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Tag: Knoll House Hotel

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Diamond Geezers!

The great and the good from Swanage and Purbeck, including Club members, Business Partners, Friends of Rotary, Past members and other Rotary clubs assembled at the Knoll House Hotel on Wednesday 20th March to celebrate the Club’s 60th Charter.

Amongst those present to commemorate all those years of fun, fellowship and service to the local community were our mother club Bournemouth, our daughter club Wareham and representatives of seven other Rotary clubs. We were honoured to also welcome RIBI National President Debbie Hodge and District 1110 Governor Allan Smith to the event as well as Swanage Town Mayor Mike Bonfield.

President Elect Steve Parsons and Teresa with Roy & Jill Parkinson and Dick & Julie Mattick from Swindon Old Town (Steve’s former club)

RIBI President Debbie, proposing a toast to the club, spoke warmly about the Club’s history and achievements. In response, PDG David Pike further detailed some of the more memorable events from the club’s past. Then Club President Linda Winter, proposing a toast to the guests, explained how important the local community and visitors to our community are to the club’s ongoing success.

District Governor Allan Smith responded on behalf of the guests and highlighted the important place that Swanage & Purbeck Rotary holds in the life of District 1110.

The event was a joyous occasion and we were delighted to welcome so many people to join our celebration. More photographs are available on our Facebook page


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Life in the Hotel Business

Tracy Tennant, one of our club members, spoke to us this week about her life in the hotel business.

Tracy is currently the General Manager of the Knoll House Hotel in Studland and explained her background and her mantra “A Happy Team Creates Happy Guests”.

Tracy explained that all hotels are different and there are many different categories of business, from tourism to corporate, and from seaside retreats to city centre establishments. But there is a lot more to managing a hotel than meets the eye. A manager has to be a jack of all trades and be adept at everything from looking after the payroll, to meetings with staff, having Human Resources skills and forecasting room demand.

Tracy’s background is quite different from what she does now. She started out in nursing at a very young age but soon realised it wasn’t for her. So she took a job as a checkout clerk at a supermarket and quickly moved through the ranks, eventually achieving a role in supermarket management.

However, this wasn’t to be her long term career either and she saw a job advertised at a hotel and went for it. She’s come up through the ranks in this business too, and worked as a receptionist, events manager, reservations manager and a number of other roles in several hotels in the north of England. She then became a troubleshooter, going into hotels where problems had been identified and fixing them. Ultimately she took her first steps into hotel management, where she had since thrived, turning around the fortunes of many businesses.

Her career to date has enabled her to get involved in charity and she has been a staunch and active supporter of People Against Poverty, working in areas such as Romania.

Tracy has won a number of awards over the course of her long career, including Business Woman of the Year and Mentor of the Year.

On behalf of the club, Rotarian Jenny Hynan thanked Tracy for a most interesting talk. Sadly (for us) Tracy will be leaving us at Christmas to take up a new opportunity in the Winchester area, so we all wish her well.

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Swanage Rotarians Carry On Regardless!

The weather may have taken a nasty turn for the worse, but nothing stops Swanage Rotarians from carrying on with their planned activities and there’s been quite a lot going on over the past week or so.

At our meeting on 21st February we were delighted to welcome PCSO Iain Leslie and his wife Kerrie to our meeting. Iain has been recognised for his superb work in the local community by being awarded a Rotary Dorset Police Award and the picture shows President Ro and Community & Vocational Committee Chairman Maggie presenting Iain with his certificate. Iain spoke passionately about how much he feels welcomed in the local community and how much he enjoys working and living in the area.

Last Saturday (25th) saw the Silver Sunday Saturday event, postponed from October 2017, take place at Emmanuel Baptist Church with 80 friends. At the same time, Swanage and Purbeck Rotary took the opportunity to celebrate Rotary’s 113th birthday which was reached earlier last week.

Afternoon tea with delicious cakes and sandwiches were greatly enjoyed as was the music kindly provided by Jacqui, Angus and Amanda. The celebration birthday cake was made by Wendy Quayle and was cut by President Elect Linda Winter and Rotarian Hubert Pierce. The event was provided free of charge but guests did make generous donations for Dementia Friendly /Admiral Nurses and £ 130.75 will be added to their funds.

Organisers Rotarians Maggie Hardy and Mo Andrews would like to thank all those who contributed to the very successful afternoon in any way. See our Facebook page for more photos.

Then, at our meeting this week, and despite the sub-zero temperatures and howling gale, we decamped from our usual venue to meet at The Knoll House Hotel in Studland. This was actually the meeting venue for the very first meeting of Swanage Rotary back in 1959. Aside from it being a Fellowship event, to which more than 30 people attended, we were delighted to welcome another two new members to the club – Tracy Tennant (the new General Manager of the Knoll House), and Chris LeFevre, who has recently moved to Purbeck and has transferred to us from Abingdon Vesper RC.
Tracy and Chris were formally inducted and welcomed to the club and both were invited to say a few words. With the formalities over, everyone present enjoyed a sumptuous two course meal from the Knoll House kitchen, followed by coffee and tea.

Grateful thanks goes to the management and staff of the Knoll House for hosting us so well and we look forward to Tracy and Chris integrating fully into the club and its activities.