Club Assembly and Handover

Presidential Review of 2024-25 and Plan for 2025-26

Review:

We started the year with no change at the top – Rev’d Bob Milne continued as President and I carried on as Vice President while Jim McConnell and David Smart kept their long-standing posts of Secretary and Treasurer respectively.  There had been a few more retirements amongst our members and we were now down to just six.

Commencing from 2nd July 2024, Council met on Zoom eleven times with only the official August session being abandoned because it would have been non-quorate – but the September session was actually held on 31st August!  With such a small membership, everyone was made a Council member and we even added new recruit Lennie Richardson onto Council not long after his December 2024 induction.

We met face-to-face at the Meadow Inn on 20 occasions this year.  Several of these sessions were just social occasions but we did have a few meetings which either involved talks by guests or presentations by one of our members.  Perhaps the most unusual one was a Zoom conference call with Rev’d Picklen Chafulumira in Malawi regarding the stalled Maize Mill project, but which was also attended by DG Brian Stewart who was on his early round of District clubs and was very interested in what took place, especially when Picklen referred to him as the District Commissioner, something Malawi hadn’t seen since gaining its independence 60 years ago!

Last August’s Golf Day lacked a few Rotarian ‘helpers’, myself included (sorry!) but was still voted a success by the participants, so well done the small team who were there.  After clearing the expenses, we found we had raised around £4,000 for the charity account which, at that time, seemed sufficient for us to continue to support any approaches for financial assistance or to fund our regular youth activities such as RYLA, Young Chef and the PSQ.  At Christmas time, we gave our usual gift of money towards the CAP (Christians Against Poverty) hampers going to local, needy families.  Then, following presentations at the Meadow Inn, donations were made to the Aberlour Children’s Charity plus the Guide Dogs Perth & District Fundraising Group, but a potential funding shortfall surrounding our Maize Mill project led to a postponement of giving anything to the Scottish Charity Air Ambulance and the Friends of Crieff Cemetery.  We hope to sort this out following the 2025 Golf Day in mid-August.

Outside our twice-monthly meetings at the Meadow Inn, we made our usual challenge in July to Crieff Round Table with lawn bowling at Comrie followed by a BBQ at the Deil’s Cauldron then in October attended a wonderful charity concert at Fowlis Wester kirk, featuring the German choral group Figuralchor Köln who were raising money for the mid-Strathearn churches plus the Innerpeffray library.  Also in July, my border collie Dougie and I attended both of the RYLA camp ‘open days’ at Abernethy, checking on how Crieff Rotary’s candidates (two girls and two boys) were getting on.

The long-awaited physical development of ‘our’ maize mill in Malawi probably was the most exciting but challenging event throughout the latter part of the year.  After much stalling since 2020, the Malawian Electricity supplier finally agreed to take on the important electrical connection part of this project on board, giving us the reassurance that it was safe to get things started on the ground – kindly and efficiently supervised by Picklen Chafulumira on our behalf.  Brick making, using a locally constructed kiln) commenced in October with the foundations being laid out in January.  The walls swiftly rose (despite the dodgy scaffolding!) and the roof followed by the doors and windows were attached by the end of April.  To get around the problem of Malawi’s rampant inflation and the volatile Kwacha/Sterling exchange rate, each stage was separately paid for at the last minute by bank transfers from Crieff to the Zomba Presbytery.

It was Picklen Chafulumira’s careful research and advice on future costs regarding the final installation of electrical power plus the purchase of the two mills (a de-husker and a grinder) that suddenly caused us the greatest concern because the total, when converted to Sterling, exceeded our original budget by around £5,000.  This led to an immediate temporary stop on uncommitted expenditure and to a fresh appeal going around clubs in District 1010.  Cowdenbeath has helped out, as has our official ‘Friend of Rotary’ Fiona Black, but it was last night’s Zoom conference call with Brian Johnson and John Calder from District 1010 that could prove to be the most helpful.  Provided we can put together a short report along the lines requested by Brian, he is hopeful that he can persuade RI to authorise a further £1,500 for our project.  If that is successful, then he suggests that we tell all our previous Rotary ‘supporters’ and see whether this encourages them to make a fresh donation.

One other positive note arises from our Static Bike Challenge two Saturdays’ ago when we raised £302 in donations, allowing David Smart to send £277 to Prostate Scotland – the ‘missing’ £25 being the prize for the donor who came closest to guessing the distance pedalled by the team over four very wet hours.

Thus, after a year of distinct up and downs, we may have ended 2024-25 on a fairly high note!

Forward Plans:

We will start 2025-26 with seven Rotarians, all of them members of Council.  This is not normally seen by RI as a sustainable figure, even though it shows a small increase over last year’s start, but we have been coping for some time – albeit not as actively as was once the case.

Bob Milne has kindly agreed to look after club administration from next week.  We have just one scheduled guest at present – Emma Jackson from the STV Children’s Appeal who is coming to talk to us on 15th July.  A few other key dates have been locked into the calendar and I’m hoping to persuade our RGBI Young Chef champion Rowan Haines to tell us about his prize cooking holiday in Italy – where the restaurant has asked him to return next year!

As you already know, there is another minor problem looming regarding my attendance for sessions of radiotherapy at Ninewells Hospital throughout August.  I will only be given the actual dates when I attend Ninewells on 14th July, but it is possible that I won’t be able to deal with Rotary business for around that month.  That might, unfortunately, affect my ability to assist during the Golf Day, including making the presentations at the end of those proceedings.

However, even when I return to ‘normal’ duties, I only intend to serve as President for one year – and we have nobody identified as President Elect so, as it stands at present, I will not have a successor to take over from July 2026. If that is still the case by the date of our SGM in November, then I’ll have no other recourse than to initiate the necessary action needed to close down the club and transfer its assets to RI in accordance with the latter’s laid-down procedures.

Because of this, I have set up only two targets for the Club:

1. Complete the maize mill by June 2026 and hand over its operation to the Zomba Presbytery in Malawi.

2. Find a President Elect by November 2025 or initiate proceedings to close down the Rotary Club of Crieff.

I guess I’ll need your help on both of these!  Setting other targets such as recruitment or fund-raising efforts seem pointless at present if the club is unlikely to survive.

So, there you are!

Callum MacLeod

24th June 2025