Dave King
EDITOR, ROTARY DIGITAL
AND FINALLY
FALLING IN LOVE WITH ROTARY IN SWINDON
To outsiders, mention the name ‘Swindon’ and often you’ll get a derisory look. What did the poet John Betjeman once say about Slough?
Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough It isn't fit for humans now, There isn't grass to graze a cow. Swarm over, Death!
To some, the same could be said about Swindon, just 51 miles along the M4 corridor from Slough. When I moved there to become editor of the town’s newspaper, the Swindon Advertiser, I was given similar foreboding from ne’er do wells who reckoned I would last six months. I actually lasted four years and wished I’d stayed longer.
But it was in Swindon where I fell in love with Rotary at Swindon Rotary Club. I joined Rotary and the Swindon Rotary Club in 2010 with Peter Wells, a local headmaster, and polio survivor, the club President. The club might be described as “old school” Rotary and though the lunchtime food was dire, I loved the community work, the commitment of my fellow Rotarians and the genuine camaraderie.
These were – and are - community Rotarians doing Rotary for the love of a town which also has four other Rotary clubs. Swindonians are doers, they are loyal and become friends for life.
Coincidentally, the secretary of Swindon Rotary Club at the time was Tim Mason, who is currently the Specialist Adviser Team Lead for Direct Membership, which lies at the heart of the North Star membership initiative.
A few years later, after I’d swapped sunny Swindon for the balmier climes of Eastbourne, I joined Tim when he set up one of the first e-clubs in Great Britain & Ireland, the Rotary eClub West of England. I’ll be honest, online Rotary wasn’t for me, so I moved on. I missed the regular face-to-face fellowship.
Fast forward to this July, when I popped into Swindon Rotary Club where the welcome was as warm as the weather. The club has moved to a newer lunchtime venue, and the food is smart.
“It’s easy to lose sight in this fast-moving, technological age that traditional clubs represent the bread and butter of rotary.”
Though fewer in number, around 30 members, the club is still very active. It was part of a formidable partnership of 12 Rotary clubs who raised a third of a million pounds towards equipping a radiotherapy unit at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon. Part of that was thanks to a £208,000 Global Grant, the largest ever made by Rotary International to a UK project.
At the July meeting, the club was discussing plans for their annual fund-raising ball next year which has raised close to a £1 million for good causes over the years. It is also the club’s centenary in 2026, and Peter Wells was showing me the list of the 470 members who have belonged to the club since its formation. There are big plans for two years’ time.
So where is this little ramble going? Well, July’s issue of Rotary Magazine covered the exciting membership drive North Star and what it means to Rotary in Great Britain & Ireland with the four pillars of corporate, enterprise, direct and traditional membership.
It’s easy to lose sight in this fast-moving technological age and the re-inventing of the Rotary wheel that traditional clubs such as Swindon Rotary Club represent the bread and butter of Rotary. The Swindon meeting was structured and business-like, but you left with the feeling that this was 75 minutes well spent.
There was an impressive Almoner’s report from Past President, Debbie Vincent, who updated Rotarians on the welfare of absent members because she had taken the trouble to call them in moments of illness, with house moves and new jobs. How many clubs do that? It’s the little things that matter.
We had a brilliant speaker, Sarah Annable-Gardner from the charity Action Through Enterprise which has been transforming lives in Ghana thanks to the considerable support of Swindon Rotary Club. It was a breath-taking, heart-breaking and passionate presentation which left you inspired and proud to be a Rotarian.
Dave King (left) with Sarah Annable-Gardner (right) from the charity Action Through Enterprise.
By the way, you can read all about Action Through Enterprise and the work of Swindon Rotary Club in the Autumn edition of the print magazine, which is published in October.
In the necessary move towards change, it’s easy to lose sight of the basics by getting rid of the traditions, structures and common courtesies which provide the glue to bind the club.
Every Rotary club is different and each has to work to its own strengths. We can’t all be like Swindon, but we should not be dismissive of traditional Rotary which is extremely effective, relevant and impactful in its own community.
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