Our Chairman 2008-2010, Marianne

February 20th, 2010

Name: Marianne Jordan
Age: 37
Occupation: Audiologist and mum
Lived in St Albans for: 11 years
Joined Circle in: 2005
Reason for joining: to be part of a club again (I had been a member of Rotaract, the young person’s Rotary, and missed the opportunities for meeting new people, trying new activities and helping in the community.)
Aims for the year 2009/10: To keep building the membership; to raise more money for Charity than last year; to develop better relations with Tangent and Round Table;  to get the final pieces in place to become a fully-fledged club (ie Charter, local rules); to find a way of making money for club funds;  to try out new activities; to have fun! (Must remember that last one….)
What have you done as a member of Circle? I was a member of Harpenden Circle for 3 years before deciding it was time to start a club in St Albans. I had been on the Gift Fair Organising Committee for 2 years and was social secretary for one year. For various reasons I had decided to leave Harpenden club, but on driving to what I had planned to be my final meeting in March 2008, I realised that there are some things that you can only get from being in a club such as Circle. So somehow, instead of taking a break, I ended up starting a new club and becoming the chairman! The first year went amazingly well, culminating in winning not only the National membership award for most new members in a year (15, not including the 3 founder members) but I was also awarded The President’s Award, in recognition of all the work I had put in and specifically for being the person who had done the most to promote Circle that year. I neglected to mention that not only was I St Albans Chair, I was also on the Area Committee where I was the publicity person. I organised an Area publicity meeting, where all clubs in the Area shared their ideas and then I produced a document which was shared on the National website. As far as I see it, there is no need to reinvent the wheel and if you find something that works (to promote Circle) you should share it with everyone. I was delighted to receive this recognition and it was a great surprise as I had no idea such an award existed!
This year (2009-10) being the Chairman has been a lot less stressful as I now have a great team behind me. The biggest challenge is turning out to be finding someone to take over next year! However, this is nothing compared to the challenge of setting up a new club. Please see “The story so far” for more details of the trials and tribulations of the first year. I have certainly learned a lot, not least that you cannot please all of the people all of the time and that if something is important to you, you make time for it.
Things you would never have done without Circle: Where to start! Chocolate-tasting, belly-dancing, lunch at Gordon Ramsay’s, Bollywood Night, pole dancing, being Santa’s little helper, Safari Supper, Gift Fair, a chance to develop people and project management skills and public speaking skills; meeting so many lovely people!
Final words of wisdom: You never know what you can achieve until you try.