14th – Business Meeting and talk
A full house with 19 members and 6 guests.
Steve Keates briefly related a “Rotary Story”. Whilst travelling on a Scandinavian cruise with Shirley they found themselves outnumbered by Americans and in conversation with a rancher, heard the tale of how US banks would not exchange UK currency that was now out of circulation. Having been told that the only way to exchange it was at a UK post Office Rtn Bill McGibbon asked Steve if he was a fellow Rotarian, to which Steve confessed not, but to knowing many who were. Bill asked Steve to return to England with this bundle of notes, exchange and donate it to Rotary Foundation via the local Club. Steve duly took the notes to the bank and paid them in, having confirmed the amount to Bill and his wishes, Steve visited our club tonight to present a cheque for £400. The club were taken aback and showed their appreciation to Steve for delivering the gift and the generous benefactor, Bill for his goodwill. We will be sending our appreciation and greetings accordingly.
In addition, Steve & Shirley had kindly hosted Paul Kitzke (17), an American exchange student on behalf of Rotary in the late 90’s. Steve updated us that Paul is now married with four children and works as a prosecuting attorney for Stevens County, Washington State. Steve and Shirley have remained good friends and visited the states for his Passing of the Bar and his wedding.
After Dinner our Speaker, Dr. Richard Skaife gave us a “flying” tour through The Luftwaffe Signals Intelligence and how they countered the RAF and Allied forces bombing campaigns in WWII. The evolution of signalling, communications and Radar became crucially important on both sides. His delivery was well prepared and executed on time! This was a second talk by Richard and we very much look forward to the next.
28th – Business Meeting
We met for our last pre-Christmas business meeting. In addition to a lot of routine matters we were pleased to hear of an enthusiastic start, on the part of the pupils of the Abbey School, to our RotaKids initiative. We also heard of good progress with our Young Chef and Youth Speaks competitions which take place early in 2023.
