The Anstruther Rotary Club’s meeting of October 25th was a large gathering that extended fellowship to guests from Cupar and Kirkcaldy Rotary Clubs. The speaker was local club member Roderick Skinner, who worked as a civil servant in the European Commission and who is now involved in the Scottish European Educational Trust. The Trust’s aim is to foster knowledge about Europe among school students in Scotland, and one of its activities is to run two competitions, one a quiz for primary age students, the other a speaking presentation for secondary age students. The primary school finals take place in the Scottish parliament while the secondary winners visit the European Institutions in Brussels.
Roderick decided to test Rotarians’ knowledge of all things European by administering the ‘primary level’ test. Rotarians who did well in the test recognised the flags of Latvia and Hungary, and knew the number of stars on the European Union flag. They also knew that the two European states bordering the Adriatic Sea are Italy and Slovenia. And that Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean.
It has to be reported that Rotarians’ knowledge on these and many other questions was not as strong as it should have been, although most members did know that the European city which hosts the world’s largest arts and culture festival is Edinburgh. Roderick did not ask the competing tables to disclose their scores, which was perhaps tactful for he mentioned in passing that the competing primary school students would expect to score around seventy five per cent in a quiz of this level.
It was therefore fortunate that Rotarians were spared the ‘secondary level’ exercise! All this said, the evening was a very valuable exercise for the obvious reason that the European Union is such an important dimension of our fortunes here in the UK. Club member William Duncan proposed the vote of thanks.
