Greek Food & Spondon Bakery

What a superb Club meeting last night. Van and Sally Giakalis of Sponson Bakery  https://www.facebook.com/SpondonBakery came to talk to us about their business and brought along a variety of Mediterranean breads to go with our Greek salad and all the desserts we could eat after our main course of Moussaka. All credit must be given to the kitchen and wait staff at The Royal Oack, Ockbrook https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Royal-Oak-Ockbrook/137122639645555 who prepared and served a great meal.

Van and Sally told us how they met on the tiny Greek island of Paros where Van's family had been running a bakery for over 100 years. In fact, Van was born in the bakery! They also shared with us their lives here in the UK and how they started their bakery business this past November along with their small holding where they keep hens, goats... which the hens eggs and goat meat are used in their products.

The breads were fantastic and featured olive bread, sun-dried tomato and herb bread, whole grain bread and more! I asked Van how bakers got rolls and loaves in such uniform size. Van looked at me incredulously and said "you weigh the dough!" I felt pretty stupid at that point.

The desserts were equally in abundance and superb. I decided to not ask any stupid questions at this point. There were so many tasty desserts that only a picture will do it justice.

Whilst Van and Sally gave their talk we viewed some slides of their business and their products.

 





















YUMMY!

DOUBLE YUMMY

It is without a doubt Van and Sally run a first class operation and one business every person in the Ockbrook/Borrowash area should support. I was very proud to have Van and Sally as my first in a series of local business speakers to come to the Club and talk to us about what they are doing.

Along with all this fun was also the:

PRESIDENTIAL MOMENT

This week was the 5th President of the USA - JAMES MONROE  - who was the last founding father president. He also had the White House painted white when he was president and it has stayed the same ever since. His biggest contribution was the Monroe Doctrine which ended the continued colonisation of the Americas by european countries. 

Monroe was an avid shooter and even got shot himself, so with that in mind and the fact there was yet another resemblance to a member of the Club the 5th President of the USA was awarded to Graham M. I must add that he has yet to shoot himself, but is an avid clay pigeon shooter.

The evening ended with a very nice vote of thanks from Chris and then our SAA Nigel did his best to fill the donation tin with fines for misbehaviour... only he forgot the tin! It was eventually found and fines were paid.

Now it is time for a two week holiday with my wife in Scotland and I have left the Club in very capable hands of Senior Vice Geoff Smith. See you all in two weeks time! 

Facebook, Twitter & Club Directory. A VERY Busy Week!

This has been an exciting week for my year as President and it is only week three! If this is a harbinger of things to come then I am in for an incredible year. At the first Business meeting of the new Rotary year the Club took a giant leap forward and voted unanimously for the use of Facebook and Twitter in informing the public about what we do as a Club. So, it was my job to get the pages up and running.

First, the Twitter account. That was easy to set up and our first tweet was sent on 18th July 2013. Hello world, we are here! https://twitter.com/ChurchWilneRC. After setting it up it was time to follow fellow Rotarians and Rotary Clubs from our district, around the UK and around the world. Then it was time to find local organisations, businesses and local press to follow as well. At this point in time we are following 138 people and organisations and we have 17 people and organisations following us.

Facebook was next. This was not difficult to set up at all. One very pleasing thing was all the questions you need to answer and rules to abide by if you set up an organisational page on Facebook. It shows you how serious Facebook is in protecting organisations and users from malicious attack. Well, all is well with our Facebook page and we passed the 15 likes needed to see our FB analytics within 24 hours. It was great to see so many fellow Rotarians joining in on the conversations and non-Rotarians joining as well. Once again the hunt was on to like local media FB pages and Rotary pages as well. I invite you to like our FB page too: https://www.facebook.com/RotaryClubOfChurchWilne

I am sure both our Facebook and Twitter pages will grow over time and be an amazing tool for our Club to use to promote all the good we do and our firm belief of Service Above Self.

On the lighter side of things we had the:

PRESIDENTIAL MOMENT

It was time to award the 4th President of the USA - JAMES MADISON - to one of our members.

Madison was a rather interesting person as he was educated by Methodist ministers, yet he never professed a faith in any of his writings. But, the clincher of awarding him to Collin was that Madison basically invented the Treasury Department of the USA. Since Collin is our oldest ex-treasurer the awarding of Madison went to him. Actually, there is quite a resemblance as well.

Lastly, Roger and I finally completed to Club Directory and it is picture perfect and finally going to print on Monday morning. Yahoo! Another job out of the way. Thank you so much Roger for all your help on the Club Directory. Without you it would not have happened at all.

Looking forward to Monday's meeting when Van and Sally visit us from Spondon Bakery and bring a selection of breads and puddings for us to enjoy with our Greek themed meal. More on this in my next blog.

That's it for now!

My First Meeting In Charge!

This past Monday (8th July 2013) saw me as President in charge of a full Club meeting. I must admit I was a bit nervous going in, but soon all those feelings subsided as I was too busy greeting two guests and sorting out the arrival of our guest speaker Mitch Valstar from the University of Nottingham. 

Much to my surprise my phone went off in my pocket during my opening greeting remarks. I am usually very good about making sure my phone is on silent for meetings, but unfortunately this time I forgot. However, it turned out to be a good thing as the caller was our guest speaker! Seems he got the pubs confused and was down the road at the Cross Keys!

Eventually Mitch arrived and my guest (Paul) was having some great conversation with out Senior Vice Geoff. I looked around and noticed everyone having a great time. So, it was time for me to spring into action my new idea - 

Presidential Moments.

I decided that the Club needs some education on American Presidents so we started off with the first three - Washington, Adams and Jefferson. I had a picture printed off of each president along with a short biography. Then I matched one Club member up with each president, the Club member that shared any traits in common such as occupation, hobbies... It ended up being great fun. I told the Club they are to keep revising for an end of year exam on all the presidents as we will cover one president each week. So guys, the next one is Madison. Do your homework!

Washington

 Adams

Jefferson

All other aspects of the meeting went very well and Mitch's talk on using technology built upon facial expressions to spot depression, happiness... was very informative. It gave us a real glimpse into imaginative ways technology can be used to improve mental and overall health of patients in and out of hospital.

If you're interested in following Mitch's work you can follow him on Twitter at

@MichelValstar

MEET THE PRESIDENT AMERICAN BBQ

Well, this past Sunday (7th July 2013) we had a party of a lifetime at our house. It was an American Meet The President social for CWRC. All in all there were 105 guests and a four piece American Country Rock Band called The Brooksby Brothers. They were sensational. But let's not forget all the guests. They were equally if not more sensational.

Gail and I immensely enjoyed hosting the party in our back garden. We were very touched by the warm fellowship and great to catch up with old friends as well as making new friends. I can't thank enough Gary and Diane for all their help with the BBQ. They were superb and Gary's professionalism as a butcher and caterer is without question the best there is. The temp reached 28c (82f) and that sort of heat combined with the BBQ heat had Diane wilting a little but she certainly never gave up and got back on the BBQ after a well deserved cool-down in the shade.

Jan and Barry were fantastic in pulling the detail together to make the day such a success and we can't thank them enough along with Ann and John. I wish Ann all the best in her year as President of Inner Wheel. There are also so many others to thank and I don't want to miss anyone out so I won't make a list  but you know who you are. 

I would also like to thank the Club as a whole for all your support. The very first picture means a lot to me of all Club members looking relaxed and happy in the sun! This doesn't happen too often -  - I mean the sun bit of course!!!! CWRC is always a relaxed and happy club that I am honoured to be President of.

Finally, I must thank my wife Gail. She is incredible and the day would have not been as successful without her at the helm and sorting things out. She actually was helping me plan this day 6 months ago. I owe her BIG time!

Hope you enjoy the pictures below. They are just a small selection of what you can see on the Clubs website at: 

http://www.churchwilnerotary.org.uk/recentevents-gregs-bbq.htm


                          

Preparations For Sunday's BBQ Get Under Way BIG Time

Well, here it is Thursday evening and three days to go for the Meet The President BBQ. Gail is sorting things out food-wise and logistics with Jan, Ann, Jane and Jackie and I am sure many others. In the back garden are Barry, John and Michael setting up one of the monster marques for the party. My part in tonight's preparations is to visit fellow Rotarian Gary at his butchers shop in Draycott and help cut the meat, chicken and spare ribs for 110 guests. That's right 110.

Gary instructed me on good butchering techniques and even bought me a beer from his local. Gary treats his labour force well. But the best part was the fellowship and fantastic conversations we had about life and everything else.

Thanks to all for your help tonight. Here are some photos of me prepping the meat and you can see how much meat there is needed for 110 guests.

Handover Meeting

Well, my year got off to a fantastic start. It was great to see so many Rotarian's in attendance this past Monday at the Handover meeting. The week building up to it was somewhat of a contemplative time of the tasks ahead. But, with such a great club like Church Wilne what could possibly go wrong?!?! Not much is the short answer as all the members are fantastic and supportive.

I was very grateful for everyone who did sit at top table. They all had a major role over the past six months in ensuring my year was planned as best as it could be. Now most everything is in place and it is time to have fun!

Thanks again everyone for your support. As the 30th President I am here to serve you and the Club.

See you all on 7th July for the big American BBQ at my house. By the way, wear anything you like. No need for your Sunday finest. 

Here are a couple of shots of the handover in action! 

Thank you David for the pictures.