President's par
Like all my esteemed predecessors, I will take on board the Presidency of the Club with a sense of responsibility and commitment. My thanks to Leeona Dorrian and all the outgoing members of council for their hard work and good humour during a difficult period in the Club. We have many new council members with a wide range of expertise and having had our first meeting it is obvious they should bring a fresh and lively perspective to many areas of the Club¹s activities. The next two years will be busy and balancing the accounts will be our major priority. We have formed a new finance committee to look into, not only saving money but also how to generate some extra income. Our new manager Deirdre Nicholls is already putting together some reorganising and restructuring ideas, into practice. These initiatives should help to tighten the belt without any reduction in services. It is important to achieve better value for money in many areas. One way in which members can help would be to provide e-mail addresses (if they have this facility) so that Updates and any sudden changes can be communicated to them immediately. Postage is a large expense which could be drastically reduced. Reducing the amount of time spent stuffing envelopes would be another benefit. The new revised list of members is ready to be processed and printed but cannot go ahead until we all sign a consent form allowing details to be included in the booklet. This is required under the Data Protection Act. If you have not already done this, please do so as soon as possible. Another way members could help improve the circumstances of the Club would be, if you have any particular skills, for example IT, painting (and decorating), restoration which you feel would be helpful to the Club or any of our committees to please offer a few hours of your time. A photograph of each member of council will soon appear in the foyer and if you have a problem or query please feel free to approach any one of them with your concerns. I will personally endeavour to lunch in the Club at least once a week. Finally, on a personal note, could the person who inadvertently removed my snooker cue please return it to its wee brown case the cue has sentimental value as it was a gift on my retirement as President of the SAAC.
Thank you.
Gordon Mitchell
wine report
We are pleased to report that the new House wines have been well received. The improvement in quality is representative of the new wine list as a whole and we hope members will be encouraged to try some of the exciting new wines which have been added to the list. To that end, we are introducing a “Wine of the Month” promotion during which selected wines will be offered by sale at a 10% discount and will also be available for purchase by the glass for the rechabites amongst us. December’s white wine will be the Rolf Binder Highness Riesling 2006, a dry Riesling from Southern Australia/. Wine guru Robert Parker marked this as 91/100 so you can tell it is a real corker. The red is also from Oz, namely Hollick Pinot Noir 2005. Hollick are one of only two producers of Pinot Noir in Coonawarra. Ripe cherry and stewed plum notes are overlaid with spice and vanilla characters, imparted by ten to twelve months maturation in French and American oak hogsheads. Treat yourself this month. Cheers!
The Club welcomes new members of staff, Chris Gibson and Petra Kutinova
John Skinner ...a tribute and celebrationMany members will remember the sad passing of John Skinner last year. John was the founder of Rebustours. He had also, over many years, been a keen and active supporter of local HIV charity, Waverley Care. On Monday 14 May 2007, Waverley Care is organising a very special evening with Ian Rankin as a memorial to John. The evening will begin with an (optional) Rebustour, hosted by Rebustour Director, Colin Brown. On arrival at the Scottish Arts Club there will be a drinks and finger buffet, after which BBC Journalist, Allan Little, will interview Ian Rankin about his life as an author. Ian Rankin will autograph a copy of the board game Scottish Quest - for which John dreamt up questions with his fellow quiz master Tom Bruce Gardyne for auctioning during the evening. Also up for auction will be a copy of the recently-published, 828-page illustrated Prestonpans: A Social and Economic History across 1,000 years, kindly donated by Gordon, Baron of Prestoungrange, with a dedication to John. John lived in nearby Tranent, and was largely instrumental in setting up and running the hugely successful creative writing course from the Gothenburg pub in Prestonpans, itself a hub for arts activities in the town. Special guest musician is Nick Keir, The McCalmans, a friend of John's from school days at Edinburgh Academy. Further details to follow. Priority booking for Scottish Arts Club members. To register interest please contact Waverley Care Fundraising on 0131 226 2206 or e-mail: fund@waverleycare.org.
film recognition
Fritz, directed by Jamie Stone (second year film and TV student at Edinburgh College of Art and member of the Club) was nominated for a New Talent Award at November’s BAFTA Scotland Awards, sponsored by Lloyds TSB Scotland. Fritz was one of three short films shown in the Club in September. The Big Forever, directed by Robert Glassford and Timo Langer, also received a BAFTA nomination.
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