ROTARY WESSEX NEWSLETTER Serving Central Southern England, The Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands

MARCH 2019

The District team do hope you enjoyed our busy District Council and found it stimulating especially with

regard to End Polio Now/ Purple4Polio District initiative “Tea to end Polio” and Rotary Ride for Prostate

Cancer.

Tea to end Polio

What will your club be doing to help us to finally eradicate Polio? I would encourage you to hold your event

and forward your clubs proceeds in this Rotary year and become one of the clubs recognised by an End

Polio Now Award for raising $1,500 or around £1,200.

RIBI Rotary Ride for Prostate Cancer

This ride is to help build awareness and raise funds, which will be kept within District, to aid research,

treatment and patients with this terrible cancer.

The rides which can be whatever suit clubs including static bike rides, family rides or with your local cycling

groups should be in the period Saturday 8th June to 23rd June, three week-ends which includes Father’s Day

on the 23rd June. Please keep organiser Richard Burnett updated on your club’s events.

Our District is great at raising funds and these events will raise our profile in the community so please do

support.

New event – New members and prospective members evening, 13th June 2019

The objective of this new event is:

1. To aid the vital retention of new members showing them the breath and scope of Rotary

2. To help recruit prospective new members

This new event for new and potential new members will be an informal evening to be held on Thursday 13th

June 2019 in Crosfield Hall, Romsey, 18.15 for 18.30 with tea, coffee and biscuits.

We ask the Club Presidents to bring along new members who have joined this Rotary year and potential

new members. Look to ‘fill a car’ for transport and if more than one vehicle is needed due to the number of

members then please ask the President elect to fill a second car.

Presentations will provide a ‘wider breath’ of information to supplement what new Rotarians are given at

their own clubs:

Information on Foundation and End Polio Now/ Purple4Polio – PDG Nigel

International – International Chair Toni

Youth opportunities – Youth Opportunities Chair Steve

District led Community events – Community and Vocational Chair Michele

PR, Communications and Website – DGNN Paul

We expect the evening to conclude around 20.30

Very best wishes to everyone,

Yours in Rotary and friendship,

Allan

DG District 1110

BECTON – a new Rotary club for 2019 The Becton Rotary Club, formally the Rotary Club of New

Milton, held its first meeting on Wednesday 2nd January. 8

were in attendance out of 11 members in total.

We are currently very busy formulating our own member’s

charter which will revolve around Helping in the

Community. We do not intend to be too proactive in

presenting cheques to local charities or organisations but concentrating on physically

helping them. However, our first project we hope will be to build an eco greenhouse

made from plastic bottles for a local school.

We have also made firm arrangements to carry on the most successful enterprise of the

New Milton Rotary Club which is the Holiday Bungalow offering wonderful holiday

escapes to disadvantage families. Currently our bookings for this marvellous project are

over 90% for 2019.

We are an evening club, meeting circa every 2 weeks at various locations (please

check on our web site for further details). Our meetings are informal but very productive

and are held over a glass of beer or coffee.

Terry Conner, President

WINCHESTER – Links with Rotoract Club of Kasese The international youth vibe is certainly buzzing this month, as our District is being visited

by Rotaract Club of Kasese member Farouk Kibaba. Farouk is a former President of

Kasese Rotaract, Uganda (2013/14) and we have strong links through the Winchester

Rotary Club. In 2014, I was fortunate enough to accompany Winchester Rotarians to

Kasese where I was able to meet Farouk our and friendship started. Farouk and I went on

to found The Great Lakes Peace Centre, a youth-led organisation which was a finalist for

the UN awards in 2018 and connects five of the Great Lakes Region's young people

through local and international projects. Faoruk is currently the Executive Director for the

Centre and is also an International Sustainable Development Goals Trainer and last year

he was training High School students in Berlin Germany.

He is currently in the UK as a guest of Peacejam UK

and will be addressing the Fifth annual conference

with Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams and

leading workshops as well as talking to Rotary Clubs

about the work of the Peace Centre. Since he arrived

we have visited the Winchester Hospice, St John's

Winchester, Tools for Self Reliance and many other

incredible local projects.

Luke Addison, Rotoract

Luke and Farouk with the team at

Winchester Hospice

Newsletter articles I hope you will all agree that the Newsletter, under the management of Editor Paul Steele DGNN,

has been a huge success and a substantial improvement to communications around District.

To remain THE means of clubs communicating to other clubs please do submit articles of your up-

coming events and those you have held. It only needs 150/200 words with a picture and perhaps

a link to further information.

By you communicating about your events you can inspire other clubs with ideas to further their

clubs’ success. Send your articles to steelerotary1110@gmail.com

Yours in Rotary and friendship, Allan

RINGWOOD – setting up and facilitating the Ringwood Community Network

On 4 September 2018 Ringwood Rotary hosted a meeting of other Ringwood based

organisations that are keen to improve the well-being of the Ringwood community. Eighty

people, representing a wide range of groups, including the local Citizens Advice,

Community First New Forest, 41 Club, Ringwood Town Council, the Blind Club, Good

Neighbours, the Foodbank (branch of Trussell Trust), TH Russell Trust, Go New Forest, First

Poulner Scouts, Live at Home, British Legion, Ringwood WI, Ringwood Musical and

Dramatic Society and Greyfriars Community Centre, joined Ringwood Rotarians to discuss

the possibility of setting up the Network and make suggestions about its format, meeting

frequency, aims and processes.

After an explanation of what Rotary is and what we do, with particular reference to the

work of Ringwood Rotarians, a general discussion was chaired by Ringwood Rotary

President, Michael Macario. It was agreed that the Network would meet quarterly, that

there would be a Network website and a quarterly newsletter of upcoming events. It was

also agreed that discussions would be held with the Town Council about the possibility of

an annual, major event for the town.

There have been two more, very successful meetings since last

September, a constitution has been established and a website set

up (www.ringwoodcommunitynetwork.org.uk), and there are 71

affiliated organisations. Ringwood Rotary is facilitating and currently

chairing this Network and has provided the “start-up” funds. The

idea for the Network came from discussions about membership

growth, and, whilst there have been no new recruits from the

Network yet, there is so much more appreciation of the work of

Rotary within the Town and there will be a great deal more

partnership working in the future. The Network flier is being

circulated throughout the town and will appear in the local

newspaper (free of charge) every four weeks for the next few

months. We are now being able to tell our story to many more

people.

Winchester – Inaugural Shrove Tuesday Pancake Race – 5 March 2019

What an exciting, fun Rotary profile-raising event, thoroughly enjoyed by so many.

20 teams of 4 competed in fancy dress from supermarkets, schools, firefighters, military,

businesses, cathedral, university and even past mayors. Each team member ran the 38-

metre course, tossing a pancake at 3 designated positions, whilst stopped, before

handing over to the next runner.

This was the brainchild of Allen Cobbold who then brilliantly galvanised the Club to

organise and manage the fantastic day in conjunction with Winchester Cathedral. Lots of

information is now available for other Clubs to plagiarise.

Along with a few excellent sponsors including IBM

(Hursley) and Handelsbanken, whilst raising towards

£1000 was great for an inaugural event, increasing

the profile of Rotary for spectators, teams,

newspapers and TV was even more significant. The

event will be back next year and the challenge is for

every city and town in the District to consider doing

likewise.

GUERNSEY – Tea Leaf Trust in Sri Lanka The Tea Leaf Trust vision is to support the youth of Sri

Lanka’s tea estate communities by educating 170

students each year so they are fluent in English, and

improve their business and ICT skills and well as

supporting their personal development.

In 2010 the Rotary Club of Guernsey agreed to

support the first school in Maskeliya with a 5 year

grant. In 2019 Paul Steele, Past President, visited the school to see how the initiative has

prospered and grown.

There are now many main diploma graduates and of those students 70% are in full- time

employment or further education. A second school opened in Nuwara Eliya in 2017

following the same successful curriculum, but funding is still very much needed.

In the first nine years of operation Tea Leaf vision has reached

over 205,000 beneficiaries through its educational programmes

and community service projects.

RIBI State of the Nation Annual Survey

Following on from RIBI’s successful State of the Nation survey last year they are repeating

the survey this year focussing on loneliness.

To maximise coverage by the local radio and TV stations that contact RIBI after the survey

Amanda Watkin has asked DGs what club projects that help address the issue of

loneliness are undertaken by clubs.

I am very confident in District 1110 we have many clubs doing splendid projects. May I

therefore ask Club Presidents to share with to me DG Allan Smith

allansmithjsy@outlook.com their clubs projects which combat loneliness. I will then send

them to RIBI who will endeavour to secure media coverage.

Please send details by the end of March. Would you please include:

Club name Presidents or spokespersons name, email, telephone number.

Name and short description of project

“I can’t believe that now I can speak and understand

English. The magic is done by TLV within a year”.

District Marketing Fund

Remember if your club has an idea of how to raise

the profile of Rotary in your community and you

would like financial help to promote that idea or

club project - you can apply.

Please e mail PDG Chris Slocock with a summary of

your idea and some costings

chrisslocock@printsolutions.co.uk

TEA TO END POLIO – Rotary Foundation’s Number 1 Priority – End Polio Now

Rotary’s aim of eradication of polio started in 1979 with

the successful completion of a Global Grant in the

Philippines in 1979. Six years later Rotary launched Polio

Plus when it was estimated that there were 350,000 cases

of polio in the world every year. Thankfully there have

been none in the UK but that means it is difficult to

explain the need to eradicate the disease to a

generation that have not experienced the life-

threatening results of contracting polio, which is only a

plane ride away from these shores.

Working with partners and governments throughout the

world, Rotary’s advocacy and financial support of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative

has seen the number of cases reduce to just 33 in 2018 and in only two countries –

Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nigeria, another country where the wild polio virus exists, has

not had a case of polio since August 2016.

In addition to administering vaccine Rotary’s funding also provides means of distributing

the vaccine to the remote areas most in danger of children contracting polio.

Rotarians are proud of the ongoing successes of the End Polio Now Campaign and need

to be redoubling their efforts to ensure the campaign is brought to a successful

conclusion. Rotary made a promise at the launch of the campaign to protect future

generations of children from polio. Until there are no more cases of polio the job remains

incomplete.

To support the campaign, Clubs in the District are asked to

organise a Tea Party to End Polio – invitation cards were shared

with all clubs at the recent District Council – tell your community

about the work to protect our children and raise money to End

Polio Now. Remember gifts to Rotary Foundation United Kingdom

(RFUK) are matched 2 for 1 by the Gates Foundation so every £1

given becomes £3.

Thank you for your support and good luck with the Tea Parties.

Commemorating the end of WW1

Can you please help me? Those who heard my DG presentation

know I have strong views about the tragic loss of life during WW1. I

would like to keep as one of my mementoes as DG what clubs did

to commemorate the ending of the great war. As most of you know

I am doing a Skydive for Alabare Homes for Service Veterans. This

has been cancelled twice due to weather conditions, but I am re-

scheduled to jump in mid-March.

If you could send me your clubs’ contribution, ideally with a photo I

would be most grateful to allansmithjsy@outlook.com

ROTARY RIDES FOR PROSTATE CANCER

We are encouraging you to organise an event in aid of Prostate Cancer – it could be a

static bike ride on an exercise bike in a sports centre, either individually or in a relay team,

or a ride with an easy going family friendly route or something with a longer distance to

challenge the more serious cyclist. Remember publicising the event also helps encourage

interest in Rotary and may add to membership.

The facts are that almost as many men as there are Rotarians in the World will be diagnosed

with Prostate Cancer and 300,000 are expected to die this year of this awful cancer. So let’s

‘Get on our Bikes’ and do something about it.

RIBI have an excellent guidance pack and poster design on their website to help you get

your event organised and you can also get a copy of this by email from our district’s co-

ordinator: Richard Burnett, Westbourne Rotary

E-mail: richardkburnett@yahoo.co.uk

Home Tel: 01202 315749

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY The RIBI Great Rotary Beach Clean

Want to help the environment? Why not consider a beach, lakeside or canal

bank clean?

This great event is scheduled to take place on Saturday 8th June 2019

More information will be published in the Newsletter as it becomes available

Rotary Wessex - District 1110 Inbound Camp & Tour Summer

24th June to 7th July

We Need Rotarian Hosts! Rotarian Hosts needed for just 2 night slots – for the Inbound Summer Camp

24th June to 7th July. Bed and Breakfast - 2 students per host. Please confirm your offer

to host by end of March.

12 students from Europe will be visiting our District over a two week period, hosting within

groups of clubs across the District - the students will attend organised events and

activities during their stay. Opportunities for social events, club visits and activities to raise

the profile of youth activities in your community.

Number of students/ Gender balance/ Age range: 12 - Aged 18 - 21 mixed

The event will be posted on www.youthexchange.org.uk probably at the end of March. Students will register

interest, complete an application form and are usually supported by Rotary Clubs from their own countries.

Outbound students can find information about other camps on the same website.

If you or your club would like to be involved, or you have any questions please contact:

PDG Chris Slocock District Youth Exchange Officer - M 07475 771673 chris@printsolutions.co.uk

Extending Rotary with New Style Clubs

We are all being encouraged to think outside the box to create new style Rotary in our areas. There are

some successes and some attempts that have yet to succeed. All this is good for the future development of

Rotary to develop our organisation for the 21st century to carry on the great works that we have achieved.

I would however like to remind all members that when you have an idea for extension and wish to take it

forward there are some basic rules that Rotary requires us to follow. Whether it be a new traditional Club, a

satellite Club, a Rotary2 development or a social media meeting group they are all subject to the guidelines

set out by RI in the document ‘Starting a New Rotary Club’ https://my.rotary.org/document/starting-new-

rotary-club

The District team also have some simple basic guidance notes.

One of the important things mentioned in the document is communication this is essential to avoid falling

out with other clubs who may feel aggrieved. If you have an idea then please discuss it with your Club (and

neighbouring clubs) then communicate your proposal to the District Governor and the

Membership/Extension officer; they are able to offer advice and support to see your project develop, they

have contacts with other who may be able to assist; we are all keen to build for the future.

There are many people in our communities that would like to volunteer and to support our ideals and if we

interest them sufficiently, they will join us and be our future.

PDG David Pike

Extension Officer 2018/19

TRY VISITING ANOTHER CLUB

ALRESFORD

President Paul Watters

Monday 7.30pm

The Swan Hotel,

Alresford

01962 732302

ALTON

President Pam

Bradford

Thursday 7.00pm

Alton House Hotel

01420 80033

ANDOVER

President Peter Howson

Tuesday 12.45 or 19.30

The Lion, Clanville

01264 771007

ANDOVER ANTON

President Alex

Armstrong

Thursday 7.15pm

The Oak, Smannel

01264 363075

BASINGSTOKE DEANE

President Julian

Ricketts

Tuesday 7.00pm

Test Valley Golf Club

01256 771737