Handover Day

The weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Kirkcaldy was held on June 28th at the Dean Park Hotel. President John Kilgour welcomed 32 members of the club and three guests – Zahid Mukhtar, Caroline Nolan and Marie Rossiter.

President John opened the meeting by presenting the Treasurer, PP Bill Stewart, with a cheque for £2,353 from the 200 Club for the club’s charitable work. He notified members that purple crocuses had been ordered for planting up at Hayfield to create an End Polio now field of crocuses in February.

Iain Gow reminded people that they still had time to sign up for the Rotary Young Musicians Concert in Perth on 10^th September. Lindsay Stewart updated club members on progress with the garden of the historic Law’s Close on Kirkcaldy High Street and encouraged them to visit. The weekly raffle raised £36.00

Assistant Secretary Sharon gave members info on the Shelter Boxes that Council have agreed to donate to Syria. PP Ann Mitchell has been re-appointed as Assistant Governor for District 1010 and was congratulated

There was no speaker this week as it was Handover Day at the end of John Kilgour’s presidential year. President John noted that he had been honoured to serve the club following in the footsteps of many worthy Rotarians including his own late father. He highlighted some of the many highlights of his year, top of which was our talk from Olivia Giles and he was delighted that the Club was to support her project 500 Miles this year. Other highlights have included the delicious meal at the Annapurna Gurkha, May’s Ingolstadt visit, the Ceilidh at Templehall and the Kids Out trip to Craigtoun. His personal low point had been his solo singing of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star at the children’s party! He was particularly proud of the Youth Services work the club had done and he gave thanks to PP Ann for her endless enthusiasm that lies behind so much of it. He gave special thanks to PP Bill and to Jack Dempsey for their support as Treasurer and Secretary, thanks to the committee chairs and to all the members for their support throughout the year. His parting advice to the incoming President Mark was don’t forget Past Presidents’ Day and try to lose your voice before the Christmas Party! The Club had welcomed 7 new members this year and John was delighted to have left it in such a thriving position, active in our community and across the world.

He then inducted Mark Rossiter as President for 2016-17 and passed him the Chain of Office.

President Mark thanked PP John and started by saying how delighted and honoured he was to become the 95^th President of the Rotary Club of Kirkcaldy. He looked forward to a year of fellowship and fundraising, continuing existing projects and embarking on new ones, including the development of a Friends of Rotary. It would be a busy year ahead and he was confident of the support, advice and assistance of the membership. He promised that in return he would give the club his best efforts and was convinced that Kirkclady Rotary would be here, working hard, in another 95 years.

President Mark then presented the Past President’s badge to PP John and thanked him for continuing to serve, looking after Club membership and the speakers’ rota. He introduced Dallas Mechan as Senior Vice President and Robert Main as Junior Vice President for the year to come. The meeting closed at 2.00pm.