President's message #11

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE A week ago Tuesday, I was in England visiting old school friends. They live in Hailsham, Sussex, a suburb of Eastbourne Sussex, where Cindy and I lived, and worked. In fact where we got married, bought our first new house, (paid 4,095 pound sterling!) and where Martin was born. I was checking the Rotary Clubs around in the district and luckily found one that meet on the only day I had available. This was "Hailsham Rotary Club". Hailsham Rotary Club was founded about 50 years ago and is an all male club, (as are most of the Rotary Clubs in the UK). I was greeted very warmly by the members and made to feel right at home. They meet in a beautiful old converted farm house, called, the " Boship Farm Hotel", for a 6:00PM dinner meeting. The meeting is more formal than ours, all the members wear shirts and Rotary ties�?�.. For a start! And the President wears his chain of office!�?��?�. (I want a chain of office!?)�?��?��?��?��?� Luckily I was not wearing shorts! The discussions and problems that they where experiencing are familiar to our Clubs. Namely attracting new and younger members. (The average age of this club was probably close to 60 years�?��?�.not at all like our Club)! The President is the local undertaker, so the first thing he does on meeting you, is to look you up and down, in case you are his next customer! As I said before, he was a very gracious host indeed. I did mention to them, that to solve their membership problems, invite women into their Club! This was met with a howl of laughter??? I asked him if he had a Club Banner for me to take back to Canada but unfortunately he didn't. He did present me with their Club brochure though and promised he would mail me their Banner. So with your approval I will return the favor and mail one of our Banners to them. Hopefully this meeting could lead to firmer ties between The Rotary Club of Port Moody and the Hailsham Rotary Club of England. Peter�?��?��?��?�ROTARY SHARES�?��?��?��?��?�..#11. Sept 28th. 2007