Social Fun in our Rotary Club
Canterbury Club has a regular Monday night dinner meeting, and a partners’ night once a month. These meetings offer fun, friendship & networking with other people from the local community. Our meetings include an interesting range of guest speakers who cover relevant and topical issues, helping us to keep in touch with community needs and continue our own education.
Whilst we achieve a great deal each year with our many club service projects, it is so much fun to be a member of this Rotary Club. The spirit in the club is phenomenal !
Each year our Social Committee plans many special events for members:
Christmas in July
Around 25th July, our winter, we run a special dinner for partners and friends with all the trimmings of a Christmas feast. People dress up, play games and we all have a great deal of fun.
Always a great night !
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Usually on a Saturday night, several members prepare a dinner for two or three other couples at their homes. It’s a bit of a surprise where you are going and who will be there, but this is a fantastic way to get to know other members and their partners really well. It is these strong friendships that help us to work together so well in our many service projects.
Port Fairy Weekend
Club Members and friends have fabulous weekends at Port Fairy. The weekend includes: Company of wonderful friends; Relaxing at the picturesque Victorian holiday town; Eating great seafood, Strolling through the Art and Craft shops in the town; Invigorating walks along the foreshore and around the island and of course drinking wonderful wines and hot chocolate in front of an open fire. Ahhhhhh…. The social life in Rotary is good…..
Beechworth Food & Wine Festival Weekend
For the weekend of the La Dolce Vita Wine and Food Festival, our club went to Beechworth to enjoy a tour of wineries, a cheese factory, delightful restaurants, the old Beechworth gaol and this beautiful area of our state.
Horsing Around Night
Our city of Melbourne in Australia is famous for hosting the world’s greatest horse race – the Melbourne Cup. We even have a state public holiday for this racing carnival, on the first Tuesday each November. So at our club meeting, we all dress up, run sweeps and play games to celebrate this significant event.
Movie Nights
Our local movie theatre has several cinemas and is surrounded by some lovely restaurants. In lieu of our regular meeting, we gather at the theatre to watch whichever of the movies are showing, based on personal preference, then meet for dinner at a chosen restaurant. Sometimes we join with other Rotary Clubs and book a whole cinema to raise funds for Rotary’s signature international project – polio eradication.
Car Rally
An old favourite is the Club Car Rally, where we all set out in our cars to follow a set of instructions that lead us to a nice barbecue spot for lunch on a weekend. There are questions to answer on the way, with prizes for the most correct answers. Some couples do get quite heated, particularly when trying to lay the blame for why they got lost, but we all eventually end up at the final destination, to enjoy the company of our good friends and a delicious feast.
Annual Changeover Dinner
Each year, Rotary Clubs change their leadership team at the end of June. To celebrate the achievements of the year just past and to welcome in the new leadership team, we hold a special changeover function. In our club, we try to avoid too many official speeches and make this a night of fun, inviting many friends and partners who have helped us to achieve our annual goals.