Winner 1986
District Significant Achievement Award
Dudley Rotary Club is the only Club
in District 1210 to have been presented with four District
Significant Achievement Awards.
September 1985
brought together a
set of circumstances which, between them, contributed to what was to
be a very fruitful venture into international relations. The new
President of Rotary International was calling for efforts to be made to establish
contacts in Eastern Europe; our own International Service Committee
was searching for a new project which should, if at all possible,
link with our twin Club in Brest; and perhaps the most important
factor, though we did not realise it at the outset, attitudes in
some of the countries behind the "Iron Curtain" were
becoming more receptive to the West.
Past President Fred
Austin, who had recently retired and could spare some time, wrote to
the embassies of the Czech Republic, East Germany, Hungary and
Poland, inviting them to select a team of young, up-and-coming men
and women, whom we would host in Dudley for two weeks at our expense
and introduce to business, industry and places of interest in the
area. The replies were interesting and indicative of the regime: no
reply at all from East Germany, a stiff referral to Prague from the
Czechs, an invitation for our President to have lunch in London with
the Hungarians, but then no more, and a late but very friendly
letter from the Poles which led on to a visit by their Cultural
Attache. He came to the Zoo Club, enjoyed his meal with us, asked a
lot of questions about the way that Rotary operates, insisted on
giving a hip-flask of vodka to Sid Rowley, our oldest member, and
went away promising to do his best to complete the arrangement when
recalled to Warsaw a few weeks later.
So it was that, in
May 1986, we heard that, provided we were willing to shoulder all
expenses while the group was in England, a team would be selected
and would arrive in November. Once we knew that the group consisted
of two export-import sales executives, an administrator, an
economist and a reporter/broadcaster, it was not difficult to
arrange a fortnight's programme of visits, transport by retired
members or by minibus and hosting for a week at a stretch.
When the team
arrived at Dudley & Sandwell station on a damp November morning,
they were quickly seen to be young, friendly and extremely sociable,
both, as a group, with each other, for they had had no previous
contact with other members before setting off for England, and also
with their hosts in the Club. They spoke and understood English very
well and benefited from the arranged visits, which ranged from
factories like Simon Engineering to Russell's Hall Hospital and a
school for our less able children. As with many other GSE teams,
they met the Mayor over a civic lunch, were shown over the Castle
and Zoo, went to a concert at the new Symphony Hall in Birmingham
and laughed at "Daisy pulls it off", a hilarious
production at the Alexandra Theatre. Perhaps the most memorable
evening of the visit was the Presentation at the Lodge, which had
been thrown open to all Rotarians and wives from the length and
breadth of District 121(0): memorable, not so much for the presence
in Dudley of the District Governor and other District officers, but
for the broad sweep of the questions asked and for the frankness
with which our young Polish friends answered them. 'George' and
'Andrew', the two Mirkas and Ewa made upon made a deep and lasting
impression on the audience of over 130. Their hosts in Dudley also
discovered their ability to put away free drink and to organise
impromptu late-night parties at the slightest opportunity.
1986/87 Visit of GSE Team from Poland -
(rear L-R) 'Andrew', Noel Friar (District Governor), Geoff Groves (Club President),
-- Croxford (PP RIBI), 'George', -- (RIBI Foundation Chairman)
(front) Miroslawa Karscewska ('Little Mirka'), 'Mirka', 'Ewa', PP Fred Austin
There had of
course, been some mention of a return visit to Poland when the
suggestion was originally put to Cultural Attache, but it was not a
condition of the arrangement. Consequently, the International
Service Committee and District officers, who had taken a sufficient
interest to ensure that some funds from their pot helped Dudley to
finance the first half, hoped rather than expected that the
invitation would come from Warsaw. It took time, but, eventually, in
the Spring of 1988, there it was: "please come; September would
be a good time; we will arrange a programme, the team that came to
you will look after you, but you must take financial responsibility
not only for the travel, but also for the hotel costs during your
stay". To put it plainly, this meant that the Club had to find £2500
for the travel and accommodation costs of the leader and 4 English
members of the group, while, as had been previously agreed, the
Brest Club would add the £500 needed for whomever they
themselves sponsored.
When the help that
we had hoped for from Rotary Foundation was refused, we decided on a
simple solution: we determined to withhold our "voluntary" contributions to Foundation for two years, which would recoup
roughly 50% of the cost - the rest would be found from Club funds.
We advertised for
team members through the local press and the Chamber of Commerce.
Past President Fred Austin was happy to accept the role of leader of
the group. Mike Summerfield and Fred interviewed the applicants and
selected Howard and Brian from local industry, John, who ran the
Chamber of Commerce in Wolverhampton and Sandra who, at the time,
was a Senior Child Care Officer in Warwickshire. Roland, an
executive in a builders' merchants in Brest completed the team and
Fred Austin's wife Margaret paid for herself to come along as a chaperone.
Roland, incidentally, spoke excellent English and was the life and
soul of the party.
Warsaw in the
1980s was a delightful city if you ignored the drab workers' flats,
the Russian built Palace of Culture and concentrated on the old
city; Krakow even more so and, of course, the Tatra mountains are a
different world. The Polish team, four of whom looked after the
British team for the entire visit, made up for not being able to
accommodate us by taking us to all the best restaurants and
underground wine-cellars, as well as rafting on a fast-flowing
mountain river. We saw round a state-run television factory, "new" private enterprises and joint-ventures, we met officials responsible
for export and were made welcome everywhere.
The Warsaw
Children's Hospital and No. 41 Orphanage gave rise to return visits
by Fred and Margaret Austin in 1989 and 90, when they took
equipment for the hospital and food and clothing for the children. Polish team member Andrew eventually joined a Rotary Club in Warsaw.
