Wednesday 29th October: I meet Judit and she tells me that The Whipper is again without a manager, Wendy not having been seen since pay day. As well as that, even though they have withdrawn her redundancy, Judit is so hacked off she is leaving to set up her own cleaning business.

I meet a lovely lady, Lion Sue Denton, Loughborough IPP, and District Liaison Officer for Youth. I'm interested in Young Leaders in Service, and she fills me in with the process. Nothing unexpected here but we cover some other ground and I get a few ideas.

Sue will be with us on February 4th 2015, presenting to our regular meeting.

In the evening Mike, Brian and I test some lighting and a generator along the drive, I think all will be well, especially now as the weather forecast has improved.

Monday 27th October: Further contact from David Lovering; his perspective is that it's sad, but he's not surprised. He feels that Robin was never prepared to engage with the Officers, and that he's a private person. David says he will contact Robin before our meeting next Monday.

Coffee with Charles and Mike, and a good chance to talk things through. Charles's advice is to endeavour to damp things down, and I agree two things. Firstly I will contact Mike Crosland, who had been elected Vice Chairman of the Programme Committee and invite him along to our Nov 3rd meeting.

I then send an email to all members letting them know of Robin's decision. I also phone Robin, who unfortunately hasn't received the letter I sent yet, I hope he does Tuesday.

Bob Lucas calles an impromptu meeting of the remainder of the Programme Committee for Wednesday at The Lord Nelson.

Friday 24th October: Robin's email arrives, copied to the rest of his committee ...and he couldn't even get my name right, wanker.

I choose to write privately, as befitting the president of such an esteemed organisation, when my heart is saying let him have both barrels via a return email.

MC replies to remind me and Paul that it's not my calendar proposal, but the Officers proposal, and that should be communicated sooner rather than later. I agree and pen a reply email, which currently sits in draft until the snail mail arrives.

My points are:

First and foremost, I am deeply disappointed that you feel the need to resign, not just from the Programme Committee, but from the club completely. I would have preferred the opportunity to discuss your concerns before reaching this stage.

Secondly, the "Shape of a Social Calendar" document, was not just my document, it was agreed by all of the club Officers that attended the Officers meeting before the last business meeting. Unfortunately you were on holiday and unable to attend either meeting. The document was deliberately not raised at the business meeting in deference to your absence, but circulated amongst Officers afterwards; you had plenty of opportunity to discuss it with me or any of the other Officers, you chose not to do so.

Thirdly, I am upset that you feel that the majority of the work of the Programme Committee falls on your shoulders, particularly at a time when you clearly had many other commitments outside of Lions. Even if you didn't want to discuss with me, could you not have discussed with any of them and obtained some help?

Lastly, you have been a conscientious and loyal member of the club, and I appreciate your support of the events you have already committed to, I just hope you will have a change of heart, certainly as far as leaving the club is concerned.

David Ford asks me is this will precipitate the combination of Programme & Social. I'm not actually convinced about this, it's not the combination, it's the committee system where only one or two do the work, while other just offer opinions, e.g.. Rob Wilkinson!!

The bigger question, is do we need everyone on a committee, I'm bloody sure I could do the Programme job by myself; I would just press gang club members for various visits and speakers.

We have an Officers meeting on November 3rd, so I'll wait and see what the consensus is.

Thursday 23rd October: Today I join a Programme Committee meeting at The Lord Nelson, back room, roaring fire, no one else, a good place to meet during the day. Robin, John Reid, Bob Lucas, Rob Wilkinson and Mike Crosland make up the quorum, and there is no hint of Robin's resignation the following day.

Shape of the Social Calendar is on the agenda, and I explain the basis of the framework. We also discuss and agree alternative venues to schedule business meetings, and I update on the visit to Rutland Plastics.

I lob a suggestion in that we might consider alternatives to Wednesday for some meetings which John immediately closes down. It gives me the opportunity to ask the committee to open their minds a little, as well as consult and involve outside the committee.

Given Robin's email, it's clear that apart from Bob Lucas, it's mostly down to him to get the programme together, negotiating with The Whipper in, sorting the menus out, how hard can it bloody be, might be OK if they actually wanted us there, unlike The Barn who would welcome us with open arms.

I'll paste in a bit of Robin's email here for future reference:

I refer to the Programme Committee meeting yesterday. Unfortunately the

discussion over your proposed “Shape of a Social Calendar” resulted in our

making little progress towards finalising the programme for the first half

of next year. I am very unhappy with the situation of having so many

unfilled gaps and consider that your guidelines are too prescriptive and

somewhat inflexible to implement. This difference of opinion and the lack of

a clear programme at this point in the year are not acceptable to me.

As President this year you appear to want to see a change in direction for

the Lions. You obviously consider that the Programme Committee is not

“open-minded, consult outside the committee, and shut down any new ideas

before giving them an airing”. I consider that to be a very unfair comment

on the work of our committee, which also involves liasing with the

Whipper-In to book dates and organising a menu.

So where to from here?

I visit Rutland Plastics and agree the timings and numbers with Steve Ayre, and he later confirms that he and his other director, Stuart Johnston will join us for the meal afterwards.

Wednesday 22nd October: Brian & I put up the firework banner, this year on the Burley Road roundabout, taking down Savvi Travel's out of date banner in the process; the "lost" banner was in the lock-up all the time.

Following Brian's concerns and sleepless nights, we also have a stroll and consider the approach of both cars and pedestrians to the show ground. We can put cones and tape to guide people, but in reality, everyone will have to take responsibility.

The other problem may be people thinking they can park at the show ground, only to be turned away by the heavy mob on the gate, Chris Wallis and Nigel Campion.

Monday 20th October: I attend Mike Saywood's social committee meeting, and the main topic is what shall we do to celebrate our 40th anniversary next year. Mike has consulted club members and got an excellent response, 20 members, and the almost unanimous response is a combined charter and anniversary event.

We conclude that Victoria Hall is the ideal venue, and we should invite a range of local "slebs". We will need further discussion regarding the entertainment, speakers, versus live music etc.

I think we have moved the entrenched approach of Mike & Bob a little, particularly in respect of consultation, but new member Monica seems disconnected from the others, with little attempt by Mike, or Bob to engage her.

Saturday 18th October: Embarrassment when I find out we have double booked this evening; it's a choice between Tigers at home versus Ulster in the new European Rugby Champions Cup, or a charter dinner at Oadby & Wigston Lions. O&W had not acknowledged my email of acceptance, but we had omitted the match from our calendar.

No debate really and I cry off the charter dinner, won't have made many friends there sadly.

Saturday 4th October to Friday 17th October: Out of touch for twelve excellent days in Zambia. No phone, no email, no internet, except that we learn that Tigers have beaten Harlequins and hope David & Mike enjoyed the match.

Friday 3rd October: Finishing touches before we head off for two weeks. It seems that all we do each year is to notify our insurance company and send their our risk assessments, no additional premiums are paid.

The insurance company view is that it is highly unlikely that we would have any liability in the event of a claim having notified people well in advance, and of course that we are not negligent on the night.

I write to Major Crouch and Hugh, and copy in our UKIP councillor, Richard Gale, only reply is MO who congratulates me on my communication.

Having asked the club Officers if they support a Wednesday presentation from Sue Denton about Young Leaders in Service; all agree and Robin has to include it in his draft programme. I confirm with Sue and agree to meet her for a 1 to 1 on 29th October.

Wednesday 1st October: A coffee with Paul & Mike in the morning, and Paul confirms that Chris Wallis will not be at the meeting this evening, he was not much taken with the last meeting.

Apparently Mike, Charles & I are known as the Three Wise Men, well at least they got something right.

We discuss a location for 3rd November meeting, and Mike gets a room at The Wheatsheaf FOC, thanks Dan Lacey. We also discuss our 40th event, and recommend that Mike gets a date sorted fairly soon; he's on the case.

In the afternoon I spend time on fireworks, setting up a press article in the Rutland Times, contacting Reverend Aldous who confirms that we may use Oakham School Chapel for our 2015 Festival of Carols, and contacting Jackie Friar and Fay Taylor at Lands End and Mecc Alte respectively, to see if they will allow their car parks to be used by the public on display night.

I'm just glad I'm not involved in organising fireworks this year.

Well the volcano erupted, Robin Bickers delivers a petulant performance after I try to talk to him. Your programme framework is too prescriptive, will make too much work, I won't do it...........and then storms out.

I had found out from Bob Lucas that there is to be a Programme meeting on 23rd October, which I can make, so I invite myself along, John Reid agreed that it would be a good idea, so Robin had little choice.

The man isn't engaged with Lions, certainly not with the Officers, and definitely not with me. I decide that I am not going to try and engage with him. A pincer movement with the Officers having more say over the programme and communicating with his team directly will hopefully marginalise him, he may even decide to resign, I live in hope.

He has a team of seven, Bob Lucas, who does contribute, Mike Crosland, who I suspect can contribute, and then John Reid, Rob Wilkinson, Nigel Campion and Graham Kent, the last four either unwilling, or unable to contribute.

I'm glad it has come to a head, don't need to pussyfoot round him any more.

David Ford and Michael Gillon deliver their questionnaire, and it is well thought out. Apart from David describing it as a strategy for the golf club, the evening goes as well as I could have hoped; Charles thinks it was brave of me to let it fly, but then people have to have their head.

John Reid thinks I'm trying to change too much, too quickly, after all I didn't give Jayesh five minutes to speak; he thinks I should have allowed Social & Programme the opportunity to read out their reports. I think John has a very rigid view of what should happen, and consequently any slight shift, is too much change, too fast. Actually John is very complimentary, and says I'm doing a good job, so I feel a bit like an X-Factor contestant, they only care what Simon Cowell thinks, not the others.

Monday 29th September: Brain and I meet David Wood, the chairman of the RAS trustees. A decent can do type of guy, with a vision for the development of RAS.

We discuss the location of the firework display, and walk a lot of the perimeter between RAS land and the adjacent studs. We appear to be 400-500 meters away from Hubbard's Lodge, the Crouch's stud.

In the evening Brian and I pay Major Crouch and son Hugh a visit, and we are pleasantly surprised by the hospitality, two bottles of wine and nibbles. Given that Brian declines and Richard Gale also declines I think, well they've gone to some trouble here, so I tuck in.

Richard Gale is there, as his shift on the High Street protest finishes some time earlier, but I find it difficult to take him seriously given his puerile, ongoing protest; needless to say he doesn't make much of a contribution.

The meeting is conducted amicably from start to finish, and it is clear that although Major Crouch feels very aggrieved that what he believes was a Gentlemen's agreement with Jeremy Skipper has been ignored, he recognises the good work Lions do and accepts that the display will go ahead.

The nub of there concerns are over the safety of their horses, and in summary they wish to ensure that we have insurance cover should a worst case scenario occur, and they have an injured horse, or even worse, a horse has to be put down.

They also request that we set up a communication link between them and the firers on the night so that before we start we can check everything is OK at their end, and that we can confirm when the display is completed.

I leave Brian with the task of checking our event specific insurance, and communicate to David Wood how the meeting went. In hindsight I think the fact that there was no one available from RAS was a good thing, otherwise I'm sure we would have got bogged down.

David will make some enquiries regarding insurance with some contacts he has, but it does seem to make sense that we ensure we are covered should the worst happen.