The Rotary Club of Edinburgh
Bulletin 2105 - 13th July 2006
REVIEW
Presidential Styles
In order to help satisfy the wishes of the 12 Past Presidents of the Club for frequent changes of the Editor. The Bulletin week in two of the new session finds a past Editor writing the Bulletin.
Normal service will be resumed next week.
One of the pleasures of Rotary is in observing the different approaches to saying “grace” adopted by the Presidents of the Club. In the past we have had rhyming couplets and other forms of “verse”. Last week President Fred prayed to the Almighty for mince and tatties to be served and not frogs legs or lasagne, (his prayer was ignored as the menu was already decided and was soup followed by pork).After an attendance of 80 last week there were only 48 members, 1 visiting Rotarian and 3 guests a total of 52, one of our smallest attendances for some time. There is a problem that in a club with a membership of 150, eighty is now regarded as a good attendance.
Visiting Rotarian and a link with the past
Mrs Mhairi Trickett of the Orkney Club is the daughter of former member Frank MacRitchie and Nancy MacRitchie a former member of Inner Wheel.Mrs Trickett brought the good wishes of President Chris and members of the Orkney Club. She told the Club that her father had been a member of our Club for about 35 years and her mother who was one of the founding members of St Columba’s Hospice had been a member of Inner Wheel for over 40 years. Mrs Trickett thanked the Club for the many kindness shown to her mother over the years.
President’s and Secretary’s announcements
It was announced that Vice President Robin Wilson was proposing the toast at the 60th birthday meeting of Inner Wheel and that he had taken a gift of £50 to the Inner Wheel for use in one of their charitable causes.The Secretary reported that he had an email from Big Al Maclean, who thanked us for our club banner and stated that he and his wife had enjoyed the CD of songs by Club members! He also expressed his thanks for the wonderful hospitality extended by Scottish Rotarians to the Canadian golfers, and in his own case, that received from Golf Club Captain, Ronnie Sinclair and his wife Careen.
Greetings had also been received from the Radcliff City Club of Queensland Australia. Two couples had been the beneficiaries of the Midsummer Christmas presentation held by the Carlton Highland Hotel last week. Both Fiona Brown and Heather Shanks, accompanied by their spouses had very much enjoyed the evening and could recommend the hotel as a most suitable venue for corporate hospitality at Christmas. President Fred stated that he and Susan had represented the Club at the annual Royal Garden Party at Holyrood and that Oliver Balfour had been on duty in his role of High Constable. Congratulations to Wali Uddin, his restaurant Britannia Spice once again gained a Best in Britain award at a ceremony in London.
A matter of choice
One of our guests was Ms Alison Cameron who had been a Rotarian in Canada and was now working in Edinburgh. Ms Cameron was doing a tour of the Edinburgh Clubs before deciding which one to join, the choice appeared to be between Leith and ourselves. (It is interesting to consider how one would go about selling the advantages of joining our Club as opposed to our neighbours).Visits of members to other clubs
Only two of our members had been visiting, Douglas Osler to Haddington.Iain Robertson had made a return visit to the Taw Valley Club. Readers will remember that last year Iain had brought back a “piece of wood” which the Taw Valley Club hoped would circumnavigate the globe passing from one Rotary Club to another, Iain was reminded that the object had only a brief stay in our hands as it had been passed to a visiting Rotarian from Glasgow.
No Change
Last week Iain MacLaren wrote about the difficulties encountered by the young lady selling tickets at our meetings by having to provide change for £20 notes. One Rotarian stated that the young lady might display a notice saying any member producing the exact money would be rewarded with a kiss. Management very sensibly had a young man selling the tickets last week so don’t bother hunting around for change.
Guest Speaker
One of the great pleasures of our meetings is the great variety of speakers brought to us by Rajiv Naik. Last week John Hepburn extolled the benefits of having a Life Coach in helping to make crucial decisions in the operation of their business.An excellent Vote of Thanks was given by Sandy Buchan who had known the speaker for 10 years through their work at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.