Chatterbox 0813 - Belper Rotary Club

We’re for communities, locally and globally
the rotary club of
belper &
duffield
World Heritage Site
-a birthplace of the Industrial Revolution
In this issue:
President Hilary’s Installation
Visit to Vietnam
Flying Tornados
www.belper-rotary.co.uk
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CHATTERBOX
July/August 2013
Rotary International
District 1220
Graham Wright installs his successor, Hilary Surga, as President for the
Rotary Year 2013/2014. Full report on page 3.
Gail Ashley with her speaker, Rotarian Eileen Murphy. See report on page 6.
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Meeting – 1st July 2013
Installation of
President Hilary Surga
F
ollowing his successful year as District
Governor, club members were pleased to
welcome David Ashley to act as Master of
Ceremonies. David opened the evening by
offering a warm welcome to everyone, and
also took the opportunity to thank all for
their help and support over the previous year. He handed certificates of
appreciation to Paul Taylor and Eileen Murphy in recognition of their support on his recent H2H Walk, which had raised the grand sum of £7,800.
President Graham Wright then invited David to say Grace. Following a
meal of medallions of pork or steak and ale pie, President Graham proposed
the toast to the Queen for his last time. He then welcomed guest, Dorothy
Limb, to the meeting and the Installation officially got underway. Foundation Chairman, David Soul, commenced the proceedings by proposing a
toast to ‘Rotary International’.
In his retiring address, which had previously been printed in full in the
May/June 2013 edition of Chatterbox, President Graham took the opportunity to review the club’s activities over the previous 12 months, which he
felt had been a great success. He thanked everyone for rising to the
challenge to support David during his period of office as District Governor,
which had helped to raise the club’s profile within the District and was
something that all the members should be proud of. He concluded by
expressing special thanks to Senior Vice-President, Hilary Surga, and Secretary, Nick Blurton, for all their help and support over the last 12 months.
Continued on page 4 …
Cover picture - President Hilary installed
Hilary Surga was installed as the President for 2013/2014 at the special meeting held on
1st July. Report above.
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President Graham then handed over his Chain of Office to Hilary and invited
her to take over the care and leadership of the club for the year 2013 – 2014.
Gail Ashley gave an Expression of Goodwill to the incoming President on
behalf of the club and pledged the support of all the members. Hilary’s first
responsibility as the new President was to present Graham with his Past
President’s Badge and Jewels and invest President Elect John Horwood with
his Badge of Office. She then welcomed her Club Officers; Secretary – Nick
Blurton, Treasurer – David Henson.
President Hilary then gave her address. She commented that it was just
over 2 years since being asked to take the road to presidency and, whilst it had
been a steep learning curve, the time had flown by. She thanked Past President Graham for his help and support during this time. Hilary added that
although she and Alan would be spending some time in France during her
period of office, she wished to assure members that she would be working for
the club at all times. She informed members that rather than hold a Charter
Anniversary celebration, she planned to hold a Summer Ball in June 2014 and
had already approached a number of members to help her with this. Hilary
concluded her address by offering sincere congratulations to David and Gail
on a very successful year.
MC David brought the meeting to a close by inviting newly elected
President Hilary to propose the toast to ‘Rotary and Peace the World Over’.
Eileen Murphy
‘My Jobs Talk’ continued …
Crossing Patrol Service for Derbyshire (approximately 400 staff). She also
became an Advisor for a national group, Road Safety GB, and helped to
prepare guidelines, handbooks and training videos for the School Crossing
Patrol Service. Eileen has also been involved in getting relevant parts of the
Road Traffic Act updated – including the uniform for School Crossing Patrols.
Eileen concluded by saying that she had enjoyed all her jobs - both the
activities and the people with whom she worked. Gail Ashley thanked her for
an interesting and informative talk.
Eileen concluded the proceedings, which under President Hilary’s
guidance proceeded very smoothly, by drawing the raffle – to the benefit of
Paul Taylor.
John Norreys
Photograph on page 2.
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Meeting – 8th July
My Job(s)
by Eileen Murphy
T
his was President Hilary’s first Chairmanship of a club in her own right, although she
had previous experience during the absences of her predecessor. She was
supported this evening particularly by Gail Ashley on Fraternal, Grace and
Thanks together with the duties of Sergeant at Arms –fantastic at multi tasking
these women!
David Henson started the post dinner proceedings on a sour note, by
reminding members that annual subs of £115 were due - either in part or
whole. Alan Widdowson listed some forthcoming events for which members’
assistance was requested. These included The Belper Food Festival on Sunday
14th July and Belper Games on Saturday 20th July.
After introducing herself (she was activity organiser!), Eileen, one of
our more recent joining members, gave us an outline of her life and various
jobs both in the UK and abroad. After getting a degree in Business Studies,
Eileen got a job with the Civil Service and started work for H M Customs and
Excise at Custom House, Heathrow Airport checking on goods coming in for
exhibition purposes. She then became involved in preventative work in the
passenger terminals, both outgoing and incoming, particularly looking for
drugs. This involved a sharp learning curve, with some interesting cases including waiting for a girl to ‘pass’ a condom full of drugs.
After marriage 5 years later she moved to Nigeria where she filled in her time
working in a local Primary School and two years later she moved to Abu Dhabi
where got a job as a Sales Rep for Avis. The next move was to Malaysia where
she worked as a volunteer for the YMCA as she couldn’t get a Work Permit.
Her last overseas job was in Dubai (very different then from the Dubai of
today), where she had a job as the PA to the MD of a French company involved
in repairing oil pipelines, needing to organise accommodation and visas for
extra personnel.
On return to the UK Eileen signed on at evening classes to update her
skills and got a job with Derbyshire Constabulary, preparing papers for the CPS
prior to going to court. She later got a position within the Personnel and
Finance Section and worked her way up to the post of Head of Section. Eileen
thought she would be in this job until her retirement, but 9 years later she
transferred to Derbyshire County Council to set up and manage the School
continued on page 4 …
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Meeting - 15th July
A Stroll down Memory Lane (1)
with John Scotney
J
ohn had offered to fill this vacant spot by threatening one of his popular quizzes
(?) but he relented at the last minute. A recent spring clean of his office at home
had uncovered the Scrapbook of Club press cuttings, started by Dave Ashley in 2000,
the year of John Scotney’s Presidency. Upon becoming Club Press Officer at the end
of his Presidency, John has preserved every club appearance in the local press and
this document was passed round the members to examine while they were having
their meal.
After any club business had been covered, John was invited to proceed with his
topic. He explained that he wanted to make it a ‘Fellowship Evening, with all the
members contributing by talking about their involvement in events and activities
prompted by the press cuttings over the last 13 years. In case there were only a few
contributions, he explained that he had brought along the materials for a quiz and
trusted that would act as a spur for plenty of chat!
Looking through the book, it was apparent that the success rate for getting
articles published in the Belper News was very patchy. There was a period around
2005-7 when there was some item in every few weeks; with the eventual shutting
down of the Belper office, it has now proved more difficult to get good coverage.
Sheilagh started the proceedings by saying that over the years the annual ritual
of the Santa Sleigh round Duffield and Belper followed by supper with warming
spicy parsnip soup had come to mean so much to them that they have taken to
putting off joining their family in Sweden until the new year!
John Lowe then started off a series of stories about the Duke of Devonshire
prompted by his guest appearance at the unveiling of the Interpretation Panel at
the Triangle. David Harris related how, when he was at Chatsworth with a Holiday
Centre fund raising event, he compared notes with the Duke about their common
interest in fossils and was given a private viewing of the Duke’s extensive collection.
Paul and Hazel Taylor were about to take a stroll around the grounds behind the
House when an elegant lady with a dog in tow appeared from the buildings and
proceeded to accompany them over a period of an hour, chatting away. No prizes
for guessing who she was!
The threat of the quiz had worked its magic and the club members had managed to fill the allotted time slot. While it is interesting to hear invited speakers
from various walks of life, this meeting demonstrated that occasionally we are quite
capable of entertaining ourselves.
Anon
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Meeting – 22nd July
Vietnam – Back to the Future
by Pat Wangana
T
he meeting had been made a Guest Evening to give the opportunity for more
people to hear a most interesting talk presented by Pat Wangana who was
introduced by John Lowe. Amongst her many activities, she is the Chair of the
Belper branch of U3A and it was here that John had first heard the talk some three
years ago; he was so impressed with it he wanted to share it with us.
Pat’s son in law was a young refugee from Vietnam, brought over towards the
end of the war in 1975 and he was adopted by a family in Wales. In 1998, he and a
group of adoptees based in the UK met up and flew back to Vietnam to look for
their families. From that experience, Pat and her family paid a three week visit to
Vietnam in 2010, the 35th Anniversary of the end of the war and they were able to
attend a special Memorial Service.
They were also able to do a lot of sightseeing around the country and Pat had
a selection of slides showing various aspects of life in the various regions. Hanoi still
possessed an old town area which contained 36 streets, each devoted to specific
trade guilds, including one street called Coffin Street!
The main mode of transport was light motorcycles which were used to transport
every conceivable item of merchandise, from complete families to staggering
arrays of vegetables and chickens.
There were also some very beautiful locations such as Hulang Bay (called
Descending Dragon locally) which is a World Heritage Site and busy commercial
towns such as Howang which is a busy trading post. They were able to go fishing
here, visited a monkey sanctuary where the inmates showed great dexterity in
unzipping handbags and made a visit to a preserved Vietcong camp, a warren of
small tunnels which was quite claustrophobic.
Other slides showed fish restaurants where you picked your meal live from the
tanks, the many stalls selling freshly prepared street food and the floating markets
with poles sticking up from the boats showing the items on sale.
Pat’s son in law also took them to visit an orphanage which he and his colleagues
have helped to set up to look after present day refugees, victims of the side effects
from Agent Orange used by the Americans as a defoliant. He is now raising money
for these destitute children and has recently raised £1000 by taking part in a 40km
cycle race.
After taking some questions from the members, Pat was thanked warmly by
John Brazier and then proceeded to draw her own ticket in the raffle – most fitting!
John Scotney
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Club Business Meeting
29th July 2013
P
resident Hilary opened the Business Meeting by inviting the Chair of Com & Voc,
Alan Widdowson, to give his report. There had been a number of activities for the
club to take part in over the last week weeks; these had included the Duffield Carnival
with the Golf Competition and an Aquabox Demonstration, the very successful Belper
Food Festival where a belated fund raising initiative had produced £29 and the Belper
Sports Day at the Rugby Club which raised over £9000 for the special charity. (There
are some photos of these events on pages ***.) Looking forward, we have Polio Day
on 24th October, Remembrance Day on 10th November and the Belper Christmas
Lights ‘Swich On’ on 29th November followed by the Christmas Food Festival on 1st
December. The busy run up to Christmas continues with the Dalesmen Concert at St
Peter’s on 14th December and a couple of Santa Sleigh runs around Belper and
Duffield and collections at Morrisons. There was a discussion on whether we could get
some more help with the Sleight runs and maybe extend them to some extra nights
to satisfy the demand from the town. Alan also mentioned the Spring Bulb sale being
promoted by Wirksworth RC and suggested that we could use it as a fund raising
initiative.
Foundation Chair David Soul gave a progress report on the application for
District Funding for the Happy Homes Polytunnel – it was currently being reviewed
and if successful the polytunnel would be installed and they could start cropping early
in 2014 to help support the local community. Wearing his International hat, David Soul
also gave an update on the Sand Dams Project; the club was in the process of
transferring £500 to Belvoir RC who are supervising the Project on behalf of the District.
Membership Chair Dave Ashley presented the paperwork covering the new
designation ‘Friends of the Rotary Club of Belper and Duffield’ which was approved by
the club and we will now proceed to enrol those people who have expressed an
interested in becoming associated with the club and its charitable activities. The
committee will also be updating the website and various forms of publicity literature
over the next few weeks.
Representing the Youth Service Committee, Gail Ashley reported that Stuart
Limb and Eileen Murphy will be taking the Cycle Proficiency Trainers course later in
the year and a number of the local primary schools will be visited to assess their
interest in the Cycle Training we offer. There has also been an expression of interest
in forming an Interact Club at Ecclesbourne School.
Treasurer David Henson reported that the Club Account stood at £2,639.35
(Main Fund £1,474.21, Hospitality fund £814.82 and DG Support fund £350.62; the
latter surplus is available now for donation). The Charity Account stood at £10,588 and
after allowing for already allocated donations, there was £2,519 for new donations.
John Scotney
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Meeting – 5th August
‘My Job’ Talk
by John Norreys
I
n 1942, as an eleven year schoolboy old John Norreys had to spend
afternoons potato picking to help the war effort, as an alternative to sports –
and was paid something for doing it. Towards the end of his school career
when in the Sixth Form the Post Office Christmas delivery week provided a bit
more cash. After that came NATIONAL SERVICE where John rose to the level of
corporal in the Royal Corps of Signals.
After those two years of “bliss” John went on to Imperial College in London
for his University education and during the long Summer vacations was expected to work in various jobs organised through the College to further his studies.
This experience included work in a metal foundry in the UK, and then later, in
1954. he found himself in Canada working in a nickel mining company, firstly in
the ore smelter then later in the mill.
At the end of his University career, graduating and being interviewed for
jobs he eventually joined GEC Research in the Nuclear Research Laboratories in
the division studying nuclear power generation systems, later this included
doing work on a contract for UKAEA Harwell laboratories. In 1964 he joined
Johnson Matthey where his work included involvement in the extraction of
precious metals from ore mined at their associated mine in South Africa.
In 1966 John joined Rolls Royce and Associates working on nuclear propulsion systems for submarines. This highly confidential work led on to a variety of
appointments connected with the studies of the effects of radiation on metal
structures. This involved the need to attend international conferences in USA
and Canada, as well as discussions with AERE Harwell. When security aspects of
some of the work were relaxed some irradiation test work .was placed in France
and Holland.
After all this, John officially retired in 1991, and then returned to RR and A
to work part time for the next three years. He had been involved with the
propulsion systems used in nuclear powered submarines and of course had
signed the Official Secrets Act. All of the information referred to in the talk was
now available in the open press. I imagine that this was his first “My Job” talk
to us all!
David Soul
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Meeting – 12th August
A Career in the RAF
by Flt Lt Lawrence Swift
D
avid Partridge introduced his guest speaker to a well-attended Guest Evening;
Lawrence is a lifelong friend of David’s son, Andrew. Lawrence grew up in Ridgeway and attended Derby Grammar School. He worked as a waiter at Georges Fish
Restaurant and around this time he went on a sponsored expedition to Ladakh in India
where he learned about roughing it.
He took a sixth Form Scholarship which was given to encourage people to join
the RAF. It was also used to assess aptitude at an early age and a stepping stone to a
career. It consisted of two days testing at an Officers and Aircrew Selection Centre,
including Aptitude testing, a Medical and an Interview. This was followed by Part 1
Selection - a 4 day process at OASC which included further aptitude tests – ability to
multi-task, another Medical and Interview, which covered one's background, Current
Affairs, Military Knowledge and 'Unbalancing' random questions. (Sounded like the
vicious interviewers on The Apprentice!!) Selection Part 2 had more emphasis on
leadership skills, doing various bonding exercises, leaderless and leader led, Group
discussion, lone planning tasks and group planning tasks.
Thirty two weeks were spent at RAF College at Cranwell doing Initial Officer
Training, which covered 4 weeks basic training, 6 weeks basic leadership assessment,
5 weeks of Academics, 5 weeks Advanced Leadership Skills, 4 weeks Carousel visiting
an RAF Station and 6 weeks final exams and exercises at Syston Airfield –
attack/defend exercises.
To learn to fly a fast jet took 5 years!! Elementary Flying Training included 6 week
Ground school at RAF Cranwell – covered Rules, Navigation, Theory and Aircraft
Technology and 4 – 6 months flying course on Grob Tutor – covered Basic Flying,
Aerobatics, Instrument Flying, Navigation and Formation flying. Basic Fast Jet training
again included Aircraft Tech, Advanced Navigation, and Survival training and flying at
240 miles an hour down to 250 feet! This was followed by 10-12 months flying course
on Tucano covering Turbo Prop handling, Instrument flying with rating, Formation
flying, Navigation and Low Level pairs formation. Success on the above earned Pilots
their wings!
Advanced Fast Jet training followed including more Ground school, more
Technology and further Survival training. At this point Lawrence's enthusiasm poured
out with the explanation of the 6-8 month flying course on Hawk T1. This covered basic
Jet handling, Instrument flying, Low level navigation, Formation flying and Low level
Tactical flying at 420mph!!
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Then came Tactical Weapons training with ground school on Weapons
Ranges and Low level attacks. The 6-8 month flying course on Hawk T1 was obviously very exciting as Lawrence covered the learning of Bombing and Strafing, Air
Combat, Low level Pairs attacks and Low level Evasion. This then went up another
level to a 12 month flying course on Tornado GR4 which included Pilot Conversion,
Navigation Formation, Weaponeering, Night flying and Low level attacks with evasion.
Lawrence finally joined a Frontline Squadron X1(B) which is just one of 6
Tornado Squadrons and is based at RAF Marham where Lancasters flew from and
consists of 14 crews with over 150 engineers. The squadron specialises in the Alarm
missile, which unfortunately will go out of service at the end of the year. A normal
working day starts at 7 am and finishes at 5 pm and would include Planning and
briefing for 3hrs 45 minutes, Flying for up to 2hrs, debrief for 1.1/2 hrs, with
secondary duties and gym work to finish. There is more focus on Advanced Skills for
Close Air Support, 2 versus 1 Low level Fighting, Specialist Weapons skills, Operational Low flying and Night vision Goggle flying and Flying at 500mph at 100 feet!!!
but they only do that over Mid Wales, NW Scotland and other parts of Scotland!!
The Tornado is still the preferred platform versus the Typhoon. The squadron has on-going operations in Afghanistan with an 'Enduring Presence into Honourable Transition' (helping them to take the country back) but will be pulling out by
the end of 2014. Previous operations were in Libya and Iraq. Op Herrick is the name
for the Afghanistan operation based in Kandahar. The work routine is split into
three shifts – Day, Champagne, and Night. They hold Ground launched CAS and Fly
Normal Cas sorties which last between 3 to 7 hours, mainly over-watching with
limited kinetic effects. GCAS – alarm, need to be quick – 30 minutes up to 10 –
15,000 feet with main aim to get into the air as soon as possible.
Down Time (the term used for leisure time) includes Gym, Gym, Coffee,
Eating, Gym, and Movies in that order! There is a boardwalk shopping centre,
cinema, TGI Fridays and Burger King where burgers can cost 25 to 40 dollars and
more luxury with Steak and Lobster Fridays!
A funny picture showing an officer in a toy fighter plane with the real thing
in the background with the caption 'YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A PILOT to fly in the
RAF' There were several questions at the end admirably fended which demonstrated how interesting the presentation had been. I was dying to ask “Why would it
have been a problem getting from Lossiemouth to Kent for a weekend visit to his
fiancée – you could be there in 20 minutes!!”
Peter Davies thanked Lawrence and said what an excellent talk he had given us
and that our country needn't be worried …... with such a well-trained Air Force
judging from what we had just learned. Peter asked for thanks to be shown in the
usual way and the good attendance of 38 gave a rapturous applause.
Alan Widdowson
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Meeting - 19th August
STOP PRESS
A Stroll Down
Memory Lane (2)
with John Scotney
A
fter a busy week of grandparent duties, your reporter is writing this as Editor
John is sitting with his finger on the button waiting to set the mighty Chatterbox
presses into motion.
This same John once again demonstrated his ingenuity by introducing a
completely new meeting format. He projected various photographs printed in
Chatterbox over the past eight years and invited members, in particular those who
featured in the photograph, to say a few words about the event in question. He
then showed a synopsis of the Chatterbox article which accompanied the photographs and summarised it with a few well chosen words of his own.
By coincidence, this stroll down memory lane started with a photograph
of yours truly as President inspecting the rucksack which the Club had donated to
Lawrence Swift, a Derby Grammar School pupil, who had used it on an expedition
to India and whose visit a few weeks ago to speak to us about his subsequent career
in the RAF is reported on the previous page.
We then meandered variously through Dave Ashley’s cycle tour of all the
clubs in the District, Nigel Clough’s visit when he was manager of Burton Albion,
wheelchair basketball at Portland College, our visit to Smiths’ clocks, the unforgettable Pipe Major Jock McLaughlin (alias John Lowe) on the bagpipes, horse racing
at Herbert Strutt Primary School, the visit to the Rolls-Royce Heritage Centre with
an RB211-524 engine dwarfing even Nick Blurton, David Ashley’s attempt to bite
into a quadruple burger and culminating in the stargazing visit to Hopton Hall,
having missed out many more events too numerous to mention.
This proved to be a memorable occasion in more ways than one and
members all joined in with interest and enthusiasm. Martin Drake proposed a vote
of thanks and David Harris, who had contributed with gusto to the discussion on
several of the events featured during the evening, got his reward in the form of a
bottle of wine from the raffle.
Paul Taylor
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Duffield Carnival
July 13th 2013
H
appily for Duffield Carnival Organisers and ourselves the weather was lovely for
the Carnival. We set up the gazebo with a little help from neighbouring stands
and David Henson, David Soul and Carole came to the rescue by providing a table for
the Aqua Box equipment and the TV with which we had hoped to show a video about
Aqua Box. However, after clouds of smoke had practically choked us and our neighbours the generator refused to work so we gave it up as a bad job!
We had borrowed Peter Davies's Golf Game which attracted quite a bit of interest
and we had a steady stream of participants throughout the afternoon with good
humour and banter. We also had some interest in the Aqua Box with some enquiries
and a request for its use for a school project.
Judging by the amount of people in the queues for the beer tent, food from the
hog roast and burgers and teas from the WI tea marquee, the event was a great
success with various attractions including duck and sheep racing and a sheepdog
demonstrating his skills when "herding" a very striking cockerel. Rammie and two
Derby County Footballers opened the carnival providing a certain celebrity element
to the occasion.
Thank you to all club members who gave their time and who made a contribution
in some way to the event. It was an enjoyable day and the time flew by for me.
Hilary
Photograph on page 15
Graham’s Nibbles
August 10th 2013
T
o thank all the members for their support and help through his year as President,
Liz and Graham held a drinks and snacks party in the afternoon at Westbury
Gardens. There was a very good turnout and we spent a most enjoyable afternoon
in the sun eating the fruits of Graham’s labours in the kitchen, sampling his cellar
and generally enjoying Rotary fellowship. I think we were all most surprised to see
that he hadn’t converted the lawn into a practise golf hole with a very convenient
19th to hand!
Thank you Graham and Liz, a most fitting end to your Presidential year.
Photograph on page 15
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DUTY OFFICERS
2013
Organiser
Reporter
Cash
Fraternal
September
16
P Davies
G Ashley
J Lowe
S Harnan
23
P Taylor
V Barnes
S Limb
D Harris
Business Meeting
J Brazier
D Partridge
D Henson
DG Visit
C Breach
J Scotney
J Horwood
A Widdowson
D Collard
P Shepherd
P James
P Shepherd
P Davies
D Soul
S Limb
D Ashley
M Drake
P Taylor
J Lowe
11
G Ashley
J Frankland
A Widdowson
E Murphy
18
V Barnes
R Giffin
G Wright
J Norreys
S Harnan
D Ashley
D Partridge
30
October
7
14
21
Scatter Night
28
November
4
25
BusinessMeeting/SGM
DIARY
September 9
Climate Change by Jonathan Ward
September 16 First Aid Training. 7.15 pm start
September 19 District Council
October 4
District Conference at Scarborough
October 10
Club Council Meeting
October 18
District International Projects Evening
October 26
Charity Race Evening at Herbert Strutt Primary School
The latest information about meetings can be found in the weekly Bulletin Boards
and on the Club web site:
www.belper-rotary.co.uk
September/October CHATTERBOX: Publication - 4th November 2013
Editor - John Scotney 01773 823678 Photographer - Alan Widdowson
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The Club gazebo is put to good use at the
Duffield Carnival (left) and the Belper
Sports Day (below) on 20th July.
Report on page 13.
A reflective moment at Graham and Liz’s ‘Nibbles Party’ Page 13.
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The
Rotary Club
of
Belper and Duffield
Founded 1930
President
President -Elect
Treasurer
Secretary
Hilary Surga
John Horwood
David Henson
Nick Blurton
The Club meets every week on Monday at 7.30pm.
The Lion Hotel, Bridge Street, Belper (01773 824033)
Rotary is a service organisation which exists to help those in need and to provide
fellowship and support to its members, whilst maintaining high ethical standards. If you are
interested in visiting the Club and learning more about Rotary, please contact the Secretary, Nick Blurton:
01773 824607 [email protected]
Website: www.belper-rotary.co.uk
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