Rovers Training Weekend 2024

 Rovers Club in person training weekend was in Carlisle on a glorious sunny weekend at the end of August. Carlisle is a small historic city in the north west of England with a glowering ancient castle, a cathedral, a university (where we were based) and a history of bloody warfare with Scotland (just up the road). On this weekend the English and Scots mingled happily!

Carlisle Castle

 

We came together on Friday evening with an Italian meal at a small restaurant in the centre of Carlisle. It was far from quiet — Carlisle knows how to enjoy itself!

On Saturday morning, after a wide-ranging AGM, we held the Club Speech Contest, with speeches from members and with the audience as judges. Speeches included the subjects ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’, ‘Limit’ and ‘Great Expectations’. The speakers were thought provoking and entertaining, but sadly only one could win.

A gate in Carlisle

 

The afternoon gave us a useful presentation about using PowerPoint on Zoom — and we all learned. There was then a short presentation on ‘Hats and Headwear’.

The evening was our traditional dinner at the Crown and Mitre Hotel, with our invited local speaker enthralling us with his tales of the current and ongoing excavations of a very large Roman building just north of the town. This link will take you to related material — I recommend you scroll down to the video ‘Uncovering Roman Carlisle’. 

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=carlisle+cricket+club+excavation#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f1809d76,vid:tgbGGycv0_8,st:0 

The next day members lead two workshops. One on evaluation, followed by another with the title ‘Go out and seek joy!’ Then the evaluation of the weekend (we had all loved it) and we set off for home, sad to leave but with the prospect of next year’s Spring Weekend not so far away.

Carlisle Coat of Arms

 

Rovers Training Weekend

The final day of the Rovers  Training Weekend started with a workshop on ‘Expanding your Word Power’ led by Vice President Iris Gibson. After a break for refreshments the second workshop  on writing was led by the President, Rosemary Low, and the Secretary, Laurence Coates.

A brief evaluation session followed before the weekend was brought to a close.

Rovers Training Weekend

The Rovers Training Weekend in Carlisle commenced with an informal meal at SannaS Sardinian Restaurant on Friday night. Members enjoyed a relaxed atmosphere and there were a lot of favourable comments afterwards about the meal.

Saturday morning commenced with the AGM followed, after a short break by the speech contest. The winner of the contest was Yvonne Baker, pictured below receiving the Tibbie Brown trophy from club president, Rosemary Low.

President Rosemary presenting the trophy to winner Yvonne Baker

 

After lunch the club parliamentarian, Ruth Maltman, led a workshop on Practical Parliamentary Procedure. The second part of the afternoon was a mini debate chaired by Margaret Robertson.

In the evening we had a meal at the Crown and Mitre hotel followed by table topics led by Nancy Sanderson.

Members and Guests at the Crown and Mitre

Rovers Training Weekend - Sunday

On Sunday morning the Rovers club continued our training weekend with a debate let by Margaret on the proposition "This house believes that pet ownership should be illegal". Everybody present participated. The affirmative team won.

Iris was quiz master with a fiendishly difficult quiz which saw Colin win with 20 out of a possible 60.

After an evaluation of the weekend the members and guests dispersed to journey homewards.

The Rovers Club Training Weekend

Rovers Club are having their annual training weekend, as usual, in Carlisle. This morning the Business Meeting was held followed by the club speech contest.

Linda presenting the trophy to the winner, Laurence

The contestants

In the afternoon members visited Burgh by Sands and St. Michaels, a  Norman church.

Carved Corbel

Millennium Mural

In the evening we had a meal at the Crown and Mitre. A little surprise was that a former member of ITC had provided a little reminder of the past.

ITC Napkin

After a good meal, Rosemary led a very entertaining topic session.

Rovers 2019

Rovers Weekend Sunday Activities

The Rovers Training Weekend Sunday activities commenced with a presentation by Iris on “Getting by in Glasgow – A Rough (very rough) Guide”. This was a humorous explanation of some colourful expressions used in Glasgow.

Colin followed this up with a talk on the North Riding dialect including a little quiz in which we had to try to guess the correct definition of a dialect word.

After a coffee break, Linda had us try to pair up word and origin. To make this more fun we all had to wear a paper hat with a slot to take a piece of paper bearing a word or an origin of a word and we had to find a partner with the corresponding word or origin.

Ruth led a workshop on how to say ‘no’ when one wishes to refuse a request to do something.

Margaret brought proceedings to an end with a winding-up and evaluation session.

Rovers Training Weekend

The Rovers Club is meeting in  Carlisle for our annual training weekend.  Members met last night for a meal. Proceedings started this morning with the business meeting.  This was followed by the speech contest  and pictured are (L to R): Yvonne (Speech Contest Chairman), Colin (Contestant). Laurence (Contest Winner with the Tibbie Brown quaich) and Evelyn (Contestant).

Activities continued in the afternoon with a talk by Nancy on her early years on Lewis, a quiz on Etymology led by Diana and a workshop on accents led by Evelyn. As always it was very enjoyable and we learnt a lot.

A more formal dinner will take place tonight and there will be further workshops tomorrow morning before we wind up the weekend and head for home.

Rovers Carlisle Weekend - 1-3 September 2017.

Members met at the University on 1st September for our annual  Training Weekend.

The first thing on the Agenda was dinner in The Cava Bar on the Campus.

Saturday morning started with the installation of the Board by the Region President.

during the Business meeting the Delegate to Convention gave her Report.

Iris Gibson, Speech Contest Chairman.

There were six contestants in the Speech Contest. Due to Lack of time the winners were not announced until later.

Saturday lunch was at the Devil's Porridge Museum where we had a very interesting visit.

 Following Dinner on Saturday in The Halston, the Speech Contest Winners were announced. Evelyn and Diana were presented with the cup by the Chairman of Judges Marjorie.

Members at Dinner     Topic Leader Ruth

 Sunday Morning bought an interesting and very lively session by Marjorie called "What, Why and Where"

A group Discussion was then led by Evelyn on the future of our club and the organisation.

The final item on the Agenda was a presentation with slides on a Utah adventure by Iris.

Members ready to depart.   Everyone agreed that it had been an enjoyable weekend and that the new premises were a success.