| AGM - Convenor's Report | | Print | |
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The Edinburgh Group has had a busy year, with meetings almost every month over the last year apart from August when the society sponsored the Festival of Spirituality and Peace. Thanks to vice convenor Jack Gold for taking the chair on many occasions when I wasn’t able to attend and to Cathy Crawford and Roger Redondo for chairing events at The Filmhouse. Our talks were as follows May - Dr Josh Brickman, on the Ethics of Stem Cell Research June - John Wiltshire on Evolution July - John Blair Fish about the World Development Movement (our summer picnic was rained off) August The Festival of Spirituality and Peace ( http://www.festivalofspirituality.org.uk/) September MEP David Martin on the proposed European Constitution October Donald Reid on his work with the Interfaith Movement and FoSP November Jack Gold on “The Problem with Science” December Rabbi David Rose on Judaism January Joan Gibson on Confucius February Nicholas Phillipson on Adam Smith March HSS Education Officer, Bob Mckay on our new Education Policy During November, members of the Edinburgh Group also supported a stall at the Scottish Green Party conference and took part in the Bio-Ethics film festival. In addition to our monthly meetings, we have a very popular philosophy group, led by Ray Newton & Nigel Bruce. Among other books they discussed Bertrand Russell's "Problems of Philosophy" and “Man for Himself”, by Eric Fromm. The film evenings at The Filmhouse on Lothian Road which Cathy Crawford initiated some years ago have continued and are now almost a monthly event, mostly thanks to Juliet Wilson who has taken over the liason with the Filmhouse programmers. These have generally been very well attended, as have the discussions for which about 1/3 to a 1/2 the audience have generally stayed behind. The Filmhouse now prints the HSS signature & logo in their brochure whenever we sponsor a film and they tell us this always leads to increased attendances. Among other films, we saw The Bridge, about suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco; Shut up and Sing about The Dixie Chicks and ‘patriotism’ in the USA; Black Gold about the ethics of the coffee trade; Darrat a film from Chad about revenge & redemption; The Counterfeiters, about morality within a concentration camp; 4 months 3 weeks 2 days a Romanian film about abortion, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly about Jean Dominique Bauby and Jesus Camp, a documentary about Fundamentalist Christian summer camps in the USA. At Christmas, we saw the Frank Capra classic It’s a Wonderful Life, after which we had a small but well-attended party in the Filmhouse Bar. Over the last year we have developed links with The University of Edinburgh Humanist Society . At last year’s AGM, we gave them a small grant and we have since ensured that they now have a diary page on the HSS site and links to their own web site. The EUSHA proposed that I become their chaplain, a request that the University Chaplaincy Centre declined; instead I am to be the University’s humanist contact. I’m pleased to note, however, that other Scottish Universities are more open to the idea and that three Universities in Glasgow (Glasgow, Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian) now either have or shortly will have humanist chaplains. In April 2007, the Edinburgh group had 188 memberships. It now has 339. Of these, 134 are individuals and 205 are family, giving a total of 544 members – an impressive growth in so short a time. The web site lists all of our events and as you can see, we now have this Blog where reports of them are posted. In 2007, celebrants in the Edinburgh area conducted 477 ceremonies including 175 weddings – a slight decrease from 2006, when the total was 507. In February, celebrants held a reception for Funeral Directors at the Royal Scots Club on Abercrombie Place to present our new identity and leaflets and get feedback on their services that was unanimously positive. My predecessor, the much-loved Ivan Middleton, managed fifteen years in the chair, but as I believe democracy is best served by frequent changes of administration, I’m stepping down after only two years as convenor. It’s been great fun and I think we’ve achieved a lot, but it’s time for somebody new to step up to the plate and take us forward. My sincere thanks go to the other members of the committee - Secretary Cathy Crawford, Treasurer Peter Macdonald and Vice-Convenor Jack Gold, EUSHA representative Roger Redondo, Joan Pisanek, Jean Llewellyn and Juliet Wilson, for their kind hospitality support and tolerance. I hope their new convenor is better organised - and less impatient! With best wishes Tim Maguire Convenor 2006 - 2008
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