One of our members (Craig) was working as a teacher in an organisation called “Playing for Success” which brought them to the clubs attention. Playing for Success is a scheme part funded by the Education authority locally, part funded by a special national education fund and part funded by a sports club. Why the sports club? They provide the venue and their superstar players.

The theory goes that children can be motivated to learn things outside of school within a sports environment. The program takes 14 children each evening (56 children per 4 day week) from different schools for one term. They use a session around 2 hours long to do activities with the children that will help develop their confidence and attitude to learning. Being at the sports club means the children get to meet professional sportsmen and women and that is woven into the course as an integral part of the motivation (professional sportsmen and women are always motivated people to have reached that level).

I went to see Craig on a Thursday afternoon to find out what Playing for Success Kent is and what their goals are. They run sessions at the Kent County Cricket ground. I wanted to find out if there’s any way we (as a Rotary Club) can “Do Good Things” in a focused way. Talking with Craig was interesting in itself. Craig is from Zimbabwe but had been forced to leave due to the current political troubles there. The school he was working at had a falling student roll as farms closed and people moved away so he too had to leave with his wife. He hopes to go back one day, having seen how good a teacher he is the selfish part of me would rather he stays teaching in the UK. Still, for the time being he’s teaching the children at Playing for Success and the benefits of the program are instantly visible. Seeing work of past groups and the excitement generated by meeting different cricket stars, the way he handled and motivated this group, it’s easy to understand why the scheme is in such demand. As they are outside of the national curriculum they can focus very much on those hidden skills of confidence and positive mental attitude. These are the things that you can’t measure but intrinsically know are important.

At first glance you’d think Playing for Success has everything it needs. Great venue, all the IT equipment necessary to deliver the course. Great teachers and volunteer mentors (each class has 1 teacher and 3 volunteer mentors). The organisation is itself naturally motivated to deliver this training to as many young people as it can and to increase the use of the facility they’ve been running courses outside of school term time. For these courses they have to charge which means they don’t get to choose the children that will most benefit from the course. One of our Rotarians suggested that if we raise funds to pay for the additional course then the additional spaces can be directed via the local Education Authority towards the children that would normally be targeted. This would definitely fall within the ethos of “Do Good Things” and as I write is still being investigated as an opportunity our club can work on.

After meeting Craig I next had to learn about Pilgrims Hospice, more reading here!

Club Assembly is when the club presents to itself it’s goals and ambitions for the forthcoming year.

Sounds easy. Probably is if you’ve done it before – I on the other hand had only recently joined Rotary and still hadn’t quite organised to my satisfaction the plans for the next month let alone the next year!

Initially, I said to Jarle that I’d need at least 15 minutes to present the parts from Service Projects. That was a gross underestimate on my part – in the end it needed 27 minutes. So what did we do and why?

I’m an objective driven person. I really need to know what the aims are in order to work towards them. Rotary has aims, I copied them on this blog earlier, but they are not exactly easy to digest or summarise. When you read them closely, you realise that every word has it’s reason for being there. Still, I’ve found them awful tough to learn and integrate in my mind. I decided that before I could present my committee’s objectives, I needed to present the object of rotary in a way that everyone would instantly know and understand. Only then could I go onto to how in the first year we can achieve that. I worked out that I could put across the Object of Rotary in just 3 words. Sure, they wouldn’t carry the minute detail of how Rotary can achieve things, but it would be enough that every new Rotarian around the table could use, remember, and apply. Here it is, my Object of Rotary in 3 words:

Do Good Things

Having an aim is one thing, but we need to follow it up with actions. There were already two causes others in the club had begun work on. I needed to find out very quickly what those causes were beyond just their name so that I could stand and present them as a worthy “Good Thing”. The first was Pilgrims Hospice, the second was Playing for Success. I went to visit them both, and if you want to find out what I found then you can read on once more.

Less than 2 weeks later, the day of the fun day had arrived.

The fun day was a large event organised by District. We got (if we wanted it, and we did) a free pitch to have whatever type of stand we wanted to. The event was open to the public and had a few large attractions, including a parachute display, a Spitfire flypast and a fun fair.

Our stand had 2 Nintendo Wii machines with WiiFit Boards. Steve Charman works for KCC in Education and was able to borrow them from a youth club for the day. We charged a pound a go with two iPod prizes donated by Apple specialist ServiceWeb for the highest score in two different games (hula hoops and a ski slalom).

I wrote that Lucy and I set two aims for the event. Firstly that we should involve as many of our club members on the day as possible. Over half the members took part which I consider a fantastic response. Many changed their plans to turn up at some point through the day. Our second goal was to raise money for our chosen charity, we raised 163.30 for Odyssey. All in all a good day.

One other surprise was when my family arrived in the afternoon. My daughter ran across to Steve Charman’s wife, shouted her name and gave her a hug! Why? Steve’s wife Rosie is a guide leader at my daughters guide pack in Faversham. None of us knew of the connection until then.

The fun day was a great success, but looking forward, it was now just a few days until “Club Assembly”, whatever that was. Read on, if you’re still with me!