The Rotary Club of Edinburgh

December's News

Bulletin 1928 - 12th December 2002
Bulletin 1927 - 5th December 2002

Bulletin 1928 - 12th December 2002

LAST WEEK

Despite the difficulties encountered by the fire alarm going off prior to the start of activities over one hundred members and guests enjoyed a pleasant meal at the Macdonald Hotel last week.

Our speaker, Ian Taylor, formerly Public Relations and Press Officer at the East of Scotland College of Agriculture was the Speaker at our Christmas or Festive Lunch.

As part of his preparation for his talk he had checked our website and also obtained details of some of our members. He knew that Fred Ainslie had been a mini-mariner although Fred later corrected this by saying he had been in midget submarines or X craft.

Ian thought that fly-fishing was an exercise that allowed you to do nothing all day and he wondered if that was what George Holmes' Angling Section did?

He gave advice as to how parents could identify whether or not their children were going to be scientists when they grew up. He said that the parents should get an orange juice carton and if the child read the word concentrate, then a scientist they would be!

Ian thought that he had probably shared with Past President Liz McSwan the excitement of the Rectorial Election at the University of Glasgow when R A Butler was elected.

Finally Ian delighted his audience in an appropriate accent with some reminiscences of his childhood in Australia where he said that all the residents appeared to be descendants of convicts or Scots or both!

His Christmas message was "You are what you give".
Ian certainly entertained us and amused us well.
Attendance Last Week
Members 66
Visitors 0
Guests 70
Total 136

CHRISTMAS PARCELS

Christmas Parcels will be ready for collection from Friday 13th December at Sweetserve Ltd.
177 Slateford Rd. (tel 444 2122).

Raymond Pia and his team are most grateful to all the members who are involved in this most valuable undertaking.

RESIGNATION

It is with regret that Council have accepted the resignation of Lesley Telfer who has found it impossible due to work commitments to continue as a member of our Club.

Council are very grateful for the contribution Lesley made to the Club.

In this Rotary year four new members have been inducted but Deaths and Resignations have meant that six members have left.

LETTER FROM AMERICA

President Peter recently received a letter from Harold J DeBrin, Rochester New York.
Mr DeBrin stated that he had visited our Club in November 1942 and the following day with one of the Club members he had 'walked over the Firth of Forth Bridge after Sunday lunch'.

He also tells of a visit he and his wife made to Scotland in 1983 as well as enclosing several pages of a book that he wrote for his children many years after the war had ended.

Mr DeBrin describes the many links of the links between the part of Western New York State and Scotland. His home town of Williamson is named after a Scot, Captain Williamson, one of the towns in his home county of Wayne is Clyde on the Lake Erie Canal. It was while teaching in high school in Clyde that Mr DeBrin became a Rotarian.

Mr DeBrin concludes his letter as follows -
"My best wishes to Edinburgh Scotland Rotary Club. In the time remaining, my one visit in 1942, will always remain a precious memory of a very rare experience."

SIR WINSTON S CHURCHILL TRUST

The Honorary Secretary recently received a request from the University of Cambridge to publish three letters of which the copyright belongs to our Club.

In October 1921 the Vice President of our Club wrote two letters to Mr Churchill regarding the possibility of him addressing the Club.

On 14th November 1921 Mr Churchill wrote back saying that he was unable to fulfil the request.

Bulletin 1927 - 5th December 2002

LAST WEEK

Our speaker last week, Professor Usher, gave a most interesting talk on 'Scotland's Biodiversity. He explained that the term biodiversity had first made its appearance in 1988 and the Rio Conference of 1992 had placed great emphasis on Biological Diversity.

He explained that the term meant:-
Variety of habitats.
Variety of species.
Genetic variety within the species.

He told us that the various Natural History Societies and Chairs of Natural History in Scotland had been able to identify 90,000 species in Scotland. The number of mammals, birds and fish could be clearly identified as could plants but more difficulty was experienced with insects, microbes, fungi, viruses, mosses and algae.

The rest of the UK at present had identified less than 90,000. In the UK there were 200 different habitats of which Scotland had 141. Of the different habitats 2 occurred only in Scotland; the Caledonian Pine Forest and the machair.

In trying to formulate a Biodiversity action plan it was necessary to decide what we should do, what should we focus on, and where are we going with species and habitats. The Forestry Commission are tackling the pine forests but there is a threat to the machair. In addition to the Scottish Executive 32 Local Authorities have action plans.In Edinburgh there are 97 different species and particular attention is being paid to the following; harvest mouse, adder, greater spotted woodpecker, and in addition the juniper.

Professor Usher asked is this just nature conservation dressed up? There are 47 groups active in Edinburgh (including the Four Winds Inspiration Centre)!
Professor Usher concluded by asking if we had an interest in biodiversity and to think of how many species had interacted in our life today for example in what we had eaten and drunk at breakfast time.

Attendance Last Week
Members 77
Visitors 1
Guests 0
Total 80

MEMBERS IN THE NEWS

Congratulations to Sir Peter Heatly CBE who on Saturday was one of 50 Scots to be elected to the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame at a ceremony in the Royal Museum.
Among the achievements listed were his winning the Scottish Diving Championship 1946-58, 3 Commonwealth Gold Medals.
Being Chairman of the Commonwealth Games Federation 1982 to 1990.
Past President Douglas Osler has been appointed Visiting Professor to the Faculty of Education, University of Strathclyde.

VOLUNTEER SECRETARY?

The Company that runs the Charity Shops for St Columba's Hospice needs a new Company Secretary to start in February 2003. Keith Frost who is Chairman already has an enquiry out with REACH but feels there would be some advantages in having a fellow Rotarian in the team.
Please contact Keith Frost if you would like to know more.

CANADIAN CURLERS

Last week David Henderson announced that the visiting Canadian Curlers were going into the final match in Glasgow holding a 5 stone advantage.

In the final match the Scottish Team overcame that handicap and finished with a victory by 19 shots to win the overall competition by a margin of 549 to 535 and win the Bob Mackintosh Quaich. The trophy had been competed for over 17 matches.
In the match for the Duddingston Trophy played between the 2000 Scotland to Canada Team and the current Canada Team the Canadians won by 47-33.
This meant that the aggregate score over the two trophies was 582-582, an ideal result illustrating all that is best in Rotary Fellowship.
The Canadians left for home on Saturday.

Other News:

- October  '03
- October  '03
- September '03
- August '03
- July '03
- June '03
- May '03
- April '03
- March '03
- February '03
- January '03
- December '02
- November '02
- October '02
- September '02