Erimus Rotary Business Meeting 11 April 2023
1) Matters arising from the Business Meeting of 14th March 2023:
1) Treasurer’s Report – Fred advised that after submitting his report an error had been noticed in Club Account and the Net Balance should have been £845-87 not £1,460.20.
2) International and Foundation – Jacqui advised that out of the monies raised from the Race Night and the Quiz there was a surplus of £1000.00 in the International Fund and her proposal to donate £500.00 to Meserani and an interim donation of £500.00 to Foundation was carried.
3) Education/Youth Services – In Barbara’s report for Kids Out she advised that the cost of this year’s trip to Beamish will be £645 and her request for a contribution from the Club of £300.00 with the balance being covered from the committee’s funds was carried.
4) Community Service – In David’s report for Yatton House Polytunnel his request to spend £65.00 for additional wood for the raised beds was carried.
2) President’s Report – Geoff Taylor
As we move beyond Easter and into April the Tess Heritage Walk looms larger in our sights. The PR & Comms report refers to the need to encourage walkers to join us and there are no apologies for seconding that here. We can establish a solid foundation this year for an ongoing fundraiser tied to our local towns, Rotary clubs and charities- your help is needed over the next four weeks.
We are now three quarters of the way through the Rotary year and some will already be looking ahead , as we plan for our future we should recognise that linking to the next generation is an essential part of the process. The potential to host a once a month ‘breakfast meeting’ in central Middlesbrough is something that should be considered in part because of our recent proactive links with Middlesbrough College. There are probably a significant number of people in town who have similar aspirations in terms of service as ourselves but work life balance continues to alter as do working hours. In principle such a group would work in tandem with ourselves sharing challenges as well as aspirations. The concept has been trialled elsewhere and hopefully we can get some feedback from some of our members who have knowledge of other club’s efforts. It would be good to have a discussion on this and to have member’s views.
We visited Walter again on Easter Monday, there is little change but he was able to confirm that he is not in any pain which is a comfort. hope to set Even’s visits up once more shortly as we espy improving weather…or at least longer daylight hours
3) Correspondence – Ed Levie
1) Letter North East Immediate Care asking if we would consider supporting the life saving work of this new Charity based in the North East of England given to David Whittaker for consideration by the Community Service Committee.
2) Letter from Handicapped Children’s Action Group asking if we would consider supporting their work in providing specialist equipment for children with disabilities given to David Whittaker for consideration by the Community Service Committee.
3) Information received re Stokesley RC’s Wine Tasting Evening on Saturday 15th April at Stokesley Town Hall. Ticket £15.00
4) Secretary’s Report – Ed Levie:
Inventory of Club’s Equipment:
Would all members who are storing any of the Club’s equipment please e-mail me with details in order to compile a full inventory of what we have and where it is being stored.
5) Treasurer’s Report – Fred Hutchinson:
Finance Report 31 March 2023
CLUB ACCOUNT
The only item of spending is on meals and payments/donations for speakers. I expect we will have used up the meetings account balance by the end of April so we need to make a decision on further support.
| £ | £ | ||
| Balance 28 February 2023 | 3806.07 | ||
| Receipts | |||
| TOTAL | 0.00 | ||
| Payments | |||
| Meeting expenses | 102.50 | ||
| TOTAL | 102.50 | ||
| Balance 28 February 2023 | 3703.57 | ||
| Commitments: | |||
| International fund balances | 2040.29 | ||
| Meetings account (inc £250 contribution) | 67.41 | ||
| 2107.70 | |||
| Available balance | 1595.87 | ||
| Contingency | 750.00 | ||
| NET BALANCE | 845.87 |
TRUST ACCOUNT
We have paid the amount we collected from district and other clubs to Yatton House (£1,500). The international quiz was successful, and we have distributed most of the funds raised. We still await the proceeds from the bar, once the stock has been cleared. We purchased a plaque to record those who donated to the tree panting activity, distributed further Poland donations and paid our contribution for two RYLA students. There are other small expenses and donations.
The key point to note Is that, after noting commitments, the general charity fund balance is now only £200. We do have substantial funds form our Covid donations but most of this should go to food bank type activities. Our other funds are being held for international and education activities. It means that we should not take on more financial commitments without considering how the funds will be provided.
| Trust Account | Balance 28 Feb 2023 | Receipts | Donations | Expenses | Adjust-ments | Balance 31 Mar 2023 | Commit-ments |
| About | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ |
| Charities Fund | 2061.30 | 1500.00 | 561.30 | 365.00 | |||
| Covid 19 Meal donations | 934.63 | 50.00 | 984.63 | ||||
| International fund | 568.02 | 568.02 | |||||
| International quiz 2022/23 | 140.00 | 1760.03 | 1000.00 | 692.92 | 207.11 | ||
| Race night | 0.00 | 0.00 | |||||
| Charity Golf (2023) | 0.00 | 280.00 | 280.00 | ||||
| Foundation/wine tasting | 0.07 | 0.07 | |||||
| Special Projects | 2240.22 | 2240.22 | 2000.00 | ||||
| Centenary Tree Planting | 2091.91 | 10.00 | 144.00 | 1957.91 | 1957.91 | ||
| Tees Heritage Walk | 0.00 | 10.00 | 10.00 | 0.00 | |||
| Christmas Float | 160.04 | 160.04 | |||||
| Poland/Ukraine Project | 48.71 | 500.00 | 510.00 | 38.71 | |||
| Education and Youth | 910.65 | 260.00 | 580.00 | 590.65 | 345.00 | ||
| Ukraine District Grant | 663.69 | 50.00 | 613.69 | 613.69 | |||
| Contingency | 150.00 | 150.00 | |||||
| TOTAL | 9969.24 | 2870.03 | 3010.00 | 1476.92 | 0.00 | 8352.35 | 5281.60 |
6) Membership – Terry Bolton:
Discussions have taken place with Fran and Mo, you will recall from time to time they visit us a guests. They were both approached about becoming associate members, unfortunately in Mo’s case his work commitments and the time he spends outside the UK makes it very difficult for him to commit to our club. However he has indicated that as time allows he will be there to help us. Fran’s situation is more difficult, the principal of associate membership is to allow new comers to gain a taste of Rotary prior to becoming a full member. In Fran’s case she has already been a Rotarian for some period of time in Middlesbrough, and to offer associate membership would put us outside of the Rotary guide lines of membership.
Discussions on the principal of an occasional breakfast meeting to be held in central Middlesbrough are taking place, the idea behind such a meeting is to attract working prospective members. Once we have a workable format for such a meeting we will present it to the club for discussion.
The Health Check which we undertook some time ago was discussed at our recent Exec meeting and the results will be sent out to all club members in the very near future with a special meeting being set aside to discuss the findings.
Following the excellent work of our assistant governors and especially our own Mike Overy, club Presidents are being urged to continue to form and improve relations with other clubs in our Tees valley cluster area. The idea behind this as membership falls and the age demographic begins to bite us all, interclub support of each other will allow us to continue with the very important and increasing need of Rotary in our communities.
7) International and Foundation – Jacqui Molyneux:
- Wine tasting event. Planned for June 3rd. Tickets will be available soon. Proceeds from this event will be for The Rotary Foundation.
- I have had 7 couples say they are interested in going on the International weekend to Groningen. I await further instructions from the Dutch but I would suggest people book their flights to Schiphol – we will be taking the train from there to Groningen.
8) Youth Services/Education – Barbara Bolton:
- Car Boot Sale. Unfortunately the event planned for Monday 10th April was cancelled so we have re scheduled for May 8th.
- RotaKids Despite our despondency at the last Business Meeting Charlotte had given a power point presentation to the school which had resulted in 45 children applying to form this new club. It was agreed that initially this was far to many to handle so for the first three months it would be restricted to years 5 & 6. The President coming from year 6 and the vice from year 5. For the same period there would be two secretaries and treasurers. Charlotte has three other teachers who have volunteered to support this club. They are:Tegan Zielinsk – who will be the lead, Amy Turnbull and Hanna Hogg.
The first meeting will take place on Thursday 20th April and Erimus will provide weekly support for the first few weeks till they are established and then it is anticipated that we will only go in on a monthly basis or when needed.
We have purchased Rotakids badges and regalia from A W Mathews at a cost of £60.90 and we have agreed to give the new club £50 as a “start-up” fund, they will then within reason be responsible for their own fund raising. We have registered this new club with RGB&I and are looking forward to receiving the Charter document.
- Kids Out In recent days the subsidy from Kids Out for the Beamish trip has risen from £6 per child to £10. We are also was pleased to inform that one on the grant applications we had submitted for funding for this trip had been successful and The Tees Family Foundation are giving us £995 towards the day out. We have agreed that these additional funds should be used as to buy an ice-cream for each child at £2 each, the balance would then be distributed on a prorate basis to the schools involved to help with transport costs.
- Middlesbrough Erimus Young Artist Competition This has proved to be very successful and we have received entries from 6 schools in the area. Diane Swan has agreed to judge these for us, when she returns from her travels. £10 amazon vouchers will be given to the winners with certificates being awarded to all participant’s.
- Junior Young Musician The Piolet of this competition took place at Ayresome Schools on Friday 31st March, Geoff Taylor, Jacqui Molineux and Mike Overy attended and all agree that it was a great success. So we will expand this across a much wider range of schools next year.
9) Community Service – David Whittaker:
Community Committee Meeting 4th April 2023
Present: Dave Whittaker, Bryan Sloper, Ray Wallin, David Jackson, David Branson, Geoff Taylor.
Apologies; Beverly Clifton, Kevin Lewis
Minutes
1.Dave Whittaker gave a brief summary of points discussed at the Strategy meeting. Minutes of the Strategy meeting would be circulated by Ed in preparation for further discussion at the business meeting
- Update on existing projects;
Ukrainian day trip to Danby
Beverley and Ray have confirmed the coach booking and the arrangements at Danby and have circulated the details to the Stockton and Middlesbrough LA coordinators. Kevin has investigated possible sources of Ice Creams at Saltburn. Potential funding from Kid’s day out is possible.
Yatton House Community Garden
The new lease is now in place and a contractor is in place to install the new fence in the coming weeks. New hedging likely to be planted in the autumn. Potential work party required to help prepare the planting line for the new fence. MB College construction team are preparing a site survey in preparation for pointing the boundary wall and helping to install the path to the tap. Tyre planters for the sensory garden have been produced
YH Polytunnel raised bed
Mike Overy has made the raised bed from the timber donated by Bryan Sloper. The raised bed has been installed. A further work party will be required in the coming weeks to position and help install the paving once the work to the main TH building and site has been completed.
Wrap up
Nothing further in the SA building, possible alternative storage locations were discussed. Park End school and a refugee charity in Stockton to make use of the remaining items. Morpeth RC are likely to run a collection next year. MBr College have agreed to publicise and promote a collection at the college next year
TKA Community Volunteers
During the term they have painted and constructed the planters for the sensory area of the YHCG, the planters are now at YH
Corpus Christie Eco Shop
Funding and donations of cereal were very gratefully received. Trica Connor ( CC ECO shop coordinator) has agreed to come to the club along with some of the parents to report back on how valuable the shop has been. Suggestion that this takes place alongside a talk by Lisa Harris who is the area’s ECO Shop coordinator
CN Eco Shop
David Branson gave an update with a projected opening in May 2023. Storage cupboards have been donated and by Intergral solutions and have been installed. BS is arranging for a plaque and letter of thanks, DB is to sort an article for the ‘Love Middlesbrough’ magazine
10) Programme and Fellowship – Joe Guerin:
Some interesting guest speakers in March and a visit of 30 members, spouces and friends to Stokesley Rotary.
March
4 International quiz St Cuthberts
7 Guest Speaker Sue Campbell “Maximising press relations and using social media in Rotary” Host Jacqui , Golf club
14 Business meeting Golf club
21 Guest speaker Kate Whitton “Pollution of the Oceans” Host Stuart Davies Golf Club
26 Regional finals of Young Chef Middlesbrough College Sunday 26th March from 1pm
28 7.00 pm not 6.00 pm Joint club meeting at Stokesley including Cleveland Rotary and quiz
31 Middlesbrough Erimus Rotary Junior Musician Competition Ayresome School.
April
3 Executive strategy meeting Geoffs House
4 Speaker Jacqui talk on visit to the Pantanal, South America Golf club
10 Car boot sale Stokesley Show Ground. 6.00 am start.
11 Business meeting Golf club
18 Guest Speaker Tony Green ,The Falklands Host Golf club
25 AGM and election of 2023/24 Officers golf club
May
2 Guest Speaker Gordon Heatherington will talk on Gertrude Bell host Golf club
9 Business meeting Golf club
14 Teesside Heritage Walk
16 Rotary at Home Hosts Mary and Joe Guerin
23 Assembly ( Incoming President and team present the plans for 2022/23) Golf club
30 3.00 pm Tour of historic Kirkby and second option a longer walk with 530 pm meal at the Bay Horse , Great Broughton.
11) Publicity and Communications – Geoff Taylor:
FRIENDS OF ROTARY
As ever Barbara has kept the Friends up to speed on our doings – hopefully we shall gain a few walkers from that link next month.
WEBSITE & SOCIAL MEDIA
On these fronts, there has been a lot of additional activity this month as the THW has taken a front page billing across all of our media presence. Thanks to Stuart, Joe and Fred for uploading as well as to both Barbara and Jacqui for their outreach on social media. Welcome to Nick who has very generously offered to back up Stuart on website loading.
The regular call goes out following this – Please submit stories to Stuart for loading to the website. Each committee is active, our presence cannot and should not only depend on a couple of regulars, Erimus needs you and your words, please.
PR & PRESS
Our PR wheels continue to grind and big thanks are due to Dave Budd for ensuring we got a chunk of time on BBC Tees to tell the story of our planned walk, its a sad fact that listener numbers do not give us a breakthrough from this and buttons continue to be pushed and elbows nudged across regional TV outlets, we are told that someone will get back to us .
‘ In Your Area’ and the D&S Times continue to give us coverage and in the case of the latter photos but we do await the big story- regrettably bad news will always bring reporters at the run whilst good news scarcely raises a nib.
This is the right place to ask once more for your best efforts to get Erimus and THW the oxygen of publicity over the coming month. We need numbers and enthusiasm to match our ambitions …Perhaps a volunteer to jump in off the Barrage or would that be taking ‘Service above Self’ a bit far
12) Tees Heritage Walk – No report received
13) Any Other Business: None
E.B.Levie, Secretary