SESSION 1After a Foundation Frugal

Lunch in the Council Rooms, theconference got under way withthe video "You can change theworld ..."

The next item on the agendashould have been an address toconference from RI PresidentRon D Burton, but owing to amedical problem in hisimmediate family, Ron had beenunable to make the trip toBirmingham. RI Director MikeWebb played a video with hisapology and then gave his owninterpretation of the addressthat Ron would have given.

There was then a shortpromotional video for theSydney convention this June,presented by David Ellis.

We were then straight intoour first guest speaker, JenniferScott, curator of the RoyalCollection. Her speciality is oilson canvas, and she gave us aninteresting insight into hersection, including "Missus

Kwin", shown here.We then had a warm welcome

from the Deputy Lord Mayor ofBirmingham, John Lines, whopresented us with a plaque andasked "Why has it taken 100years to visit the city for theRIBI conference?"

There followed a short

address from the Chairman ofInner Wheel, Gillian Rowley,who asked us to see theirmembers as doing more thanrefreshments. She talked aboutthe "All Wheels Turning"initiative and the new IWwebsite. She finished with acharming poem - "The Neigh-bourhood Clothes line".

The next speaker was thenew (12 months) CEO ofShelterbox, Alison Wallace, whospoke about developments inthe box contents and the tent,and the challenges of HurricaneHaiyan. Shelterbox has pre-positioned stock around theworld, and moves any surplusboxes in the field back to thenearest storage location. Thebox is still priced at £590, whichincludes all labour and shippingcosts. The paid staff representonly 10% of the total peopleworking on the project.

Next to the lectern was JaneBest, who had been instru-mental in getting Peace Jamgoing. It had been decided thatPeace Jam was "not fit forRotary" to use, and so theRotary Peace Project had beendeveloped. The programme isaimed at children who arebullied or otherwise stressed,and may be contemplating self-harm or suicide. There is a realneed for action, and Jane asked

"When is Rotary going to dosomething about the problem?"

The last speaker in the firstplenary session was RotaryPeace Scholar Sharon Edington.Sharon grew up in Brisbane,and has worked as a volunteerin Chile, Sierra Leone, PapuaNew Guinea, Israel/Palestine,Georgia, and Australia. Whilstgoing through her CV in somedetail, she did promise to returnin full the investment Rotaryhad made in her. She iscurrently studying in Bradford.

And with that, the firstsession was completed.

That evening we had aDistrict Fellowship Dinner thatran to time, allowing thosepresent to attend the RotaryNight at the Proms concert aswell as the dinner.

SESSION 2Session 2 got under way with

a presentation by James Lovatt,both chairman of Rotaract inGreat Britain and Ireland, andalso a staff member at RIBI.James pointed out that whilstthe average ratio of RotaryClubs to Rotaract Clubs in RIBIis 72:1, over the world as awhole it is 9:1. Jamesmentioned the new RotaractWebsite, and the Model UnitedNations event in London from 4- 7 September 2014. He spoke

Rotaryin LondonUK

RIBI Conference Report

about Rotactactors joining aRotary e-Club when they reachtheir maximum age, and askedall the clubs present to sponsor aRotaract Club.

We then moved on to apresentation on the ArmyBenevolent Fund by MajorGeneral Martin Rutledge. Muchhas changed in the last 100years for an injured serviceman,and much has changed since theFalklands war in 1982. Injurysurvival is the best it has everbeen, and the survivors want afull and fulfilling life. Today, thenumber injured is much lower,and the care and attention theyreceive is amongst the best inthe world. He thought therewere too many 'militarycharities' today, but at least thebig ones do work together.Interestingly, he did not want ourmoney: he wanted ourcommercial and business skills -something which is not availablein abundance in the military!

After soldiers, we moved backto business with Digby LordJones - who has held a widevariety of posts. In a vibrant andentertaining address, he talked

about the relationship betweenbusinesses, jobs, taxation andthe public sector. Business isgood for Britain, because itcreates jobs - nothing elsecreates jobs because the "JobSchemes" are really temporarycivil servants. Jobs and businesstogether provide funds throughtaxation. Without taxation, therewould be no civil service and nogovernment. Some of the moneypaid to civil servants goes roundagain through taxation. In thelong run, we will have to worklonger to pay for everything,because today 25% of boy babies

and 33% of girl babies will seetheir 100th birthday! Educationis paid for through taxation, butis not valued enough. 48% ofchildren do not achieve a GradeC or higher in English or Mathsat GCSE. Teachers, children andparents have to work together tofix that problem. We can fixmuch with British Business butwe need to move away fromBrussels Compliance. He finish-ed with an amusing example ofhow he tried to renew hispassport in a hurry, paying thefee with cash!

Session 2 was suspended atthis point as the BBC moved into broadcast the Rotary YoungCitizens Awards. Five candidateshad been successful from age 8to age 24 - both of those hadcome from London! A personalstruggle against meningitis, avideo and school play to combatbullying, a scheme for deafchildren, a scheme for youngvictims of sexual abuse, and ascheme for a missing children'sregister were all presented witha Rotary Young Citizen Awardtrophy. A sixth candidateappeared the following day.

Session 2 was resumed withITN Broadcaster Charlene White,who had lost her mother tobowel cancer in April 2002. Sheasked the audience about thesymptoms of bowel cancer, andmade it clear that we all ought toknow the symptoms if we wereto treat the problem earlyenough for a good chance ofsuccess. 110 people die frombowel cancer every day, makingit the second most fatal cancer.The symptoms include blood instools, excessive need to strain,weight loss, tiredness, change instools, anaemia, pain passing

stools. Not all of these are onlycancer symptoms, but a quickcheck could prevent you andyours adding to the statistics.AWARDS 1

We then had the first part ofthe presentation of awards. ForInteract D-1290, for InteractDevelopment D-1180, forRotaract D-1090, for DistrictMagazine D-1010, for ClubBulletin RC Birkenhead, for PRD-1290 and for Rotakids D-1190.

The final speaker in thissession was Martin Bell - theMan in the White Suit.Describing himself as UNICEF'sexpendible ambassador, he spokeabout how the world had becomemore dangerous than it was inthe past. He had recently visitedthe Central African Republic andSouth Sudan and described thebrutality there as unimaginable.He had also visited Afghanistanto see our work on Polio. Thenumber of refugees is risingrapidly, and the aid work comesat a high human cost as well asthe financial cost. His main pointwas we must reach out to all ourpartners. When we compete,nothing of value is achieved.

And on that note the secondsession came to an end.SESSION 3

Session 3 posed a choicebetween the Annual BusinessMeeting (ABM) and a "NewGenerations" Symposium. Yourcorrespondent had a vote at theABM and so attended that.Others attended the Symposiumand described that as anexcellent event. The ABM isreported at the end of thisdocument.SESSION 4

Session 4 started on Sundaymorning with Roy Lilley, whodescribes himself as an "NHSBroadcaster". He talked abouthis humble origins and thenjumped straight into fine art,showing two paintings entitled'The Little Princesses'; one byVelazquez, the other by Picasso.They had the same subject withdifferent views. He described the

RIBI Conference Report

NHS as being one subject withmany different views. Demand isincreasing steadily at 4% peryear, but funding is flat-lininguntil 2015. After asking theaudience, "How many would pay£10 to visit their GP?", hechastised those with their handsup by stating it would cost £30 tocollect the £10. The flat funding

had created the "box of death"which would fail those withdementia (800,000 people),fractured families and obesity.Obesity leads to long termdisease, but the retailers'response has been to make Size12 bigger and bigger. Roy saidwe have to stop kiddingourselves. He finished with the 3Be's: Be ready to pay; Be readyto accept change; Be kind to theNHS staff.

We continued with SarahBrown, wife of the former PrimeMinister. She thanked Rotariansfor their achievements and theirdetermination on eradicatingpolio. She then moved on to hermain theme - education for theworld. She produced a list ofstatistics including 57m childrenworldwide who have never goneto school, 250m children whohave gone to school but were notlearning, and 774m children whocannot read and writeproficiently; 2/3rds of those arefemale. She said that Rotariansdo not shrink from challenges,and her aim was to get all 57mchildren into school by 2015 -that was in about 500 days time.She was counting down the days,and asked, "Could she count onRotary?" She then showed a filmabout the Taliban's attack on aschool bus in Pakistan in whichthe female children were shotone by one in the bus. All the

girls were shot, but they did notall die - one called Malala wenton to address the UnitedNations, and that was includedin the film. In the UN, she spokeabout the right of all children toan education - both male andfemale.

Sarah Brown then broughtMalala Yousafzai on stage toaddress conference and to beinterviewed about her life afterbeing shot in the head. She hadmade an amazing recovery fromher physical wounds, but onlytime will tell if she has made apsychological recovery. Anemphatic speaker, she spokeabout missing home, about theterrorists that did not want herto go to school, about the womenin Pakistan who are not allowedto leave their home for school,for socialising, or for shoppingfor food. By working together,these problems can be foughtand overcome. Rotary's supportto allow children to speak ishelpful, and is needed. Herincident had produced 30m'tweets', and 4m signatures on apaper petition. Pakistan isstarting to change, but childrenmust be taken out of work sothat they can go to school.

After Malala's powerfulpresentation, RIBI President NanMcCreadie presented her withthe 6th Rotary Young CitizensAward, an event marked with astanding ovation.

We then had a RotaryMoment, from two Rotarians inthe Channel Islands who hadbecome Rotary FoundationBenefactors. They received aspecial award from RIBIPresident Nan.AWARDS 2

We then had the second group

of awards. The ConnecticutTrophy (International) went to D-1290, the Environment Project toPortsmouth & Southsea, theCommunity Project to HalifaxCalder, Vocational to Launceston(D-1290), District on-line D-1260,Club on-line Croydon Whitgift,Special Community Project toGrantham, and the AttendanceTrophy to Moriston.

Our next speaker was JaneWalker from the PhilippinesCommunity Fund. Seeing a videoof small children scavagingrubbish dumps for food and forthe means of making a living wasshocking, but we were sparedthe smell. Jane had also beenshocked and committed herselfto tackling the problems with aSolar Panel project, with 2 schoolbuses, and "Literacy in a Box".The goal is to get children off thedumps and into school. This isachieved with food in the school,and food parcels for other familymembers in exchange for goodattendance at school. We wereintroduced on the video to achild who has graduated to aballet school, another wants tobecome a teacher and so on.Jane is a Rotarian in thePhilippines, and asked us to take"Greetings" back to our Clubs.

We then had a shortpresentation on the RIBI 2015Conference in Belfast, with anintroduction to the new TitanicCentre, where some of theevents will take place.

The last speaker wastelevision presenter DallasCampbell. His series, "SupersizeEarth" was a documentary on thebiggest, the smelliest, and thelongest man made structures. Heshowed a number of clips fromthe series, and also some mobilephone footage taken during themaking of the series. All told, avery visual presentation, from apresenter who confessed he isoften mistaken for Ben Fogle,and on one occasion evenRichard Hammond!

With that, the conference wasover and it had finished on time!

The Annual Business Meeting(ABM) held on Saturday 12 April2014 got under way with a testof the voting equipment suppliedby Lumi. We had our test vote on"Will the 2015 ABM be inBirmingham?" Sadly, mostpeople thought it would be!

The meeting proper startedwith the introductions, and thebusiness part was chaired byTom Griffin of the RIBIConstitutional Committee.

We started with a change oforder from that on the RunningOrder, so that on-line voters hada better chance of participationin the meeting.

1. Change of quorum at ABMto 25% of Clubs (whetherpresent or online):passed(Pro:609, Con:49)

From this point forward, theon-line votes would be includedin the count. Without thisdecision, there being only 776voters in the room and on-line,that is less than the equivalent of50% of the Clubs in RIBI, all theon-line votes would have beenignored in any count.

2. Adopting the Annual Report12-13: adopted (Pro:769,Con:18)

3. Adopting the Accounts for12-13: adopted (Pro:762, Con:6)

4. Reappointment of DaffernsLLP to be auditors: passed(Pro:789, Con:10)

5. Proposed Budget for 2014-2015 including dues of £48(based on 50,000 Rtns) to bepaid in two installments and areduced Affiliation Fee of £15 fornew members, whether or not innew clubs (the fee today is £25)in order to encourage newRotarians: passed (Pro:747,Con:61)

6. The Proposed Public Imageand Awareness Campaign Levyof £5 per Rtn for one year wasdiscussed. This was on an inserthanded out at the meeting andnot printed in the Annual Reportagenda. A report had been onthe RIBI Web Site, but we did

not know how many Rotarianshad read it. An Amendment to goback to £2.75, as for the lastthree years, was proposed andwas defeated (Pro:225, Con:558).There was then debate on theoriginal resolution. Commentsreferred to: more support forClubs instead of RIBI, moreadvertorial, the need forBusiness Awareness rather thanPublic Awareness, and the"wasted money" on Click-Thruand on Website Design. We weretold that "the previous 3 yearsfor public awareness came fromthe 5-year Membership Plan"because it was for awareness inthe context of membership. Theproposed £5 levy was put to thevote and was defeated (Pro:316,Con:485). This does not affectthe £40,250 in the budget forMarketing & PR Activity, butmeans the levy money is notapproved and therefore the planpublished on the RIBI Websitewill not be carried out. Therewas a lot of energy and emotionat this part of the meeting.

Many thought that the levyshould be in the subscriptiondues and not a separate levy, butHon. Treas. Nigel Barnfield hadrightly guessed that this strategycould have jeopardised the wholeRIBI budget! Once the costs havebeen rolled up into a singleamont, debate on individualelements would have been verydifficult to control!

7. The RIBI Donations Trustreport was noted. RIBI has setup a "MYBTDONATE" accountwith BT. BT claims it has thelowest charges for acceptingcredit card donations for a UKCharity. (The process wasrecommended as being worthy ofexamination by RIBI Clubs asthere are no setup fees.)

8. The Report of the RIDirector was noted. New Awardsare being introduced this year,and the Pilot Programme Trialsfor Clubs have been extended to30 June 2017 (rather than 30

June 2014).9. The Premises Trustees'

report was noted.The meeting then moved on to

constitution matters and theirresolutions.

10. We started with a simplechange from "Secretary/CEO" to"Secretary". An Amendment that"Secretary" should read "GeneralSecretary" was adopted(Pro:680, Con:50). We then votedon "General Secretary" insteadof "Secretary/CEO" and that wasadopted (Pro:692, Con:34).

11. Add 2 DGEs to the RIBIExecutive Committee: adopted(Pro:673, Con:34)

12. District 1040's resolution(Yorkshire) would add 4 expertsto RIBI Executive. After 3separate amendments to thewording had been approved, itwas not adopted (Pro:194,Con:399). There will be noexperts on the RIBI Executiveunless they are RI or RIBIofficers.

13. The planned reorgan-isation of all the administrativeand service committees, with theremoval of the liaison governors,and the abstraction of theGeneral Council from therunning of RIBI, was defeated(Pro:233, Con:384)

14. Abolition of SelectionAdvisory Committee and the 6associated resolutions were'surprised' with a motion to deferthe matters to the 2015 AnnualBusiness Meeting.

RIBI ABM Standing Order 10aand 13 were invoked. They allowdeferment of a matter ofbusiness and also prevent thematter being discussed. Just avote can be taken.

The vote (Pro:475, Con:123)supported the intervention, eventhough a vote in favour of item14 would have cleared theremainder of the meetingagenda.

The meeting had started ontime at 2.30pm and finished at5.50pm. We were all exhausted!