Newsletter 302 - July 2018

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Rotary Club of Stranraer

Monthly Newsletter No 302

 July 2018

Service above self

Meetings – unless otherwise advised

1st and 3rd Monday of month – 1pm

2nd & 4th Monday of month – 6pm

At the start of our new Rotary year, Ian McIntyre takes over as President from Neville Wright who should be congratulated for his leadership during our past successful year. Neville is handing over a very active Club in good heart and Ian will ensure that this continues!

Imminent Activities 

Mon 2nd July – 1pm – Presidential Handover.

Mon 9th July – 6pm – Fellowship

Mon 16th July – 1pm – Phil Stewart, a former colleague of Gary Small, will be talking about D & G Citizens Advice Service.

Mon 23rd July – 6pm – Adam Kirkwood, a local footballer who represented Scotland at age group level and who has played in America, will be talking to us about football.

Mon 30th July – no meeting

   

Dates for your Diary  

Fri 3rd August – Annual Portpatrick Raft Race in aid of RNLI – volunteers will be required.

Sat 18th & Sun 19th Aug 2018 – Local Skiff Regatta in Loch Ryan. Volunteers will be required to assist at this event.

July 2019 – Skiff World Championship in Loch Ryan

Recent Events    

Mon 4th June – 1pm - Fellowship

Sat June 9th – Annual Mull of Galloway Trail Marathon etc – see below

Mon 11th June – 6pm - Annual Club Assembly – see below.

Wed 13th June - Kids Out Day – postponed until schools return in August.

Mon 18th June – 1pm – John Munro provided an interesting talk about Ailsa Craig.

                           5.30pm – Bowls at Kirkcolm followed by our Annual New Tattie evening – see report below.

Mon 25th June - Bryan Scott Countryside Development Office told us about the new approved Rhins of Galloway Coastal Path.  The path will run from Stranraer up around Corsewall Point and all the way down the west coast of the Rhins to the Mull of Galloway meeting up with parts of the Southern Upland Way and the Mull of Galloway Trail before returning to Stranraer. The route is over 80 miles in length taking approximately 5 to 6 days to walk in a one go. Funding of approximately 1.2 million pounds has been gathered together from various sources to ensure the project could go ahead.  Final planning preparations are being made prior to the actual construction phase later this year can be started.  This project is expected to significantly increase the tourism footfall in our area and provide additional income opportunities to local existing and new businesses.

Fri 29th June – Annual AmAm golf tournament - see report below.

Annual Club Assembly

Our members met to discuss arrangements for the next Rotary Year which starts from 1st July. It was agreed that we should plan another busy year with many of the same activities as in the year just finishing.

It was agreed that our annual subscription should rise by £2 to £105 to cover our increased contribution to Rotary GB&I. This subscription is now due.

Stranraer Rotary Mull of Galloway Marathon Trail Marathon

Note from Editor – I thought that the best way to report on this major event was to use the message sent by Gordon Baird who put so much effort into organising it.

This event is extremely successful and growing rapidly and it is now growing beyond our ability to safely manage. Hopefully we can find someone with the essential expertise to work in partnership with us so that the event can continue!

‘Dear Marathon Trail Helper,

This morning I have just tidied up the last loose ends from the event. I have left the most important to last. If you want to check out the Facebook page you will see the amazing and universally positive feedback that I hope will also act as thank you for your efforts. Although the weather was kind, many of you had extraordinarily long days and a tough time, but the trail event was a resounding success. This mail is to register, on behalf of Stranraer Rotary and also from me personally for your magnificent efforts. Some of the quotes from the participants were-

I hope you will take these as compliments of the highest order and (apart from the heat!) I could find no negative comments. These unsolicited positive comments are in my opinion a great reward for the effort put in. A special thanks to the marshals who stepped in at the last minute as we were really struggling the few days before the event, and safety is our main focus. This was a particular strain for me and I hope if I was even grumpier than usual you will understand.

The Rotarians who worked before the event and attended all the many planning meetings months in advance; arranging start and finishing arrangements, the paperwork for risk assessments and insurances, the documentation and all the formal arrangements that allowed the day to go as planned are too many to mention, but David Kirkwood’s attention to detail kept me relatively sane.

You are getting this mail because you have done something important and I am sorry I can’t mention you all personally.

The event has changed over the years and even last year had become a more competitive running event, rather than what Rotary had initially envisaged a relaxed day on the trail. I said last year that I was not going to run it again, but circumstances resulted in me having to take the reins late in the day. Facebook marketing increased the profile and the numbers, which was a good thing. However as one of the runners noted all of us ended up with “far too much to do”. That means we have to review what happens next. Rotary has decided to spend some time reflecting on where we go from here and the future of the event is uncertain. What is certain that to be safely run there needs to be additional input and support well beyond what we had this time. We also need to have a lead organisation that is clear about the needs of a running event and will work with others to ensure a governance framework that is communicated well in advance and adhered to, so that we avoid any last minute changes and have enough resource to react to any unplanned circumstances. We had no contingency resources this year and I apologise for that.

If there is an event next year, I hope that you will again be able to help and understand that the difficulties and over-commitment of your services will be addressed. It is a credit to everyone that we did so well, and thanks once again for your efforts.’

Primary Schools Quizcontributed by Neville Wright

After winning the local primary schools quiz competition, Belmont Primary School team travelled to Pollockshaws, Burgh Hall, Glasgow on Tuesday 22nd May, to compete in the regional finals.  They were quizzed on 6 rounds of 10 questions on various subjects such as geography, science, general knowledge and music to name but a few.  All the pupils enjoyed their day out.  Pictured are Belmont team with Rotarian Hugh Parker and Principal Teacher Stuart Hunter.

New Tattie Night – contributed by Neville Wright

This was another great night hosted by Ian and Kate McIntyre supported by a number of oor ladies preparing the mince and new tatties.  A big thank you to Johnny McIntosh for providing the tatties.  Kate prepared a testing quiz which saw most of us fail dramatically, she obviously thinks we are more intelligent than we are, however two rose to the challenge; Chris Brewis and Neil Fraser with a magnificent score of 15.5 points.  The company was ably entertained by our regular crew with David Kirkwood, Hugh Aitken and Eric Wilson leading the proceedings with cameo roles from John Munro and Bob Fryer.  More than 20 Rotarians attended the event.’

Some discussion at one of the bowls matches prior to the mince and tatties! We had 5 rinks at the bowls including a singles match. The winning team was skipped by Donald McColm with Alistair McCulloch, Bob Fryer and Jock Smith 

Annual golf AmAmcontributed by Neville Wright

 

‘Stranraer Golf Club once again hosted our 12th Rotary Golf AmAm on a very warm sunny day which made for full enjoyment by players and helpers along with providing low scores.  There were many comments from players regarding the excellent condition of the course and my thanks go to Andy Ewing and his greens staff for the course preparation.

 

The AmAm is our main fundraising event and it seems to bring the whole club together in what I see as a fun and rewarding event. Thank you all for your tireless work on the day and preceding days.

 

The winners, Colfin Golfin, a highly skilled team of golfers were last out who played and pipped our own John Munro who had led the competition for much of the day, with the third play team of Rankin and Aitken pushing my wife’s team out of the prizes at the last moment.  The Rankin and Aitken team, sponsored by Kenny Paterson, comprised four junior members from Dunskey who had a late call up after Kenny realised he was unable to field his regular team. Many thanks to Kenny for supporting youth golf.

 

The results of the AmAm are as follows:

 

1st Colfin Golfin with a score of 120 (Jay McWilliam, Grant Hardie, Kyle McClung and Billy Morton)

2nd Team Munro with a score of 121 (John Munro, Robert Nawarauckas, Steven McClorey and Stuart Ramsay)

3rd Rankin & Aitken with a score of 123 (Kaleb Johnson, Findlay Hare, Logan Hare and Niall Ryder)

 

Finally, a big thank you to the main sponsors Ken Binnie and Glasgow Audi along with the many hole sponsors all of which are needed to ensure a great day is enjoyed by all.  Currently we do not have an exact total of the amount raided for charity but it is in the region of the usual £4,000.’

Mull of Galloway Trail

We have been awarded a grant of £9,740 from Kilgallioch Community Fund. This will allow improvements, to be undertaken by Luce Bay Plant, at 3 different locations on the Trail.

Well done to Tom Stevenson for all his efforts

Stranraer Academy Exemplary Service Award – contributed by Ian McIntyre

This award is given to the staff member, chosen by staff and pupils, for exceptional service. This year’s recipient is Stuart Binnie. The winner is given the opportunity to specify which charity should benefit from the £250 prize which accompanies the reward. Stuart has chosen Alzheimer’s and Cancer Research.

Duke of Edinburgh Awards

We give a substantial donation each year to help fund the annual Gold expedition. Incoming President, Ian McIntyre attended the recent Awards ceremony where 35 Bronze, 30 silver and 5 Gold awards were made. Congratulations to all for their efforts.

Rugby               

Our group of supporters and friends make good use of their season tickets to watch Glasgow Warriors. All of our group of 12 are renewing their season tickets last for next season.

Our season ticket holders are again making their tickets available to Club members for individual matches which they themselves are unable to attend.  It is essential that Tom Mitchell is contacted at an early stage before spares are offered to others.

Press Officer  

Members should get in touch with Tom Mitchell, in his role as Press Officer, if they have anything they wish included in the Newsletter or reported in the press. He particularly wishes photographs for publication and/or Club archives.  

We have articles in the Free Press and in our District Magazine on a regular basis.

Websites 

 Roger Johnson continues to manage our site. 

 http://rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.php?ClubID=1383  Tom Stevenson continues to look after the Mull of Galloway Trail site.

http://www.mullofgallowaytrail.co.uk/  

Tom Stevenson has also ensured that the MGT is listed among Scotland’s Great trails

http://www.scotlandsgreattrails.com/

We are on Facebook with 23 members. It would be appreciated if members who use Facebook would join the group and forward any new content to their friends thus helping our public profile.

And finally:

When you've seen one shopping Centre you've seen a mall.

When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.

The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine is now fully recovered.


He had a photographic memory which was never developed.

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