Attended by Secretary Brian Cole-Hamilton.

District Governor Catherine Stewart opened the meeting by announcing that our District had received three Rotary International Presidential awards for publicity. First Bob Tomlinson’s effort to display "End Polio Now" on the UK Parliament building on Founders day 23/02/2008. Then an award for our Polio Plus effort at the District Golf Record attempt and finally an award to the Ayr Club for their Coastal Path DVD. She advised that she had now officiated at the Wishaw Handicapped Games and visited 26 of the 56 Clubs in the District and gave a slide show of these visits. She also announced that there were strong possibilities that the Ayr, Largs and Renfrew Clubs would manage to create Rotaract Clubs by the year end.

District Governor Elect Andy Slater thanked the District for the best support ever at the DG handover dinner. Some 213 attended and a small profit for the PR budget was made.

A Group Study Exchange was being arranged with district 9940 in New Zealand and candidates and a Rotarian mentor were being sought. Any Club with candidates or a Rotarian willing to accompany this GSE should let him know as soon as possible. Venues for the 2009 Conference were being examined and guidance prepared for Clubs regarding the imminent essential changes involved in the adoption of the RI Club Leadership Plan. A District IT specialist was being sought since he had to give up this role.

Past District Governor Drew Hughes expressed his sincere thanks for the support he had received during his year and especially over the last few months with the terminal illness of his wife Sheila.

His project of a Golf World record although failing to beat the record, none the less raised £5000 for Polio Plus. He had been pleased to issue 11 Presidential Citations to Clubs throughout the year but reminded us that details of suitable Club projects had to be fed to the DG so that these could be recognised. The District project of hosting Rwandan scholars continued successfully and his target for this year, was the creation of 2 new Clubs in our District.

Finally he praised our support for the Maggies Cancer Care project and was sure that this would continue and grow, during this coming year, particularly now that we had united the campaign with the Glasgow Herald. This lead to the introduction of Jeannette Harkess, deputy editor of the Herald, who gave a most inspiring address encouraging our Clubs and individuals to join the "Friends of Maggies" by pledging regular funding to this most worth while cause.

District Secretary John Waddell advised that if any Club wished to raise any matter at the 2010 Council on Legislation (Which was the only time every 4 years that changes to our Constitution and By Laws could be made) these must be communicated to our representative, Jim Moulson by mid November.

Work was progressing in preparing guidance for Clubs concerning the compulsory implementation of the RI Club Leadership Plan. Advice was also being prepared for Club Secretaries regarding the registration of all Rotarians with the RI database and thus the provision of their individual Identity Numbers. These would become increasingly essential and the first sign of this was that registration for the RI Convention at Birmingham next year could only be made by Rotarians with this ID number.

Despite the best of efforts, the system of inputting Club Directory information on the District Web Site had not worked as well as hoped. As a result there were now several amendments required and a number of anomalies, particularly in the comparison of the numbers in Clubs compared with our Treasurer’s record of those paying membership.

District Treasurer Bob Copelton advised that we were still solvent however only 32 of our 56 Clubs had paid their subscriptions by the deadline of 10th August 2008. A list of those Clubs still to pay was read out. The draft accounts to 30th June 2008 were almost finalised and would be presented at our November District meeting. Bob mad a plea for all Clubs to advise him of all the charitable donations they made so that a more accurate picture of the marvellous support that we actually provide for charity, could be ascertained and duly publicised.

Jim Moulson our future RIBI President sought maximum possible support for what should be the premier Rotary event of next year. The 100th Rotary International Convention to be held in Birmingham England between the 21 and 24th June 2009. A DVD publicising this event would be coming out to Clubs shortly.

Registration using the new personal ID Number should be made by 15th December 2008 otherwise the $280 registration fee will increase sharply. Coupled with this Convention was the "Scottish Home Coming Initiative" by the Scottish Government, encouraging ex pat Scots and others to visit our country next year and he hoped that Rotary would provide support for this.

Jim also advised that candidates for this year’s GSE to Canada were still being sought as were councillors for the 4 Ambassadorial Students who would be arriving in our District shortly.

Finally he encouraged us to make use of the District Simplified grants to help fund our projects. Forms were available on the RIBI web site.

Bob Ross for the District International committee requested support for Water Aid schemes like Life Straws and Aquabox 30, plus the new RIBI preferred "Leonard Cheshire Disability" project

The Vocational / Community Committee reported that the Euro Scholar programme was still operational and worthy of support. Contact Jim Ross. Also the "Dictionaries for Life" programme was on going and if any Club wished to support this, dictionaries for delivery in May 2009 would have to be ordered by 31st December 2008. This project could be supported by a District Simplified grant. The Business Challenge project would be held 12-14th September 2008. Details from the Dennistoun Club. Attention was drawn to the appeal from RIBI for help with the purchase of Buggies at the National War Memorial site. Leaflets had been provided in this evenings hand out pack.

AOCB. The Dumbarton Club were commended for their efforts with Youth Exchange this year.

A Photographic display entitled "Rotary and Polio" was being put on in Geneva, London, Birmingham and possibly also coming to Glasgow. This was recommended as well worth looking out for.

Delegates were reminded that assistance with recruitment was available from District and encouraged. Arrangements for our Conference in Perth 3-5th October 2008 were going well and 3 of the designated hotels were now fully booked with a 4th filling rapidly.

Finally if any one had requests or constructive suggestions for changes to the format of these District meetings would they please forward these through Secretary John Waddell.

The new District Governor Drew Hughes opened by suggested that it would be most helpful if delegates to these District meetings wore their Name Badges. He then gave thanks for the support at the District Governor handover dinner and also thanked District for the support provided to the recent appeals for aid for the English Flood disasters. This was now being channelled into an RIBI fund and details were available on the District Web Site. http://www.rotary1230.org/ He also expressed his pleasure at the support from District for the Scottish Rotary Bowls championship held recently in Alloa. Although not strictly in our District, being so close, he asked District Clubs to consider supporting the Wishaw Disabled Games (18-19/08/2007) by such things as attending the event or providing transport for the disabled. He reported that to date he had already visited 37 of the District’s 56 Clubs and noted that the RIBI President Allan Jagger would be visiting the District 15-17/10/2007 and commended Clubs to attend one of the Clubs he would be addressing. Cambuslang is one of these.

The District Treasurer Bob Copelton reported that the District was still solvent but only 27 out of the 56 Clubs in District had paid their subscriptions by the due date of 10/08/2007. The accounts to 30/06/2007 were now ready to go to the auditors and would be available for the 14th November District meeting.
He noted that the Inland Revenue had confirmed that Clubs earning less than £500 from interest etc would not be liable for Corporation Tax.

The District Secretary John Waddell noted that a number of clubs had still to input details of their new Club Officers to the District Web Site and that since this was where the information for the District Directory was obtained this was still not ready for distribution. When finally ready Clubs would be asked to collect these from a central location to avoid excessive postage costs. Next year Clubs who fail to get their entries in on time will only have blank pages published
The repeat of the Hamilton Club’s Fun & Fellowship Sevens Cricket was commended for support The change of venue for the East Kilbride Club was noted as now Stewartfield Farm, Dunrobin Dr East Kilbride.

Ian Mills the District Membership Services Chairman gave the usual reminder of the importance of continued efforts to recruit. He also noted that as usual, District was having difficulty reconciling the reported numbers in Clubs with the number of subscriptions paid.
It was noted with great pleasure that the Rotaract Club of Glasgow was now operational and would be formally Chartered shortly. Clubs are asked to support this venture and if they have any knowledge of any 18 to 30year olds who would like to join, they are meeting in the café of the Mitchell Library on Wednesday evenings. They are proposing to hold a Charity Concert on 30/11/2007 and would welcome support from Rotary. Tickets will be £15. It was also noted that these young and enthusiastic Rotaractors would be more than willing to talk to Clubs.

District Governor Elect Catherine Stewart looked forward to a great Conference at Aviemore on the 28/09/2007 and noted that RIBI President Allan Jagger would be attending.
She also commended support for the RIBI Conference in Blackpool 11 to 13/04/2008.

Robin Veitch district Youth Activities Chair asked Clubs to try and maintain and develop contacts with schools and to seek ways of supporting the demand for help to local youth. It was noted that the RIBI President as an ex Scouter was anxious that Rotary should support the Scouting movement in this their centenary year, possibly by increasing the membership of the (IFSR) International Fellowship of Scouting Rotarians.

District Committee Reports.
From Bob Tomlinson, Communications and Publicity. The District magazine "News at 1230" was about to be published. The District Web site will soon have a section reporting from the District Committees. District are trying to put together a Fact File detailing the work that is being done by Clubs in the District and require input from the Clubs about the Charities they support and how. It is hoped to collect details of the amount of money our District gives to charity each year to use for Rotary publicity. It is hoped to put on a much better display at the Ideal Homes Exhibition 12 to 21/10/2007. To do something for World Polio Day 18/10/2007 and for Foundation Day 23/02/2008 all to make it known how much Rotary is doing. Support for these initiatives is sought. It is also intended to set up a Media Response Group to handle, centrally, Rotary’s response to media enquiries in the event of disasters, so that a coordinated response can be given showing the valuable work that Rotary is doing.

Group Study Exchange. The group of seven young business people from NSW Australia being hosted by our District are due to arrive in September and we have to find a team to return to NSW.
We have 6 incoming Ambassadorial students coming to District plus 6 Rwandan Scholars from Malawi. We are also sponsoring a Peace Scholar hopefully going to New Zealand. To keep this activity going we need to continue our support for Rotary Foundation and are commended to look at more of us becoming Foundation Sustaining Members. This requires a donation of $100 annually and at present exchange rates represents a very good way of supporting our own Rotary Charity.We were reminded of the availability, for suitable projects, of Matching Grants from RI and Foundation and Simplified Grants from District.

We were given some prior information about the arrangements for our District Conference at Aviemore. The registration of our delegates has been acknowledged but bookings with the hotels will be sent to individuals by e-mail from the hotels.

We were reminded that there is still a demand for Shelter Boxes, Aqua Boxes, Disaster Boxes and the Shoe Box scheme.

The District Community / Vocational committee were about to publish a news letter and were stressing the need for Clubs to have active Environmental Officers. There will be details published re the Business Challenge in April and Life Information Centres which it is hoped will have Club’s support. It is also hoped that Clubs will continue their support of Cancer Care, Euro Scholar and the Health Hunger and Literacy campaigns.