“Service above Self”
Rotary International is an international organisation with 1.2 million members belonging to 30,000 clubs worldwide. It is a non-political, non-religious organisation and one of the world’s largest charities.
You would find it hard to categorise the members of Reigate Hill Rotary Club. Ranging in age from 33 upwards, some drive the club forward with a remarkable energy, coming up with and implementing brilliant ideas; whilst others work quietly in the background. Some were happy to drive a van load of English books to Poland, others were involved in setting up five medical centres in Romania, others prefer helping students with practice interviews at a local college, or perhaps persuading young people to go on one of our youth leadership courses. What does unite us is the desire to use our professional and business skills and experience to benefit others.
President Ian Walker
Membership is open to both men and women. We are non-political, non-religious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds. Have a look at our membership page, you may know some of our members because we all live or work locally. At present, we have a teacher, a doctor, a solicitor, a child counsellor a retired architect, IT consultants, two retailers, a fire safety consultant, a civil engineer, a local vicar and a variety of other professional and business people from the public, private and voluntary sectors
We are a “young at heart” club. Many of our members are now over 50, but we are particularly looking to welcome younger men and women and who have the relevant skills, experience and energy to join our younger members and to help the club grow and to be the club’s future.
We usually have a meal at our weekly meetings and it is certainly an opportunity to socialise before we deal with Rotary business. What is more important to us is the fellowship within the Club which is something we would like to share. There is however plenty more going for members to enjoy Rotary; for instance for the golfers there are competitions each year when club members play as a team. The annual ten- pin bowling competition in Crawley, when our teams compete against other Rotary clubs, is very popular, but there's always bridge, darts, snooker and other activities if they appeal.
Reigate Hill Rotary is part of this world-wide organisation. In practical terms, it means that we can participate in international projects like “Polio Plus”, a huge programme designed to eradicate polio across the world. We could for example join with a specific Rotary Club to work on a joint international project with them and have done so with our twin club in Mortsel, Antwerp, Belgium and in Constanta, Romania. In addition, these contacts offer the chance for social visits, both as a club or for individual members and their families.
As Rotarians we have an open invitation to visit any Rotary Club anywhere in the world and enjoy their hospitality, and many of us do so when we are abroad or travelling in the UK.
The Club meets every Wednesday evening, usually at Reigate Manor Hotel although we sometimes meet at pubs and places of interest around the local area. The format changes from week to week. We have a formal business meeting once a month when we learn about and debate Club projects. We have speakers on a regular basis, who may be from a charity, or someone talking about an unusual occupation or other topic that interests us. Once a month we have a "dress down" for meetings of our committees which is where the majority of the work is done.
Well yes, as a rule of thumb we like members to attend at least 50% of our meetings or events, either with us or as a visitor to another Rotary event, and that means some Rotary activity roughly twice a month as a minimum. Most of us lead hectic business and social lives outside of Rotary, and we are pretty relaxed about this "rule". We know from experience that members who enjoy our meetings and activities do not find it a problem most of the time. However if members need to have 4 or more weeks away from the club for whatever reason we they can apply for Leave of Absence to cover the period.
You can of course come along as a guest to see what we get up to. If you are worried about the 50% commitment you could join us as a “friend”. Which would enable you to come along to our meetings to decide if you would like to become a full member.
No, in fact nothing at all! When we make a donation to a charity, or for some project that interests us, it is from funds we have raised from our activities outside the club. The cost of belonging to Rotary includes an affiliation fee of £25 to Rotary International and a subscription of £8 per month to cover the running of the club.
The larger part of expenditure is the meal cost. Our club is unusual in that members can pay by standing order, with most paying £40 to £50 per month Depending on how many meetings are attended, this generally covers the monthly subscription and meal costs and includes some of the more expensive meetings such as Christmas dinner and other events when we are joined by our partners.
We regard family and work as our first priorities. We invite partners to club meetings several times a year as well as organising occasional weekends away, and of course we like to involve our families in our activities where we can.
Many of our partners meet socially informally every month and their contribution to club activities is most welcome.
If you would like make some kind of contribution to local or international community needs; if you would like to increase your circle of friends or business acquaintances; if you would simply like to be more involved with the community, then Rotary is probably for you.
We will go out of our way to make sure you know what Rotary is all about, and, more especially, what the members of Reigate Hill Rotary Club are like. Probably the best way to do this would be to pay us a couple of visits.
If you call Ian Walker on 01737 210697 or e mail him on dunelm@ntlworld.com he will be delighted to answer any questions you may have, and will take pleasure in inviting you to one of our meetings as a guest. If you enjoy the experience and are interested in becoming a friend or a member there is an application form and an interview to see if we like each other.