BICESTER Rotary Club is looking for members to create a satellite club to attract new members and cast off its old fashioned image.

Tim Hibbert, chairman of the town’s Rotary branch, wants to do away with the “grey men in suits meeting for lunch” image and inject some energy into a new venture.

The 68-year-old is following the lead of other clubs in the country.

He said: “The idea of the weekly meeting is no long applicable to modern day life.

“People can’t or don’t want to get that involved anymore, so we have to look at ways of changing if we want to attract new people.

“It is a new approach to get people together under the Rotary banner.”

The club would ideally be made up of younger people who would bring fresh and creative ideas to the table.

They would operate autonomously within the Rotary Club of Bicester but would only meet when they needed to, or could even just converse online.

Members could also become part of the main club if they wished.

Rotary clubs throughout the country focus on aiding both international and local causes and, Mr Hibbert insisted, are still very much part of modern life.

The Wendlebury resident said: “We are very much involved in helping the local community.”

Mr Hibbert said he would also like to form two clubs to support the current one, a satellite club and a Friends of the Rotary club, which would only meet sporadically and support the main club when it holds various events.

“Even if people just want to put forward their own projects and only help with those,” he added.

“We do not want to influence what the new clubs do, and if they want to become rotary clubs in their own right later down the line, then that is definitely something they could pursue.

“We would just like more people to get involved and create their own community.

“Rotary does some really great things.”

For more information, contact Mr Hibbert on 01869 327 384.

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