June 2023
June 13
This was our Annual General Meeting to review our activities over the past year.
Secretary Dave spoke about the increasing volume of reports and communications received regularly from Rotary HQ and elsewhere, most of which he tries to pass on to appropriate members. He encouraged members to make full use of our new dedicated website.
Treasurer Agnes gave a brief summary of the club’s finances. At this stage there was £949 in the General Fund and £941 in the Community Fund. The main charitable appeals responded to were the Ayrshire Hospice and Shelter Box. Full details will be presented in the annual accounts.
Attendance Officer John gave a brief comment on the membership and attendance figures, which have not been high but have been steady. Of the 13 members, 2 or 3 had health reasons for absences, but the other 9 or 10 attended as frequently as they could, the average attendance being 8 or9.
President Gerald gave a comprehensive review of his (third consecutive) year in office and thanked all members for their efforts and support.
In general business, club officers for the next year were confirmed. It was agreed that Jimmy McGhee who is retiring from membership after a few years of ill health should be made an Honorary Member. Agnes asked all members to consider which major charity should be supported by our fund raising efforts over the next year. She also reminded fellow ramblers that the next outing would be the 90th and suggested a walk around the Dumfries House grounds, followed by a visit to the cafe.
June 27
This was the final meeting of the 2022-23 Rotary Year, to which partners, guests and Honorary Members were invited. We had an attendance of 19, made up of 11 members, 1 Honorary Member, 6 partners and 1 guest.
Prior to the meeting, we started with a presentation of a cheque to Ron Swanson of the Ayrshire Hospice, bringing the total over the year to £1500. Ron declined the invitation to stay for the meal.
Various awards were made for members’ efforts over the past few years. The Loudoun Trophy was awarded to John Swanson for his “club historian” efforts, the Inner Wheel Quaich to Sylvia Reid for her “international efforts”. Honorary Member status was awarded to Jimmy McGhee for his long service to the club and Rotary in general. Bouquets of flowers were presented to family members Effie and Alison who have been stalwart supporters of both Jimmy and the Rotary club.
President Gerald’s final duty was to present the chain of office to the new President, Jim Kyle. President Jim then thanked Gerald for his efforts and presented him with a Past President’s badge. The new President Elect, Barbara Goudie-Bradford, was also welcomed to her new role with a badge of office.
The final piece of business was the club raffle. Members had each donated an item, and most members or their partners received a prize, 2 members declining a second prize to enable the goodies to be shared as widely as possible.
At the end of the formal proceedings, members and guests continued to mingle, and were able to examine (and be photographed with) the Scottish Junior Cup which was won recently by Cumnock Juniors Football Club. This had been brought to the meeting by Jimmy McGhee, who is a strong supporter as well as sponsor of the club.
May 2023
May 2
The speaker's topic tonight was "Owl Magic". Tracy operates a "reserve" in the Stevenston area which has become a sanctuary for 58 birds. They are all human imprinted, which means that they will not fly away when released. Tracy takes one or two birds at a time to schools, community groups and Gala Days to demonstrate their skills. All the birds are ringed and their home base is a big barn on a friendly farmer's patch. They will be on display at the Mauchline Holy Fair.
Our club raffle was won by Jim Liddell. Our attendance was 10.
May 16
We were pleased to welcome 2 visiting Rotarians from Kilmarnock Rotary Club, which increased our attendance to 11.
Arrangements were discussed for the Mauchline Holy Fair. The stall will consist of a variety of "goodies" to be won if raffle tickets bought ended in a 0 or a 5. The goodies consisted of some donated items, some bought items and some left over from previous outings (including Rotary pens). Members agreed to work in 2 hour shifts.
Secretary Dave has set up a new website for the club which should make two-way communications better. He used the occasion to demonstrate on the hotel's screen the layout and benefits of the site and how to access it. Individual assistance was offered to (and gratefully accepted by) one or two members who were less confident in the operational technicalities.
Agnes Cowan informed us that the weekly rambles had now been operating for 2 years, and estimated that the distance covered would have been in the region of 85 miles. Well done, walkers - and well done Agnes for coming up with the idea. The club raffle was won by Freda (one of our visitors!).
May 27
This was the day of the Mauchline Holy Fair and after our experience last year we made some changes to our stall. We were in the same area but we had a bigger and better variety of items as prizes, a more orderly layout on the table making it easier to find matching numbers of the raffle tickets, a simpler ticket sale system, and a rota of members on stall duty. Some of the main organisers were there on hand most or all of the day, but others helped out on two hour shifts.
The weather was good, custom was good, there was no loudhailer next to us (as last year!), and we still have plenty of items for our next outing. Takings were about £600, most of which after costs will go to the Ayrshire Hospice appeal.
May 30
We had two speakers at our meeting. The first was the new Assistant Governor for the nine clubs in Ayrshire, Hazel McCully, who had asked to attend our meeting to introduce herself. Under the new Distict format, from July this year, there are now to be only 2 districts, instead of 3, in Scotland. Some changes in practice and procedures are inevitable, and it is hoped to accommodate all clubs’ views and wishes.
Our main speaker was Eddie Fraser, Chief Executive of East Ayrshire Council. He had been involved in local authority services for most of his working life, first in Glasgow under the Strathclyde Regional Council and then after reorganisation the East Ayrshire Council. His main background was in Social Work and Social Health Care until he replaced Fiona Lees as Chief Executive when she retired.
He highlighted some of the wide ranging responsibilities and challenges facing local authorities, with an ageing population, fewer young people, fewer workers and ever increasing demands on the services. He spoke briefly about apprentice-ships, social care in house, the deposit return scheme, council housing, Roads Alliance, and during questions he ackowledged the problems of the provision of new and adequate school premises.
Our attendance was 9 and our club raffle was won by Dave Perriman.
April 2023
April 4
Attendance was 10 to hear our speaker, fellow Rotarian Ian Dale. His topic was the history of poisoning, from the times of Ancient Greece to the present century. Human beings have always been at risk from poisonous substances , but many have been the victims of deliberate poisoning, either as punishment for some crime or by their enemies e.g. poisonous arrows or the point of an umbrella!
His examples ranged from Socrates and Aristotle to Madeleine Smith (Glasgow in the 1800s), Dr. Crippen, Gruinard Island (Anthrax) and Litvinenko (former Soviet Agent in 2006). Whist some poisonous substances in a mild form have been and are still used for beneficial medical or cosmetic purposes, knowing what could be a lethal dose is very important.
We heard that there was some doubt about the number of teams for the P7 Quiz on April 21 and it may need to be postponed. The members raffle was won by Barbara Goudie- Bradford.
April 18
No speaker tonight – attendance 10.
It was agreed to cancel the proposed P7 Quiz as one team has withdrawn and another is doubtful. It was decided to try again later in the year and perhaps not schedule it for a Friday evening.
We have confirmed that we would take a stall at the Holy Fair in Mauchline on Saturday May 27, and will give more thought to what should be included as prizes for the winning raffle tickets to be sold on the day. The proceeds will be put towards our Hospice fundraising.
Our members’ raffle was won by Dave Perriman.
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