Newsletter - 282 - November 2016

Rotary Club of Stranraer

Monthly Newsletter No 282

 November 2016

Service above self

Imminent Activities   

Nov 7^th – Fellowship.

Nov 14^th – evening – Chris Robinson, PGA Professional at Portpatrick Dunskey Golf Club, will be speaking.

Nov 21^st – Stewart Fitzsimmons will be speaking about the Young Farmers Organisation.

Non 28^th – Speaker to be confirmed.

Dates for your Diary

Mon 5^th Dec – SGM – including presentation/approval of Annual Accounts and decision about future meetings.

Tues 6^th Dec - visit to the Dark Sky Observatory, near Dalmellington.– leaving Stranraer at 6pm.

Sat & Sun 17^th & 18^th Dec – Street & Morrisons Collections

Mon 19^th Dec – Christmas Lunch

Fri 19^th May – Christian Aid - Bread and Cheese lunch

Sat 27^th May – Mull of Galloway Trail Marathon

Fri 30^th June – Annual AmAm

Please note that the social evening planned for 18^th November has been postponed.

Recent Events

Mon 3^rd Oct – our special evening meeting was devoted to discussion about proposed changes to the operation of the Club to encourage a growth in membership. It was agreed that the format needed changing and that Club Council should review this, bearing in mind the views expressed at the meeting, and report back to members. It was accepted that decisions need to be made now! With this in mind an email outlining Council proposals will be circulated prior to our SGM scheduled for 5^th December.

Mon 10^th October – evening - Hugh Parker spoke to us about Rotary Fellowships whereby Rotarians who share a common vocation or interest can join together in friendship for activities such as golf, curling, sailing, caravanning and cycling etc. He emphasised the worldwide aspect of this with members with for example our members having participated in curling and golf trips to Canada.

Mon 17^th Oct – Fellowship.

Mon 24^th Oct -  Mike Greasley gave a very interesting talk and showed photos explaining the idea behind the Rhins Men’s Shed project and how it was working in its new location at Stoneykirk Village hall.

Mon 31^st Oct – Brian Park entertained us with tales of major crimes from his 6 years with the Scottish Crime Squad which he joined following its inception in 1969.

Resignation of member

We are sorry to advise that Steve Dampney has resigned from the Club. Thanks to Steve for the contribution he has made to the Club!

Community Service Award

Please advise Mike Sheppard of any suitable candidates.

Senior Citizens Outing – contributed by Bob Fryer

 Mike Sheppard, assisted by Bob Fryer, Hew Chalmers, Ronnie Irving and Malcolm Henry, entertained senior citizens from Thorneycroft Care Home and the Coronation Day Centre to an excellent evening at Portpatrick Dunskey Golf Club. All of our guests had a drink of their choice with a meal of either fish and chips or steak pie followed by apple crumble and custard or sticky toffee pudding - and what a meal it was too!  The evening concluded with about an hour and a half of communal singing lead by Mike on his guitar.

This is always a much appreciated activity by our club!

 Defibrillator       

As you know the defibrillator which we donated to the town has now been installed in the Castle Square. It is hoped that the defib which we are having located at Morrisons and the one which the North West Castle has purchased will be operational by the end of November.

Thanks are due to the staff at the Ryan Centre who, following the decision of management in Dumfries not to finance the purchase of a defibrillator, are using funds which they won in a competition to buy this essential equipment.

Our contact is happy to let us order defibrillators for others at a substantial discount on the retail price so let Tom Mitchell know if you hear of anyone considering a purchase.

Rugby          

Our group of supporters and friends made good use of their season tickets to watch Glasgow Warriors last season. All of our group have renewed their season tickets and have been joined by a new supporter bringing us up to 9.

We had 2 trips to Glasgow in September starting with an exciting victory Saturday 10^th against last season’s finalists Leinster and then lost narrowly to Ulster on Friday 23^rd.

Our season ticket holders will again be making their tickets available to Club members for individual matches which they themselves are unable to attend.

In October we travelled to 2 home games and enjoyed wins against Leicester and Benneton Treviso.

November is disrupted by the Autumn Internationals and there is only one home game – against Ospreys on Friday 25^th.

December has 2 excellent home games which are guaranteed to be complete sell outs as has every home game this season – Munster on Friday 2^nd and Racing 92 on Friday 16^th.

Let Tom Mitchell if you are interested in making use of any spare tickets.

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.

Our websites are

http://rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.php?ClubID=1383

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

We also have a presence on Facebook

And finally --------

·         I’m supposed to respect my elders but its getting harder and harder to find one now.

·         A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.

·         Change is inevitable except from a vending machine.