Minutes of the meeting of Coleraine Probus Club
Held in Portstewart Golf Club on Tuesday 2nd September 2014

Attendance: 34 members were present

Apologies: Noel Finlay, Hamilton Houston, Norman Irwin, Dermot Jennings, Cecil Leitch, Aubrey McElhinney, John McGlade, Jim Nesbitt, Reggie Patterson, and Tony Smyth (10)

Club President Gordon Ward welcomed members to the first meeting of our Autumn session. The President then went on to outline the format of the meeting, which would be a little different to 'normal', as we had no specific speaker. The aim of this weeks meeting was a review of our efforts in hosting the All Ireland Rally earlier this year. The 'formal' part of our agenda would be reduced to enable members of the Rally Committee to present their reports.

Minutes: The minutes of the 13th May 2014 were taken as read.

Correspondence: The Secretary had received several letter thanking the club for hosting a 'splendid rally', along with:- 1, details of a display about the Binevenagh Wind Farm and their planning application (now, after it's built!!!) at the Lodge on 12/13 September. 2, an invite to visit Lifford Jail (at any time). And 3, a meeting to discuss with BBC NI how they are doing. This is on 17th September 10.30 to 6.30 at the Coleraine Library.

The All Ireland Rally, 28th and 29th May 2014
President Gordon Ward set the scene for the reports by thanking the Rally Committee for their work and reading some letters he had received about the Rally (see attached samples). Jim Gordon, as Rally Chairman, gave a breakdown of the numbers of people involved in various aspects of the Rally, and especially mentioned the Mayor and Deputy Mayor for their help and support. Rally Treasurer, Graham Kane gave a run-through of the final accounts (see attached) and the health balance we achieved, enabling the Rally to make a sizeable donation to James Nesbitt's favoured charity - for which he and they were extremely pleased to receive. Joe Alcorn our 'Guest Tour Organiser' outlined the details of the tour, the route, the numbers attending, the meal and the help from volunteers. The last part of the presentation was a slide show featuring photos of the reception and rally day collected from 'Artemis Photo', our club photographer Ken Parkes and other sources. Between the parts of the overall rally review, the President gave special mention to each of the rally committee and their contributions to the success of the whole event (see attached). The President also told of us his 'low points' during the year - the shock of finding out by chance, the we couldn't use the Bann Gallery for the reception, and also the panic, that we only had 94 names on the registration list at the registration deadline. The President also wanted to thank most sincerely Cathy (setting up registration database) and Mike (huge photocopy help) from the Coleraine Rotary Club, who gave their time and resources freely, helping us mightily!
John McHenry said that there was another person that deserved all our thanks for the leadership role he played in getting the committee working and the event to happen, and that was our President, Gordon Ward. The members gave Gordon a standing ovation.

Social: Jim Gordon reported that menus should available next week for the club lunch on 30th September.

Next Speakers Meeting: Would be on 9th September, where the guest speaker would be Mr John Roberts who would be talking about 'The Aberfan Disaster'.

The President thanked everyone for attending and hoped everyone would be along next week when the chair would be taken by John Graham, our Vice President

Meeting closed at 12.20am

SIGNED: John Graham
DATE: 9th September 2014