A visit to The Rotary Club of Bletchley

On Monday, Club members Peter Borner and Barry Woods paid a visit to The Rotary Club of Bletchley. We were asked to speak for 30 minutes about eClubs and how they work. Never ones to shy away from a chance to extoll the virtues of Rotary and eRotary in particular, we jumped at the opportunity.

Bletchley Rotary Club is in our neighbouring district 1260. The club was first formed in 1957 and has achieved some great things over the years, including running a steam rally for several years at Campbell Park in Milton Keynes in aid of local charities. The club has, unfortunately dwindled to 25 members and, while we were there, we heard that one of their members had just resigned because he was advancing in years and felt unable to continue to attend the meetings regularly.

Despite their challenges they were an upbeat and very friendly club, making us both very welcome. They listened intently to the story of how our club was formed and the amazing list of achievements in our first two years. When told that the average age in our club is some 37 years younger than theirs they all looked on with envy!

We were thanked by almost every member individually as the meeting ended with everyone agreeing that Rotary needs to evolve and attract younger, more energetic members and that our approach to Rotary is turning the evolutionary wheel.

We extended an invite for them to scatter to our club from the comfort of their own armchairs. Let’s hope we see them online soon.