Page 4 - ROTO Magazine Winter 2022.pub

Rotary Magazine for District 1210

Rotarians at Conference 22/23

District Governor Steve Antill writes:
Back in October 2021 as we came to the close
of the combined 20/21, 21/22 Conference held
at the Lion Quays Resort in Oswestry we were
all very pleased to have been able to deliver a
face-to-face event after multiple delays and
issues because of COVID. With infection
numbers looking like they might rise again
over the winter and, at that time, still a great
deal of uncertainty around the future, I had
not made any plans at all for Conference in
2022. It seems a long time ago now, but events
were still being impacted by COVID both in the UK and abroad – indeed my planned visit to the
United States for District Governor training in January was cancelled at very short notice and instead
held as an online event. It was that uncertainty which led me not to ask someone to run a Conference
for me in my DG year – it simply didn’t seem fair given all the unknowns.
Several districts in Rotary Great Britain &
Ireland had held online conferences over the
COVID period, with mixed success, but
Helen, Troy and I felt that the conference
really should be face to face if at all possible.
As we came out of the winter it became clear
that whilst COVID itself would remain, the
management of risk was bring slowly moved
back from government to businesses and
individuals, so with just over six months to go
we picked up our search for venues.
As many will recall the members of District
had, some years ago, voted that Conference
should be a single day event, but we also
know some attendees do like to extend their stay overnight or to a weekend. Finding a venue was
interesting – with numerous weddings delayed over COVID the various hotel type venues were either
unavailable, significantly increased in price, or demanding minimum numbers beyond what we could
safely predict, so it was something of a relief when Helen spoke with the Yarnfield Conference Centre
near Stone and was able to secure a sensible day package for the conference.
The short timelines for promoting and arranging the event were a challenge, and Helen particularly
felt a lot of that pressure – some of you will know that in the week leading up to the event we had a

4 ROTO WINTER 2022