President's message

I am delighted to be your President for the forthcoming, year – it is a tough act to follow.

Firstly, I’d like to thank Suzan in so many ways.

·       For being our President in the centenary year of Rotary in Sutton.

·       For continuing to create this newsletter even whilst being President.

·       And for finishing the year with the club enjoying itself.

Suzan said in her initial Ponderings that a keyword is “together” and that new Rotary year is about us... all of us and how we will work together to continue to do good in our community, locally and internationally. Suzan has made the club more together and we have benefited from us having a regular venue. The change to having two styles of meeting has been successful, as well as reducing the cost of Rotary, which is something that many clubs have struggled with.

Rotary is a magical organisation having been to the International Convention in Singapore  a few weeks ago, I am constantly impressed by the breadth and successes that Rotary has achieved across the world. This is obviously headlined by our fight to rid the world of the polio virus, and we are within the last mile of achieving this. Unlike Dorando in the first London Olympic marathon in the 1908 Olympics, we must make sure that we continue in the right direction and get to the finish line.

The only way our club can continue to deliver the support for the community that so many of us want, is to do things as a team; by combining the council and business meetings, this should help to keep everyone involved.  The Rotary vision has the underlying words Together People Make Change.

Membership will continue to be a key driver as we seek to sustain our club’s contribution to society so that we can share the Magic of Rotary. This is not just about the membership team, it is all our responsibility to enable new people to experience this magic like we have.

Let’s have a great year between us, have great fun doing things together and looking forward to next year’s President taking over a really strong and healthy club.

Mike Thorn

President 2024/2025