Business Meeting

Handover meeting where Mark Todd succeeded Brian Mitchell as President.

Brian made the following observations on demitting office.

This last twelve months has not been too easy for the Rotary Club of West Fife.  Following on from the Covid years, the start of this Rotary year was challenging with no continuity of leadership in place. The future of the Club was in doubt.  There were some difficulties with the hotel just to add to our problems.  Through all this we had a good program of speakers and other entertainment to keep most of the members interested.  Our Youth program and community involvement were the two main areas of activity which gave us things we could be proud of.  In addition we had several social evenings, which were very well  attended and enjoyed by all.

In Autumn 2023 Mark Todd accepted the post of President Elect and Robert North accepted the post of President nominee, thus giving the Club continuity for at least 2 more years.  At our Christmas meal in the Canmore restaurant, which again, was very well attended, I was able to present president Elect Mark with his medal of office, which was very well received, and somewhat of a surprise to Mark – mission accomplished.

In the last year we have supported and/or made contributions to :-

Fife Festival of Music;                                
Dunfermline Boxing Club;
Defibrillators for Crossford & Culross; 
Prostate Scotland – “Rotary Ride”
Maggies Centre – Kirkcaldy;                    
BBC Children in Need;
Northern Bowling Club; 
Disability Sport Fife;  
Natural Connections; 
Fife Pilgrim Way; 
St. Andrew’s Hospice
Rotary International’s Project - End Polio Now 
Crossford Community Garden
Salvation Army Christmas Toy Appeal.
Salvation Army box appeal – Helen Fowler

This is an impressive list given our limited resources.  Thanks are due to our Community convenor Neil Spriddle, who keeps a watchful eye on all matters community as well as organising our wreath laying activity on remembrance day events.  Thanks are also due to our district representative on Polio Plus, PP Aileen North, who continues to get the message out there to eradicate Polio in the world, ably assisted by her Husband Robert.  Aileen also sits on the District Foundation team as the polio representative.

The Club also helped to organise two Kids Out events, the first of those was postponed from last June to the start of this school year and more recently last month, with both events visiting the Scottish deer centre near Cupar. On both occasions there were over 200 children with various disabilities participating and they all had a great time.

Our fundraising activities have focussed mainly on online activities, organised by Douglas Scott and Tom Pettigrew, we have been able to participate in the ever popular, Strictly Come Dancing TV competition, our FTSE 100 and this year the Euro prediction competition.  These activities individually do not make a lot of money but add to our pot and enable us to support our other activities.  Additionally we were able to hold a wine tasting evening in conjunction with in house expert Douglas Williamson from Juniper wines, which was well attended and a great evening.

Over the year we have also participated and supported the Primary School Quiz, and whilst not getting any of our local teams to the final, the competition was as good, and enjoyable as it’s always been.  I was fortunate to be able to help at the final in Aberdeen, which was won by a team from St Andrews, namely St Leonards.  We did have a couple of local teams in the final from Burntisland and from Kinghorn, who did well, but weren’t paced.

We also supported the Technology Challenge held recently in Dunfermline Hight School.  The winner was a team from Queen Anne.

Over the year we did have one outside visit to the Mines Rescue Centre at Crossgates which was well attended and very interesting.  The Mines Rescue Centre trains rescuers from many disciplines in the rescue services and is a centre of excellence.

We had a couple of cultural evenings at the Alhambra, organised by Robin Grant. The first was a Ballet evening, The Nutcracker Suite, and second was the ever popular play, The Mousetrap.  Both were preceded by a meal at the Canmore.

The Presidents shield was awarded, after some consultation, jointly to Mark Todd for his outstanding speakers programme and to Douglas Scott for his outstanding  and ongoing excellence in our PR, which is second to none and is being recognised at District level.  Both are very worthy recipients.

Internationally we are still supporting via Donald Mackay and our Philanthropic Alex Evan Wong, the School in Kampong, Tralach School in Cambodia, and our recent project to build sustainable housing in Malawi, following deva staining floods in 2022.  A final report is still to be submitted to District regarding the Malawi project, which is drawing to a completion.

The year was ended by very successful Charter dinner held at the Garvock house hotel , who made us most welcome.  Our own Douglas Scott gave an eloquent “Toast to the Rotary Club of West Fife, drawing on past coincidences and events.

Our main Speaker was Andrew Watson, who describes himself as a “Dunfermline Lad”, having spent all his life in Dunfermline.  Having Left school at the age of 16, he joined the family betting shop business. which at that time was two shops.  Andrew owned and expanded that business until 2006 when the now eight shops were sold to a PLC.  Andrew now owns and operate a medium sized property company investing in commercial and residential property.

Andrew joined the Rotary Club of Dunfermline in 1990 and was appointed President for 1997/98.  Andrew is very well known in Dunfermline and is regularly called upon to give after dinner speeches.  Andrew did not disappoint and kept us entertained with amusing stories and anecdotes for about 30 minutes.  President Elect Mark gave the Club’s VOT to Andrew, and his wife, Moira, received a bouquet of flowers.  The evening ended with our usual toast to “Rotary the World Over”.

Well, that’s just about it, and it only remains to say thank you to all the convenors for their support throughout the year, and to those members who helped out as well.  I hope I haven’t missed anything out, but if I have then I apologise, it wasn’t intentional wish Mark every success for his Presidency, and assure him of my support.

I am looking forward to handing over the Club Jewel to Mark and to entrust him with the safekeeping of our Charter.