After a very short sleep, the final morning of the
Conference dawned. I couldn’t believe it was Sunday already, it had been such a
frenetic time. Things were calmer in the Executive Dining Room for breakfast
this morning, partially because some of us were nursing hangovers, and also
because Mike Thorn decided we didn’t need a meeting to discuss the day ahead.
In fact from an organisational point of view everything had gone swimmingly,
which is a result of a good Conference team, all carrying out their duties
quietly and efficiently. Everybody I
spoke to said they were enjoying the
Conference, some saying it was the best ever. We had been able to have a slight
lie-in this morning, as the next session was a little later, at 9.30.
I was determined not to miss the start of this session
because the first speaker was Sophie Lasek, the Queens Guide from 1st Sunbury Girl Guides, who had spoken to us at Shepperton Aurora previously, and
blew us all away with her energy and enthusiasm for Guiding. Both the DG and I
wanted her to speak at the Conference, and she was one of the first bookings we
made. Karen was hosting her, and I met them both outside the Conference Hall.
Sophie said that her boyfriend’s Aunt lived in Bristol and she was staying
there for the weekend, although we had offered her a room in the Hotel and a
place at last night’s Gala Dinner.
Can you see me?
The morning’s proceedings opened with Mike once again
forgetting to ring the bell until he was reminded, and David Thompson, the MC
fined him accordingly. As David was also Sergeant at Arms for the Conference,
he had been dishing out penalties for all sorts of misdemeanours during the
weekend, most notably a fine to Jens Erik Rasmussen for wearing blue trousers
for his speech yesterday, which clashed terribly with his ‘Light Up Rotary’
tie. This morning David apologised for being late for last night’s dinner, as
he had mistakenly strayed into a children’s party, led by Auntie Vivian, where
everybody was playing silly games and trying to make music with toy
instruments. His sense of humour and
calm demeanour have helped in no small way to the success of the Conference.
Jens Erik in the offending trousers
Sophie Lasek, the
first speaker on stage did not
disappoint. She has lost none of her boundless enthusiasm, but her presentation
was much better prepared than last time we met. The main point of her talk is
that a girl from a humble background can travel the world, helping others as
she goes, and even address the UN, through involvement with the Girl Guide
movement. Her first foreign trip was as part of a GOLD (Guiding Overseas Linked
with Development) project in Tanzania. Since then she has been to India and The
Gambia, meeting many extraordinary people, and helping local girls to enrich
their lives through Guiding. She is inspirational, and destined for great
things in her life, I’m sure.
Sophie Lasek lights up the Conference
Following Sophie was Liam Hanlon, a speaker found for us by
Les Wilson. He is MD of the Forshaw Group, and has used teamwork and Leadership
skills gained during his sporting life to raise funds for Charity. Having
developed close links with West Derby Rotary Club in Liverpool, he has been
fundraising for the End Polio Now campaign. Two years ago he and a team of
fellow riders undertook a cycle ride from
the East Coast to the West Coast of USA to raise funds for the Polio
campaign, and his entertaining talk took us through that huge adventure which
had to be completed in 21 days, as that was the most time any of them could get
off work. One amusing thing he told us was that they were half way through the
challenge, and struggling against a head wind that had been with them for days,
when they discovered that most people cycling Coast to Coast in the USA travel
from West to East, as that is the way the prevailing wind blows. Doh!
Liam Hanlon
The next speaker was a complete contrast. His opening line caught the audience’s
attention, ‘Are you bored in bed on holiday?’ Steve Dobson is another speaker
who has been to Shepperton Aurora, and he spoke about unusual hotel rooms
around the world. His point was that during a long business career, he
travelled the world to business meetings, and invariably stayed in the same
magnolia coloured hotel rooms lacking in character, which could have been
anywhere. He started seeking out more unusual and eccentric hotels, and found
that the world is full of them. You can stay in treehouses, aircraft, caves,
lighthouses, even concrete sewage pipes. The possibilities are endless, and
Steve shared with us his story of ‘Life Less Ordinary’, presenting a wonderful
slide show of some of the places he has stayed at. Steve has published a number
of guides to the worlds oddest hotels, the latest being Unusual & Unique Overnight
Directory. The DG has a signed copy.
Stay in a Boeing 727 in Costa Rica.......
..... Or a sewage pipe in Austria
Coffee break followed, and here we said farewell to Sharon
and Tony, who had a plane to catch back to Inverness. They both said that they had had no idea what
to expect from the Conference when they arrived, but they both thought it was
great. When we returned to the auditorium, Lynne and Richard joined me as we
sat towards the back of the hall, amongst fellow members of Shepperton Aurora, preparing ourselves for the Parade of the
Presidents, which was to be the last thing on stage.
First, RI President’s representative Jens Erik Rasmussen
came back on stage to speak to us. This time he took a leaf out of the DG’s
book, and recounted the story of his involvement with Rotary. His father being
a Rotarian, he was obviously aware of Rotary at a very young age, and as a
teenager, his father arranged for him to go on a Youth Exchange visit to
Scotland, and also to help organise International summer camps in his own country. He was in
Rotaract for 10 years, and it was here that he met his wife. Since moving on to
Rotary, he has been President of his Rotary Club, Copenhagen Strandparken, an
Assistant Governor, then District Governor in his own country, and has held a
number of other posts in the Rotary organisation. I think he enjoyed our
Conference, and I suppose we will discover at some future date his official
verdict, which is important for the DG.
Easyjet flies from Bristol to Inverness
Amid tumultuous applause, Ewell Rotary Club won the award
for best attendance, judged by the number of members attending as a percentage
of their total membership. Ewell seem to win this prize most years, but there
was some consolation for Shepperton Aurora, who finished second.
Past District Governor Peter Dancy was next on stage. He is
Conference Chairman for the new District of 1145, which comes into being on
July 1st next year, following the merger of our District, 1140, with
District 1250. The new District will be pretty large, with over 100 clubs and
3,000 members, so finding a venue for a Conference is more tricky, with up to
1,000 delegates expected to attend.
Peter was promoting the 2015 Conference in Bournemouth, and early enquiries indicate there are
already 700 wanting to go, so his message was to book early to avoid
disappointment.
Bournemouth
Our final speaker of the Conference was Sophie Andrews of the charity Silverline. The
Charity was founded by Esther Rantzen following the loss of her husband a few
years ago. She found that there was always someone to do something with, but
there was nobody to do nothing with.
Elderly people can be very lonely, especially after bereavement, and
Silverline was formed as an opportunity for lonely senior citizens to speak to
another human being by phone on a regular basis, daily or weekly. Sophie has
herself been a volunteer with the Samaritans for 23 years so has great
experience in the needs of lonely and desperate people. Her story, with case
histories of people who have been helped by Silverline, some of whom are
themselves now volunteers for the Charity, was moving and uplifting.
Sophie Andrews with Esther Rantzen
The final, and noisiest session of the weekend was now upon
us, the Parade of the Presidents. One by one, every club president at the
Conference was invited to join the District Governor on stage. It is customary
for their respective clubs to make a lot of noise, cheering, clapping and
whistling to support their president, and of course clubs try and outdo each
other. In recent years this has developed into the deployment of noise-making
instruments, and this year we had the dubious pleasure of listening to a
vuvuzela. I had one of the football horns the DG supplied, as did Lynne or
Richard, and others around us had air horns and other gadgets. These were being
rehearsed even before the parade started, and I had to turn round and
remonstrate with Karen, Doreen and Tony at one point for over-use of their
horns right behind me. As they ignored me I made an unsuccessful attempt at
confiscating the offending gadgets. They eluded me and continued the assault on
my ears, which left me wishing that Brand Richey would come over with his jug
of water. Needless to say, there was quite a cacophony when our President
Pauline Hedges walked up on to the stage, and we were equally voluble in
support of Eric Painter of Shepperton and Sunbury club.
The DG welcomes Presidents onto the stage
As this was the last ever Conference for our District, we
then had a parade of Past District Governors, which included our own John
Dumbrell, who was DG a few years ago, when we held the Conference outside the
UK for the first time ever, in Lille, Northern France. The applause for the
PDGs was just as noisy, and I felt it was a fitting end to the Final Countdown
Conference. All that remained was for a
few thank yous from the stage, after which we all sang ‘Abide With Me’ and that
was that.
Lynne and Richard joined us for a Conference Committee
buffet lunch afterwards, following which they headed home. Like Sharon and
Tony, I think they enjoyed the Conference. In fact they were asking some
questions the other night about the cost of joining a local Rotary club, but
felt they couldn’t afford it, which is a shame really. Rotary ought to be
affordable for anyone, and I know there are some newer clubs which have
dispensed with the weekly meal, thus saving quite a big cost if one attends
regularly. Perhaps this trend will continue.
The noise is deafening!
Immediately after lunch the DG and Mike Thorn had a Debrief
meeting with Holly from the hotel (How impressive that she gave up her Sunday
afternoon to meet with us again). Whilst this was going on I headed upstairs to
pack up our room for departure. We had been allowed until 3 p.m. to check out of
our rooms and it was now 3.15 so I thought there may be a few problems, and I
wasn’t disappointed. Firstly my key didn’t work in the room door. I suppose it
gets electronically cancelled after one’s check out time. So I had to go all
the way down to Reception to get a replacement, apologising profusely for being
late out of the room (they were actually very good about it). Once back in the
room, it took a lot longer to get everything out of drawers, behind chairs, out
of fridges and piled in a tidy heap for the concierge to collect them. Normally
the DG is directing operations, but this time I had to think for myself. I’m
proud to say that I overlooked nothing, even remembering to empty the safe.
Mind you, the car keys were in there so it would have been difficult to
overlook.
Our suite looks clear
During the 20 minutes or so that it took for me to collect
everything together, I had two visits from housemaids expecting to find the
room empty. Each time I bought myself a little more time with profuse
apologies. Eventually I was happy, having checked and double checked everywhere
I could think of, and called the concierge. As luck would have it, it was the
same man who we had accidentally tipped twice when we arrived. He started loading
his trolley with enthusiasm, probably expecting a similar experience this time.
I went downstairs with him and fetched the car from the car park (that cost £36
even with the Hotel discount). The concierge and I between us loaded everything
into the car (surprisingly it was just as tight a fit as when we arrived, even
though were taking less back with us) then I gave him £5 and went to look for
the DG. Her meeting had already finished
and she was waiting in reception. I loaded her into the car, then realised the
concierge and I had failed to leave a space in the boot for the wheelchair.
You’d think he would have remembered that my wife was in a wheelchair, and left
a space in the boot accordingly, wouldn’t you? Now he was nowhere to be seen
and I had to unload the car, put in the wheelchair, then reload it all on my
own, and it was starting to rain.
After that our trip home was uneventful. We quickly found
our way to the Motorway, the M4 was kind to us, and we got home just after 5
p.m. The DG had been running on adrenalin all weekend, which kept her going.
Now it was all over she was rapidly succumbing to exhaustion. When we got in,
she went straight to bed and didn’t surface again until 10.30 the next morning.
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