Coulsdon and Coulsdon Manor Rotary Clubs

After the excitement of our weekend in Leeds, it was back to business on 20 January, when I went on an official visit to a joint meeting of the  Rotary Clubs of Coulsdon and Coulsdon Manor, accompanied by the DG. It is helpful when clubs get together for my official visits, particularly when they entail a bit of a journey. Tonight’s journey was relatively straightforward, with the M25 and A23 behaving themselves pretty well, and we arrived at the Coulsdon Manor Hotel and Golf Club in good time. The only thing that didn’t behave itself was our Sat Nav, which told us we had arrived at our destination outside a modest semi detached house about half a mile away, but using my highly developed  sense of direction, I quickly found the Hotel at only the third attempt. The Coulsdon Manor Hotel, which is the usual meeting venue of Coulsdon Manor Rotary Club is, we were told, a commercial hotel, but they certainly looked after us well tonight.

                                                        Coulsdon Manor Hotel

The President of the club, Michael Rowan, was waiting to greet us, and to lead us on the circuitous route required for wheelchair access to the venue. We often find that we are directed to hidden doors, and along little-used corridors to avoid stairs where no ramp is available. I always find it a little odd that some quite prestigious venues don’t think to invest in a simple portable ramp, which would solve the problems of wheelchair users trying to access the building. On arrival in the bar, I first of all met up with members of Coulsdon Rotary Club who had all arrived half an hour early due to a misunderstanding over the start time. Unfortunately their president was indisposed, so he was represented by the President Elect, John Turner, who immediately hit it off with the DG as he was a fellow dog owner and they spent much of the evening  having a canine conflab.

                                                        The Hotel bar

I met an interesting chap from Coulsdon club, Arthur Davy who told me how he had travelled the world going to Rotary Conventions, having been to Australia, Canada, USA, Portugal (I went to that one) among others. Like the DG and I, he was not intending to go to Sao Paulo for this year’s convention, although for different reasons. In our case it is a matter of accessibility. We doubted that we would find Brazil very accessible for us, and the enormous cost of the trip could, we felt, be better spent at a more accessible location. We had entertained an idea of coupling the Sao Paolo Convention with an Amazon cruise but this wouldn’t work well either. Although the cruise ships themselves were fully accessible, none of the places that they stopped at were accessible, and furthermore would necessitate leaving the ship by tender. This would have left us stuck on the ship and unable to partake of any excursions.  In a couple of years the Convention will be in Atlanta. We have always found the USA to be very wheelchair-friendly  and consequently we are hoping to go to that one.

During the excellent dinner of Roast Pork followed by Bread & Butter pudding, I sat, naturally enough, next to  Mike Rowan, with the DG on his other side, and John Turner on her far side. Mike was very entertaining Company during the meal, and our conversation covered a variety of vehicle-related topics, including standards of driving, the latest  enhancements of modern cars (such as sideways parking, and devices to keep you in your lane on a motorway) and advice from me on buying new cars (consult What Car magazine first). Coulsdon Manor’s main activities during the year are: organising a summer fair each year which is very popular locally, Christmas collections, and various Youth activities, including Dictionaries to schools and Young Chef. Mike said that he is often surprised to find charities in Coulsdon that he didn’t know about. A good example was The Parrot Rescue Centre, which is a local charity that was a beneficiary at the fair last summer. ‘I had never heard of it’ he admitted, although he was now pleased to have an opportunity to assist them through the Rotary Club.

                                                        Members take their seats for dinner

After dinner and before the DG’s speech, a new member was inducted into the club. Gary Newell is a retired police officer, a specialist in protection of VIPs, and we first heard a glowing proposal from his friend and neighbour Roy Chamberlain, whereupon Mike Rowan undertook the induction ceremony, to warm applause from all club members.

From left: proposer Roy Chamberlain, inductee Gary Newell and President Michael Rowan

The DG then took to the floor, and unlike previous visits I have attended, she spoke for quite a while before inviting contributions from the audience. She ranged across a number of topics including membership, women in Rotary, and youth. At one point her speech was unfortunately interrupted by a coughing fit, which probably went on for a couple of minutes before she recovered. I’m not sure whether my thumping her on the back made any difference, but it least gave me something to do. She caught the coughing bug from me, as I had been plagued with it over Christmas and the New Year and it was three weeks before I got rid of it. The DG had a flu jab in November, but still caught this nasty virus, although I suspect it would have been worse if she hadn’t had the jab.

                                                                Flu jab

Eventually she threw some questions out to the audience, such as ‘Why did you join Rotary?’ to which the consensus response was along the lines of ‘To make a difference in the local community’.  Another question was ‘What makes a Good Rotarian?’ (I had to ask this question for her, as she hadn’t completely recovered from her coughing fit at this point). Answers from the audience included ‘a friendly individual’, ‘someone with compassion and empathy’, and ‘someone prepared to do what they can’.

                                                        Words of wisdom from the DG

The next question proved more controversial (at last! I thought, we need more controversy). The DG asked ‘What would the world be like without Rotary?’ to which the expected response is ‘A poorer place’. However one member passionately declared that ‘Rotary hasn’t got anything to offer me’ pointing out that, like many Rotarians, he does voluntary work for other charities. His point, I think, was that everyone knows what these charities stand for, but no-one outside Rotary knows what we are about. We hardly get any recognition  for our contribution towards eradicating polio in the world, and, he said, ‘we have lost Shelterbox’.  I was a bit puzzled by this comment as the charity Shelterbox was launched by Rotarians and on its own website says  ‘Rotarians are the cement that binds us together’. The gentleman’s strongly felt beliefs certainly livened things up a bit.

                                                        A Shelterbox and its contents

The meeting ended with  fulsome praise for the DG from President Mike Rowan.  He said she had been like a breath of fresh air in the District, and thanked her on behalf of both clubs for her visit. He forgot to include me, despite my tips on new cars, but I’ll forgive him that small oversight.

                                                 The DG flanked by Michael Rowan (left) and John Turner