I think it must be a function of getting older, but it seems to me that the Christmas celebrations start earlier and earlier each year! This year my first Christmas party was on November 20^th! Well I suppose I exaggerate a bit – it was not so much a Christmas party as a gathering of all and sundry from the mining industry – a business with which I have been involved since I graduated (a few years before the Arc was launched!). There were about 300 there so it was a good chance to catch up with mates, renew old acquaintances, talk about the "good old days" and in some cases hide from some I’d thought I’d forgotten! But all in all it was a good evening and for my part I enjoyed the fellowship and the company.

I suppose it’s for much the same reasons that I enjoy being a Rotarian. A number of my ‘fellows’ I have known for many years but there are also those that I have got to know fairly recently, through Rotary, and now consider friends. We’d probably meet up from time to time anyway but our club is the glue that keeps up together and provides the platform for our many and varied activities. The weekly meetings are not compulsory but most of us turn up regularly simply for the fellowship. But more than that, the Club is the conduit via which I, for my part, can put something back into the society that has given me so much.

Through our club we manage, not only, to raise a lot of money but also help out with our time and expertise so that the disadvantaged and the disabled can enjoy some of the benefits we all take for granted. Much of what we do is focussed locally, within a few miles of where we meet, but our reach is world wide – and it’s here that the power of being a small part of an international organisation gets the help where it’s needed most. A good example of this was our ability, as a local club, to mobilise local support and provide sufficient funds to provide 27 shelter boxes – providing shelter and warmth to two dozen or more families - whose lives were torn apart by the Tsunami which struck on Boxing Day 2004. That’s what real Christmas Spirit can do!

Have a good browse around our site. You’ll see what we’re up to and if you feel you can help spread some Christmas spirit - some ‘goodwill to all people’, come and join us. By the way, our Club’s Christmas party this year is on December 19^th – then we’re all spending a few days ‘shaking buckets’ for our good causes.

I hope you’ll all have a merry Christmas and I wish you all a happy and prosperous 2007.

(photo: President Jeff with his wife Ingrid at the District Conference, Eastbourne, October 2006)