Speaker Thursday evening, Kevin Mitchell

Rotary club of Stirling meeting of 5th September

President Sandy Farquharson welcomed members, wives, visiting Rotarians and friends to a very well attended evening meeting. We will be presenting our donation to the Arion bus group next Thursday as part of our ongoing contact with them, driving members to the Peak swimming pool every week. The 10-pin bowling match with Inner Wheel is to be on 4th November.
Recent foul weather rather blighted but did not prevent the annual Arran golf outing, or fishing for the Harry Rankin trophy at the Lake of Menteith, with Malcolm Cordwell-Smith catching the heaviest fish at 4lb 4oz

Our speaker was Kevin Mitchell previously leader of the Ochil Mountain Rescue, now VC of Scottish Mountain Rescue. Ochil Mountain Rescue have only three paid staff working with 40 volunteers, part of the 1000 volunteers covering Scotland, part funded by a central grant of £302,000 which covers about one third of their running costs. For the rest fund raising is required, in the case of Stirling the Order of St Johns is a major contributor proving vehicles, equipment and the operation centre near Fishcross. Set up in 1992, Stirling Mountain Rescue have 15 to 25 local call outs per year but work with other groups in the rest of Scotland. The initial contact is with the Police who contact the on-call volunteers rapidly allowing the rescue to be set in motion quickly.  For obvious reasons the most call outs are from the busiest hills, in our area Dumyat. Although not high the Ochils are very steep on the South side and subject to rapid and surprisingly dangerous changes in weather.
Walkers do fall and injure themselves, but many just get lost when visibility changes, and many wear inadequate footwear with poor grip.
Most people have smart phones but often don't know how to use them, they may lose contact, and of course the battery may run down. If you want to go hill walking, go on a navigation course. Improving technology has made a huge difference to mountain rescue, and locally they have use of a drone. In the worst situations the helicopter can be called, and in poor visibility a trained dog working by smell rather than sight is unbeatable. Kevin's well illustrated talk was much appreciated, and we were all impressed by the skill and dedication of the volunteers.

Next week Friday 13th September fellowship meeting, visitor's host Robin Sutton.

Ian Richardson