President Oliver Will

Immediate past president Sandy congratulating president Oliver Will

The President for the Rotary Club of the Howe of Fife for this Centennial year is Oliver Will.

He was born and brought up in Aberdeen and on completion of  his education at Aberdeen Grammar School he joined the Royal Bank of Scotland. After working in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Carlisle he came to Cupar in 1986 as manager of the St Catherine Street Branch and also the branch at Ladybank. Following the merger of the St Catherine Street and Crossgate  branches in 1991 he became Senior Manager for the branches at Cupar, Ladybank and Newburgh. 
He took early retirement in 1998 and then qualified as a Financial Adviser and now works part time for James Hair & CoHis main interests in his youth were football, rugby and cricket but now tries to play golf at Cupar and Ladybank. He enjoys walking and with members of the Rotary Club has completed the West Highland Way, the Great Glen Way and this year started the Southern Upland Way.
He and his wife Sheila have two sons.
He was president of the Club in 1997-1998 and was one of the founder members of the club when it started in 1991. He initiated the Club's main fund raising activity of selling potatoes in December each year and for the last seven years has organised the Club's Charity Golf Day at St Michaels Golf Club.
As you know Rotary celebrates its centenary in February 2005 and he is looking forward to the special events which will be held to mark this event.

At the Club Assembly held at the end of June president Oliver set out his objectives for the evening which were to explain

• RI, RIBI and District Themes
• The projects of the committees
• Centenary events for the Rotary year 2004/5

The meeting continued with each committee chairman giving an appraisal of the programme of events their committee hoped to achieve during the coming year

August 2004 - new member Cathy and visit from the new district governor, John Minhinick

President Oliver was especially pleased to welcome district governor John, a frequent visitor to the Club on meeting nights and social occasions, as tonight he also had the pleasure of introducing the first new member of his term of office into Rotary.
Cathy Adamson is a native of Turriff in Aberdeenshire and was educated at Turriff  Academy and Aberdeen University. She and  husband  John live in Freuchie while her daughter Jenny lives and works in  Aberdeen.
After working for Scottish Telecommunications, (now BT), and for five years as a  full time mother, she now works for the NHS. She has held a variety of posts including Hospital Manager, Project Manager, Director of  Services for NE Fife, Director of Planning for the Primary Care NHS Trust and is now Director of Support and Coordination for NHS Fife which involves executive level administrative support to the Board and Directors and joint working with Fife Council and the Voluntary Sector.
Cathy enjoys reading crime fiction, history, films, theatre and music.

Club Visit to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo
Part of the International Committee's programme for the year was to organise an outing with an International theme. To this end it was decided to run a trip to the world famous Edinburgh Military Tattoo

The massed bands on the castle esplanade with the floodlight castle in the left background

After the recent downpours which had been flooding the county the  thirty eight members, families and guests attending were more than pleasantly surprised to get on the bus in sunshine and settled back to relax on the short trip from Cupar to the Gateside Inn, a small, local, country hostelry with an excellent reputation for its cuisine, where we had arranged an early evening meal to start the evening.

the Royal Air Force and the band of the RAF Regiment, highland dancers from Scotland and Australia, the South African Navy band, rythmic gymnasts from Estonia and the military band of the People's Liberation Army of China.

(top l) The floodlight Castle against the fading western evening sky:, (top r) The massed pipe bands marching through the portcullis on to the Castle Esplanade: (bottom l & r) The massed highland dancers who cleverly finished their dance in the shape and colours of the Scottish Saltire,

(Top l&r) Marching and counter marching by the massed pipe bands who ended their display in the form of  a Victoria Cross as a tribute to all servicemen and women who have died in the defence of their country
(below l) The agile and very fleet of foot bamboo dancers from India; the Peoples Liberation Army from China

(above) The finale with the massed military and pipe bands

September 2004 - Second New Member

suppers replying to the toast to the Lassies. She also likes to get involved with the community and supports many local events.Joan is an incorrigible fundraiser and has raised funds for a great many charities and organisations. She believes in giving back to society more than she takes out and obviously has the committment to follow Rotary ideals and will  be an asset as well as an enthusiastic addition to the Club.

September 2004 - District Conference
The Club was well represented at this year's district conference in Dundee. Those attending  may not have mention much about what happened during the business sessions at the conference but as you can see from the cheesy grins on the faces in the photograph below president Oliver's pre - Black and White Ball party seemed to go off quite well and set the scene for the rest of the night.

Group Study Exchange Team form District 9820 Australia - September 2004
After a long and winding road, which has taken five weeks and included visits to eleven clubs from Shetland to Fife, the group study exchange team from Australia eventually wound up their itinerary at a final 'going away' reception with the Rotary Club of the Howe of Fife and judging by the emotions on display they will take many fond and dear memories home with them.

Haste ye back