The London Scottie Club was launched five years ago, and during that time has expanded to well over 60 active members. With the needs of a vibrant and growing social club it is now evident we need more of the members to help “muck in”.

A few weeks ago, an initial LSC Co-ordination Committee was agreed to get things started. There is an identified need to introduce important innovations into the club as it continues to expand. No doubt, the committee itself will evolve with new ways to appoint members to the committee etc. But for now we are all just relieved to have found willing colleagues who are already active in the club to take on this additional task.

Therefore, it is my pleasure to introduce your committee for the 12 months to end June 2022. They are: member and meeting marshal Zelda Malan, member Nicola Murray, honorary member and meeting marshal Fraser Grant, and LSC web designer Francoise Gilles. I shall chair the meetings.

The Committee held its inaugural meeting on 4 July at 8pm. In the interests of transparency we convey here the main topics that were discussed, and where a decision has been reached what that means for you, the membership. All decisions are taken by a vote at the meetings. The meetings are held quarterly and last for a maximum of 40 minutes. They can also be convened by emergency or if necessary at a contemporaneous time to allow for spillover discussion following a quarterly meeting. The next scheduled meeting will take place on 3 October 2021.

Agenda:

1. The committee introductions
2. Feedback of the 3 July Walkabout
3. Feedback about the new website
4. Proposal to introduce Member Tags

We will spare you the pats on the back about the Walkabout and website, as plenty has been reflected already on the WhatsApp Convo group, and thank you. But we will explain some more about Agenda Point number 4, as this one is very important.

A QR code. Unique to its user it helps us identify who comes to Walkabouts with a simple smartphone scan.

To help us know which members actually attend our events and to have an accurate record, we agreed to introduce Member Tags for Club events, including  Walkabouts. These Tags will be free of charge to members, but an admin fee may apply if they are lost. A laminated card around the size of a credit card with a lanyard will be a cool “badge of honour” of your membership of London Scottie Club. It will also protect your personal safety because only genuine members can gain access to our events. The Tag will contain only the owner’s first name, dog’s “passport photo” and a QR code for the dog, plus the LSC logo of course! For privacy reasons no other details will be visibly displayed. In the case of owning more than one dog, a separate laminate card will be issued for each dog. So if you have three dogs, you can place three Member Tags onto your lanyard.

What’s in the QR code? To avoid anyone else scanning your Tag and retrieving identifying data, it will contain important codes that are only of any value to London Scottie Club administration. So your personal data is kept private at all times.

It was decided that for this to be effective, the Member Tags must be brought along when you take part in each Walkabout or other social gathering of the London Scottie Club. A meeting marshal will then use their smartphone to scan the QR code of your Tag and register your attendance with our own database. The data will not be shared with third parties. They would not want it anyway! It will be a requirement to have your Tag scanned in order to enter our functions. A bit like school registration that we remember from our childhoods. But this time all done with a bleep!

The benefits of Member Tags:

• Gives members a badge of honour, a souvenir
• Issued free to members and honorary members
• Allows for fast and discrete registration of your attendance of our events
• Contains no identifying data that could be useful to any third party
• Helps protect events from criminals preying on valuable Scotties
• Will bestow privileges and benefits for members from retailers

We believe Member Tags will help us plan events safely and accurately and make the club feel more coherent too. More details will be released about the Tags when they are ready and we may need some help from members in which case we will contact you by email! If you have any concerns please use the contact form on this website.

In future, reports from the Committee may be published on the website and/or via email to registered Members and Honorary Members only.

On behalf of the Committee,

George Matlock