Rotary Edinburgh

I preface this blog by saying that unfortunately I forgot my camera and was unable to take any pictures :( I will attend another meeting in the future to compensate :)

I recently attended a Rotary Edinburgh meeting. They meet every Thursday at lunch time in central Edinburgh, just of Princes St, and the King James Thistle hotel. A very nice location and facility.

I got there around 12:30, met a bunch of nice and friendly folks before lunch began at 1:00.

During that time, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the author of one of my course textbooks (I am studying Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh), who works at the University, is a member of the club. How great! Talk about fire related things ensued. However, in addition, I also met plenty of other Rotarians in the club working in many different fields.

The club has around 150 members, of which, I believe about 50 or so people were at the meeting.

There were three other visitors to the meeting, and, in a gracious manner, the club presented us each with a banner as well as a small Scotch Whisky.

The club does alot of fundraising as I was told. They contribute to the Polio campaign. They also, for example, are hosting a 'race night' fundraiser that benefits the Jubilee charity. The race night is basically watching and betting on horse races (on TV... I was confused when they initially explained that it was in a gym, how can horses race in gyms?!?!). They pay an admission price, which includes some food, and betting begins. The Jubilee charity supports children in Haiti, Brazil, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burma, China, and other countries to prevent trafficking of children, child prostitution, and homelessness of children. They also have a really big charity golf day planned in 2012 where they hope to raise at least 20,000 pounds, to benefit the charity Fresh Start.

They had a really interesting speaker at the meeting, who also happened to be a member, Stuart Monro. He discussed geology and volcanoes. If I could learn that much over a lunch every day, that would be great!

Well, I hope to attend another meeting or two before I leave Edinburgh in December. They were very welcoming and seem to be doing really good work (and very actively as well). Hopefully, I'll remember my camera for pictures!