Presidential Handover

Wed, Jun 30th 2021 at 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Chains of office were handed over.

Hamish Tait reflected on his time as President during the 2020/2021 Rotary Year. For his final meeting he recalled, regretfully, that there had not been a single, normal face to face meeting of the Club as all meetings had been carried out via Zoom.

However, this had made it possible to invite excellent speakers from places as far afield as India and the USA thanks to Colin Mitchell, who also maintained a close relationship with Rotaract members. In the absence of a Christmas lunch, the wives of former Rotarians each received a Christmas parcel instead, as did a number of other townsfolk. A virtual Burns Lunch was another innovation. Because members could not meet in person, they were invited to donate their lunch to the Club’s Benevolent Fund and together with a very generous donation from the R&A this had enabled it to disburse £17,297 for good causes.

Hamish thanked individual members of the Council for their work throughout the year, with a particular mention of Ian Dochard’s work as Treasurer. Ian had been Treasurer since 2008 and always carried out his work meticulously. Austin Dunn will succeed him.

The presidential handover had taken place in Hamish’s garden the previous weekend and members watched a video clip in which the chain of office was presented to the new President, Colin Mitchell, by means of a long walking stick, paying particular attention to the two metre rule! He in turn handed over the President-Elect’s chain of office to Frank Quinault.

The meeting concluded with Colin in the chair. He described himself as the first ever ‘re-cycled’ President, having first held the position 11 years before, and thanked Hamish Tait, retired GP, for maintaining a perfect ‘bedside manner’ throughout a uniquely challenging year.