New President Installed

On 6 July John Baker (right) was installed as the new Club President by PP Roy Dowman. John's career started in education where he reached the level of head teacher and eventually as Education Advisor to Leeds Education Authority. He later became an Independent Education Consultant and OFSTED Inspector. John's love, however is football. He was disappointed not to make his school team as a player so trained as a referee instead. Not content with just refereeing, John has also been involved in the training and development of referees culminating with his appointment as Head of Refereeing at the Football Association in 2000. Here he was responsible for the training, development, appointment, assessment and promotion of some 33,000 referees in England. Courses were also run for foreign associations  and, through FIFA, John has conducted referee, instructor and match assessor training in 45 countries including Botswana, Malawi, Lesotho, Uganda, Bermuda, Iceland, British Columbia, The Seychelles, Mali, Ecuador, Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Malta. John's proudest assignment was in Germany 2006 for the FIFA World Cup, where he was match analyst.He had to look at all the matches and find strengths and development points in all the refereeing performances to feed back to the match officials in debriefing sessions. John has also been involved in many other roles for both the FA and FIFA around the world and in 2007 was nominated by FIFA as Referee Development Expert in Saudi Arabia. This meant that John was rarely seen at Southampton East until he returned to the UK in 2009. Since returning he has been involved with referee training with the Hampshire FA. 

President John's Address to the Club

I am very proud to have been given the hour of leading the RC of Southampton East this year as its President. I will try to live up to the  confidence placed in me by working hard to help the Club move onwards in my year.

I am indebted to Bill Adams for his encouragement in putting myself forward to consideration and for his continuing support for me in preparation for the year and I know in delivering expectations

I am very grateful for the Officers and Committee chairs who have agreed to take up roles in support of my administration. I am saddened over the resignation by Gordon as Senior Vice President for very understandable reasons. I hope someone will come forward soon with a recommendation or better still confirmation of interest!

I outlined some of my hope and ambitions for the year during the club assembly and elaborate upon them here:

Club membership - we want to consolidate through more active participation by current members as well as increase membership.  It would be great if even half of us could each identify a potential member. As indicated at District Council recently there are clear targets here - people of quality; under 50 and females
More active participation

Special Meetings 
• I propose that the new Committees are each responsible for one or two meetings in the year - information for club members.
• We all have a responsibility for recommending interesting and informative Speakers. Members' recommendations of friends,    acquaintances, family who have something worth listening to will be happily accommodated
• We will be looking for local projects or assignments that we may assist with funding and invite speakers to describe these.
• We would like to know more about members' interests and activities outside Rotary through short descriptions at meetings.
• I have asked the Sports and Social Committee to arrange three Social evenings and meeting involving partners - Christmas, Charter Night and a summer evening

Local Charities and good causes
We have been encouraged by district to have a community project. The Community and Vocational Committee is looking out to make suggestions as to what is ours going to be. I know John Paynter
Will welcome suggestions. I am very keen to identify local causes and young people engaging in imaginative and worthwhile activities so that we may offer help through the collections we make at Christmas.

Sportathon - Our Club's Major
As I meet other clubs at District Council or Group 6 I learn of the special event which has become their "trademark". Each club seems to have a major event - ours appears to be developing, building on the successful Swimathon. This year a group of members have taken responsibility for major contributions to aspects of the Sportathon - especially on the Family Day on 2nd October and the Grand Prize Draw  - please participate before the event and at the event to make

Participation in District events
I don't want us to be too inward looking so we will continue to participate in District, National and International activities through Rotary:
• for Young people - RYLA and Young   ..photographer, musician etc.... of the year
• Thanks for Life Collections and activities
• Sports and Social events
• Responding to invitations from other clubs
• Kids Out
• Shoe Boxes
• Shelter Boxes etc. Etc.

I am hoping to get the club to work together towards an active and enthusiastic Presidential Year.