President Douglas Dow welcomed fourteen other members to the final club meeting of 2019 and the decade with a small glass of gin from Harris, with tonic. He also reported on the previous evening's Joint Christmas Dinner organised by the Helensburgh Garelochside club at the Rosslea Hall Hotel, Rhu, when the highlight was the splendid singing of local group Tartan Harmony, conducted by Sian Winstanley.
The secretary distributed the latest edition of the Rotary district 1230 magazine, and was congratulated on the amount of coverage of club events. Foundation convener Alastair Wilson distributed the smoked fish ordered by members supporting the Mid-Argyll club's annual End Polio Now fundraiser.
Community Service convener Bill Deans expressed his thanks to Gail Horton for helping him decorate the club's entry in the successful annual Christmas Tree Festival at the United Reformed Church. Youth Service convener Mike Jane reported that he and Gordon Burgess would be collecting the Young Photographer and Young Writer entries on Thursday.
Bill Deans spoke on the topic 'James Pagan, heralding the Herald', covering the early days of what was then the Glasgow Herald, which first appeared on January 27 1783 when Robert Burns was only 24 and the Treaty of Versailles had just been signed. He also displayed a copy of the 150th anniversary supplement published in 1933.
A distant relative, James Pagan, who was born in 1811 near Dumfries of farming stock, started as a compositor in a local printing firm, but went on to become a reporter, then sub-editor, then editor of the Herald, which he changed from a tri-weekly to a daily paper — of which he was the first editor. John McCormick proposed the vote of thanks.
The weekly raffle for a whisky miniature was won by Lesley Kennedy.