THE club now meets at The Foxlydiate Hotel every Monday at 12.30pm for lunch at 1pm, and it held its monthly business meeting on September 3.

On September 10 a visiting Rotarian from the Kings Norton Club, Tom Gray, gave an amusing talk on his early experiences as a teacher in the Birmingham area and on September 17 a Past District Governor of Rotary, Brian Moore brought the members up to date with progress on the great project that he and his fellow members of Birmingham Breakfast Club have been undertaking over recent years, namely the provision of a desperately needed orphanage to provide a decent home for those abandoned children having special needs and found in Romania following the collapse of Communism. The necessary funds (as may be imagined a huge sum) have been raised by Rotary, a new centrally situated plot has been acquired and perhaps most notably, the many bureaucratic obstacles have been surmounted and all that remains to be done before building work starts to get the signature of the town mayor on the final document.

Dave Andrews, the county technology technician, was the club's guest speaker on September 24 and he explained his work in supplying and maintaining the vast number of new technology gadgets which could do so much to give added security and confidence to those clients of the NHS and Social Services (mostly the elderly) whom he was charged to help.

Besides very modern and foolproof smoke, flood, carbon monoxide detectors and gadgets that monitored when, for example, a patient got out of bed when for his own good he should not have done, Mr Andrews explained and demonstrated in some cases various pieces of equipment that dispensed the right pills at the right time for a patient, remote controls for wall power sockets, hand held door intercom units whereby the user could answer a caller from his seat or bed, communicate with a caller and admit the caller if desired.

Many of these items were surprisingly cheap and we were heartened to learn that if official suppliers proved too expensive, there was the possibility of buying items direct from manufacturers or DIY stores so that those people needing such practical aids to living could be given them.

The club's guest speaker on October 1 was Alan King of the Redditch Kingfisher Rotary Club, well known as a former trustee of the omnibus museum at Wythall, who spoke about his primary interest, namely tramways, best known as electrically driven and remembered by many club members.

The first electric trams were introduced in Blackpool which still today has a large tramway mileage and popular green and cream trams running along the sea front.

From the late 19th century to the 1920s trams were the main form of public transport throughout Britaish towns and cities, but the high capital costs of replacing worn out trams and the extra flexibility of motor buses led to there being only a few tramways left by 1939 and the war put paid to most of them. However there are many preserved trams in various parts of the country such as the Tramway Museum at Crich in Derbyshire and visitors to the Black Country Museum at Dudley can ride on ex-Bilston trams.

The club has enjoyed a wide range of subjects of talks but continues with core projects such as raising funds for the supply of fresh water in third world countries, giving outings or holidays to local children in need, filling shoeboxes with goodies for needy children abroad and collecting books and aids to literacy to fill needs both here and overseas.