National Trust for Scotland

Chairman’s Report- Autumn 2019

Dear Members

As I start to write this report after breakfast on a late July morning, the temperature on my hall thermometer is already 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Summer has finally come to Alva!

Members will be well aware that the committee has been searching for quite some time for a replacement for Neil Pollock as Membership and Booking Secretary. Neil has continued in these posts in an acting capacity despite his family’s move to Lincolnshire. I am pleased to inform members that Deidre Sprunt, who recently joined the committee, has now very kindly offered to take over these two positions from Neil. The committee is deeply indebted to her. Her position will be ratified at the autumn 2019 AGM. We are very much indebted to Neil for helping us out in the way he did. On all our behalf I thank him most warmly for his help. Deirdre took over from Neil in the middle of August, but Neil will handle the September outing to the Pitlochry theatre. He will also continue for a short time as a committee member. Unfortunately we are still three committee members short. I repeat my plea for publicly spirited members of our Centre to offer their services to the Centre by joining the committee.

On the issue of membership I regret to inform members that the membership of the Centre has fallen to 145 (down from 155 in April), representing 196 persons (down from 210).

Members will see from the attached list of winter talks that we are now meeting on Thursday afternoons at the St. Ninian’s Church Hall. Last winter the talks were held on Mondays because this was the only time the hall was available. Several members mentioned that this time was unsuitable, so preventing their attendance. I am pleased to say that we can now meet on Thursdays as the hall is now free on that date. At its recent meeting the committee agreed to raise the cost of attendance at lectures to £6 for Centre members and £7 for non members. This is to cover the increased fee for hiring the hall.

As I explained in my autumn 2018 chairman’s report, the shortage of committee members and the health problems of some members of the committee reluctantly forced the committee to reduce the number of summer 2019 outings from six to three. I regret to say that these constraints still remain, so that there will be only three summer outings in 2020. The committee had hoped that the three outings this summer would be well attended, given the limited number of excursions on offer. To our surprise on the day only 25 attended the Arniston outing in May and 34 the Monteviot outing in July. At present 49 are booked for the Pitlochry Theatre visit in September.This fact led at the July meeting of the committee to an exploration of the possible reasons. Among the possible factors identified were the ageing of the membership, the possibility of mobility problems and the nature of the trips offered. It may be that some members now find stairs a problem or walking any distance. In order to understand the issues involved the committee decided to send out with this newsletter a questionnaire seeking your views on the type of excursions you would prefer. I would urge members to fill in and return this questionnaire. It is ten years since the committee ran such an exercise, so we would very much like your views and suggestions.

The committee has made several donations on your behalf since the autumn newsletter. It gave £1,000 to the Trust’s appeal for repairs to the Robert Burns cottage at Alloway. It was agreed at its July meeting to give £738 to Culross and £840 to Dollar Glen for various items on their wish list. I would like to close this report by informing members of developments in the National Trust for Scotland. The Trust has appointed a new chairman to succeed Sir Muir Lockhead. This is Sir Mark James. He was director of the National Museums Scotland in the 1990s and of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London for ten years after 2000. On a sad note, the Bearsden and Milngavie Members Center has closed.

In conclusion I would like to wish members enjoyment of the summer and of the winter programme of lectures.

Best regards

Bob McKean
Chairman

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SUBSCRIPTIONS (Due 1^st October 2019)

If any member who currently does not pay his/her subscription by Standing Order or has not completed a Gift Aid mandate and wishes to do so, please contact Robert Jackson, our joint treasurer, who will supply the appropriate form(s). Contact details are – Tel: 01786 832435, Mob: 07786 154988 or email: jackson@drjbofa.plus.com.

If you pay your subscription by cheque you will now see that we have added a line on the booking form to allow you to pay the annual membership charge along with any events you may be booking. This hopefully will be more convenient for you and will also aid our administration. The cheque for the membership should be made out to “STIRLING MEMBERS’ CENTRE NTS” and signed and dated. If you wish, you can send one cheque for all talks AND the membership.

**** THIS DOES NOT APPLY IF YOU PAY BY STANDING ORDER ****

NEW MEMBERSHIP & BOOKING SECRETARY We are very pleased that one of our members has offered to join the committee as Membership & Booking Secretary. She is Deirdre Sprunt – Tel: 01786 833607. She will take over the Winter talk booking and Membership role. Please send your Booking Form for the 2019/2020 Winter Talks to Dierdre Sprunt, 17 Claremont Drive, Bridge of Allan, FK9 4EE,

Tel: 01786 833607, e-mail: deirdresprunt@aol.com

This information is also on the Booking Form for the talks.

She has been co-opted to the committee until her nomination is confirmed at the AGM in October.

****** PITLOCHRY THEATRE – 18^th SEPTEMBER 2019******

PLEASE NOTE THAT NEIL POLLOCK WILL CONTINUE TO DEAL WITH LATE BOOKINGS/CANCELLATIONS/ENQUIRIES/PAYMENTS FOR THE PITLOCHRY OUTING.

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JEAN ANGUS

Members may wish to know that our longstanding member Jean Angus has moved from her address in Henderson Street to Ashford House Residential Care Home, 7 Claremont Drive, Bridge of Allan FK9 4EE –Tel: 01786 833950. There are no set visiting times and anyone can visit when they want.

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GDPR Data Protection

The new Data Protection Legislation (the GDPR) is now in force and we therefore display our Privacy Notice to confirm how we handle the personal information we hold on our members.

Please also let us know if you have any query or wish to update your details.

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Stirling Members' Centre Privacy Notice

The Stirling Members’ Centre NTS maintains personal information provided to us for the purpose of advising our members and other interested parties of news and events in our programmes and of contacting them about matters relevant to their membership and events.

We maintain such details on file solely for this purpose and do not and will not share them with a third party nor use them for any other purpose. They are all password protected.

From time to time in accordance with long established practice we may publish on our webpage reports on events which include photographs of members and friends attending. Please let us know if you have any objection to this.

You may contact us at any time to be provided with the information we hold on you and to request that it is amended or deleted. Should you have any complaint as to how we have handled your data, you can contact our Data Protection Officer, Bob McKean (Tel 01259 760733), and if you are not satisfied with our response, you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

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OBITUARY

Duncan McKellar - Duncan passed 6^th February 2019. He was a member from 1991. His wife Erica remains a member.

Margo Thornton - Margaret passed 26^th March 2019. She was a very longstanding member.

Nina Cockerill – Nina passed 20^th May 2019. She was a very longstandng member.

Philip Crabb – Philip passed some time ago. He was a member from 2009

We would like to offer their family and friends our deep and sincere sympathy on their sad loss.

---------------------------------------------- SPONSORSHIP

We are very pleased to confirm that Grahams Family Dairies have agreed once again to sponsor the postage costs of our bi-annual newsletter. Our grateful thanks for this sponsorship to all at Grahams.