On 1 July 2020, James Phiri became the President of Cranleigh Rotary for the coming year, replacing Richard Kenyon.
The social distancing restrictions imposed because of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that the usual inauguration meeting could not take place, but Club members were able to welcome James via social media.
During the virtual meeting, James expressed his hopes for the coming year…
“Over the last year, under the able leadership of Richard Kenyon, Cranleigh Rotary has continued to excel by continually completing a full annual calendar of events that should well be beyond the reach of the fairly small number of Rotarians.
“We remain conscious of the urgent need to retain and attract new Rotarians to our Club. The commendable work of our membership team led by Patrick Leake and the media and publicity work conducted by Jane (Briggs) and Peter (Bond) places us in good stead for bearing fruit over the next year.
“My hope is that in spite of the challenges presented by COVID-19, we will remain united and focused as a club and build on the successes of the previous years and 2019-20 in particular.
“We need to consolidate our drive for membership, retain our focus on engaging our community through our events calendar, extend our collaboration with other clubs on international activities and continue with our youth, sports and fellowship activities.
“My additional hope for this year is that we can engage with a local school to produce one leadership event targeted at our youth. This will be challenging now that we cannot hold events as we did before, but it is one activity I would like to fully explore as President.
“I wish to take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude each one of you for your patience, guidance, experience and wisdom during my four years with this wonderful club and I look forward to your continued support over the coming year.”
