The last Rotary year has now finished an I have the honour to be International again for this Rotary year.

The International committee has two main roles, as I see it - To raise revenue to help the many worldwide and very worthwhile projects, and (to quote Rotary’s fourth Objective) -”The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.”

We intend to extend our relationships with our partner clubs Cham and Hazebrouck and also make a visit to Chieti, Italy and to visit the Budda Kaestra school in Thailand.

The DEB (Aquabox) collection will be increased and other charities like Wheelchair and Mercy Ships will be supported.

For fund raising events we hope to continue with the Golf Day, Blues Night and perhaps to have a Rotary Flower day. However the main event will probably be hiring the Marlow Theatre for an Charity Evening.

We have just kicked off the year with a successful “Tour de France “weekend. Initially it was meant to be a “Thank You” to our partner club Hazebrouck in France, as we went to Paris last year to watch France play England at Rugby. However the weekend “got bigger” as not only 12 came from Hazebrouck but 9 from our other partner club Cham, Germany attended with several members from our daughter club Chestfield with their partner cub Apeldorn in the Netherlands. The weekend started with a Safari Supper, a Blues Night held at the Marine Hotel on Saturday followed by Brunch at Chestfield Golf club before the “convoy” left to watch the actual race on Stone Street  

Cham  Visit (28th Sept 1st Oct)  Once again thanks to our German hosts and organisation we (11 Rotarians & Wives) set out for Stansted in a taxi people carrier and the Rock Star’s” ancient car!  After an uneventful journey with plenty of time to catch the plane (unusual for me) we arrived in Linz and were met by Lutz and Charlie to drive us back to Cham in miserable weather. Fortunately that was the last we saw of it and the rest of the weekend weather was superb. After being taken to our hosts we went out for a typical Bavarian meal in one of the local restaurants. Saturday started with a tour around a fellow Rotations glass village and lunch. The village originated as a selling organisation  for the local  farmers of yesteryear, supplementing their income by make glass ornaments. After this interesting visit , the coach took us deep into the Bavarian forest to visit a beautiful natural lake with floating islands - much of  the earth was peat type and disintegrated leaving the islands to float. A brief walk around the lake and back on the “roadtrain”, coach and hosts before yet another superb meal in a restaurant situated at the top of their highest local mountain.  Sunday saw us in the coach again for the ride to Munich for the Oktoberfest. What a wonderful time eating drinking, wearing silly hats (at least some of us), Sleeping (you know who) and singing, and a few exhilarating rides on the funfair. We were all (at least the Rotarians) mesmerised by all the beautiful German women in the low-cut national dress - we didn’t notice our partners looking at the lederhosen!  Arriving back rather tired and thoughtful of the wonderful weekend drawing to a close, we went back to our hosts before leaving the following day.  Thanks to all who participated. A wonderful weekend - part of what Rotary is all about!                 See Pictures  

Wallets Court (16th Oct)  Well done Rob Symth for organising a great evening for a mini visit from our partner club Hazebrouck. The event (now well established for many years) was very well attended by both Hazebrouck and Whitstable Rotarians. We didn’t mention the rugby too often (!!) -  but a little retribution for our disastrous performance last year when with Hazebrouck we saw France play England in Paris!

Italian Visit Chieti A trio of Rotarians Mike Bantin, Javaid Malik and myself visited our house in Italy initially to pick some olives but this year the olives, due to a bad winter last year was extremely poor. However we spent a great two days and visited Chieti Rotary Club.  It is hoped we can arrange a visit for some of the Chieti Rotarians to visit Whitstable next year  See Pictures