Hello Everyone
In this newsletter you will find details of our programme for 2018-2019 together with updates as to what has been happening in the background since our last meeting in April 2018.
The programme for the new session is once again varied and we do hope that there will be something of interest in it for everyone.
At our first meeting on Wednesday 17th October 2018, we welcome Jim Waugh who will give us a talk on “The Abolition of the Slave Trade & the Government Compensation Scheme”. Jim has been researching this for some time and in particular a connection to our local area. We very much look forward to hearing his talk on this rather controversial subject.
At our second meeting, on Wednesday 21st November 2018, we once again welcome Roy Johnstone to talk to us and this time he will give his very informative account of the “D Day Landings”.
We don’t have a members meeting in December, however, we will be having a Christmas Lunch at Broomieknowe Golf Club on Tuesday 11th December 2018 at 12:30 for 1:00pm. If you would like to attend, we would appreciate it you could let us know so that we can gauge numbers as soon as possible.
Our third meeting will be held on Wednesday 16th January 2019 and our speaker will be Ailsa Clark.
She will give us a talk on the “War Work of Dr Elsie Inglis”. Dr Inglis organised hospital facilities for the wounded during World War One.
Our fourth meeting takes place on Wednesday 20th February 2019 when our speaker will be Ian Shearer from the “Friends of Kinneil”. Ian will tell us about the history of Kinneil House and Estate. You may already know something of the Kinneil Estate which is situated near Bo’ness and also part of the Roman Antonine Wall.
Our fifth meeting will be held on Wednesday 20th March in Bonnyrigg Parish Church and will be the opportunity to see and hear about the winning entry for the 2018- 2019 Dr Mary Noble Memorial Award. This annual competition has been running since 2012 for Primary 5 school children and has proved to be very popular with the children showing their enthusiasm and talent over years.
The topic for 2018-2019 is “The History of My School”. If you would like to be involved in the judging of the competition entries, please let us know.
Our Annual General Meeting [AGM] takes place on Wednesday 17th April 2019 and following this there will be an opportunity to view all of the competition entries from the schools for the 2018- 2019 Dr Mary Noble Memorial Award.
Following receipt of a grant from Midlothian Council, we will shortly be purchasing a Portable Storage Hard Drive and some Memory Sticks. This will assist us in our project to digitise some of our Archive material.
Although we updated our Constitution at our AGM in April 2018, following extensive consultation with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator [OSCR], we have had to revisit it and completely revise it in order to meet the more stringent requirements of being a voluntary organisation and charity. We are now looking to adopt this revised constitution at our October meeting and will be seeking approval from the members at that time.
On 25th May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR] came into force and as a voluntary organisation and charity, we are required to give an assurance to our members that we will not disclose any of their personal details that we hold for membership purposes to a third party. Therefore, when you renew your membership, you will be asked to complete a revised membership form giving the Society your consent to hold your name and contact details on file.
As agreed at the AGM, the membership subscription will be £7.00 and visitors will be charged £2.00 per meeting.
At some stage in April or May 2019, we are hoping to arrange a walking tour of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. Herbert Dryden has agreed to be our guide.
We have appointed Lesley Campbell as our new Secretary and Herbert Dryden has very kindly agreed to be our Interim Treasurer for the coming year.
Hope to see you at our first meeting.
Best wishes,
Neil Stewart
Honorary President & Trustee