The first years of Rotary club Bled
15 June 1991 is regarded as the day of the of official foundation of Rotary Club Bled. It was a sunny day. And on the eve of that day we could hear, from the boats on the Lake Bled, covered by mist, joyful singing of the Rotarians-to-be. It was started by eight members of the Ave Chorus, and joined by people in the boats. As they had been standing on the solid ground beside the church on the Island of Lake Bled, they had been sure about the straightness of Rotarian values and aims. And now, on the boats, swinging back and forth, they realised that it would be necessary to row into the waves of turbulent life to achieve those values and aims.And we started. First into the next month when risk, manliness and gunpowder could be smelled, the month, which was of great importance for the Slovenian nation. And then into the following months of the first official Rotarian year, at the discreet presence of the sponsor club from Villach and attentive care of our "father", honorary member of our club, Johann Pontasch and under the leadership of our first president, Tomaž Thaler, called also Toto.
This is the beginning of the Rotary Club Bled official history. And before that, there was its prehistory. For the future members it is recorded in its first president's notes where we can read: "The resolution to found Rotary Club was adopted at Grad Podvin. The present were: Jambrek Peter, Pretnar Luka and Thaler T. Tomaž... It was adopted with one voice on 4 May 1990 at 18:30." And following are some witty notes about each meeting of the club in foundation until the week when Charterfire took place.
After the above mentioned solemn event there were club meetings each Friday at Grad Podvin which become and remained, as suggested by first Club master Luka Pretnar, the official sear of Rotary Club Bled. Members' enthusiasm was shown in numerous interesting lectures, attending concerts and exhibitions and relatively successful collecting money for social program intended for mentally disabled children in Matevž Langus Institution. The club activities were enlarged by wine tasting in Primorska and hunters' cannonade in the eastern part of Slovenia. Also members of families and our neighbours took part in the latter activities.
After the first year of official operation we started the second one under the leadership of Janez Bizjak. Our regular club meeting were moved from Fridays, which were very often finished in the early Saturday mornings, to Tuesdays. In the second year we started to question ourselves about the Club sense and mission, it was the time of the first tests for the Club members and the time of closer contacts with the contact club Brixen from Italy and establishing contacts with the contact club Kassel - Willheimshoehe from Germany.
Some Club members were especially eager to disseminate information about independent Slovenia, its nature and its people. For this purpose we organised an event in Podvin, which was met with a wide response, and attended also by their president of Slovenian Parliament, Dr.France Bučar, and the president of Pan-European Movement, who fights for multicultural Europe, Otto von Habsburg.
The Club activities were going into the same direction in the third year, under the leadership of a doctor and a dentist, Marko Potočnik. As being open to the world, the ideas of the Rotarianism started to spread from Ljubljana and Bled also to other Slovenian places. Thus the reconciliation meetings of the presidents of Slovenian Rotary clubs were started (Ljubljana, Bled, Maribor, Ljubljana-Emona, Portorož). Bled Club attracted more members, organised a meeting with mayors of the municipalities of Gorenjska as well as with important representatives from economic and cultural fields. Every week there were lectures and business hours and the weeks and moths were passing very quickly, and there came the fourth Rotarian year of our club.
The fourth year - in which the function of "primus inter pares" was given to the below signed - was intended to strengthen the friendship and closer contacts with the clubs at home and abroad. Thus we did not organise big public actions, but we were trying to find ways to each other and to the neighbouring clubs. We were quite successful in that, as our guests were Rotarians from all over the world, from Finland to Australia and from the USA to Ukraine; not mentioning friendly meetings with the members from Varaždin, Kassel, and Emona and our visits to Villach, Wolsfberg, Ljubljana and Ptuj.
During that year we had a great number of guest speakers from Janez Janša to Dr. Kovač and Dr. Mencinger. Each member presented a theme from his professional or amateur activities. Of course we organised our traditional pheasant hunting. In autumn 1994 most of our members, together with friends from the clubs of Emona, Portorož and Zagreb visited the Museum of Brežice and experienced champagne tasting at Istenič's. We contributed money for the performance of an opera , called "Medij", which was performed by the students of the Academy of Music from Ljubljana, some club members went to see the opera and found out that sponsorship of art performances can be a Rotarian activity with wide response. We confirmed that also by the group visit to an Israeli singer concert which our friend from Ljubljana Club, Tomaž Bole. In the beginning of 1995 we again helped the children in Matevž Langus Institution, as we remember those children every year.
One Rotarian year follows the other and disseminate the idea to join people "who mean well" and are ready to help each other and others.
Bine Igličar
