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Vaughan Harris Profile

It is a wonderful honour and privilege to be your new President of 41 Club.
It is an honour and privilege to “chair” your new executive and council, who together put in the hard work and who will formulate the ideas that will take the Association forward.
It is an honour and privilege to travel around Great Britain and Ireland to meet the many club members and to travel overseas to represent our Association.

But what do I hope to see over the coming year?

To carry on the promotion of the Association’s Purposes and Objects:-

• To continue to promote opportunities for fellowship amongst former members of RT - working with existing clubs and members to maintain the fun and fellowship they have enjoyed over many years.
• To continue to encourage active involvement in our local communities – you may have heard at the AGM about the works of Chelmsford and York Ebor 41 Clubs – I am sure that there are others out there that are equally deserving and I would ask that if you know of any such club that you bring this to National Council's attention.
  Following a questionnaire on the capitation letter that was sent out at the beginning of the year, of the clubs that answered they reported that they donated some £100,000 during the last year. Not bad for an Association that “does not do” fund raising or community service.
• To continue to use our experience in the RT Family – there is a commitment from the current presidents to work closely together over the coming year – we realise that our Associations are stronger together than apart – we are committed to further meetings this year and this year we will chairing the meetings.
• To continue to encourage our links with overseas associations and clubs. Our Association that is not only the oldest and largest, but also continues to work hard to take an active and constructive part in the smooth running and development of 41 Club International.

I also sincerely hope that the hard work put in by the Forward Planning Committee over the past year and now embraced by National Council will carry on to set the scene over the next three to five years.

This to include:-

To continue the work of National Council looking at the Association Structure at National and Regional level and setting out our strategy for the future.

To continue the work on updating our IT system including our computer based administration systems.
Amendments have been made over the years since its implentation some 7 years ago, but we are currently looking to improve its performance and what information the system can provide, but above all we are looking on how to make use of modern technologies to improve communications to our members and to tell the world who and what we are and in particular to work towards increasing the profile of 41 Club within the local communities.

Following on from the debate at the AGM regarding the new Executive Position of Community Service and Welfare Officer which was defeated, but the debate made it clear that there was no reluctance to the Constituent Clubs within the Association being involved with fund raising and work in the community and many at the AGM pointed out that they currently undertake such work. This was discussed at the National Executive meeting held on the Sunday morning after the AGM and we will be looking at developing this initiative with the duties distributed between the existing Council Officers.

To carry on the work regarding membership. Since the AGM last year when the members present voted against “selective” membership and fix our membership to ex-Tablers from RT, such a lot of work has been put in on membership initiatives; to encourage new Round Tables, encourage new 41 Clubs and to encourage those members that have never joined to do so as well as looking at ways to retain members and avoid clubs from disaffiliating.

I am pleased to say that this continues to be done in close liaison with RT and with such initiatives as carrying on the practice of writing a joint personal letter from the current Vice-Presidents of both Associations to all those that are leaving Table this year.

Every club should shortly receive notification of any such ex-Tabler in their club's area. Please follow this up – do not let the opportunity pass – if you do not want to follow this up please let national know – it is important that this information is not lost.

We need to continue to recognise those that are of great service both to our Association and our individual clubs.

Over the past few years, the President has chosen his “preferred” charity for his year in office. This year I am proud to support RTCW – this was not only the charity I choose as President of RTBI, but I am also pleased to say it is also the chosen charity of the incoming RT President.

A charity started in 1990 by Tablers to make a poorly child’s dream come true, a small national charity that grants wishes to children with life threatening illnesses, and whose sole aim is to bring a period of happiness, however brief, and a little bit of magic into their lives by creating some special moments and memories and the outstanding works of the charity have been recognised by such patrons as Harry Rednap.

As well as any monies that we as an Association are able to raise, they are also asking if any member of 41 Club has a business contact that could help RTCW in any way e.g. an obvious one is travel, and hopefully we will be able to publish that particular need for help regularly in the Newsletter.
In aid of the RTCW I have entered for the Great South Run on the 30th October – 10 miles around Portsmouth. Any sponsorship monies would be gratefully received and there is a sponsor form on the web-site - I might also be asking for a training manual on how to get round 10 miles – it seems a long way round!

Not only therefore do we have a wonderful opportunity to support:

• A worthwhile charity, in which RTCW hope to reach as many children as they can – and I quote from their literature – “who need a bit of sunshine bought into their lives at a time when it seems like there is nothing to look forward to”, but also:
• The chance to work with RT, especially over the coming year at joint function/events.
• Support and work closely with a charity which bears our RT Family name.

If any member knows someone who qualifies for a “Wish” please do not hesitate to contact your local National Councillor or myself and we will do everything we can to help.

I hope that I can carry out the duties of this office to the very high standards that others have set before me and I pledge to you all that I will take on this role with enthusiasm, dedication and above all my total commitment to serve the Association to the best of my ability.

Above all we must continue to do what we do best in 41 Club.

Enjoy the fun and fellowship
Enjoy the humour

Vaughan Harris
National President 2011-2012