February 2019

PRESIDENT Ian Watson

SECRETARY Mike McNally

THEBORDERER

February 2019

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

What a difference a year makes. February 2018 saw us suffering from the effects of 'The Beast From The East', this year it saw me cutting the lawn on February 15^th. As I have commented on over previous months Climate Change must be upon us! However we are still a few months away from what farmers would call 'turn out time', so we should hold our breathe as the weather, unpredictable as it is, could come and hit us with a vengeance, no doubt just as the spring lambs need to be outside in the sunshine.

Life has become somewhat quieter now the Farmers Choir is behind us. We will shortly have a presentation to the various Charities with the proceeds of the evening. £6800 to The Farmers Choir for its two Charities of Macmillan Cancer Support and Motor Neurone Disease Association. The Clubs share of £8000 will be divided equally between Meningitis Now and Eden Valley Hospice. Our speaker earlier this month Dr Hugh O'Brien gave a fascinating talk about Dr Thomas Addison,who discovered, by accident, Addison's Disease. Councillor John Mallinson gave an honest account about life as Councillor, correcting my view their role was other than just leisurely lunches and Civic Dinners.

To reduce the risk of us all getting cold and wet if the weather is somewhat

inclement, bearing in mind how lucky we have been over the past few years, and having discussed this with Council, our Presidents BBQ will this year become an afternoon tea party! This will be held on Sunday July 7^th at The Crown Hotel Wetheral, make a note of this in your diary and full details will follow in due course.

IAN WATSON

PRESIDENT

WEDNESDAY 27^th FEBRUARY

Our speaker at Wednesday’s evening meeting will be Dr Jim Cox on ‘Underperforming doctors’ – should be interesting!

FARMERS’ AND FARMERS WIVES’ CHOIR

PRESIDENT IAN OFFERS HIS THANKS TO THE CHOIR

Our treasurer has now been able to work out the final figures for The Farmers’ and Farmers Wives’ Concert and the result is truly amazing.

President Ian almost single-handed raised sponsorship of £8,000, making the “profit” or surplus for the event up to £14,880, so the charities chosen by the choir will receive £6,800 and our own charities, Eden Valley Hospice and ‘Menengitis Now’ will receive a total of £8,000 to be split equally between them.

From a publicity point of view our Facebook pages, including news about the concert, were viewed by 3,100 people and 700 of them acted on that news during the month to 13^th February.

For our readers’ information we are setting out the Income and Expenditure Account below.

What an absolutely fantastic event!

And finally an interesting fact:

Some of the choristers came from Cambelltown, a 4½ hour journey – about the time same as the journey from Carlisle to Bristol!

SNOOKER EVENING

Can you pick the winner from the photograph?

The annual snooker evening took place last Wednesday 20^th February at the Portland Snooker Club, Currock Road Carlisle.

Six eager contestants Ellis, Donald, Trevor, Hugh, Peter and Malcolm took part under the watchful eye of event organiser and former champion Peter Yates. The nervous chatter which took place before hand was a mixture of excuses old and new.

After a series of five matches each there was an eventual winner.

Each match was played under strict time limits and the tension was sufficiently high that after three rounds time was called for drinks and sandwiches.

Snooker is a serious game and played in almost complete silence allowing maximum concentration.

After almost three hours play Ellis was declared the winner with Peter a close second. Each went home clutching a valuable prize, for the rest it was back to the snooker table for some practise before the event next year.

Thanks were expressed to Peter for organising the evening and encouragement given to Ellis who will be in charge next year.

DONALD EDGAR

Dr Hugh O’Brien

‘What an excellent speaker hosted by Hugh on the 13^th February, namely Dr. Hugh O’Brien a retired Consultant Haematologist who on this occasion was accompanied by his wife Eveline a retired bio-chemist.

Having spoken to us before, we knew that Hugh’s presentation would be good, we were not disappointed.

His subject on this occasion was the 19^th Century Physician and Scientist, Dr Thomas Addison, a pioneering medic at Guys Hospital London and Edinburgh University who identified a new disease which was subsequently given his name.

Addison’s disease is a rare disorder of the Adrenal Glands, whereby these glands do not produce sufficient cortisol or aldosterone.

We were informed that Dr Addison hailed from Lanercost and indeed his family were farmers in the Brampton area. One can visit his grave in Lanercost priory.

It was interesting to note that John Kennedy suffered from the disease as well as being afflicted by other, less debilitating, ‘problems’!

During question time we also learnt that Donald’s dog suffered from ‘Addisons’, most surprisingly despite the best possible care by its owner and regular potions from Boots the chemists .’ 

NICK UTTING

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A COUNCILLOR

John Mallinson gave us an interesting insight into the work of Councillors and he started by saying that he never admits to being a Councillor when among strangers!

There were three layers of local government within Cumbria, the County Council, six District Councils and many parish/town councils.

The County Council dealt with Education, Children’s services, Libraries and Highways, while the District Councils looked after Leisure, Parks and most planning matters.

Increases in the demand for Adult Social Care and Children’s Services while central government were restricting the funds available was causing serious difficulties for local authorities.

Government funding of £100m had been secured for Carlisle’s Southern Relief Road from Junction 42 to the A595, Wigton Road. As well as improving traffic flows, the new road would support the development of the St Cuthbert’s Garden Village. This project to build 10,000 houses would very much depend on developers’ willingness to commit resources over the next decades.

In Carlisle City, the decision to rebuild the Sands Centre and include new swimming baths would be made in the next months. The £19m for this project would be provided by a private contractor who would forgo their £800k grant currently paid by the council.

John’s own involvement with council work was greatly assisted by the fact that the executive looked after the detail and much was delegated to scrutiny panels. He also believed in becoming involved in many outside bodies – these included the Henry Lonsdale Trust, Longtown Community Centre.

The way that local government was organised could be improved with the introduction of Unitary Authorities within Cumbria.

We were grateful for this interesting insight into local politics

YOUTH SPEAKS

For the first time for many years, two Carlisle teams went to the District ‘Youth Speaks’ competition at Windermere.  As intermediate entrants (13/14 year olds), Newman were competing with nine other schools from Lancashire and Cumbria.   The team of Cliodnha Denny (Chair), Molly Hagan (VoT) and Jake Robinson (Speaker) chose the topic of ‘Technology – Have We gone Too Far?’ and, despite being very nervous, they did the school and themselves proud.  Jake was in the running for Best Speaker, but the winner did not use notes, so next year’s team will be keen to memorise their speeches.

Austin Friars were the entrants to the senior competition (16/17 year olds).  Members will recall their speaker, Marcus Grogan, who spoke with such confidence at our competition back in October.  The topic was again ‘Freedom of Speech’ and Marcus was ably supported by Harvey Roberts (Chair) and Megan Le Brocq (VoT).  Austin Friars were among ten schools in this section of the competition, and topics chosen ranged from ‘There is a rang tang in my bedroom’ to ‘Does the legend of Oliver Cromwell need de-mythologising?’  After careful consideration, the judges declared Austin Friars the winners and they will go forward to the Regional competition in Wrexham on 23 March.

I’m sure that members would want to pass on their congratulations to Austin Friars, together with best wishes for the next round.  This is the second year in a row that our entrants have won the senior competition.  There’s good news from Newman too, as plans are afoot to start a Debating Club soon.  We look forward to more great entertainment at our 2019-20 competition in October.

STEPHEN HIGGS

'NEW HOTEL/CREDIT CARD SCAM!!

This a pretty smart scam.

You arrive at your hotel and check in at the front desk. Typically when checking in, you give the front desk your credit card (for any charges to your room) and they don't retain the card.

You go to your room and settle in. All is good.

The hotel receives a telephone call and the caller asks for (as an example) room 620 - which happens to be your room.

The phone rings in your room. You answer and the person on the other end says the following:

'This is the front desk. When checking in, we came across a problem with your charge card information. Please re-read me your credit card numbers and verify the last 3 digits numbers at the reverse side of your charge card.'

Not thinking anything wrong, since the call seems to come from the front
desk you oblige. But actually, it is a scam by someone calling from outside the hotel. They have asked for a random room number, then ask you for your credit card and address information.

They sound so professional, that you think you are talking to the front desk. If you ever encounter this scenario on your travels, tell the caller that you will be down to the front desk to clear up any problems.

Then, go to the front desk or call directly and ask if there was a problem. If there was none, inform the manager of the hotel that someone tried to scam you of your credit card information, acting like a front desk employee.

This was sent by someone who has been duped....and is still cleaning up the mess.

Beware!

TALKING NEWSPAPER

ROTA FOR ROTARY 1 - All Mondays except where marked

March 4^th 2019

April 23^rd 2019  - TUESDAY

June 10^th 2019

July 29^th 2019

September 16^th

November 4^th

THE DOOR ENTRY PROCEDURE - A CHANGE

The initial procedure for getting into the building was unsatisfactory and a A door entry system (connected through the phone line) has now been installed at our new premises in the CVS building.  Instructions on its use are as follows and a copy will be pinned on the notice board in the copy room.  This should make life much easier!

1. On arrival visitor should dial ‘5’ on the door panel

2. Black telephone will ring in the office

3. Answer the black telephone, speak to person to confirm identity and dial ‘1’ to open the automatic doors

4. Put telephone handset back down to end the call

    

   ‘Talking Newspapers’ is to be added to the instructions on the door.  Please make all your team members aware.

    

   John Churchill - Leader

    

    

THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH..

" There is nothing in this world that can trouble you more than your own thoughts"

CARDS NIGHT

Friday 8th February 2019

This year’s Military Whist Night was a somewhat nostalgic affair for some as we returned to John Hannon’s house in Longlands Road, the scene of many such battles in days gone by. How well we remembered the late Dr. George Jolly walking off with prizes year after year!

And what an exciting night it turned out to be. Five teams of 4 players representing Great Britain, Scotland, Wales, Sweden and Greece took to the field to defend their 15 flags and 1 standard – all confident of success. Rules were explained to those willing to listen, but quickly there was confusion moving from table to table.  After a while most got the hang of it and the night progressed satisfactorily through ten hands of whist and a welcome half-time break for refreshments and team talks.

After the traditional supper of pies, mushy peas and pickled cabbage with wine or soft drinks, followed by coffee and shortbread, it was time to declare the result. There have been nail biting results over the years, but with only five teams it was remarkable to announce a three-way tie, with only one point separating the top four as follows:

GREECE   ( The Atkinsons, John H and Susan)                 19points

SWEDEN (The Metcalfes and the Venables)                            19 points

WALES    (The Yates and the Halls)                                       19points

G.B           (The Harris and the Heyes)                                  18 points

So it was down to a penalty shoot-out and after two rounds of cutting cards Malcolm was the lucky General taking SWEDEN to victory and prizes of wine and chocolates.   Smaller bottles of wine and chocs went to SCOTLAND (The Mallinsons, Hugh Nicholson-Walker and his guest David Rawsthorn) who brought up the rear with 15 points.

A good night all round with thanks in particular to Marian Reed for managing the catering at HQ and to John and Susan for their work behind the scenes in providing such a lovely venue for the event. 

While Cards Night is a social occasion rather than a fundraiser there was a small surplus of £40 which, along with 6 jars of pickled cabbage and 2 tins of mushy peas, will be sent to the Carlisle Food Bank.

Brian Edmundson.    

ANOTHER AMAZING FACT

Michael Pearson and his band of helpers distributed and collected Poppy Boxes early in November and the magnificent sum of £6,700 was collected from the ‘sale’ of those poppies.

Well done!
 

FOOD BANK COLLECTION ROTA

RESERVES JOE WATT AND JOHN CHURCHILL

WISHING WELL

The current charity is the NSPCC.

We are giving a cheque for £175 to Hospice at Home for the collection made in the past month

Future charities are Life Education, Macmillan Cancer Support, MND Cumbria and Alzheimer’s Awareness.

This takes us to July 2019 and if any member has a suitable charity they would like to nominate please contact me.

MICHAEL PEARSON

RECEPTION DESK FOR CLUB MEETINGS

February    27^th           David H & Hugh Nicholson-Walker

March        6^th             JV & Bob Mather

                13^th           JV & Malcolm Metcalfe

                20^th           JV &

                27^th           H N-W & Brian Edmundson

April          3^rd            DH & John Harris

                10^th           DH & John Churchill

                17^th           DH & Steven Bowditch

                26^th           David H &

May           1^st             DH &

                8^th             JV &

                15^th           JV &

                22^nd          JV &

                29^th           H N-W &

ROTARY WEBPAGES

Rotary Magazine – current & previous editions

https://issuu.com/rotaryingbi/docs 

EDITOR’S NOTE – The Borderer uses the free version of the same ‘issuu’ website!

Rotary Policies

Rotary GB&I Compliance Statement – 2017/18

Our Club President or Secretary have been asked to confirm that our Club has read and adopted the following Rotary GB&I documents:

 Rotary GB&I Equality and Diversity Policy

 Rotary GB&I Health and Safety Policy

 Rotary GB&I Safeguarding (Children) Policy

 Rotary GB&I Safeguarding (Vulnerable Adults) Policy

 Rotary GB&I Data Protection Policy Statement  

With grateful thanks to the Rotary Club of Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire (a long way from the Brecon Beacons - according to our Welsh Correspondent!)

Rotary Central

https://my.rotary.org/en

To delve into the detailed Rotary statistics you may need a username and password

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

2019

13^thMarch - Curling at Lockerbie Ice Rink.

The only place to be at that time of year! This is a sport everyone should try at least once in their lives – Go on, have a go!

12^th May (provisional) – Spring Walk.

A pleasant walk followed by Sunday Lunch. Euan Cartwright is planning the event and full details will be circulated shortly

17^th May – Charity Golf Match

This date should be in diaries already as we will be looking for Players, Helpers and Sponsors to support our early Summer fundraiser.

7^th July – President’s BBQ (Tea Party)

Crown Hotel, Wetheral

Club Council Meetings

Club Meetings Programme