Minutes 1978-05-08 Directors

HASTINGS ROTARY CLUB.

MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE CLUB’S SERVICE COMMITTEE HELD AT 8 : 00 P.M ON MONDAY, 8TH MAY, 1978 T 519 NOTTINGLY [NOTTINGLEY] ROAD, Hastings.

PRESENT:   Rotarians.
R$. Bate (Chairman), Burns, Crist, Custance, Bruce Giorgi, Spence, Hoogerbrug, Young, Scougall, Eddington, Langford and Baker.

WELCOME:   Roger welcomed Derek Burns to his first meeting of the Club’s Service Committee and expressed regret at the resignation of Gwyn Lewis who has now left the Club.

APOLOGIES:   Apologies were received from and leave of absence granted to Rotarians Velvin, Robson, Begely [Begley], Single, Luttrell, Blackmore, Wainscott, Cross, Pacey, Newport, Brooker, Powell and Batchelor.

MINUTES:   The Minutes of the meeting held on 10th April, 1978 were read and confirmed with one minor amendment.

MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES:

Roger confirmed with Collin [Colin] that the cost per member should the Club bear the costs of annual subscriptions of Ministers of Religion would only be $0.27 cents per annum. This was provided however that Ministers of Religion paid their own luncheon fees and magazine subscriptions.  It was also confirm [confirmed] that wives of Ministers of Religion would have their social functions paid for by the Club.

Some discussion took place on the position of wives of visitors.  It was felt by most members of the Committee that wives could attend with visitors, although this does not appear to have been confirmed by the Directors.

Frank confirmed that there never had been any provision made to invite wives, although they had attended occasionally. He felt that such occurrences should be decided according to circumstances and that the matter should be left flexible.

Classification and Membership:
Roger reported on nominations for membership, there being five currently in the pipeline. For the classification of the Traffic Officer, Arnold was requested to approach Henry Taylor. Frank was to pursue the nomination of John Perring for the Police classification currently open. Regarding Gooch Parahi Bruce Giorgi confirmed that Gooch was a Lion therefore his nomination should be dropped.

Roger reported that the classifications for Primary and Intermediate Education were now both vacant with the loss of Gwyn Lewis.

Frank recounted the number of Club losses during the past year and pointed out how surprisingly quickly the Club could waste away if active search for new nominations was not pursued.

Roger thought that the Club could try the membership training idea, building up a list of occupations and persons possibly suitable to fulfil those classifications in advance of the vacancies actually occurring. He stated that we would be having 12 – 15 defections per year and the Club would need

Contd…

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to be looking for up to 20 new members per year.

Information:
Roger reported that a new members forum was to be conducted next Tuesday evening, the 16th of May, 1978 in the home of President Don and this would be conducted by Peter Single and Don.

Programmes:
Len reported that all was going smoothly and Roger expressed the hope that someone special be engaged for changeover night.

Sergeants:
Bruce reported that all was going well with this aspect of the Club’s activities.

Roger stated that the changeover night ideally should represent the end of one Rotary year and the beginning of another and there was a problem in getting the ladies in to make a slightly better function than normal.  However he did not think the evening should be unduly long. He suggested to Bruce that the Sergeants might like to consider holding a joint Sergeants session, it could well prove to be the highlight of the evening.  Bruce undertook to do this.

Marshalls:
Roger reported that Roy Batchelor had been a bit inconvenienced by late arrivals the previous week.  He asked that all members should try to get to meetings on time and this applied especially to the sons and daughters day.

Discussion took place on the meal arrangements for sons and daughters day and it was resolved on the motion of Colin Young that the charge for meals for sons and daughters on sons and daughters day be $2.00 subject to the approval of the President. A subsequent telephone conversation to President Don confirmed this course of action to be in order. As a rider Frank suggested the cost of children’s meals should be the subject of a discussion with Jack Van Bohemen for next year.

Man Friday:
Roger reported that the sewing of banners on to the back cloths was proceeding well and the display of banners was most satisfactory.

Attendance and Cashier:
Roger reported that with the resignation of Gwyn Lewis another member was needed at the Fellowship table.  Bill Langford reported that he had filled this position the previous two weeks, but would not always be available.

Frank suggested that when Rotarians bring a son or daughter to sons and daughters day they should ask Brian [Bryan] Newport to signify in his attendance book the number of children present. Ray Custance undertook to have this done.

In respect of the Bishop table, Roger asked John Eddington to call on anyone to assist if he is lacking in assistance or if the number of visitors was building up.

Entertainment:
Roger reported that the only social function requiring attendance under this heading was the changeover night.

Visitors:
Roger reported that there were as far as he was aware no members in hospital, although Selwyn Begley had had a mishap

Contd…

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With a spade from which he was now recovering.

Records:
Bill Langford reported that the elusive Membership Book had turned up and he explained the contents of the book. Roger questioned the purpose of the book and asked Bill to prepare a report on the type, extent and contents of the records of the Club and his suggestions for rationalising Club records.

General:
Roger reminded members about the new members forum and suggested that members of the Committee should encourage attendance at and publicise the end of year function to be held at the Angus Inn Hotel on the 20th of May.  This function was to be a little different this year, consisting of a simple dinner without formalities.

Roger felt that the Club’s Service Committee had some responsibility and asked members to ring around to make a personal approach to all members to encourage them to attend.  The chronological list of members contained in the Club’s booklet was subsequently divided among all members of the Committee attending for personal approach and report to Haldane Scougall before Tuesday the 16th of May meeting.

Discussion took place concerning the number of members attending the Town and Country forum and it was suggested that when a show of hands was being taken to ascertain possible attendance at such functions it should be taken as two stages, namely those certain to attend and those who may be attending.

Discussion also took place regarding the situation when President Don could not take his position at the Town and Country forum, whether or not the Vice-President should be put in the position that Roger had been in having to fill in. It was suggested that possibly the Past President could be asked to stand in on such occasions. However Len thought that such an occasion gave a Vice President the chance to cut his teeth before he took office as President. He felt that the position of Vice President implied the standing in for the President when the occasion arose. Roger agreed with Len on this point, even though it could be a shattering experience for a Vice President. He thought that with the assistance of the Secretary and other members the Vice President could handle the situation.

Next Meeting.

The next meeting was fixed for the second Monday in June at the home of Roger Bate.

The Meeting closed at 9 : 32 p.m.

CONFIRMED

R. BATE
CHAIRMAN.