Monday 7th July: Our second Officers meeting, and a pretty full agenda. We sort out the committees and David Kirtland is taken on by Paul in Community Service, reluctantly. Paul is trying to initiate a new dawn for CS, and David is old school, but he will now be a lone voice as Bob Lucas has accepted Programme.

Three members will not be committee aligned, and my proposal for Lions at Large & Privileged Membership is not supported, so be it. This means we are now accepting the "Eddy Dorman" style of membership, non-attendance at meetings, but good support to various events. In a way this is good as it means we are no longer requiring some minimum attendance level, and it confirms us as primarily a service club and not a fellowship. David Ford also proposed that we redefine membership, a good idea I believe.

We settle on four/five main objectives, with the remaining paragraphs as supporting aims. We will ask each of the Officers to define their success criteria versus the main objectives. I offer to facilitate the Event Calendar, and everyone is fine with that.

All was going well until DF launches into a tirade against the Whipper In, and make some wild assumptions about the "malaise" at the heart of the club, and suggests we move to The Barn. I find this unacceptable, and feel for Robin. The maxim that has served me well throughout my working life, "Seek first to understand" seems to be alien to David, and it doesn't go down well with the other Officers.

Latterly I contact David and arrange to meet him for a one-to-one, whether I can mellow the angst remains to be seen. If David's view of the club is as bad as he intimated I'm not sure we are the right club for him, we'll see.

I have some correspondence with The High Sheriff and after explaining our non-sectarian, non-religious creed, he generously says he understands.