As is customary the President delivers a farewell address. 2010/2011 has been a total learning curve for me, as being a relatively new boy in the club I was still getting to know you all. It has been an honour and a privilege to have served as President of one of the oldest and prestigious clubs in Rotary. Today will be my last meeting in charge but I am more than happy to still be involved in whatever is asked of me; I do not intend to retire to the back benches!
The broad challenges I laid out at the beginning of my year were as follows:
Membership: I will get the disappointments out of the way first of all. We have lost four members through resignations for various reasons during my year. That is always a concern especially to the President. One wonders what has gone wrong and what are the remedies? To semi balance that we welcomed one new member and have one proposed new member. With a total membership of over fifty our numbers remain healthy. Our oldest serving member, Alex Masson, is now an Honorary Member, well deserved as Alex is approaching his 99th Birthday.
Fundraising: Our club has again increased its fund raising to in excess of £40,000. The big chunk of that from our very successful silent auction. The larger proportion being split between Help for Heroes and McMillan at P.R.I.
The Fairview Project: Started early in 2010 and due to the hard work of a number of our members this project is coming along very nicely. The pupils and staff will find this a great asset.
I would now like to summarise my year which started with the very enjoyable Charity Concert performed by the Leicester Grammar School. Just under £2,000 was raised most of which went to the Prostate Cancer department at P.R.I.
The club have been supporting the children from Ukraine in the form of purchasing their shoes when they visit our area. The ten children, upon arrival, have medicals and dental care, one young lad requiring six teeth to be removed. We attended a Ceilidh held for the children at Luncarty in July. These children are still suffering from the effects of the Chernobyl radioactive fallout. They all had a great evening with the girls in national dress and the boys in Hey Jimmy hats!!
I then had the opportunity to jump off the Forth Rail Bridge for charity. I raised £400//00 from sponsorship, mainly from the club, for my charity of choice that being CHAS.
We had our Street Fayre in August. Only a few drops of rain but on the whole an enjoyable day. This is the club occasion where we get to meet a huge amount of people and with our advertising, help to get the message across as to what Rotary is all about. Our stalls raised over £3,000//00 and overall (with the other charities) over £5,000//00 was raised.
The District Governor George Berstan and his wife Mary visited the club in September. They were made very welcome and his theme was Building Bridges and Bridging Continents, very pertinent to the aims of Rotary both here and abroad. Four members with partners attended a reception at Upperspringlands. This was to view their service providers’ work. It is stressed that they are not a care home even though the majority of the residents are in wheelchairs. The aim of Capability Scotland is to encourage and work towards making the residents lead as independent a life as possible. This has been another well worth good cause that this club supports.
In October we had our RYLA talk by two pupils from Perth Grammar School. They had obviously enjoyed a very intense week of all manner of outdoor pursuits. A short video captured the general excitement and laughter which are such features of the RYLA experience.
October also saw the launch of our club’s flag ship fund raiser, the Silent Auction. This saw the start of a hectic period for certain members of our club. The publicity included the donation of the Mini from Grassicks and very good coverage over this time by the Perth Advertiser.
November saw the build up to the Silent Auction and the task of sourcing as many lots as possible. It was the month that saw the club planting crocus bulbs for the Polio plus campaign at Fairview School and various other sites. The purple denotes the colour of the dye that an immunised child would have his or hers finger dipped in to signify that they had received the vaccine. Millions of the bulbs were planted across the U.K. We also learnt that month about the work of “Help for Heroes”, another good cause that our club supports.
The 4th December saw the conclusion of our Silent Auction, 415 lots in all. All the hard work put in by the auction committee came to a head that afternoon and a fantastic £30000 was raised. There was still work to be done though with the lots to be distributed.
The annual Christmas collection at Dobie’s took place and with the wishing well over £1,400 was raised throughout the year. I missed the Christmas family’s day lunch due to family commitments down south but learnt that it was a very enjoyable occasion.
January saw us still in the grip of very cold icy weather. We had to cancel one weekly meeting early in December when access to McDairmid Park was difficult. Work on the sensory garden was put on hold until the thaw.
Still the cold weather continued. In February Gordon Hay and myself attended the District Council in Aberdeen. As with all these events one takes away that which is pertinent to one’s club. Our District, 1010, is well ahead in support of various projects at home and abroad. Special mention was the support for shelter boxes. Our club has been generous in the regard of shelter boxes. We were well represented at Perth St. Johns club Charity Sports Dinner where I had the honour of sitting next to Tommy Docherty who was one of the speakers. St John’s raised over £5,000 on the night for Combat Stress.
In March the club had a trip to the Police Museums in Glasgow. This turned out to be a very enjoyable and informative experience. Ryans was the venue for our snooker sports evening. These types of evenings are good for club socialising and was followed by an “Indian” next door.
George Annan was deservedly awarded the Jimmie Cairncross Trophy in April for services to music in Perth. Work commenced on the Sensory garden where we were fortunate to have the expertise of Anne Smith’s husband Jim. The Fellowship Dinners provided yet again very enjoyable social evenings and the chance for wives and partners to be involved.
In May Rose Taylor of Perth Academy won the Essay Competition. The adjudicators had a difficult task awarding a winner from the high quality of material presented. Our Club Charity Golf Tournament, held on the Island, was a very successful event. It raised in the area of £5,000.The paths are now being concreted at the Sensory garden. Intricate work involving other materials being set into the concrete. I represented the club at the No. 1 Inner wheel District Rally held at the Huntingtower Hotel. The three Perth Rotary Clubs were thanked for their financial and moral support to Inner Wheel.
Earlier this month the final of the Young Chef of the Year took place at Blairgowrie High School. Willie Dean from Dean’s @ Let’s Eat was the adjudicator. Willie stated that he was delighted with the standard this year. Our Honorary Member Alex Masson and manager Fiona Lucraft accepted two wheel chairs donated by our club for the use of residents at Abbeyfield Perth Viewlands House. The club sponsored the 15th Tee at Craigie Hill Golf Club for their centenary year. This celebrates our association with the club through our first President Sir Francis Norie-Miller who officially opened Craigie Hill 100 years ago. Socially the summer Progressive Dinner was a great success and our thanks go to the hard working hosts who yet again provided us with superb food. (And drink!!)
Sport throughout the year has had its ups and downs. We finished up sharing the Gavel with Thurso, winning the Rams Head in the curling, winning the Presidents Putter at golf (I had better remember that the Putter is under my bed!!) and we beat Kinnoull at our annual cricket match. (And I am not attempting to umpire an unruly team of cricketers at the match this year Alistair).
I thank my Council, Office Bearers, Convenors, their committees and all of the members for their support during my year. The following have to be named, My Senior Vice President, Gordon Hay, for all his support and we are all very disappointed that he is unable to take the chair due to his unfortunate health problem. But it is great to see him here today so thank you Gordon. Thank you to our very successful fundraisers David Lindsay and Alistair Duffy and their hardworking committees. To Mike Hope and his wife Annette for the hours they spend at Dobbies in all weathers raising funds for the club. To Jimmy Robertson who has had a difficult year after the loss of his partner Jean, for his work on our web site, the web site has been a real asset especially regarding the Silent Auction. To Louis, for his prowess with his camera always on call for those special club occasions and never forgetting to ask the pertinent question when ever required. To Joe and the Community and Vocational committee for all they do and for organising the workparties on the Sensory garden. To Willie and Bill Roxburgh for handling the young Chef, the essay competition, and RYLA. To Alay and Murdo for their work with the Foundation Committee, their latest event having a sponsored run by Perth cubs raising over £2000 for our club for shelter boxes. The cheque was handed over to our club last night by Rosemary, the Cub leader. Louis photographed the event. I agreed with Alay that our club would make up the difference to cover 4 boxes. To Alan Calderwood for organising the Gavel and David Robb for organising and providing us with our speakers throughout the year. I would like to take this opportunity to wish David a speedy return to good health. Last but not least a big thank you to Graham and all of the staff at McDairmid Park for looking after us so well throughout my year.
Before handing over the chain and chair to Ben I have one last pleasurable duty to perform.
For those of you still awake you would have noticed that one particular member’s name was missing from my thank you list. A quiet man who has been a member of this club for 17 years and who puts in an inordinate amount of time in the day to day running of the club. He is our unsung hero who keeps on top of all the paperwork and sends us all those emails and who has served Presidents over the majority of years that he has been a member. I certainly could not have got through this year without his quiet guidance. He keeps the wheels turning and has always been totally dependable in supporting myself and the club. I therefore take great pleasure in presenting our secretary Robbie with The Paul Harris Fellowship Award for his unstinting contribution to Rotary.
I now have pleasure in handing over to the very capable hands of Ben.