The Year in the Life of a President
Howard Burgess
President of the Rotary Club of Kenilworth
July 1999 – June 2000

The Presidential year starts on 1 July.  The last Monday in June acts as the Handover Evening.
24 June Photographs taken in the grounds of Kenilworth Castle with Roy Shearing as outgoing President appearing in local papers on 2nd June.
28 June  Club Handover evening at the Chesford Grange Hotel, attended by the ladies, including by Anne and Jacky as new president’s Lady and outgoing President’s Lady. Both presented with a bouquet of flowers.
30 June District Handover at Drayton Manor, John Hayes is now officially District Governor.  There were about 350 Rotarians at this event.  Once again Roy and Jacky Shearing joined Anne and me at this event.
5 July My first meeting as President.  John Lewis and his wife from Alberta Canada visited the club and we exchanged banners. The speaker Eddie Gray (a friend of David Tall) spoke on Education in the sixties.  Quite amusing.
8 July Thursday Kenilworth Rotary Club hosted the Rotary Pavilion at The Royal Show in the afternoon.  Anne and I attended, together with Colin Wilding, It was an exceedingly hot afternoon.  We finished at about five and then dismantled the fittings.  Peter Roberts had arranged the tent and spent most of the afternoon with us and generally supervised the operation.  At seven we went to the members enclosure as the guest of Peter and drank Pimms until late.
12 July Usual Rotary meeting.  No official speaker.  Rotarian Dudley Taylor stepped into the breach and spoke on his war service, highly amusing.
19 July  District Governor John Hayes, visited and gave the usual pep talk on the coming Rotary Year.  Later Jerry Duckett gave a short talk on his trip to Singapore for the RI Convention.
26 July Barbara Higton talked about the Warwickshire Association of Boys Clubs.  It was interesting to hear that her recent call for help to all Rotary clubs in the county was answered only by Kenilworth.
 28 July Roy Shearing and I attended a KUDC meeting to discuss a proposed walk around the Castle. Rotary has agreed to put up £500 towards the cost and to help with the children’s picnic.
2 August Roy Fenner spoke about Hope and Homes for Children, an emotive talk.  Visitor for the evening was Angela Greaves, President of Southam 2000.
7 August Barbara Wareing organised a trip to London with lunch on a boat on the Thames, and a tour round Buckingham Palace. A most enjoyable day.
9 August Van Ellen, spoke on amateur radio and Raynet, an emergency radio service operated by the amateurs.
Fellowship meeting at Warwick Club.  Speaker was Alan Cox on Extensions.  He was a rather poor speaker and basically said nothing.  Somewhat a waste of time.
15 August Barbecue at Ian Coleman’s home to raise funds for the Mid Warwickshire Talking News for whom Marie Coleman is a committee member
16 August Rotary meeting. Sue Tall, President of Inner Wheel, gave a brief run down of the Inner Wheel programme and spoke of her interest in details of people listed on the Kenilworth War Memorial.  A very interesting talk, particularly since the club had enjoyed a visit to the War Graves in Belgium a couple of years ago.
20 August Club members had set up an Investment Club to play the stock market with a meeting at The Clarendon Arms. At the same time, Anne and Roy Shearing attended a council meeting about the Castle Walk.
23 August Business meeting.
28 August The Rotary Club Art Show at the Town and Country Festival in Stoneleigh. 
6 September Nicky Goodhead from the Kenilworth 6th Form reported on her visit to the Scout Jamboree in Chile for which we had given her a grant.
Millennium Gala meeting at Angela Greaves house.  Took Colin Wilding with me as he would be President at the time.
9 September Attended Community Service committee meeting at Peter Roberts’ home.  Seems to have a lot of good ideas.
 11 September Anne and I attended a Civic Reception in the Barn at Kenilworth Castle at the invitation of Councillor Dave Shilton, The Mayor of Kenilworth and a Hon. Rotarian.  Not the most wonderful of events, the food consisted of crisps and nuts, nothing like previous occasions. 
12 September A Harvest Lunch arranged by Barbara Wareing at home in Fen End.  A beautiful setting and a beautiful day.  The food was good and everyone enjoyed themselves.  Proceeds to Sue Tall’s chosen charity, The Diabetic Association.
13 September Rotary Club weekly meeting for the first round of the District Quiz against Leamington Spa. Kenilworth won: a mixed blessing as it means we must play another round. Five visiting Presidents discussed Rotary projects for the year, in particular a joint activity on 29th February to celebrate Rotary.
15 September Council meeting at Zig’s house was a little short on reports as two chairmen were absent.  However it was a useful meeting where we discussed the Millennium bash in August, agreeing it would be politic to invite all local Mayors and local MPs.
20 September Three visitors, David Rees from Newark, Bob Loft from Florida USA and we exchanged banners.  The third visitor was George Cotter a friend of Jerry Duckett.  George comes from Canada and talked about his life in the Hudson’s Bay area.  His party piece is to say The Lord’s Prayer in Swampy Indian.  Although 84 years old, he still has a good store of tales.
23 September Meeting at Mercia Avenue of the people attending the Brighton Conference to decide upon fancy dress.
27 September Peter Jackson from Southam visited and Alan Winterburn showed slides on little known Warwickshire.
4 October Our speaker for the evening was Gabriella Leonowicz, and her subject was “Tales of my Polish family”.  A hilarious talk.  Visitors were Tony Caldwell, Malcolm Hague and his wife from Alcester, Alan Stevens and his wife, David Bradley and his wife, Mike Wood and his wife, Angela Greaves from Southam 2000, Roy Fenner from Warwick, Peter Jackson from Southam, and David Rees and his wife from Newark.  Altogether we had 47 people at the meeting.
8th October 1999 Anne’s mother died suddenly and this took my time for the next weeks.
25 October Rotary Quiz against Rugby Dunsmore.  which we won by a generous margin.
29–31 October Nine Kenilworth Rotarians and eight wives attended the District Conference in Brighton. staying at The Queens Hotel.  Friday night was a Fancy Dress event, Saturday morning a programme of speakers followed by a Paul Harris lunch for Fellows and Presidents. Saturday evening was a Black Tie event at the Convention Centre with a meal a dance and a magic show.  Sunday began with a short service followed by more speakers, finishing at 12 noon.
1 November Rotary meeting with speaker Dennis Coombs from Coventry Rotary Club. We held a short Council meeting to decide upon the induction of David Rees into our club.  This was agreed.
8th November Visitors included Tony Wareing’s son Mark, Rotarians from Coventry Breakfast Club and David Rees. The speaker told us about the development of the motorcycle business in the Midlands.
14th November Together with Sue Tall I attended the Armistice Day Service at The War Memorial in Abbey Fields.  As usual Rotary laid a wreath.
In the afternoon I visited the Midlands Sports Centre in Tile Hill with Anne to present a prize for the winner of the Boccia Competition in the Rotary Disabled Sports.  Rotarians Colin Sallis, Peter Roberts, David Rees and Jerry Duckett were also there.  At the event I met DG John Hayes and RIBI President John Hockin, quite a turn out, not to mention the many other Rotary Presidents from clubs in District 1060.
15 November was a ladies’ night. David Rees was inducted into our club. The whole affair was informal and lighthearted even though David was a recent District Governor.  Our speaker was an Ambassadorial Scholar from Canada studying at Warwick.
17 November Council meeting at Jerry Duckett’s house.  The meeting was over by nine o’clock to watch England v Scotland at footuball on television.  Scotland won, but England triumphed on aggregate.
22 November was a business meeting which I was unable to attend as I was in Bradford.
26 November The Town Christmas lights were switched on.  Rotary once again provided soup and Christmas music.  Although not a fund raising event, we received over £40 by way of donations.
29 November Usual weekly meeting.  Bob Scarth spoke on the life of Joseph Arch who formed the first agricultural workers’ union in the late 19th century.  A bit dry but interesting.
30 November Visited Southam for an evening meeting. They normally meet at lunchtime unless they have an interesting speaker. Their own member Bill Davis talked about his experiences in Ghana while serving in the Royal Navy.  A most fascinating evening illustrated by slides.  It was a ladies evening and I took Anne. I was asked to make the final toast.  We won a raffle prize of a box of chocolates.
1 December District Council meeting at Knowle. Colin Wilding and David Rees accompanied me.  David says that he has not missed a District Council meeting in 13 years.  We also took Santiago along, a Rotary scholar staying with Jerry.
3 December I attended a meeting of The Rotary Club of Bingley as guest of Peter Reid. Lord Simon Russell spoke in the absence of the Government Drug Tsar, Keith Halliwell on the Life Education Charity in which Rotary is very much involved.  A thought-provoking talk.
6 December Our speaker was Melanie Easter, a visually impaired local girl who has gained several Gold medals at the Paralympics, and broke three World Records this year at swimming.  Visitors were Lorna and Paul Beedham from Coventry and Peter Jackson from Southam.
7 December I attended the International Committee meeting at David Sims house.  Although it was only a small meeting there seemed to be a lot happening.
10 December Rotary Carol Service at Lichfield Cathedral.  The Staffordshire Brass Band and The Lichfield Cathedral Choir entertained us.  It was a most enjoyable evening despite the heavy rain.  David Rees drove Anne and me.
13 December Usual club evening and we held an EGM to elect Colin Wilding as President, Peter Roberts as Senior Vice President, Zig Leighton Henry as Treasurer and Philip Southwell as Secretary.  We also adopted the Audited Accounts as being a true record of the Club’s financial activities for the year.  Our speaker was David Robinson who came to talk to us about Foundation.  This week we had a meal in the Restaurant, which was quite good, but then we had to move to a very small room, which was not so good.
15 December Council meeting at 8 Mercia Avenue.  Brian Bridges, David Sims, Colin Wilding, Jerry Duckett, Philip Southwell and me.  General business was dealt with quite quickly.  We then had to discuss the situation regarding the continued venue to hold club meetings.  It was decided that on balance that we should stay at The Chesford, because of the size of the rooms, parking facilities despite the cheaper beer.
16 December Colin Wilding and I attended a business meeting at Southam 2000.  The meal was nothing to write home about.  The club has an evening set aside for a business meeting and the format is that all committees have their meetings over the meal, which precludes any visitors from fellowship.  I did not like this arrangement but had to go along with it.  We had a short meeting to discuss the Rotary Day in February.  This went off reasonably well.  As they do not sit down to eat until 8pm, it is always late when we get home.
19 December The last Sunday before Christmas and this is the traditional day for The President’s Christmas wine and nibbles.  Although there was a potential 52 Rotarians and wives, only 32 could make it.  There was a lot of influenza around and this reduced numbers quite considerably.  Despite this it was a very enjoyable time.
20 December Christmas message from Richard Awre, vicar of St Nicholas Church.  This was also a ladies evening.  A good turn out.
5 January 2000.   HAPPY NEW YEAR Attended a Millennium Gala meeting at The Chesford Grange Hotel to meet the Manager and try and sort out some possible problems before they could manifest themselves.  Overall a good meeting, but as usual it went on a bit.
10 January This week was scheduled as a business meeting, however due to a lack of chairmen it was decided to shelve this until a later date.  We had five visitors from Stratford upon Avon club and a further visitor from Warwick club.  As David Rees is a relative new member it was with relief that he had been lined up to do his job talk.  David varied this a little by telling us of his life from childhood to retirement.  He dealt with life on a fairly light level, making no mention of his Rotary duties, nor did he mention his accident, which changed his life quite considerably.
12 January A meeting regarding The Rotary Day at the end of February was held at Mercia Avenue and two members of Rotaract came along.  Andrew also brought Linda with him; she is in a wheelchair and could give us some valuable information regarding the needs of disabled people.
17 January Rotary Quiz night.  Our challengers were Southam 2000 with Peter Stokes as Quiz Master.  We were substantially beaten.  This was only fair as we beat their team last year.
19 January Meeting at The Clarendon House Pub for a meeting of KenRo Investment Club.  It was decided that we should follow our original idea of investing in rather speculative companies.  To this end we invested in Link Printers who are moving into China.  To date we are about 40 per cent up on our original input of funds, though not all investments are moving in the right direction.
24 January Our speaker tonight was Tony Hamblin, a very good photographer.  His slide show was excellent together with his commentary.  As a special event I had decided last week to make it a ladies event.  I feel that it was a good choice.
25 January I attended a meeting at The Kenilworth Sports and Social Club to discuss the Millennium Picnic to be held on 19 August.  The meeting was with The Lions Club and The Round Table and Rotary.
31 January Our speaker this evening was Henley Culvert who provided a slide show on his mountaineering exploits in both Scotland and Nepal.  Whilst this was very interesting it went on rather too long.
1 February I attended the International Committee meeting which was held at Tom Roberts.  There was no swimming in Tom’s indoor pool, but alcohol flowed quite freely!
2 February I attended a meeting at Chesford Grange at 2pm regarding the Millennium bash.
2 February I attended yet another meeting at Chesford Grange at 8pm to discuss the Gala.
4 February My father Tom Shanks Burgess died.
7 February I missed this meeting and will miss the next one.
14 February As expected I missed this meeting.
16 February Council meeting, which I missed.
21 February Back to Rotary.  Tonight we had a business meeting, which went on a bit though I felt that we had to discuss the Fun Run in some detail.  This was followed by a talk by Handpick Schulman, an Ambassadorial Scholar from Germany.  He is studying Law at Munich University and is presently at Warwick University for a year.  A very pleasant young man who spoke very good English.
22 February Together with Peter Roberts I attended a meeting with Round Table and Lions Clubs to discuss the picnic in Abbey Fields in August.  Things are progressing very well.  We will approach the local authority for some funding, as it was at their instigation that we got involved.
23 February I attended another Millennium Gala meeting with Colin wilding held at The Chesford Grange Hotel.  Everything seems to be coming together, although there one or two loose ends to tie up.  As they say “Everything will be alright on the night”.
24 February Along with Roy Shearing I attended a meeting of The Millennium Trail held at Southbank Road Council Office. The Millennium Trail is to be a signposted walk around Kenilworth Castle. The meeting was something of a waste of time, especially the input by English Heritage representative.  English Heritage seems to rule the roost and are anything but helpful.  Bearing in mind the lack of co-operation, I would pull out of the arrangements now.  However I feel that we should continue despite English Heritage.  With regard to the Millennium Picnic, which is being organised, The Town Council seem to be very grateful.  We have suggested to the council that they may like to help with funding as we anticipate that the cost could be in the region of £2000.  Obviously they will have to have a council meeting to discuss this point and they will come back to us.
27 February John Kelley organised a trip to The Symphony Hall in Birmingham to listen to a concert by Brass 2000 and The Black Dyke Mills Band.  A marvellous evening, though a little long.
28 February A normal club evening.  Our speaker for the evening was Roger Hastings who is a Trading Standards inspector.  David Tall brought his Arab Israeli friend Dr Shaker Rasslan who told us a little about his town and presented me with a lapel pin, a tape of traditional music and a banner.  I presented him with one of our banners to take back to his local mayor.
29 February This was Rotary Day.  We had organised a Wheelchair Shop in the Royal Priors in Leamington Spa.  This was done in conjunction with Warwick Avon, Southam 2000 and Warwick clubs.  It seems to have been well received.  I helped with the Rotary stand, as it did not seem to be a good idea for me to push a wheelchair.
5 March Our speaker for this evening was Roger Craggs talking on the subject of The Stratford upon Avon to Moreton in March Tramway.  A very interesting talks which went on for too long.  We had seven visitors from Leamington Spa Rotary Club, Peter Jackson from Southam, David Rees brought along a visitor from Tokyo University—a young lady who had been an Ambassadorial Scholar some ten years ago and Derek Topham brought along Bernard Beadle, a former member of Kenilworth Rotary Club.  More visitors than members.
8 March District Council meeting at Arden School in Knowle.  Quite an exciting meeting, we had to look at the accounts and the proposed budget for the next year.  In itself this was OK.  However, Ken Holme-Barnett decided to ask rather a lot of questions, which did not make him very popular, as he seemed to be being awkward for the sake of making a name for himself.  Thank goodness for John Hayes and his sense of humour.
13 March Ordinary club meeting, no visitors.  David Ruskin is back from Tenerife.  Our speaker was John Home and his subject was Bees are my business.  This turned out to be a very interesting talk and prompted several questions.
14 March I attended the International Committee meeting at Tom Roberts house.  As usual Tom was rather generous with the champagne as it was Dudley Taylor’s birthday.
15 March The last meeting of the Gala Ball committee held at Chesford Grange hotel.  I will be glad when it is all over.  We have agreed that we will get together again at the Chesford on 2 April which an ordinary rotary meeting for Kenilworth Rotary Club.  At this meeting we will decide upon the venue for presenting a cheque to Myton Hospice.
18 March The Big Night.  The Rotary Millennium Gala at The Chesford Grange Hotel.  District Governor John Hayes and his wife were guests of honour.  There were 475 Rotarians and guests.  Despite all our nightmares everything went well.  The food was quite good, the party games were a great success and the band was very good.  All in all, a splendid event.  Anne and I spent the night at the hotel in complimentary rooms, which included breakfast.
20 March Graham Tall came to talk to our Rotary meeting.  His subject was Family History.  As he is the brother of David Tall he based his talk around his and David’s family.  Many people found the talk quite interesting as many people are looking into their own ancestry.
22 March Council meeting at Jerry Duckett’s.  Only 7 members turned up, however this always makes for a shorter meeting with more decisions being made.  The great turn around was that every member present agreed that we must concede inviting ladies into Kenilworth Rotary Club.  Although we are a dual gender club in theory, we must now become a dual gender club in actuality.
27 March This evening was a Business meeting.  Philip Southwell read the minutes of the Council meeting.  Members that we had been discussing the question of dual gender picked it up.  There followed a discussion, which ended with the request that we have a meeting to decide upon either single or dual gender.  This could be quite interesting.
25 March Saturday was a Tin Rattle day in favour of Myton Hospice.  We raised £455.  This was a good show, although we had the usual small number of members helping.
29 March Together with Colin Wilding and David Rees I visited Coventry Phoenix Club to listen to John Hockin, President of R.I.B.I.  A good speaker with very forthright views.  A splendid evening.
3 April This was a ladies night at Rotary.  Our speaker was Laura Fasson, an Ambassadorial Scholar and a flautist of international repute.  A Canadian of Maltese parents, moved back to Malta where she pursued her career in music.  She gave an interesting talk followed by a short recital.  The only black spot was the meal, which was atrocious, and representation will be made to the hotel.
As a side issue, five representatives of the Millennium Gala also had a meeting.  Colin Wilding represented me as I was attending the Club meeting.  It was good to learn that a sum of £2,740 will be presented to Myton Hospice at a lunch meeting of the participating Rotary Presidents and their Vice Presidents.  This should take place on 17 April, venue to be determined.
Later on 4 April I spoke to the Chesford management regarding the less than satisfactory nature of the meal.  I have been assured that they will give us a credit for 30 meals and will move us into the restaurant in future.
7 April I joined Colin Wilding at Sainsbury’s for the Grocery Grab.  We sold tickets from 8am to 11.30am and raised about £100.  We have already sold sufficient tickets to cover our costs so that everything now is profit.
10 April This was the first evening of the new regime at Chesford Grange.  We ate in the Restaurant and then moved into The Avon Suite.  This seemed to be an excellent arrangement.  As this was also a ladies evening it was even more agreeable.  Our speaker was David Phillips; he restores old furniture and gave a very interesting talk, which was much appreciated by all.  
16 April
Joined Jerry Duckett at Sainsbury’s selling raffle tickets for The Rotary Grocery Grab.  Anne and I were there from 2pm until just after 4pm.
18 April Our usual club meeting.  Our speaker was Bruce Hook who talked about racing aeroplanes including The King’s Cup and The Schneider Trophy.  I had to announce the death of Frank Palmer and Mary McColl, the news was a blow to members.
After the meeting we had a short meeting to discuss the way forward regarding new members.  The discussion will continue at Council meeting.
20 April Council meeting held at Zig’s.  I introduced the idea that unless there was a problem no sub committee minutes would be read.  This made quite an impact on the length of the general business of the meeting.  Having got over the shock of the change we went on to discuss the future of the Club.  It was decided that a representation would be made to The Chesford to consider the option of having only one knife and fork meeting a month with the intervening weeks being an informal affair, possibly with sandwiches and coffee.  Also I will make an approach to Warwick Club to see what their attitude to dual gender is, as if we are to seriously consider changing we must make arrangements for those members of our club to move to another club.  We must also make a special effort to introduce Rotaract to Rotary, and we are aware that there about fifteen members of Rotaract, including several ladies wo may wish to join us.
24 April Easter Monday This is the day for the running of The Grocery Grab.  I attended at Sainsbury’s to meet the winners and present the prizes.  Rotarians Colin Wilding, Arnold Bolton and Zig layton-Henry were also there.  Anne took photographs of the event and Tony Caldwell who was staying with us was also there.  The winner was Peter Muckersee of Kenilworth and the other two winners were also from Kenilworth.  Peter managed to collect £250.34p worth of groceries in the two minutes allocated.  Everyone seemed to be happy with the outcome.  There had been a perceived problem when Peter asked if he could have a television in lieu of groceries, I felt that this would be against the spirit of the event and decided that we must go along with the rules printed on the tickets and insist on groceries alone.  This did not cause any problem.
8 May This was the first meeting since before Easter because of all the bank holidays.  Our speaker was Joe Homan.  Almost a legend in his own time, we had all heard of Joe, but many of us could hardly believe that he existed.  He gave a very good talk about his Boys Homes in the south of India, the Tamil area of India.  Although this was a ladies evening only about five ladies came along.  The club presented Joe with a cheque for £250 and there will be a further £250 raised by John Dixon and Roy Shearing who did a sponsored walk.
9 May Along with Peter Roberts I attended a meeting of the Millennium Picnic at The Working Mens Club.  Things seem to be going along quite well.
15 May Usual Club meeting, meal once again in the restaurant, these meals are so much better than we were having in the past.  This evening the pupils from Kenilworth 6 Form College under the guise of Young Enterprise entertained us.  There were two groups and both gave a good account of themselves.  Two teachers accompanied the students, Anna Watson and John Edwards.  Once again a most enjoyable evening.
16 May The Inner Wheel Club of Kenilworth held a “Gentlemens Evening”.  We had a meal at The de Montfort Hotel.  The speaker was Philip Bannell who gave a Majic Lantern Show.  Although I could not see the slides he did a very good commentary and by all accounts the slides were superb.  Most of the slides were more than 100 years old.  They were either painted onto glass or were tinted black and white glass slides.  A most facinating evening.
22 May Tonight was our Annual General Meeting.  As you would expect, this was treated with the contempt shown in every preceding year.  As usual we managed to dispose with the business quite quickly.  At the end of the evening I spoke to thank all Rotarians for their support during the last year. I felt quite emotional about it; I just hope that it did not show too much.
24 May Council meeting held at Jerry Duckett’s house.  This was a dual meeting for this year’s council and next year’s council.  Final reports and mission statements were made.  It has been decided that we will vary the format of the meetings by having a buffet meal on business meetings.  Also we will instruct the secretary to call an EGM to finally decide upon the thorny subject of Dual Gender.  It could be said that this will be my final act of vandalism before I finish my year as President.
5 June Jerry Duckett bought wine as he is celebrating his 65th Birthday tomorrow.  Our speaker was Malcolm Rankin, president of the  Farmers Overseas Action Group.  Their help is concentrated in Uganda and is aimed at providing education for children and helping to promote farming to the population at large.  Malcolm is a Paul Harris fellow although he is not a Rotarian.  Yet another good speaker on a very emotive subject.
6 June Accompanied by Peter Roberts I visited Kenilworth School in relationship to the Life Education caravan.  We met the Educationalist, Lindsey Thorne and the school representative, Di Francis.  Kenilworth Weekly News took photographs and then Peter and I stayed for the presentation.  It was amazing how much the children knew about drugs and all the street names, far more than Peter and I.  A most interesting experience.
12 June Club Assembly, when all the new committee chairs announce their programmes for the New Year.  It is usual for District to send a representative to comment upon our programme.  On this occasion no representative arrived and we await the excuse.  This of course meant that the meeting went much quicker much to the enjoyment of all members.  I had a visitor, Kevin Holt, a former Round Table member and from reports should be acceptable as a potential new member.
19 June My penultimate meeting as President.  After the meal I arranged for all guests to spend a short time in the bar whilst we had a Club meeting.  The meeting was in the form of an EGM to vote on either remaining a single gender club or becoming a dual gender club and move into the 21 Century.  As promised I made a short speech and told members that I would not agree to lengthy discussions as we had been talking about it for five years.  Further discussion would serve no purpose other than to delay the meeting.  The vote was 5 for remaining single gender and 14 to become a dual gender club.  A decisive vote and this should have finished the matter.  As expected I was threatened with five resignations as soon as we introduce a lady.  This is very sad and I told the member concerned as much.  We must move onwards and cannot be held to ransom by a few members who like to think of the Club as their personal property.  Our main guest was Tom Cryer Assistant District Govenor.  He should have attended last week, as he was to evaluate our Club Assembly.  He was forgiven for his oversight.  Our speaker was Frank Lund from Worksworth Club and his topic was Aqua Boxes.  A most interesting talks which makes you aware of the need for Rotary and its place in the International Help scene.
Watch this space for developments with regard to women in Rotary.  (Later, Alan Wardell and Ian Coleman were the only two members to resign following the introduction of a lady in November.  It did however upset David Sims at the time of the induction of the lady.  I am pleased to say that we managed to retain his membership.)
25 June The Two Castles Run.  This was the last major event in my year, and it went off pretty well.  Roy picked me up at 8.15am and we arrived at Warwick Castle to find many people registering as late entrants.  The mayor of Warwick Councillor Maureen Hooper started the runners off.  At the Kenilworth end Councillor Graham Windybank Mayor of Kenilworth did the presentation of medals.  The first runner home won in a time of 33mins 25secs.  In total we had 496 starters, not bad, bearing in mind that Coventry also had a run but it was only 6 kilometers rather than ours, which was 10 kilometers.
26 June This was the last meeting at which I held sway.  My last meeting as President of The Rotary Club of Kenilworth.  Officially called Handover.  Colin Wilding the new President and I had our photographs taken in front of The Chesford Grange Hotel, so I expect to see something in the local press next week.  I took the opportunity of handing over two cheques for my chosen charities at this final meeting.  I presented a cheque for £1,000 to both British Blind Sport and Myton Hospice.  After once again thanking my fellow Rotarians for their support over the last twelve months and thanking Anne for her support I handed the chain of office to Colin, who then proceeded to present me with my Past President’s Jewel and a bouquet of flowers to Anne.  As is usual he also gave his wife Pam a bouquet.  Just to finish off the year I won the bottle of whiskey in the final raffle.
30 June The final event of my year as President was The District Handover Meeting held at Drayton Manor Park.  This event enables all the Rotary Clubs to send representatives to the District Governors Handover.  This year John Hayes handed over to Lloyd Jackson.  As usual there were the expected awards and accolades, which after a while become boring.  There was a nice meal, which went some way to making the evening more bearable.  Colin and I went as President and Past President and our wives accompanied us.  Although this was the definitive last event we still have a photo call on Monday, as the local newspaper still needs a photograph.
3 July This was the first day of The Royal Show held at Stoneleigh.  Anne and I went to help with the hosting along with David Tall, Colin Wilding, Jerry and June Duckett.  We arrived at 1pm just before a thunderstorm.  This meant that we had a lot of visitors who were sheltering from the rain.  It also meant that we could not go and see the Show.  We eventually left at 6pm and went straight to The Chesford Grange for our Rotary meeting.  As promised the photographer turned up at 7.15pm for the photo call.
 Sadly this was indeed the last official duty for me as President of The Rotary Club of Kenilworth. It was quite strange not to be running the show.  I almost felt that I was no longer needed.  I suppose that the biggest plus is that I can now sit with whoever I choose, rather than at the top table and the same few members who seem to think that as they have been in the club for many years that they are entitled to the dubious honour.
A time of sadness but a time to reflect upon a busy and in the most part a most enjoyable time.  As cam be seen from the diary above which I have kept over my Presidential Year I have attended many and varied occasions connected with Rotary.  The duties of The President are varied and are what you want to put into it.  Bearing in mind my problems with mobility, having to rely upon others to transport me around, I feel that I did not do too badly.  Of course Anne did a good job of getting me to social events and I hope that she enjoyed the time as well as feeling that she was doing her duty.  My fellow Rotarians also did good duty on this account.  I do not think that I was let down at any time when I needed assistance.  But I should not be surprised as this is part of the culture of Rotary.
It may have been my white cane, but I was surprised how many Rotarians from other clubs recognised me and made me feel so welcome wherever I went.  Of course I became particularly friendly with the members of the other clubs, which joined in with the Millenneum Gala Ball.  Andrew Guest of Warwick Avon, Phil Harris of Warwick, Peter Bartlam of Royal Leamington Spa, Doug of Southam and Angella Grieves of Southam 2000, not forgetting Roy Fenner who did an enormous amount of work in support of Angela and of course Colin Wilding who joined in to help me and to provide transport.  This event was the most time consuming thing within my year, but at the end of the day was probably the most satisfying.  The satisfaction came on several levels.  Firstly there was the fellowship, which was generated; the friendships that were made and which I hope will be lasting. and the fellowship, which was generated on the night of the event.  And of course the generosity of every one involved in the preparation and visitors alike, which resulted in a donation of £2750 being made to Myton Hospice.  It was coincidental that I had already decided upon Myton Hospice for my Presidential Charity and they received a further £1,000 a few weeks later.
 This was the first time that an event of this nature had been organised by these clubs.  We received much praise from John Hayes our District Governor who was a Guest of Honour and was most impressed at the co-operation.
This co-operation also moved into the organising of The Wheel Chair Shopping Day which was held at the end of February a few days before the Gala Ball, and which was also most enjoyable and uplifting when you heard the comments from those who had been helped.
Every one hopes that we can all join together again to arrange other events in the future in order to maximise manpower and which can best help in the community.  Indeed I am already talking about another Gala Presidents Ball for 2001.
Amongst the happy times were two very sad events.  The death of Anne’s mother Joyce Linden and my father Tom Burgess.  Anne’s mother died quite without warning in early October: terrible shock to us all.  Then in early February my father died after a relatively short illness.  He had been in and out of hospital in Bradford for about four months before succumbing to cancer, not an unexpected death, though he was not expected to survive Christmas, but it is always a shock when it finally happens.  Thus my year was tinged with sadness.  It is probably hard to say it, but life has to go on, and overall I feel that I enjoyed my year and I hope that my fellow Rotarians enjoyed themselves along with me, or despite me!
There is little more to say, everything is covered in brief in the diary.  What for the future.  As immediate Past President I assume the title of Almoner for the club for a period of one year.  We currently have one ailing member, Dennis Dowdswell, and I have already made arrangements to visit him in the near future.  I an also on the Club Service committee, which I can see will take up a fair amount of time.  I seem also to have got rather more involved with the KenRo Investment Club.  Rightly or wrongly I undertook to write a Spread Sheet programme for the Club.  I have a horrible feeling that I will be expected to keep the records up to date.
Finally Anne is to be the next President of The Inner Wheel Club, which is bound to keep us apart quite a bit of the time.  I hope that I will be able to give her as much support as I have received over the last year.  If only the support is mentally, though I suspect that I will be able to give more practical help and advice as time goes on.

25 July Yes I know that this is outside my Presidential Year, but I thought it was important to record this as it was in part connected.
On Tuesday 25 July 2000 Anne and I attended a Buckingham Palace Garden Party!
We stayed in London with my cousin Gillian who lives in Sydenham Hill with her husband Tim.  Gillian drove us to the Palace on a beautiful day.  I elected to wear a lounge suit but Anne had a new dress and wore a Hat, something she had not done for many a year.  Although there were reputedly over 8000 guests at the event, we met John Hockin and wife Sally.  John had been RIBI President during my year as President.  We also saw the vicar who conducted Anne with her confirmation in Rugby.  He is now the vicar at Windsor.  It was a pity that he was busy and we did not get the chance to speak to him.
We had sandwiches, cake, ice cream and a cup of tea.  We saw The Queen in the distance but the crowds did not allow us to get very close.  Prince Philip, Prince Andrew and The Duke of Gloucester accompanied her.
The grounds of Buckingham Palace are quite extensive covering in all about 42 acres, including a very pleasant lake with wild fowl.  The gardens are well kept but not in a formal manner, more like parkland.  Everyone was allowed to wander around the grounds whilst the military bands played.
It was a most pleasant day and one to be remembered.
As a postscript, shortly before going to London we were looking through some of my father’s papers and found his invitation to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party.  It was quite spooky as it turned out to be 10 years to the day since he went to a similar event.  Tuesday 24 July 1990, 10 years to the day rather than the date.  
Although this entry has nothing to do with my Presidential year I thought that this was a convenient place to store this little item.
The year is now 2003.  The President is Bernard Beadle.  The President’s Dinner was held at The Quality Hotel on the outskirts of Kenilworth. The date 10 May.
Halfway through the evening The President announced that he was going to present three Paul Harris Fellowships.  As usual everyone relaxes to see who is to be honoured.
“Would Anne Burgess bring Howard forward to receive his award?” I was totally shocked.  I had no idea that this had been arranged.  I was totally lost for words.  Everyone around said that my face and expression was a picture of shock and amazement!
What an honour, and for doing something which you enjoy, and would do whether or not there was to be an award at the end of the day.
A Paul Harris Fellowship in this country is awarded for service and to a Rotarian is a great honour.  It is almost impossible to explain this outside of Rotary as it has no meaning elsewhere and there is no equivalent outside of Rotary.  There are people who have been in Rotary much longer than me who still have not been honoured and I feel sorry that there should be this apparent gap.
The other two recipients, Roy Shearing and Peter Roberts were equally surprised at their awards.
The award consists of a medallion depicting our founder Paul Harris surrounded by a Laurel Wreath in gold and supported on a Blue and gold ribbon, A citation in a case signed by the secretary of RI and the RI President and of course a lapel badge, once again depicting Paul Harris.
Probably the highest honour, which a Rotarian can be given.