Chairman's Notes July/August 2012 by Melvyn Gallagher

Speaking to our Editor I am pleased to hear that already some members have replied positively to the proposal that our Bulletin be sent by e mail to those of you with computers who request this service.  The potential savings to the Club are considerable, especially with rising printing and postage costs - and Bulletins can be sent out quicker too! With the Olympic Games only weeks away (as I write) already London is in a state of turmoil and we wait to see which countries will produce exploitative stamps, including Scouts and Guides in the designs. When the original games took place in ancient Greece they stopped wars whilst they were underway - what a pity we can't do likewise today.  I think especially of the 10,000 Scouts in Syria, where a full civil war had now started.  Their Movement started back in 1912 and had problems in the 1980s when the Ba'th Party banned youth organisations and later when they were removed from the World Organisation of the Scout Movement from 1999-2008 (largely because they failed to pay their subs!) have been very active. During their recent strife they have changed their emblem but whether or not this has anything to do with the war I do not know. Like many Scouts from Arab lands they are keen on Scout Bands, the louder the better. Scouts of Syria In 2012, the Scouts of Syria changed their emblem, in the midst of the Syrian civil war.