The Rotary Club of Edinburgh

Bulletin 2,051 - 24th March 2005

REVIEW

Attendance

On a bright spring day last Thursday, 61 members met for lunch with one guest. Forbes Ridland was able to report that he was the speaker at the Waverly Club with Neville Belton in support. They brought back greetings.

Award for Selfless Service

A Paul Harris Fellowship was awarded to Jeff Gibb last Thursday. Whilst Jeff has eschewed formal office within the Club he has been a reliable volunteer for our good works. He helps with the New Horizon Club, Christmas parcels, Old Folks Outings, Kids Out, the Tsunami collections plays with the Golf Club and attends our meetings regularly. For Jeff, recognition of faithful service to the club came as a surprise, along with the congratulation, which followed.

Appropriate Rotary Attire

Leith scored well with the Tsunami collections because they were geared up for collections with licence, clearly labelled collecting boxes and identifying aprons. Fred Lawson and Alex Wilkie have paid to fully equip us, and arrangements made to permit public collections in the future.

The tabards have arrived, some in fluorescent yellow with the Edinburgh Club emblazoned in red and others in what was described as tasteful, blue with yellow lettering. At lunch last Thursday, those too shy to don the tabards, gave the new collecting boxes a trial run with some success.

Fred Lawson can make your own personal Rotary tabard available at £20 each (which is useful on the Continent as a fluorescent top in case of breakdown). This includes a donation to our charity funds.

A Rotary Visit to the Holyrood Parliament

An educational visit is arranged for 19 May, and Fred Lawson is hoping we shall bring together a significant group to inform MSPs of Rotary and fact find about the parliament for the Club.

FOCUS

KidsOut Scotland

A separate Scottish identity is being forged for Kids Out. Under the guidance of Amanda Chessum. A new committee has been formed to promote and support Kids Out in Scotland

The new committee includes James Mason from our Club and is embarking on a programme of fund raising to support events in this part of the UK. The Edinburgh Club has been a strong supporter and promoter of Kids Out. We have encouraged a number of other events as well as involving Bathgate, North Berwick, Duns, and representatives of some of the other Edinburgh Clubs in our events.

The fund raising is focused on a large formal dinner, which seeks corporate charity donations. James tells me that they have had considerable initial success in attracting large companies to take tables of ten at Murrayfield Sports Stadium. The theme is "A Question of Sport" Quiz with Scottish sporting personalities in the teams. They hope for between 30 to 50 tables of ten. We are looking for any member of our club who can bring in a business sponsor for a table for an evening of corporate entertainment. Equally welcome would be if ten members were to get together and take a table.

The dinner will open with champagne followed by a three-course meal served with wine. The main event is the celebrity "A Question of Sport" Quiz and fund raising to complete the evening.

The funds will be used to support Kids Out held on Wednesday 8th June at The Jack Kane Centre. Later in April we shall be asking for volunteers to assist with the 200 disadvantaged children who we are entertaining. So keep the 8th of June free!
National KidsOut charity has broadened its horizons. They are looking to provide fun and happiness for disadvantaged children on a year round basis.

PRATTLE

The Magnificent Seven

Yet again our curlers arrived short handed at a match, and won. Keith Frost repeated much the same story for the match with Kirkcaldy as we had heard for the Glasgow encounter. The significant difference was however that the Kirkcaldy side, composed of gentlemen, stated that since this is Rotary, they would not penalise us for the man short. In the event, one rink had a convincing win, 15 / 3 whilst the other peeled. This was only through Arthur Barlow succeeding in making up a 3 point margin at the end. We again won by a fine margin.

Member Report

Ken Bowen has been in the Western General Hospital. He has now been discharged from there and is at St Columba's Hospice in Boswall Road.

Birthday Greetings

Peter Wheeldon was able to inform us that his father John was 94 last Wednesday. The family went out for a celebration lunch on the day. The Restaurant topped the meal with chocolate cake and sparkler candles. John could not resist, and in consequence was unable to make it to our own Rotary lunch last Thursday.

Professor David Purdie

Last week we anticipated a talk on Osteo-porosis. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not a bone crumbled in what proved to be one of the most entertaining lunchtime talks in a long while.

We were reminded of the 11th commandment - "thou shalt not indulge in unnecessary expenditure" - to be followed by an Englishman's take on the Scots ability to control the cost of the Parliament Building. The irony was of course that the English were in fact paying for it so who cares?

THIS WEEK'S SPEAKER

Thursday 24 March 2005: Alan Dickson,
The Paralympic Movement
Vote of Thanks: Fred Eedwards

NEXT WEEK'S SPEAKER

Thursday 31 March 2005: Dr Alison Elliot
Moderator of the Church of Scotland
Vote of Thanks: Russell Barr.

PREVIEW

This is the annual visit of the Moderator of the Church of Scotland to our Club.