them attended this meeting, which was a little surprising, as it was probably the last chance they would have to meet me during this Rotary year.  Perhaps they got their diary dates mixed up.

                                    Earl & Countess of Wessex (not my picture)

 I have actually met, and spoken to both Prince Edward and Sophie before, and found them to be entirely down to earth and charming. They were both present at a reception for Surrey finalists of Young Enterprise that I attended some years ago, when I was an adviser to the Young Enterprise team at Bishop Wand School. As Prince Edward walked past me I shook his hand, determined to engage him in conversation, and told him that I was an adviser. ‘Which school are you with?’ he asked, not unreasonably. ‘Actually, my school was eliminated in an earlier round, so didn’t make it to the final.’ I replied, ‘Oh well, better luck next year,’  he said and there followed one of those awkward moments when neither of us could think of something else to say. He solved this problem by walking off.

                              Camberley President with DG and a Rotaractor

 I met Sophie at an official visit (hers, not mine) to a charity called CAMEO in Shepperton, which provides respite care for relatives of those suffering from dementia, and she was their patron.  CAMEO looked after my mother one day a week for a couple of years. In a private conversation with half a dozen or so carers, including my brother Alan and me, the Countess seemed to understand the problems of being a carer, and agreed with my views on the subject. I can’t actually remember what my views were, but she was very sympathetic towards them.

                        The DG in full flow

Back at the Rotary meeting, as we sat down to dinner I found, seated on my right, a Camberley member, Colin Williamson, with whom I had a lively discussion about members’ classifications, which means their occupations. One of the long-standing rules of Rotary has been that no club can have two members in the same occupation (or classification).  In theory therefore if, say, a teacher wanted to join Rotary, they would be prevented from doing so if there was already somebody amongst the membership with the same classification i.e. a teacher.  At one time this would have been an unsurmountable problem, but in recent years, practical ways round the problem have been frequently used. For instance a teacher could be a headmaster (or headmistress), he could be a secondary school teacher, a primary school teacher, College or University lecturer. I’ve not seen it happen, but presumably this could be further broken down to secondary school teacher (History) or (Art). So there is always a way round the problem if you are prepared to think outside the box.

                                        Members mingle

The conversation was sparked when I noticed that all Camberley members included their classification on their name badges.  Colin’s badge indicated that he was a ‘Feline Hospitality Executive’, in other words he ran a cattery (The Three C's cattery in Camberley). In the unlikely event that another cattery owner wanted to join the club, they would be unlikely to clash with Colin’s classification. The DG has since told me that the requirement for only one member per classification has been dropped now, another example of Rotary moving with the times and becoming less hidebound.

                                 Heated discussions

On my other side at dinner was Will, the Rotaract President. Rotaract is basically Rotary for young people, with an age range of 18-30. It is always hoped that Rotaractors will join their local Rotary club when they reach 30, but it doesn’t always happen.  Will told me about some of the fun things they do, which include getting involved in the local community and raising funds to support local charities. They go on long cycle rides, climb hills and go on long walks to raise money.  It all seems a bit energetic for me. He did however invite the DG and me to an event they are running later this year, intriguingly called Game Show Mash Up.  This doesn’t sound quite so exhausting, so we have agreed to attend. No doubt I will report on it at a later date. It is appropriate that the local Rotaract Club attended the evening, as the DG is actually the RIBI Rotaract liaison Governor, whatever that means.

The dinner itself was easily the best Rotary meal I have enjoyed for some time, and certainly the best so far during this, my Consort year. Generous slices of roast pork were accompanied by superb roast potatoes (I am a connoisseur of these, let me tell you), cauliflower cheese (another of my favourites) and shredded cabbage with bacon. For dessert we had apple pie and custard. It was what I call a ‘proper’ apple pie, in that it was surrounded by pastry, not just a dish with a pastry lid. I would be happy to go back to Camberley Rotary club any time.

The club has an unusual element to their meetings which I have not encountered before, which is a 'joke of the week' slot, whereby a member stands up and delivers a joke. This week's was a very rambling joke about a couple of prawns, and I’m not entirely sure the punchline was worth the wait, but it was an interesting additional element to the meeting.

                           Parade of the Presidents - Will Wright, Chrissie Lawson, DG, Andy Paterson

During her speech, the DG invited discussion and debate from club members, and boy, did she get some discussion and debate this time.  Individuals took the opportunity to speak passionately about  their views on a range of Rotary subjects, including how Rotary membership doesn’t seem to have the status it once held, and  PR, or lack of it. One gentleman, a long-standing member of the Club, spoke very eloquently about how he was concerned about moves to make Rotary more flexible, feeling that there must be rules. He was also against women joining Rotary back in the 1980’s, although he has accepted them since. The DG asked why he stayed in Rotary, to which he answered ‘I haven’t got anywhere else to go on a Tuesday evening’. Although discussions were heated at times, they were always respectful and in good humour, an excellent example of how such debates should be conducted.