Visit of RI President 2024-25 - Stephanie Urchick

Visit of RI President Stephanie Urchick to Scotland North, update from DG Brian Stewart

The RI President is currently on her world tour (follow her on Facebook for details), and for the conclusion of her tour she wishes to visit Great Britain and Ireland in early June. Currently she plans to visit Wales, the Isle of Man, Ireland, and both Scottish districts, and the DGs in those areas have put together a timetable for her visit. There is, however, a chance that this will be pulled due to other circumstances, but we hope not.

The logistics of planning her visit are considerable, as you will appreciate – including trying to minimise travel for her. We had a few options to begin with, a couple of which had her coming into 1010 from Scotland South (which is what Jennifer Jones did a couple of years ago). My preference was for her to fly into Aberdeen from Ireland, and then travel down to our neighbours at the end of our visit. This will give her some perspective of the size of 1010. I did have a whimsical idea of flying her into Shetland and then working her way down to Edinburgh to really let her appreciate our size!

We are currently finalising details for her visit, but there’s not much time to play with. She will fly into Aberdeen on Thursday 5th June, and depart for Scotland South on Saturday the 7th. This gives us an evening and a full day, plus a couple of stops on the way south. Again, I have to stress that we can’t give her extended travelling – it takes up too much time. Our plan is to arrange a couple of project visits, but mainly – in the words of my Irish colleague – we are bringing the district to her rather than attempting to show her all over the district.

Inevitably, much of the district won’t see her – though we hope to Zoom her address when she’s here – and there’s nothing we can do about that. If there is another RI president visit in a couple of years or so, then we can maybe showcase the north-west of the district. I would hope that everyone will understand that.

Meanwhile, the planning goes on and we’ll release full details once everything is confirmed (RI has to approve our plan).