A Sense of Place

Having started a few weeks of intense travelling around the District I have been considering what a sense of place means.

Town Hall, Barrow-in-Furness

Many of the places I will visit during the year will have personal memories whether related to my family, school, working or Rotary life.   A good example from this first week on the road was the Town Hall in Barrow where I started my working career all those years ago.  The Rothay Manor Hotel, Ambleside that I helped put in the middle of a one way system and the A590 which I helped improve in the 1980’s.

Cumbria & Lancashire

The journey around the district will highlight the varied landscapes, towns and cities in which we provide our service.  The lakes and mountains of the Lake District, the rivers and valleys of the Eden, Lune and Ribble, the hills of Bowland and Pendle the coastal plains of the Solway, Morecambe Bay and the Fylde; It’s a great area to live, work and play.

We also have a wide range of communities in the district from small picturesque villages to run down housing estates in areas of deprivation.  A challenge for all of us as we determine what we should do in our communities and how we manage the growth in membership we know we need.

A final thought this week about the sense of place relates to where we meet.  It will be interesting as I travel the district to get a sense of what meeting venues mean to Rotarians and the communities which they serve.   Are there situations where our meeting place is inappropriate as we struggle with the challenge to bring more people into our organisation.