At the time of writing
this Report 24 years after taking over as the Club’s second President
there are 2 items that immediately spring to mind : our venue and the
formation of the Inner Wheel Club.
We had moved to the Blue
Ball in June 1986, a couple of weeks before taking over as President. It
was not a satisfactory venue for the majority of our members. There was
a lack of variety in the meals - cottage pie every 2 weeks – and the
walls of the room used by us were very thin. However, many Club members
wanted to stay put and so this matter caused quite a bit of argument
within the Club.
This matter came to a head
on the evening that the management had booked a teenage party in an
adjoining room with a disco at the same time. This caused great
embarrassment to our lady speaker and to me personally as the President.
Shortly afterwards, in
March 1987, Bartlewood Lodge, Ockbrook, became the third venue for the
Club in two years.
The second item was much
more pleasurable. On 23 June 1987 the Inner Wheel Club of Church Wilne
held its Charter Presentation Dinner. I was very pleased indeed to
propose the Toast to the new Club and to present the Founder President
Josie Graham with the new Chain of Office.
Above:
Inaugural
members of Inner Wheel. Janet Richmond, Carole Astell, Sylvia Wood, Edna
Flattley, Pam Halford, Monica Welbourne, Josie Graham, Lesley Hall,
Paula Hammond, Ruth Barker, Margaret Orchard, Judith Plant, Marion
Baxendale-Baines, Jean Jones, Gerry Austin, Susan Woods, Rosemary
Watson, Jean Acton, Ann Barker, Pat Adcock.
I remember that some of
the other functions in my year were similar to those in the previous
year, including our Charter Night and Ladies’ Evening. On the social
side we had a Barbecue, Indoor Bowls and Ten Pin Bowling as before and
two new events Indoor Cricket and a Square Dance.
At the Christmas Dinner we
had “ internal entertainment “ for the first time. All the Club
Committees put on a Variety Act with vastly different degrees of
expertise.
(above:
Wilfred Baxendale-Baines, Peter Wood, Mike Stevenson and Ron
Acton)
The District Conference in
Scarborough was attended by Margaret and I together with Roger and Josie
Graham, Maurice and Pat Adcock and Michael and Paula Hammond.
We held the second Club
Christmas Float collection in 1986. Once again it was received very well
by the residents of Draycott and Borrowash, Santa Claus being extremely
popular with the local children.
Our preliminary
discussions with the Hinnerup Rotary Club in Denmark continued and 2 of
our members Michael Hammond and Martin Wilson visited Denmark during my
year. This was a prelude to the full twinning of the 2 Clubs that
commenced in May 1988.
We also continued the
discussions in connection with the formation of a Church Wilne Probus
Club.
On Monday 6 July 1987 I
presented the Chain of Office to the Club’s third President Barry
Austin.
