Rotary Clubs join together.

The area’s two Rotary Clubs, the Rotary Club Keighley and the Rotary Club of Haworth & Worth Valley, have decided to in order to create a larger group of people capable of delivering even more Rotary-style offerings to the community.

The Keighley Club was formed in 1933 while the Haworth & Worth Valley club started life in 1999.

Currently the Keighley Club meets at Central Hall on Alice Street at 12.45pm on Monday lunchtimes while members of the former Haworth & Worth Valley Rotary Club now meet as a dedicated Rotary Club of Keighley Project Group on Tuesday evenings at 6.30pm.

Under the new club format there will now be two meetings most weeks each month with the one of the meetings becoming one focussed on delivering significant projects that will benefit the people of the whole area.

The Monday lunchtime meeting offering an established Rotary format of a meal and invited speakers will continue in its current slot while the Tuesday Project group has been meeting at the Old Hall Hotel, Sun Street, Haworth and other venues in the Worth Valley.

Jim Staton, President of the Rotary Club of Keighley, said: “We believe that by bringing the two clubs together we will have more members and that will enable us to take on even more meaningful projects in the future.

“And we come together as the Rotary Club of Keighley serving under the banner of ‘Rotary in Keighley and the Worth Valley”.

Peter Oddy, who is the President of the Haworth & Worth Valley Club, said: “Both Clubs have a proud record of serving the community.

“By modernising our approach to the delivery of Rotary and its objectives in Keighley and Worth Valley, we hope to attract even more people to join us in this exciting development.”

A key change for the club’s Project Group will be that meetings will be restricted to one-hour to concentrate solely on the delivery of a range of local and international projects.

Added Jim Staton: “By restricting the meeting to an hour we are recognising that modern working people have limited time to offer service organisations, and the meetings are timed so that people who participate will still be able to contribute to family life.”

Peter Oddy explained: “Rotary is the ideal organisation for both men and women to work together on projects that matter, and we are also looking to recruit people who really want to serve our community.”

President Jim Staton (left) and President Peter Oddy (right)