Committee Report 2015-16

2. A Cheese And Wine Night held on 3/12/15 in partnership with the Art Department of Hawick High School.  The Rotary Club over recent years has had the perception that we as a Club have not had as close a working relationship with the School as we would like and from our point of view it always seems that whenever we have tried to get involved with the School we have had, shall we say a "Luke warm reception" in terms of encouragement from the School.  Initially this event started in the same vein however the event did take place and after the dust had settled the Club thought we had "turned the corner" in terms of us being better accepted by the School and at this point we became hopeful that we had built a better relationship with the School.  Since then however we have had at least one disappointment where the School pulled out of an event we had organised at the last minute letting the Club down again, only time will tell if things improve.  For the night itself it seemed to pass off very well and we managed to raise £.     from a raffle and donations that were held on the night.  Because of my unavailability due to injury I owe Ron Smith a huge dept of gratitude for stepping into the breach and taking the leading role regarding the organisation on the night.  Thanks also to President Mairhi and Ron once again for the time and effort you both put in to the aborted later event which the School pulled out of at the last minute.

3.  Our normal Annual Quiz Night took place in the Catholic Church Hall in Buccleuch Street on the evening of 12/2/16.  By this time I was just about back on my feet so I was able to help in the organisation of this event which turned out to be a resounding success, certainly it was the most successful quiz that the club has run for quite a number of years.  Why should that be is the question we need to answer, partly I'm sure was down to the good publicity the event secured, and partly I'm guessing was that it possibly fell on a night when there was not much else on in the town.  20 teams were entered and overall the Club raised a net profit of £476.80p which was an excellent effort.  Thanks go to the "Two Ronnies" Sutherland and Smith for compiling the Quiz and running it on the night with the help of Jim McPherson from the Selkirk Club and Pat Sutherland who helped score.  A huge thanks also to Sandy Bannerman for showing me the ropes on the Sale and Return side from Sainsbury's and for helping me set up the Bar.  Tommy for helping me on the Bar on the night and also Ron Laidlaw for doing the door and Billy McWatters for running the raffle.  Also a huge thanks to Jack Swanston our resident graphic artist and computer guru who we could not do without both for his computer and photographic skills.

4.  The Annual Literary High Tea in conjunction with the Reivers Festival took place at Mansfield Clubrooms on the afternoon of 27/3/16.  A huge thanks to Ron Smith for organising the speaker Gilly Fraser of Borders Television fame who gave a talk on the role ponies and horses played during the time of the Border Reivers.  Although not present myself on the day I'm told that the event went off very well.  A big thanks to Robin Mason who looked after the speaker on the day so once again thanks Robin.

5.  On 15/4/16 our joint fund raising event with the committee of the Friends of Hawick Community Hospital took place in the Catholic Church Hall in Buccleuch Street.  This took the form of a Cookery demonstration by Carolyn Oliver and on the night there was about 65 attendees.  From all accounts and from my own observations the night was very well received and in total both the Club and the Friends of Hawick Cottage Hospital will receive something like £380 each.  Thanks are due to the following for helping on the night, Sandy for doing the door, President Mairhi for the raffle, David Oliver for helping me set up the hall, Gus for helping me on the bar, Jack for his computer skills and photography and Ron Sutherland and anybody else who helped tidy up at the end of the night.

6.   Both Robin Mason and Jack Swanston have carried out "mock interviews" with senior pupils at Hawick High School, a couple of the pupils might be known to yourselves they were Norman Elliot-Walker's son and Andy Johnston's daughter, thanks to both you gentlemen for attending to these interviews, I'm sure the pupils appreciated the time you gave them.

We have as committee raised a bit of funds over the year, what have we spent these on, well here goes, I don't unfortunately know the exact amounts but we have sponsored the following :-