President Bill Deans welcomed eleven other members, guest speaker Lorna Hepburn, Property Manager at Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Hill House in Helensburgh, and other guests Judy Dicken, Diane Braid and Vale Pace.
The president said that he and Graham Smith attended the Helensburgth Garelochside club's meeting in the Rosslea Hall Hotel, Rhu, when Deirdre Henderson, Macmillan Cancer Support Service Manager for Argyll, spoke about a new Macmillan Cancer Information Services & Cancer Support Drop-In Point which will open at Helensburgh Library, West King Street, in September. Members are also invited to the Garelochside club's meeting next Monday when Past District Governor Alex Blair will talk about Club Visioning.
It was reported that a letter of thanks had been received from the Ghurka Welfare Fund following the club's donation of the money raised at the Can Collection in the Co-op. Alastair Wilson said that he had too many tomato and courgette plants in his greenhouse and would happily give these to members.
Lorna Hepburn spoke about Hill House in Upper Colquhoun Street, built in what was a potato field by famous architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh from 1902-4 for book publisher Walter Blackie and his family, and said it was "a great treasure for the town". This year there is a small exhibition celebrating the Blackie family's connection with local sailing, and on Saturday July 4 there will be an outdoor theatre performance of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew".
People come from all over the world to visit the iconic mansion, which last year had 23,500 visitors. It has a tearoom and two shops.
The National Trust for Scotland repaired the roof, the foundations have been stablilised to cope with the increased footfall, and a large grant from the Getty Foundation is enabling research into water penetration problems in the walls — a problem which affects a number of important buildings around the world.
Alastair Wilson proposed the vote of thanks, and the weekly raffle for a whisky miniature was won by Ron Dunachie.