Recently in Rotary Category

Wow! This was a big surprise. The setting is a town in France where the author himself meets with an old lady. She, it is revealed, was the inspiration of the heroine in his earlier 3 books (and there are 3 earlier books which I'll now start looking out for). Rosie was a special agent during the war and this story is about her first mission, the one mission the author couldn't have written about because his source didn't know about it. Best of all, there is a twist at the end which I'll not tell you lest I spoil it.

I tend to like books where a history is revealed. In this book we hear not only of Rosie's struggles to survive as an undercover agent but also of what happened to her after the war, right up to the present day or in this case, right up to the reason she is talking to an author in a small French town, attending a re-union of the few remaining resistance and special operations staff that still survive after 60 years.

Rootie Rating 4 out of 5, time to go and find the other 3 books in this series.

There are two Rotary clubs near me that meet on a Monday evening. One is "Canterbury Forest of Blean", the other is "Faversham". A couple of weeks ago I decided at short notice to visit Faversham. I hadn't phoned or called anyone before going, I just took the chance they'd have space for one more. I arrived to the busiest club I'd seen for a long time - there must have been 50 people present. Strange I thought, I'm sure the club directory said they had 20 or so members, so where did all the extra people arrive from? It turns out all of the Rotary Club of Ashford were visiting and there was a presentation on the work of the Princes Trust.

Things learnt from this visit:

• The Princes Trust still work with 14-30 year olds as I remember from growing up. They still have some business start up support but also run courses developing skills for young people without formal qualifications. They are particularly keen to recruit volunteer adult mentors, especially experienced business owners and managers.
• The Faversham club have a strong twinning with a club in Germany (or was it Austria? I forget) and every year they all meet up at a Ski resort
• The main project for them is the provision of 3 trailers that visit different schools. I can't remember the aim of those trailers, but I do remember seeing it at our local school and both my children looking forward to the visit. This is another good example of where a club is providing a service in the community more than just raising money for other charities

After the speakers (well, between really, on the Saturday night) was the 'ball'. An excuse to get dressed up in a dinner suit and have a mass produced meal that would have been prepared several hours before it reached me. Still, I don't enjoy dinners for the food, I enjoy it for the company. I didn't know for certain Rhonda and I would get into the ball as we booked so late (by Rotary standards, quite soon for my mind as a new Rotarian). We were lucky though, but our late entry put us on a table with people from other clubs. To me, that was a bonus. It's not that I don't want to be with my club, I love them dearly – but I'm sure they're bored of my conversation by now and if not they've got the Christmas meal where I can bore them further. I still haven't learnt about all the formality of these things. When the announcement was made “Gentlemen may now remove their jackets” it was pure luck I still had mine on – I would have removed it earlier if it wasn't comfortable. The other confusing thing to me was a string of announcments along the lines of “The District Governer John Wilton would like to drink wine with......”. Fine, go and drink wine with them but I really don't need to know – you've just interupted the person I was listening to on our table. Perhaps there is a purpose to that announcment, maybe it reminds us who the important visitors are.

I also took the opportunity to meet some other people at the ball. Lyn Mitchell who's been suffering some of my many questions about Rotary membership, she's an Assistant Governer and in her club Chair of service projects like I am for my club.

Ian Thompson, president of RIBI, also suffered my questions because of something he said during his presentation. I need to find his email address to get the rest of the answer. The question was essentially, “What proportion of the population should be in Rotary?”, I want to know what the informed view is as to how big Rotary should be in the UK. His answer, the first person who's actually given an answer, was “100% of all the eligible population should be in Rotary”. I now have to find out just how many people are eligible.

At the end of the weekend, I'm sure I'll be going to the next one. The best part of all being not each individual presentation, but the opportunity to meet so many different people all united by one cause. Speaking over lunch, speaking over dinner, speaking to another club member while we both served as stewards, it's meeting with so many different people that I enjoyed most. Next year, the conference is off to Brighton so the challenge is set to see what can be achieved before then by our new Rotary club.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This entry is last entry in a series about my visit to the Rotary District Conference. It might not make much sense on it's own, why not start at the first post and read all the way through.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is one of the best presentations I've seen for a long time, so that's two phenomenal presenations over the course of one weekend! I was worried at first, there was no title in my original programe and I really had no idea on what the topic would be. Some tired, aged Rotarian on an obscure detail of Rotary perhaps?

Geoff began by standing behind the lecturn, a slow introduction, tediously slow first presentation slide of his name coming up, the longest possible introduction 'President of this, presedent of that.....' and eventually '… and my fellow Rotarians'. Then the pace changed, he said ' photo! ' and dashed to the side as a photographer was taking a picture. Returning he said 'Sorry, I didn't want the microphone to be in the way of the shot', which had most of us in laughter – the joke being he was clearly larger than the microphone stand.

It got better from there on, video clips of silly things being used to highlight different points of his presentation. Covering all the good things of Rotary in his, if I rememember, 20 years of service. Dressing up as Father Christmas, helping build things in third world countries, meeting a myriad of different people united by the objects of rotary.

The presentation was both motivating and entertaining. He said that Rotary needs to change today as it has always changed with time in the past. We, as Rotarians, need to tell people what we are doing and invite them to our clubs – not for the boring bits of 'business meetings' but to the events and activities we organise. The long term future of Rotary as an organisation is up to us as members today. He did the best presentation gesture I've seen for many years. At the back of the stage, hanging from wires was a large Rotary emblem. During the part he was telling us that we could make a difference he took some paces back, pushed the emblem so it started swining and said “Look – even I can move Rotary”, to great appluase from the audience.

I read later the topic he was speaking on was “Laughter to the end! ”, pretty accurate then.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This entry is part of a series about my visit to the Rotary District Conference. It might not make much sense on it's own, why not start at the first post and read all the way through.
<--- Previous Post or Next Post in this series --->
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Yellowmen of Kadongdong was a short presentation by a club called Senlac from Sussex. Their members have worked on building a health clinic in Kenya. It really is quite inspring to see what a group of people can achieve when they work on it. It's also nice for me to see the variety of club activities and 'service projects'. This club has made a big difference to the international community in the same way other clubs have made a big difference to their local communities. As time goes on, I wonder what our club will achieve, maybe there'll be a group of Canterbury Sunrise members on stage in 10 years time, inspriing members of a new club not yet imagined.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This entry is part of a series about my visit to the Rotary District Conference. It might not make much sense on it's own, why not start at the first post and read all the way through.
<--- Previous Post or Next Post in this series --->
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Orpheus centre with Richard Stilgoe. I have vague memories of Richard Stilgoe on TV. Circle of children around and to the side of him. Guitar maybe, piano or organ. I can't recall any of his music but imagine he was once quite famous.

Today, he runs the Orpheus centre providing an education for a few 18-21 year old disabled students. They skills they teach are about self sufficiency, the things I would take for granted like paying the gas bill his school will teach. They also use music and drama as a tool to build self confidence and we were treated to a performance by 4 students. It really was a treat. Richard would accompany them on his keyboard but they would sing and play instruments adapted to meet their needs. At the end, they had the whole theatre singing along to an upbeat song they'd written, they had us doing the actions too.
Orpheus is a school to be proud of, making a real and visible difference to the lives of people in our community, teaching skills we don't (can't?) measure with any standard of GCSE or A level grading system.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This entry is part of a series about my visit to the Rotary District Conference. It might not make much sense on it's own, why not start at the first post and read all the way through.
<--- Previous Post or Next Post in this series --->
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Graham Clarke. “A true English eccentric!” Said the person sitting next to me in the Auditorium. I couldn't put it better myself, so I'll use those words verbatim. Graham entertained for 20 minutes, changing hats, telling his stories and poetry, playing some sort of mouth organ as a divider between scenes. I first heard of Graham about 5 years ago from his books and watercolour pictures. I gather he is a Rotarian in the maidstone area and his paintings feature on this years club directory, the confernce guide and I believe a calendar that is being sold. I've always liked his pictures for their simple, childlike detail that looks so simple yet I imagine would be so hard to create effectively.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This entry is part of a series about my visit to the Rotary District Conference. It might not make much sense on it's own, why not start at the first post and read all the way through.
<--- Previous Post or Next Post in this series --->
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The subject in the programme of this presentation by Richard McCann was 'Author and Motivator' but for me it didn't really do any motivating. Richard had a diffcult childhood, in part due his mother being murdered when he was young. Growing up in care, joining the army but being discharged for what they considered pshycological problems, falling into crime and going to prison for drugs. The first part of his life could be summed up as disaster.

But here's the good bit, he never give's up. Step forward not so many years (He's late thirties I think) and he's now a published auther, effective public speaker, married family man determined to give his young children a better upbringing than he had.

Perhaps the first line I wrote appears a little unfair. I found the presentation of Geoff McKay more effective for motivating the audience, a group of Rotarians on an issue that affects Rotary as a whole. Richard McCann though is in a different league from that sort of motivation. For me, he's not passing a message of motivation to the masses, he's the role model we would all want to become if things had been so hard for us. I found his message more insipriation than motivation. If I come across a young person in trouble, Richard is the real life example I could now give to them to show they can achieve whatever they want if they don't give up.

Something else came from his presentation. When he left prison he'd made the decision not to go back to drugs and the same situation. Yet he found it difficult applying for jobs because of his criminal record, employers would discount him for jobs. Coming from the other side, looking for employees, I spoke to him afterwards about what the solution is to the problem of finding work after leaving prison. For me, I don't really care if an employee has a criminal record (easy for me to say, none have ever mentioned it to test my reaction). What worries me more is whether someone who does have a record is geniunely trying to reform. For my business I have an obligation to find the best person for job that will bring the most profit to the business and recruitment is not an exact science. For every person like Richard, how many others don't have the self motivation. How, as an employer in an interview, can I spot the people reforming like Richard in comparison to those that aren't? I'm not sure there is a way and Richard couldn't give me an answer either, but believes that many employers (read also; managers selecting new staff) need to be educated to open their mind to employing ex-prisoners in the first place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This entry is part of a series about my visit to the Rotary District Conference. It might not make much sense on it's own, why not start at the first post and read all the way through.
<--- Previous Post or Next Post in this series --->
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leonard Cheshire School 4 All. This charity impoves the lot of the disabled children in the third world. If you think how important disability access to public buildings has become in the last few years in the UK, you might imagine the problems disabled children will have in getting to school in the third world. Couple this with generations of discrimination against those who have a disability and the result is very few will get an education. Leonard Cheshire has been working to change this.

They help fund and organise the renovation to school buildings to make access by disabled children possible. Equally important to the buildings, they work with the disabled children, the families and the wider community to enable the disabled children to be accepted into school.

This is another worthy charity but I couldn't help feel sorry for the presenter, having to follow Help for Heroes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This entry is part of a series about my visit to the Rotary District Conference. It might not make much sense on it's own, why not start at the first post and read all the way through.
<--- Previous Post or Next Post in this series --->
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Help for heroes has been raising funds since last year to provide rehabilitation for soliders who are injured whilst on duty. While you might expect the MOD already provide this, they do but many people feel the MOD does not do enough. It appears the MOD agree, along with the government and royal family (link). They have raised £12 million pound in less than a year and already servicemen (and I guess servicewomen) are benefitting from better rehabilitation facitilities while recovering from injuries sustained while working on behalf of our country.

The presentation was exceptional and one of the best I have ever seen. They charity puts forward a strong brand, an easy to understand cause, emotional video's of the people they are actively helping. Bryn Parry spoke clearly and concisely throughout and no opportunity was left for anyone in the audience to be without feeling for the cause. I personally felt I wanted to get working on a project in their name as soon as I left the hall. The charity is well organised too, with a commercial side selling merchandise that allows, if I remember correctly, 97% of the money donated to go to the cause. The commercial side now pays almost entirely for the overheads of staff and premises.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This entry is part of a series about my visit to the Rotary District Conference. It might not make much sense on it's own, why not start at the first post and read all the way through.
<--- Previous Post or Next Post in this series --->
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two weekends ago I joined rotarians from all over district 1120 for the anual conference, this year in Eastbourne.

What is it, what happened and will i go again?

District Conference is a chance for everyone to get together, meet with other clubs and have a good time. Its based around a variety of presentations held in a theater. With over 1100 people it's a sizeable operation.

I volunteered to steward and was allocated the first sessions of friday afternoon. Stewards do the job of making sure the exits are clear and making sure people go the right way in a fire. Having volunteers saves the cost of the venue providing them.

The first session was the official opening complete with bell to ring. I don't think i've got any photos but I found the bell a quaint tradition.

Then the talks, i'll write a post for each to do them justice.

The only catch now is that so much was going on and I was enjoying every second of it to the point I didn't make very comprehensive notes. My memory of the detail is already failing so I won't report on every speaker now, just those that are still firmly wedged in my mind after two weeks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This entry is the first part of a series about my visit to the Rotary District Conference.
Next Post in this series --->
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My last post said I was visiting a nearby club but unfortunately I was the only one who arrived. The members had all gone to a special event somewhere else. I did call the club secretary in the morning but I guess he's away on holiday as I got no reply. I was going to phone others in the club directory in the afternoon but was busy with work. Still, no trouble, the short walk did me no harm.

So, club visit number 6 was actually 30 minutes away in Strood. I grew up in the Medway towns so it was almost like going home. One of the club members is Dennis Spiller, he's last years District Governor and as I've mentioned before was one of my youth leaders when I was a teenager. He hadn't seen me for years before I joined Rotary and now I keep turning up like a bad penny :-)

So, with a past district governor in their club, I was expecting good things. In many ways, things were very good, but I left feeling very, very frightened. Me, writing negatively about Rotary? Surely not I hear you cry! Well, yes, if being frightened is negative for you then this will be negative. However, being frightened can also be a force for change, a positive thing, and I'm going to be concious from now on of doing things to prevent my club getting into the current position of Strood.

To begin with, this was the smallest meeting I've been too, just 13 people including me. On the plus side this meant I could speak in more detail to everyone so it was still worth going. There were also several people still on holiday (and one member had landed in the UK at 4am in the morning so the members dedication cannot be faulted).

They were proactively planning their version of 'Do Good Things', in particular organising chestnuts to be roasted on a stand at the nearby Dickens festival. They raise a lot of money through that and collecting with buckets at the nearby Morrisons. Bucket collecting is something we've yet to investigate but clearly effective if you're in the right place.

All good so far, so why was I frightened? They formed just over 30 years ago and from what I can tell were exactly like us. I can see myself in their position in 30 years time. A club membership who's average age is in the late 60's. They have 21 members according to the directory and taking into account illness and holidays their attendance when I there must have been 90%. So why so few in the club?

In fact, they know their age balance is wrong and are working on fixing it. A few years ago a young teacher joined. This year he recruited another 30 year old professional into the club. The club are battling to find the younger people that can join and continue the good things their club is already doing. I'm frightened because if we are not careful our club will be in exactly the same position in 30 years time, or worse, we wont realise it at the time.

They have just moved to a new venue which will give them more space for members to meet, their past venue was described as 'cosy' with 16 present. I didn't find out their growth goals but I hope they're aiming to be 30 members or more within 12 months.

I've written, lots!, but somewhere along the line I'm sure I've mentioned how Rotary appears to be a very good infrastructure for 'Doing Good Things'. Above each club is the Rotary District. Each District reports to RIBI, Rotary International in Britain and Ireland. RIBI reports to Rotary International. The system is a classic heirachy, rules come down from above and should be implemented. Feedback and ideas come from the ground up and will re-shape the rules from time to time.

Our club's District is 1120, and the structure is open that even a new Rotarian like me can turn up to the quarterly district meeting to find out whats going on and give an opinion. As you've probably guessed I have plenty of opinions! I went to the district evening meeting last month where most clubs were represented, giving a room full of somewhere near 100 people. The structure to handle that number of people was such that most things had already been discussed in separate sub committees and the meeting was essentially a forum for these to report their status and seek approval to do new things or make significant changes to procedures, as well as answer questions from anyone present.

I learn't two things:

1) That there's a fine line between; giving a large group of people information as a basis to vote upon, and them all understanding information in order to vote the way they mean. This is especially true when there were more than a couple of Rotarians with a hearing aid or two...

2) This (Rotary at District level) is an organisation that actively looks to improve things and it not, in principle, frightened of change.

The biggest example of this was a brief discussion on the organisation of the District Conference. It has been organised 2 years in advance (it happens each year but takes 2 years to plan) but the suggestion was made it's organised further in advance by a new sub committee. The reason being there are so few conference venues that can take over a 1,000 people in a single weekend event. Next week I go to this years District Conference being held in Eastbourne, a town not in our district! I booked 'late' by Rotary standards, which meant I haven't got a place at the formal dinner - 1,150 people booked before me and I've since found out that some clubs choose to go to local restaurants so there will be a lot of people there. Next year, or maybe the year after - I forget now, the conference will be in Brighton at a large hotel with more space. You don't have to stay in the hotel but if you can. It's £350 or so for the weekend with accommodation. Some people in the room took this as you HAD to stay at that hotel in order to go to the conference - out of the budget of many, therefore voted against brighton for the following year and said they'd rather go back to Eastbourne. The idea of planning 5 years in advance seemed to get pushed aside in the end.

For me this meeting also highlighted the pleasure of fellowship. I was on a table with a retired paper salesman. While talking the conversation came around to youth clubs and my involvement with the Air Training Corps (I'm a Civilian Instructor at 1242 Faversham Squadron). It turns out this retired paper salesman was a Cadet in the Air Training Corps in the first few months of it's formation in 1941. He left to join the air force and flew Mosquito's over northern france amongst other things. I am constantly amazed by the people I'm meeting through Rotary. I don't think I should be amazed, after all there were a lot of pilots, and a lot of people have done a lot of different things. I think the difference is I'm taking the time to speak to more people and therefore finding things I'd never have known about before.

Anyway, back onto the topic of district, outside of the meetings I've seen lots of email on different subjects continuously developing things. There seems a growing emphasis on recruitment and 'the missing generation', Rotarians between the age of 25 - 50. No doubt this was the impetus to our club being formed. At 32 I'm clearly in the missing generation referred to. I'm curious to find out more about what this means (I've started asking for the membership statistics) and the history that's led to this. At the moment I've no idea if Rotary is growing or shrinking in size. It's reassuring to see that at a District and higher level these details are being worked on, so I can concentrate on my roll within the club. It's also nice that, so far at least, everyone I've emailed a question to has been very helpful. I get the feeling that if I emailed the R.I. President for this year, D.K.Lee, I'd get a personal response.

Thursday the 2nd October. For some reason I had a spare evening in the week. Best of all Rhonda said I could visit another Rotary club so a quick flick through the district directory and I find the Rotary Club of Chestfield meet on Thursday's, 7.15 for 7.30. A quick phone call to Hilary who I met when she visited our club - "Hi, is your club meeting tonight and do you think it's a problem if I come along". No, come along, we're meeting at 7.30 for 8.00. Still, at this point I hadn't realised my mistake!

So, I arrive early ish, meet some people (names forgotten already!) and get myself a drink. I was surprised to see Ruth from our club also there. Then, Jim from our club arrived. "Hello Jim, what brings you along tonight", cue interesting story of how in his younger years he'd worked in Africa developing agriculture and that prompted his interest in tonights speaker. Tonights speaker? David Mann, speaking on his recent visit to Tanzania and the fund raising for a school that's been carried out. At this point, I still didn't realise my mistake.

Then, Jarle, Diane and Lucy arrived. Lucy said "I didn't know you were coming, you weren't on the list". No, I phoned earlier. I had the evening free and this is an evening club so I've come along. Then I was told my mistake. Chestfield is a morning club like ours. This was a special evening for the special presentation, held only once a quarter. It just so happened I'd mis-read the directory but the meeting was happening anyway. I was also put in my place for not remembering that this has been in the events folder for the last month. Maybe that was the subconscious prompt that made me find Chestfield in the directory. Anyway - a fortunate mistake on my part! Two things I learn't from the visit:

1) It really is amazing what one person can achieve when they get on with it. David, two years ago, would never have dreamed of going to Tanzania. He'd never have dreamed he'd raise over £15,000 to build a school following a meeting with a local bishop in Tanzania who was visiting Canterbury Cathederal. As David quipped, there's no such thing as a free drink so the champagne reception the cathederal hosted is being well repaid! As the fund raising continues to develop he's been able to call on rotary contacts to formalise things - at the moment it's not a registered charity so can't claim gift aid. When he visited he found a need for sanitary towels which he has been promised in the UK but needs to ship them to a specific area. Rotary is finding and providing contacts with knowledge of shipping to make this good thing happen.

2) The president, Andrew, is a farmer and was clearly showing signs of exhaustion from a busy harvest. Speaking to him about the 'credit crunch' he confirmed my thoughts that credit has little impact on farming. The fact his grain sells for a third less this year compared to last is all due to how the weather has been around the world. Last year several countries had a poor harvest so grain prices increased. This year the UK harvest hasn't been so good but most other countries did well. Therefore more grain on the international market means lower prices per tonne. He also commented on storage being expensive - the grain has to be chilled and have a low moisture content to store well and this requires energy input. The longer it's kept, the more it costs to keep. Rotary continues to be an education.

This is a very fast written post. I'll correct the spelling later (or maybe leave it here on the pretense that it's now part of history) but now Rhonda has said I can visit another rotary meeting, this time a little closer to home. 7 minutes to walk there - plenty of time.

Jumping back along the time line for a bit, I'll tell you about 'Charter Night'. Charter night is different from Inauguration. I think inauguration is the formal welcoming into Rotary whereas Charter night is more of a celebration of the new club joining the Rotary family.

Our Charter night was June 21st 2008. I confess I had nothing to do with the organisation of the event. In fact, not many in the club did - it appears mostly the work of our first President, Jarle. We used a large room at Kent County Cricket ground for a formal meal. Rotarians from all over the district came to join us along with the President of Rotary Internation in Britain and Ireland, Allan Jagger. He gave a very entertaining speach welcoming us into Rotary and set a challenge I think we have no hope of achieving. He joked that 'your club has in a single swipe halved the average age of Rotary', the challenge is that in 10 years time we keep the same average age as now. Our club was given gifts by other clubs of things that a new club will find useful. Chains of office for the President, President Elect and Tresurer, a table lecturn, a bell (I assume that Rotarians are generally rowdy and need calling to attention by bell) and lots of pennants.

The event was also used as a fund raiser for Odyssey. A gambing area was set up on the floor below. For a donation of real money you got some tokens to play with. At the end of the night if you had lots of tokens left you might win a prize that had been donated by a member. The crupier (or whatever they're called) told me how to play roullete. I've decided I'm still not a gambling person.