The July lunch was attended by 38 members, by two guests, and by our Speaker, Geoff Karran MBE, whose intriguing topic was “What makes me happy”. For those members who knew that Geoff 's 2008 award of an MBE was for services to Sport and the Disabled, it came as no surprise to hear that what makes him happy is Sport. As Geoff said, “there is not a lot of happiness involved in being an advocate”. He was formerly a Senior Partner in Dickinson & Cruickshank and is a former President of the I.O.M. Law Society. Geoff took us through the development of his interest in all sports from a young age when all of his reading material was about sport. His main passion was cricket and he used to have a cricket pitch at the back of his garden when his sister fielded and his father bowled. The tremendous development of sport in the Isle of Man from the establishment of the I.O.M Sports Council during the 1980's was outlined. Geoff was involved with the legal aspect of setting up the IIAG limited company. The Isle of Man was the first small nation to be awarded the hosting of a Commonwealth Youth Games. The 4th games took place in 2011 when Geoff was the Chairman and Games Director of the Organising Committee. Geoff ended his talk by showing a short film of the Island Games. The film is used to inspire youngsters to know that all is possible in sport on the Isle of Man. I am sure that many of us share Geoff's love of sport although few, if any, of us will have been involved in its organisation to the extent that he has.
Visits to Manx Radio
A group of 23 of our members and their guests experienced a very informative and thoroughly enjoyable visit to the studios of Manx Radio on 20th July. The visit was hosted by the very enthusiastic Station Controller, Mark Tyley, who gave a run-through on the history of the building (i.e. a 2nd World War Radar HQ) before showing two short films which were made during 1968 and 2008 respectively. The films clearly showed the huge advances in technology that has occurred between those years. The group then moved to the top floor to visit the quadruple glazed recording studios where they marvelled at the very latest technology and made a brief contribution to Alex Brindley's afternoon broadcast. Manx Radio has a staff of 28 plus 30 freelance reporters, and costs ?2 million a year to run ( an ?800,000pa grant is received from the Manx Government and the balance is made up by receipts from commercial activities, adverts etc.). The Radio Station is charged with covering everything that might be newsworthy on the Isle of Man and its general performance makes it one of the very best local stations in the British Isles. The visit was followed by some of the group driving to St. John's Mill to enjoy afternoon tea.
OUR NEXT LUNCH will be on Wednesday 10th August 2016 at Ramsey Golf Club. Open from 12.30pm for a 1pm start, when our guest speaker will be:-
BOB KERMEEN whose topic will be “Who Killed Dr. Kelly?””. This will be the third consecutive year that we will have the opportunity to hear one of Bob's well researched talks.
