 PRESIDENT’S
CHATTER.
Two months down in 2005 and the end
of the Northern Hemisphere winter period
is almost in sight. Time to firm up
plans for the year ahead. As ever with
IFFR it will be busy. Australia and New
Zealand have events in March. The
Americas hope to set up a social
gathering at Sun’n Fun in Florida in
April – if they do we will be there –
and they are also thinking of a weekend
trip to the Bahamas....
.... The European Sections have a string
of meetings in May and June. The post
Chicago Convention Fly-About takes place
in June. Isn’t life busy and that’s
barely four months gone! The remainder
of 2005 will be just as active but more
of that on a later occasion.
I would, however, mention that in
August, John Bowden Chairman of the UK
Section is planning a tour of Northern
Europe to celebrate 100 years of Rotary
and 40 years of IFFR. Arrangements are
flexible so participants can join and
leave the tour as they wish. The tour
takes the flyers through seven countries
including Poland, Lithuania and Latvia
before joining up with the Scandinavian
Section at their annual meeting in
Finland. This is a unique opportunity to
fly to some of the less visited parts of
Europe but to do it in with the
reassurance of being part of a group.
On a sad note I have to record the
passing of one of the pillars of IFFR in
Europe – Marc Bonnet. Marc led the Swiss
Section for many years and with his
wife, Ruth, were ever-present
participants in the French Section’s
meetings. They also travelled
extensively to the other European
Sections. Marc’s cheerful presence will
be much missed – our sympathy goes out
to Ruth.
Tail winds,
Angus Clark
World President 2004 -2006 |