What's new and recent events ... 
[For earlier news, click News Archive]

Steve Brehm of ROPE [Relief for Oppressed people Everywhere] gave an update on their organisation's aims and objectives with examples of the way in which they help communities around the world. All of the public's contribution goes to help people at the end point as administration costs are covered by a different charity, 'Friends of Rope'.

We have sent them messages of congratulations noting that we only played a very small part in their overall project of 'Bhavishya Yaan - A mission for a brighter future'. Click here to see background to our project with them. [June 2010]

President's Night on 28 May 2010: Members of Great Missenden Rotary and their guests enjoyed an evening's entertainment by The Keep Clear Jazz Band, a comedian (in addition to our own Brian Barnett) and a fun Table quiz ... all centred around the theme of 'A hint of the 20's'. There was an international flavour ... with visitors from Argentina, S Africa and Australia. Photo on the right: President Terry Cann and his wife Barbara, courtesy of Rtn. Eduardo Molino of Argentina. Proceeds to MS Centre in Wendover & other Rotary supported Charities. [28 May 2010]

Peter Organ, an Honorary Rotarian from a club in Thailand, outlined his club's efforts to provide safe drinking water for Thai Children. He is from the Rotary Club of Jomtien-Pattaya. Many of the club members are ex-pats. He showed slides of the 'before' and 'after' conditions in schools. They are looking for financial support as average cost per installation is £1,000. Only £2.50 will cover one pupil's ten years of schooling. Contact Chris Gibbins, overseas fund coordinator. giibbo@loxinfo.co.th [24 May 2010]

Rotary District Conference in Bath 21-23 May 2010: Several members and their wives attended the District Conference. They had a great time, and the organiser Rtn Alan Jones deserves all the credit for laying on excellent sunshine as well. Click here for some more photos. [23 May 2010]

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It is with deep regret that we record the demise of Rotarian Peter Booth on 21 May 2010. He was a founder member of the Great Missenden Rotary Club since 1984 and President of the Club during its second year. We will sadly miss him and all his accent on balancing Rotary's ideals of service with fun and fellowship. Our heartfelt condolences go to all his family members, particularly Patsy. Click here for some more photos from our archives.

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On a windy day at the 'Spirit of Prestwood Fete' on 3 May 2010, Rotary Club of Great Missenden promoted two main themes - 'Stroke Awareness' and Shelterbox. 

Free Blood pressure checks were made on 26 volunteers, and nearly ten of them were referred to their GPs. Rotarian Dr Alan Morris did the checks, assisted by Pat Rainford. It was felt that the idea was extremely worthwhile.

A shelterbox was on display (see picture below) with a fun quiz and free prizes to promote awareness. Altogether, seven prizes were donated by Rotarians John Skrimshire, John Faircloth and Guru Guruswamy. Click here for a copy of the quiz with answers.[3 May 2010] 

Rotarian Peter Westby gave an interesting talk on his visit to China covering a wide range of aspects - the Yangtse Dam, the Great Wall, some of the major cities, and glimpses of ordinary people going about their daily activities. [26 Apr 2010] 

Members of Great Missenden Rotary are saddened to hear the demise of Honorary Rotarian Howard Sledmere on 28 Mar 2010. Our condolences go to Beth and his family.

We will miss his wit and charm ...in the collage above (clockwise from top left): Howard is being interviewed by a Canadian TV crew at Henley Regatta with Peter Booth in his striped jacket; Howard ... one always learnt a great deal from him about the odd plant you stumble by; Howard with friends in the Stewards enclosure at the Regatta; Howard with Guru at Heathrow collecting for the BBC Children in Need Appeal...he was never short of an opening line to chat to total strangers; Howard with Beth and Guru, again at Heathrow on a different year. [10 Apr 2010]

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Chris Webbly got every member of Rotary Club of Great Missenden involved in a highly interactive exercise on 'Creative Thinking'.  He shared his experience from the corporate world. One amusing challenge he posed was to make a hole on an A4 sheet of paper so that  a person can go through it! There should be situations in which we could use some of the techniques he suggested... such as What If...or the PMI...Plus, Minus and Interesting aspects. Chris is a consultant, and more info is available on his website. [15 March 2010]

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Eugene O'Mahoney spoke on Security matters of concern to everyone of us...terrorism, fraud etc. He showed a DVD of a case study in which the general public, staff in an enterprise and others had a chance to report suspicious activities. Pieced together, they helped in identifying a very big threat. He emphasised the importance of reporting anything suspicious in a timely manner. 
[8 Mar 2010] 

At Great Missenden Rotary Club evening on 22 Feb, almost everyone including visitors turned out wearing something 'purple' to mark the 'Rotary Day - Thanks to Rotary - End Polio Now' Campaign. Some of the ladies had purple tights, purple shoes and purple handbags. It was a rather lean evening for the Sergeant-at-arms and the huge collection bucket for fines was not surprisingly light.

A copy of the group photo was later passed on to Rotarian Peter Booth who has been ill for a while. [22 Feb 2010]

Maggie Taylor gave an interesting account of the work done by the Donkey Sanctuary. She has been personally involved with the donkeys...did you know that they live longer than horses, bond for life (like swans but unlike horses). It was founded by Dr Elisabeth Svendson. More info on their website. [22 Feb 2010]

Rotarian Alan Maizels, a member of Great Missenden Rotary Club, based on his personal research, traced the history and development of various publications of 'Book of Hours'. He and his wife Sandra Maizels have a personal copy produced by Thielman Kerver dated 16 Sep 1499. The book needed to be handled delicately with gloved hands. [15 Feb 2010]