President's dinner

The York Rotary President’s dinner was held at the Novotel on Friday 6^th March and was attended by 90+ Rotarians, partners and guests including the York Civic Party.  We enjoyed an excellent dinner prior to speeches and entertainment.

After dinner President Paul proposed a toast to the city of York.  In proposing his toast Paul talked about his reflections and thoughts about York since moving here with Gianna about fifteen years ago.  Paul’s thoughts were presented in a humorous way and clearly picked on many highlights of the city and it was clear why Paul and Gianna enjoy living in York.

On behalf of the Civic party Lord Mayor Martin Rowley responded to Paul’s toast.  Martin also talked about moving to York, but also about the civic party life and the 700+ events that the Civic party will be attending in the year.  It is inspiring to hear about the many and varied activities taking place in the city.

The final speaker was David Hartley Rotary District 1040 Governor Elect who commented in a very encouraging way on the many activities being undertaken by York Rotary. 

The evening finished with a Meandering Musical Kaleidoscope performance by David Powling who was returning to our President’s evening for a second year, once again David’s very accomplished piano entertainment did not disappoint and by the end of his performance David had the audience humming along to the music.  It is fascinating to watch the speed with which David’s fingers fly across the piano keys.

As part of the menus that were on our dinner tables President Paul prepared the following thoughts about Rotary to serve as being informative and providing conversation stimuli:

Good evening guests, good evening fellow Rotarians. While you wait for your exquisite dinner to be served, or while you are enjoying your tasty dishes, here are some possible conversation stimuli. I offer these in good faith, just in case you have no recent or upcoming holidays to talk about or if the weather is too normal for words.

Did you know why Rotary is called Rotary? It’s because, when it was first set up, members didn’t meet consistently in the same place. They went to each other’s houses according to, you’ve got it, a rota. Just a little later, the meeting arrangements changed, but the name stayed the same. Because it emphasized equality among members, it reinforced the idea of active participation rather than passive membership (the wheel keeps turning) and suggested the circulation of service, ideas, and goodwill.

The York Rotary President’s Evening was once called The Annual President’s Dinner and Dance and, in the early years, The President’s Night. Night was Right in 1932: carriages were summoned at 2. a.m. after a six course dinner, entertainment, dancing, bridge and whist. The cost of the evening was ten shillings per head; that’s fifty pence, of course, but, back then, ten bob represented one tenth of a senior clerk’s weekly wages. So about 70 pounds today.

A report of the 1965 President’s Dinner and Dance expressed relief that the dance music was not provided by ‘a skiffle group or other guitar-twanging set-up’ and that dancers did not, consequently, ‘jump up and down’. Waltz and Fox-Trot were the order of the evening. At our club’s most recent evening social event (November 2025), members and guests were seen twisting, and shimmying, and even jumping up and down, to all sorts of twanging!

With Rotarians and guests a conversation stimuli was probably not essential, but it did provide interesting information to think about.

Overall the President’s dinner was a very enjoyable evening, well done Paul in planning that and putting your thoughts into it.

David Fotheringham