Bowled Over

Hucknall Rotarians broke with their usual tradition of not meeting on the Tuesday following a Bank Holiday  to compete in their Annual Bowls Competition which had been postponed the previous week due to a waterlogged bowling rink. 

 

 

 

 

The re-arranged date meant that there would be a new winner of the Mark Brinklow Memorial Rose Bowl.  The Bowl had been won by PP David Fox for the last two years, but David was unable to defend his title.  However, later in the bar of Rolls Royce Social Club whilst they were screening the Nottingham Forest versus Wigan Athletic football match, we were certain we spotted David sitting in the crowd next to Stuart Pearce, the former Forest and England player and manager of Team GB.  Maybe David has a twin!

Last year, Hucknall Rotary Club won the District 1220 Lawn Bowls Tournament with Jack Gray, Ashley Maddock, Allan Johnson being members of our winning team.  Can they defend their title on 9th September?

 

 

I would like to say that I had a good tournament.  As president, one of my roles is to encourage members to perform and achieve.  That’s my excuse anyway as I lost my first round match 7-3 to Jeff Brinklow.  Jeff went on to reach the final where he was narrowly beaten by Jack Gray who was duly crowned our new champion. 

The only way I ever get my hands on the winning trophy is having the honour of presenting the Mark Brinklow Memorial Rose Bowl to Jack Gray.  As I handed the bowl over, the National Anthem rang out from an iphone bringing another successful night to a close.

Plan (B)owls Night

Every august Hucknall Rotary Club hold a members-only Lawn Bowls competition and the winner becomes the custodian of the Mark Brinklow Memorial Rose Bowl.

 

 

Yesterday’s Club meeting was away from our usual venue of the Horse & Groom Public House, Linby and we met at the Rolls Royce Leisure Bowls Club in Hucknall instead.

Arranging any outdoor summer event in England is always a gamble because of the inclement wet weather conditions we experience.  As the time approached for our meeting, what had been a clear blue sky started showing the formation of rain clouds.  

 

The early arrivals were able to practise with Jack Gray bowling the wood close to the jack (shame it was only a practise!), however within a few minutes the weather changed and we had to retreat quickly into the Clubhouse.  Some thought that my camera flash was a lightening strike!

 

 

 

 

The rain was unrelenting, so Plan B was put into operation.  The Bowls competition was re-scheduled for the following week and those present decided to reconvene to a local hostelry instead.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Tuesday 14^th August was the first-ever Rotary Moment Tweet Day, where Rotarians who were familiar with Twitter were encouraged to tweet about their favourite Rotary memory or event, to talk about their club’s activities, or share their community service project using hashtag   #RotaryMoment.

Did I tweet?  Don’t worry if you are unfamiliar with such social media jargon, you don’t have to be wearing budgie smugglers to tweet.  

To tweet is to post a short, snappy (hopefully) item on Twitter.  Yes, I did tweet.  Not wanting to miss out, as soon as it struck midnight on 13^th/14^th August, I tweeted.

My favourite #RotaryMoment was Hucknall Rotarians completing a charity firewalk in 2009.  Not all the club took part (though they supported in other ways.  And a few who said they would walk over burning, hot coals bare footed got cold feet.

Our president that year, Rtn. Ivan Manning wore his chain of office as he hot-stepped.   I  was the Junior Vice President of the Club then and also wore my badge.  After the firewalk, I was consistently asked about the state of my feet.  My answer? My feet were the best part of me totally uninjured.  I felt absolutely mentally drained and I had lost my voice due to the high-adrenaline shouting we were encouraged to do, but my feet were fine.   In fact the only person to receive  a foot injury was President Ivan.  Not from the firewalk I hasten to add, but after completing the firewalk, Ivan decided to not to put his footwear back on and walked barefooted over the tarmac car park to the debriefing area.  The car park was far more dangerous than the burning, hot coals!

It was quite appropriate that Tuesday 14^th August was the Rotary Tweet Day as I was also involved in two activities to promote the use of Social Media platforms with our District (District 1220) of Rotary.

I had been asked to address the District Training Team about Social Media and its usage.  DG Dave Ashley  kindly said  (on his blog) : 

“The session went very well and by lunch time we all had a much clearer understanding of what exactly is meant by the term, what we in Rotary want to get out of it and how we intend to do so Ian has now gone away with the task of moving this project forward to the next stage by producing some simple documentation that can be used by Clubs to introduce themselves to the concept of Social Media.”

As a consequence of my interest in using Social Media to promote and publicise Rotary, I have been invited to join the District Marketing, PR and Communications Committee and the first meeting I attended was later that evening.  A most fitting way to end the first-ever Rotary Tweet Day.

Please follow us on Twitter  @HucknallRC   and Like us on Facebook if you haven’t already done so.

ROTARY CLASSIFICATIONS & JOB TALKS

Rotary clubs are nonreligious, non-political and open to every race, culture and creed. Rotary does however use a classification system to establish and maintain a vibrant cross-section or representation of the community's business, vocational, and professional interests among club members. The goal is to develop a pool of resources and expertise, to successfully implement service projects. Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary, established the paradigm of choosing cross-representation of each business, profession, and institution within a community without disproportional representation from one or more professions. He wanted to avoid having a club of just lawyers or accountants and instead have a club with a diverse membership. The classification approach to membership was to avoid a Rotary club from becoming an "old boys" club where everyone is more or less the same.

Paul Harris, Founder of Rotary International

A classification describes either the principal business or the professional service of the organization that the Rotarian works for or the Rotarian's own activity within the organization. Some examples of classifications include: high schools, universities, eye surgery, banking, pharmaceutical retailing, petroleum-distribution, and insurance agency. For many years Rotary had an official "classifications" list but in recent years that has loosened up to allow individual clubs to determine what classifications actually represent a vibrant cross-section of their community.  In practical application the classification system is actually very flexible, and many different classifications are possible. It effectively brings together into Rotary fellowship many people who wouldn't otherwise have contact with one another. The membership can then really come to represent the business and professional life of the community. They bring to the table conversations, and to their committee work, unique perspectives that are a major strength of what is Rotary.  The classification system gives Rotarians the dual responsibility of representing their vocation within the club and of exemplifying the ideals of Rotary within the workplace.



New members joining our club are encouraged to give a  Classification or ‘Job’ Talk to their fellow Rotarians.  This is something that was always been encouraged within Rotary.  In fact, looking back through old local newspapers, in 1926 the Rotary Club of Hucknall weekly meeting often included three members giving their job talk!  We can only guess the duration of those meetings!

PP Neil Sharman

As a member of our club, I enjoyed listening to the job talk of one of the long-standing members of the club and thought that it would be a good idea to ask some of our longest serving members to give their ‘job’ talks.  Last night, at our meeting, PP Neil Sharman addressed the club and those present were fascinated by Neil’s talk.  Much of what Neil shared was known, but there was plenty we didn’t know about Neil, and by Neil sharing his vocational experience, we develop deeper fellowship together as a Club.

Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation

As well as the waterfall project, I attended an Afternoon Tea held to raise funds for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.  Organised by Hucknall Inner Wheel member Jill Roberts, everyone was hoping that the weather would stay dry and the predicted rains would arrive later in the evening.  Over £ 700 was raised which is an incredible amount so a big hearty thanks to everyone who supported and helped in some way.

The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation is the only charity in the UK wholly dedicated to the defeat of lung cancer, funding lung cancer research, providing support, helping people to quit smoking and giving a voice to all those affected by lung cancer through their campaigning.

The charity was founded as the Lung Cancer Fund in 1990 by Professor Ray Donnelly, FRCS, a thoracic surgeon working in Liverpool, to raise awareness of the problem of lung cancer, to promote an intensive research programme into the causes, prevention and management of the disease, to provide support for patients and their families during the course of their illness and to help people not to smoke, especially children.

The first lung cancer support nurse was appointed in Liverpool in 1991 and work began soon after in local schools to help children not to smoke.

The first grant to investigate the early genetic changes occurring in the development of lung cancer was given in 1993 to Professor John Field in the University of Liverpool.

In 1993 Ray Donnelly put together his ideas for an international centre for lung cancer research. At this time much loved UK entertainer Roy Castle was diagnosed with lung cancer. Roy agreed to give his name to a special appeal for the Lung Cancer Fund to raise £12m to build, equip and run the centre.

Roy Castle spent much of the last year of his life helping to raise millions of pounds for the appeal. Sadly Roy died in September 1994 and his heroic contribution was recognised by changing the name of the charity to The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.

www.roycastle.org

Building Waterfalls

Hucknall Rotary Club meet in the Horse & Groom, Main Street, Linby.  An unusual feature of  Main Street is that it is flanked on both sides by small streams ( parallel tributaries  of River Leen) known as the 'Linby Docks'. The brick walls built up to protect the streams gave a dock-like appearance which led to the name ‘Linby Docks’ being used.  During the Second World War, the Germans wanting to bring the industrial infrastructure of England to a standstill, launched a bombing campaign against Linby Docks.  The bombs were off-target and landed in nearby fields.

Wanting to involve our club in a ‘Spring-clean project, I contacted Linby Parish Council with a view to work on a project in the village where we meet.  Today, was the outcome of consultation.  Hucknall Rotary Club were able to get involved in building a couple of stone waterfalls in the Docks.  Although hard work, it was extremely good fun and a great adventure to share in. 

More photographs can been seen our on Facebook page

Standing Crane

When DG Dave Ashley visited our Club recently,  he presented me with a Japanese Origami Crane which symbolised Rotary's International theme "Peace through service, " and issued me with the challenge to have it on display at every Rotary Club meeting this year serving as a reminder of this year's theme. 

From the shape, you can see that the crane is unable to stand alone, so I'm grateful to PP Neil Sharman who has made a stand for me to rest the origami crane on each week.

The Japanese Origani Crane on its stand

Par Fo(u)r the Course

It was a case of Par three, rather than Par fo(u)r as Hucknall Rotarians took part in their annual Par 3 Golf Tournament at the delightful Ramsdale ParkGolf Centre, Calverton

The tournament took place on The Lee Course, 2,844 yard layout which is regarded as one of the finest short courses in the country with holes ranging from 100 yards through to 207 yards.

Although President Ian has never played golf and took on the role of ball finder for the ocassional shots that found their way into the rough, Ian made sure that he was first back in the Club house!

More photos of the evening can be found here

Domestic Abuse Awareness

The talk given by Supt. Helen Chamberlain last night was so informative and is in line with one of my presidential goals ( to raise awareness about issues surrounding Domestic Abuse) that I have reproduced and included Helen's notes in this blog:

Firstly, thank you to Ian and the Committee for inviting me here this evening... I think its huge step forward to be invited into a Rotary club dinner to talk about this particular subject and highlights the way in which talking about this issue is becoming more acceptable. I have been asked to come and talk about domestic abuse with a focus also on abuse of male victims

Before I go onto talk about domestic abuse, I will just give you a bit of a pen picture about me and where I have come from.

I joined the police 24 years ago in South Yorkshire – I joined for the cut and thrust of policing, to catch the bad guys and yes I accepted that there would be tragedy and trauma to deal with and I’ve had my fair share of that:-

 

I was a very young in service officer working my first big football match on the 15^th April 1989 - Hillsborough, I don’t think I have ever got over the sights, sounds and tragedy I witnessed that day that still goes on.

I have dealt with road deaths as a traffic sergeant, picking up a baby’s carry cot on the M18 in the early hours of a summers day, the family were on their way to relatives to show off their new baby and all died.

A couple of examples of the trauma and critical incidents part way I did expect to have to deal with.

What I didn’t expect to have to deal with  and it has become more apparent to me in my current role is the insidious crimes that generally happen behind closed doors, are under reported and cause massive suffering to families and children and that is domestic abuse, in all its forms over many years.

As Head of Public Protection I am responsible for

Rape, DV, Child Abuse, Sexual exploitation, dangerous people, MFH, Vulnerable adults, stalking and harassment, female genital mutilation and honour based violence, that’s all before lunch!

So what is DA - Domestic abuse is

‘Any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults, aged 18 and over, who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender and sexuality’ (Family members are defined as mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister and grandparents, whether directly related, in-laws or step-family.)

Within Nottinghamshire we include those at ages of 16 and 17 within the intimate relationship element, acknowledging the fact that you can leave home, you can marry at 16 and of the growing number of young people experiencing domestic violence at that young age is growing as they have probably witnessed it in their young lives and believe that is the right way to behave in this society.

So how prevalent is it really?

It could be the person sat next to you or in the next office. Or your mother, your sister, your friend, your boss, your neighbour or the pregnant woman sat on the bus, or indeed, your father or your brother. All shapes and sizes. All ages, all ethnic groups, all sexual orientations, disabled and able bodied people are affected by domestic violence.

 No one is overlooked. Unfortunately domestic abuse is INCLUSIVE.

Some national facts and figures:

DV accounts for 18% of violent crime nationally, it costs the tax payer 3.9 billion pounds a year and that’s to the police alone not to other agencies such as health.

There are 392,000 incidents reported every year.

2 Women on average are killed by a male partner per week and 7 men are killed every quarter on average.

There is a phone call every minute to a UK police force about DA, by the time I finish this talk there will be potentially …900 .. More victims

 

1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime

90% of domestic abuse is seen or heard by children

Women will endure up to 35 instances of abuse/ assault before ringing the police for help.

According to the 2010/11 BCS, seven percent of women and five percent of men experienced domestic abuse in the last year; equivalent to an estimated 1.2 million female and 800,000 male victims.

Around six percent of women and four percent of men experienced partner abuse in the last year, equivalent to around 900,000 female and 600,000 male victims.

Non-physical abuse was the most common type of abuse experienced by both female and male partner abuse victims.

Around a quarter, 27 percent, of partner abuse victims suffered a physical injury as a result of the abuse. Among those who had experienced any physical injury, or other effects, around 28 percent received some sort of medical attention.

• Research indicates that survivors of domestic abuse are 15 times more likely to abuse alcohol and 9 times more likely to abuse drugs than women generally.

Whilst we know and accept that the majority of victims are female we acknowledge the growing number of male victims and identify the difficulty that some male victims have in coming forward

Would they be believed?

How can it be true, he is a lot bigger than her?

Why didn’t he defend himself?

It just doesn’t happen does it!

All the same reasons as to why a man perhaps would choose not to report. This reality is recognised, don’t know if any of you watch the soaps, love them or hate them they do try and emulate social realities, currently on Coronation street there is a story line of Tyrone, lovely Tyrone suffering domestic abuse from his pregnant partner, that story line was advised by a genuine male survivor who explained how we was isolated from family and friends, that his ex partner manipulated certain events so he felt as if he couldn’t speak to anyone. Cut him off from speaking to people except her

Domestic violence is unacceptable whoever you are, whatever relationship you are in.

In Nottinghamshire

• There are around 19,000 children in Nottinghamshire at risk from domestic abuse, this means that at least 4 in every class of 30 children
• Domestic abuse accounts for around 40% of our violent crime figures.
• There were 11,430 incidents of domestic violence reported in Nottinghamshire last year

There are services for male victims of domestic violence are provided on the same basis as those for female victims, thereby ensuring that Nottinghamshire County Council and its partners are complying with the Public Sector Equality Duty.

However, the support services for men are provided by different agencies from the support services for women. This reduces the risk of male victims, who may also the perpetrators of domestic abuse, coming into contact with other vulnerable victims. It also allows women’s services to operate in women only buildings thereby increasing safety for female victims and staff.

Local DV Support Services for men: I can give details of those if anyone would like them, please speak to me after the event.

So what’s happening nationally?

The Government have pledged to put in 40 million pounds of funding to 2014 for specialist rape and dv services, some of that money will go on the support available through the independent domestic violence advocates for both men and women that support the victim through the criminal justice programme.

Some support around refuge

Around the care for pets

Some national projects such as ESTEEM (in Cornwall) for male victims where the Home Office have given 225,000 to support male victims of DV and to support a men’s separate advice line to the National DV help line and the Male survivor recovery programme

Locally you may have heard of the ‘The Man Enough’ Campaign

Started 14^th Feb 2012 Valentines Day

Man Enough ….to say no to domestic abuse

Aim: To help change the culture in Nottingham to show that domestic abuse is no longer acceptable and to bring down violent crime statistics.

Objectives

·         For 10,000 men in Nottinghamshire to sign a Pledge on a Nottingham page on the White Ribbon Campaign page

·         To campaign for ‘Clare’s law’ which a supports woman’s right to ask the police if their partner has a record for domestic abuse.  – start pilot in September

·         To campaign for the implementation of section 60 of the Family Law Act to be enacted which enables a victimless civil prosecution  or a prosecution where the victim has become reluctant

·         To organise a family event in Nottingham Market Square in February 2013 to emphasise the engagement of local people in the campaign 

Background

Gedling Borough Council initiated the campaign with Nottingham Post, Nottinghamshire Police, Nottinghamshire County Council, Nottingham City Council, Nottingham Forest Football Club, Women's Aid Integrated Services and Nottinghamshire Domestic Violence Forum.

The campaign is also being supported by the Safer Nottinghamshire Board and its partner agencies.

The campaign will last a year and the Post will feature stories every month on a range of related topics. Care will be taken to ensure that all equality aspects are covered, including violence against men, elders, minority communities, LGBT communities and disabled people.

The White Ribbon Campaign organisers have agreed to have a Nottingham page on their website to enable people to sign a pledge which will say … ‘I pledge never to commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women’.

Male IDVA for Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire Domestic Violence Forum (NDVF) 0115 962 3237

Provides support for HIGH RISK male survivor cases across Nottinghamshire.

All referrals need to be submitted via the appropriate MARAC Co-ordinator . Contact Nottinghamshire Police for details.

Victim Support (for men in Notts)                      0115 844 6071

Victim Support (for men in Nottingham)          0115 844 5092

 (*you can refer to Victim Support without police involvement)

Victim Support do not support high risk domestic violence survivors.

Rushcliffe Borough Council Community Safety Team

Provides advice/support and access to services for all survivors

0115 914 8287   0777 1690 411

National Help lines for Male Survivors:

MALE (heterosexual, gay, bi and transgender)          0808 801 0327

(Part of the Government funded work by Respect)

Broken Rainbow (LGBT specialism)                            0300 999 5428 (LGBT)

Specialist Male Refuges:

 Gay Men’s Shared Housing Project                  0208 920 4444

Gemini Project        (regardless of sexuality)   0870 066 4233