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dunbar - djma - muir - jmbt - donate walks - events - newsletters - membership - office - links DJMA AGM #1 - 1994/95 |
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DJMA Annual General Meetings... [home] |
DJMA Annual General Meetings...
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| DJMA AGM #1 - 1994/95 |
 DJMA AGM #2 - 1995/96 |
The Association's Objects are
(i) To advance the education of the public concerning John Muir, as the Dunbar-
born pioneer of world nature conservation, and his belief in the unique and
irreplaceable value of wild places and wild creatures
(ii) To implement John Muir's philosophy practically by conserving, restoring and
enhancing landscape and wildlife in
East Lothian and Scotland.
It was with sadness that we heard during the year of the deaths of 3 of our Founder Members - Jack Steele, R. James Anderson, and Dr John Laurenson, all well-known and respected figures in Dunbar.
A coffee morning in December and a Burns Supper in February attracted publicity, added to our funds, and provided enjoyable opportunities for members and interested non-members to meet.
For our three-week January exhibition in Dunbar Library we invited a variety of organisations with environmental interests to contribute display material, and had a very enthusiastic response. East Lothian District Council's colourful exhibit emphasised the importance of re-cycling, and the RSPB's photographs provided a dramatic attractor. Other contributions came from the John Muir Trust, Blue Circle Cement, the East Lothian Antiquarian & Field Naturalist Society, the Lothian Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the archives of the Dunbar & District History Society. Contact with Brian D'Arcy of the Forth River Purification Board bore further fruit in April when he brought a distinguished visitor, Dov Weitman of the US Office of Water, to see Dunbar, describing it as a highlight for any visitor to Scotland interested in nature conservation. A visit to the exhibition by the local Area Officer of Scottish Natural Heritage led to our applying for, and being awarded, a grant so that we could buy our own stands and produce professional-quality display material to put on them.
The next series of well-publicised events came at the Birthday weekend in April, when one of John Muir's great grandchildren, Louise Powell, and her daughter, Jaimie, were our guests and we held a joint meeting with the John Muir Trust. We presented honorary member certificates to each of them, and gave them certificates to take back to other family members with whom the President had corresponded. We were surprised to hear that the living descendants of John Muir numbered 53, including one grandson and two great great great grandchildren, though none of them bears the surname Muir. The Affiliate Member certificate for the Muir-Hanna Family Trust is to hang in their holiday home -- a former goldminer's hut near Yosemite.
In early June we accepted an invitation from Michael Williams to participate in the exhibition at the Open Day of the Lothian Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group at his demonstration farm, Eaglescairnie Mains. It was wet, wet, wet, but very cheerful. The drought, however, had set in by 22nd July when Mr Williams took a dozen DJMA members on a special tour of the wildlife areas of his farm.
Dunbar's Civic Week in late June saw DJMA with a window display in the High Street of Dunbar, by kind permission of the owner of an empty shop, Amore Radcliffe. Its centrepiece was the illustrated map of the new town trail, John Muir's Dunbar. Since rates are payable even if only the window is in use, we decided to accept Mrs Radcliffe's offer of rent-free use of the whole shop for three months. Intended primarily as a place where information may be obtained about DJMA's projects, we also sell books by and about John Muir, and postcards, as well as T-shirts specially printed with a drawing by Ann Gardner of kittiwakes on Dunbar Castle and a quotation from Muir. A small exhibition on loan from the John Muir Trust is mounted on our new stands bought with the SNH grant. The shop has been opened every Saturday by Council members for several hours. East Lothian Volunteer Network has sent us some voluntary helpers to keep it open on weekday afternoons, and we are particularly grateful to Robin Shiells for organising the sales and keeping track of our stock.
At the Spring Gathering on John Muir's birthday we were glad to welcome Dunbar's present and future local authority Councillors, Stephen Bunyan and Norman Hampshire, and a number of the Trustees of the John Muir Trust. To accompany their Honorary Member certificates, Mrs Powell and Jaimie were presented, by courtesy of Blue Circle Cement, with souvenirs of Dunbar marble polished at the Longniddry Lapidary Club by Pauline Last. DJMA council members provided the speakers. Winifred Sillitto recalled the short history of the Association, paying tribute to the increasing awareness of John Muir in his home town which has been fostered over the last twenty years by Daisy Hawryluk, Frank Tindall and Ian Fullerton. David Anderson spoke of the influence Dunbar had had on Muir; he conjured up a picture of a crowded, smelly town very unlike the fresh fairly-well-cared-for place that it is today. Aubrey Manning discussed the parallels in thinking between John Muir and a great Scottish environmentalist of this century, Frank Fraser Darling [a precis of this talk will be found in our Summer Newsletter].
One bitterly cold Saturday morning in January, over 60 local children of various ages enjoyed a 3-mile sponsored walk in the John Muir Country Park. Our Local Involvement Committee had the welcome co-operation of the District Council's Countryside Rangers in this event, ready to cope with any emergency that might -- but did not -- arise. Afterwards, those who had walked enough were ferried to Dunbar Library through the generosity of EVE Cars & Coaches. In her dual capacity as Library Assistant and as a leader at the Countess Youth Centre, Anne Hampshire encouraged the younger children to take part in a John Muir Quiz based on the exhibits in the DJMA exhibition. Finally everyone went to the Youth Centre for refreshments.
A John Muir Birthday Party on the morning of Saturday, 22nd April, attracted more than 70 under-twelves. Malcolm leMaistre came from Edinburgh to give his "worst magician in the world" show, bringing in environmental themes, and Judy Norwell came from Perth to talk about John Muir's inventions. Louise and Jaimie Powell spent some time with the children, who were well feasted on birthday cake and other food contributed with great generosity by Dunbar traders. We have to thank Cathryn Thompson for helping with the organisation, Marta Denning for the brilliant badges she made from 'rubbish', Jane Flowers for making sandwiches and Mrs Maureen Kostryckyj for supplying unlimited crisps. June Diggory deserves special thanks for her generous help. Brooke & Brown, solicitors, and the Royal Bank of Scotland made monetary contributions, while food, soft drinks, ice cream, lollipops and other goodies came from: Belhaven Brewery, the Courtyard Restaurant, Dunbar Travel Bureau, Garner's Toys & Gifts, Stefany Hawryluk Studio, Knowes Farm Shop, de Rollo Icecream (Musselburgh), PJ Design, Scottish Nuclear, William Smith (Baker), and Umberto's Restoranti. Our grateful thanks to them all.
We applied successfully for affiliation to the Scottish Conservation Projects Trust, who organise insurance cover and provide a start-up grant for tools and so on. We would welcome more volunteers, and suggestions for projects for the coming season.
With the help of a donation from the Rotary Club of Dunbar, 200 copies of this preliminary booklet were photocopied and most of them have now been sold. An improved version is under way, and we are looking for funds to get it illustrated and printed. An application for this purpose in November, to the Post Office Community Care Awards scheme, was short-listed but did not make the final selection.
Five people have volunteered to train as John Muir guides, and arrangements for this are being made with Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise Limited. Our affiliate member, Dunbar Trades' Association, has expressed interest in the project. Talks with the Planning Department of East Lothian District Council about way-markers and interpretation boards have also taken place, and it is hoped that installation of these will be possible next year.
It was encouraging to see that the authorities have erected new signs at the entrances to Dunbar which now mention Dunbar's 'twin town', Martinez.
The suggestion that it should be a project "for the millennium" was made at the Launch in September, and this has never been far from the thoughts of Council members since. To interest the sort of partners required for funding by the Millennium Commission we first had to gain some credibility by our own efforts, and the development of the new town trail, John Muir's Dunbar, and all the winter events were geared to that end. By the end-of-March deadline for Millennium Proposals, we were able to say "talks are progressing, though as yet without commitment, with a range of potential partners". By John Muir's birthday on 21st April we could announce that we had passed the first hurdle and received an Application Pack -- for return by the last day in April. A document addressing 30 or 40 aspects of our proposal was requested, an impossible task, but at a workshop for applicants we were encouraged by the Commissioners to send what we could. Indeed we felt that any further delay would dissipate the goodwill that existed among our members and we managed to get our document and all its annexes away just in time (a copy of the first 2 pages of the document may be found in the leaflet, DJMA's Millennium Project).
In mid June we received the verdict "whilst the application has the potential to achieve the millennial impact required, there is insufficient information on which to establish whether it is in principle financially and technically viable. ... You are welcome to make a more detailed application for this project". This was encouraging, and positive confirmation of our achievement arrived a week later: there were 82 applications from Scotland, of which only 14 were 'long listed' for detailed investigation, while 13 others including The John Muir Centre, Dunbar were placed in Section B, "not yet ready for detailed appraisal, but ... could with further work be long listed in a future round".
We shall be sending a representative to London at the end of August for a 'feedback' workshop, and then we can really get to work setting up partnerships and preparing for the renewed application. Meantime, local and national publicity drives will be undertaken, for any Millennium Project must have the whole-hearted support of the community. The help of all our members will be needed and appreciated, working together to bring John Muir and his ideas home to Scotland 150 years after he left.
At the end of October, Lawrence Downing, President of the Sierra Club Foundation from 1989 to 1992, wrote to us. "... I have followed -- and supported -- from the very beginning the efforts in the Dunbar area to establish a 'John Muir Centre' to educate people about the man and his conservation thought ... . It seems to me that it is essential to the work of the Centre and the growth of this project to purchase Muir's old home itself. I recognise that it is not adequate for the broader vision of the John Muir Centre, but acquisition of the home will help insure its protection, preserve the public's access, and give an initial focus to your fundraising and educational work."
So, having established that Stefany would in principle be willing to sell, and after discussion with the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust, we approached the Heritage Lottery Fund. Their Application Pack eventually arrived in June, and a committee of 5 Council members got to work, with advice from Herbert Coutts, DJMA member and Head of City of Edinburgh's Museums and Galleries. A 9-page document has now been submitted along with 30 supporting items, all in duplicate. We are very grateful to a small number of members of the Association who, when told of this proposal, donated generous sums to cover the costs of valuations and photocopying.
The application is for help with the first phase -- the purchase of the House and its refurbishment to provide by next summer
Partnership funding is, of course, required, and we have had encouraging talks with East Lothian Council and with LEEL; we have also approached a major private grant-giving trust, and are planning an Appeal targeted in the first instance at members of DJMA, the John Muir Trust, the Sierra Club, and residents of East Lothian. You will be hearing more about this at a later date, but please note that a special bank account with an initial deposit of £350 has already been set up for the project and any donations will be very welcome. We estimate that £158,000 is needed for the first phase.
As laid down by the Constitution, office-bearers were elected by the Council. The requirement that the Honorary Treasurer should be an elected, rather than a co-opted, member of Council has proved rather restrictive; it would have been less of a burden for Duncan Smeed, who is also membership secretary and Internet correspondent, had we been able to co-opt someone with financial expertise as Treasurer. Wallace Dempster, a Dunbar accountant, has been appointed Auditor for this year.
A management structure has been evolving, though we are far from satisfied with it as yet. Ten Council meetings have been held during the year, and four meetings of a smaller group, the Business & Policy committee. This committee comprises the President, Convener of Council, Vice-convener, Honorary Treasurer, Honorary Secretary, representative of the John Muir Trust, convener of the Local Involvement committee, Honorary Archivist, Publicity Coordinator, and Legal Adviser.
While all Council members, and many other members, have given ungrudgingly of their time and expertise, we really need a part-time paid administrator with nothing else to do. Ways of funding such a post are being investigated. But we shall continue to need all the voluntary assistance that our members can give, so please get in touch with one of the Office-bearers if you would be willing to stand for election to the Council at our Annual General Meeting on 22nd September. We would also be glad to hear from members with special skills or knowledge who would be willing to serve on panels or sub-committees as need arises. It's your Association -- help us to make the most of it.
It will be apparent from the Accounts that the Association relies very heavily on annual subscriptions for a large part of its recurrent income and so we'd like to commend the renewal of your membership and, if possible, further 'recruits' from among your family and friends. Of course we cannot expect to raise the millions of pounds required solely from subscriptions(!) but they do serve to demonstrate the level of commitment and support that we get from individuals and families from all over the world - people who are committed to Jo`n Muir's vision of a sustainable future for planet Earth. Thank you for your support.
Registered Scottish Charity No. SC 022857
INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR TO 31ST JULY 1995
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INCOME
Subscriptions + donations £1,247.00
Donations 1,632.13
Meetings 461.00
Fund Raising 950.34
Grants 100.00
Bank interest 13.38
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£4,403.85
LESS: EXPENDITURE
Membership services (Certificates etc) £ 612.64
Meetings (hire of hall etc) 486.81
Fund Raising Costs 544.65
Leaflets + postcards 664.51
Public Launch - PR fees 1,343.94
PR expenses 206.06
Printing, Photocopying, Books etc 339.69
Affiliation Fee, Insurance etc 110.47
Miscellaneous Expenses 21.93
Bank Charges 1.31
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4,332.01
SURPLUS FOR YEAR £ 71.84
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Represented by:
Bank Account £ 26.26
Cash on hand 45.58
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£ 71.84
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The above Income & Expenditure Account for the year to
31st July 1995 have been produced from the books and
vouchers provided together with explanations received.
I hereby certify that these financial statements are
in accordance therewith.
W M DEMPSTER CA
DUNBAR
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