18th January, 2011

Great News - our building warrant has finally been granted. (The hold up was that the frame for the solar panels needed an engineer's certificate) Now we can order the solar panels too and real progress can be made. The boiler is on order and the boiler house has had a good clear out. There's a meeting this afternoon to co-ordinate all the work.

The last couple of months we've been working on publicity for the year to come. The Centre is now on Facebook. See what you think. We made up a leaflet for the Landmark catalogue which goes out to every school in Scotland and we've just received the balance of the print run - an extra thousand - to send out to other schools & children's groups.

We've just updated our price list. Take a look at the new pick & mix menu & see if there is anything that would suit you or a group you know this year.

It's good to welcome back our day groups  which have started up again.

7th January, 2011

Happy New year to you all. Christmas was a quiet period for us, especially with the snowy weather, which resulted in some cancelled bookings, but the flat was being used all December and into the New Year. In fact quite a few people have booked it recently for personal retreats coming up this year - well, Pitlochry is a beautiful & inspiring place to take time out to take stock after all - so if you want to book please do so well in advance. It's getting quite popular you know! The freezing weather  gave us some frozen pipes but our friendly plumber was very good at  fixing it even though it was Christmas Eve. Iain had to keep an eagle eye on the system throughout the holidays, meaning he never had a day away from the Centre. Christmas was a time for "thank you"s so Iain was invited to a prize giving at Pitlochry Festival Theatre for the adult literacy group and the Centre staff got together with volunteers for a Christmas meal. It was a time for pressure as we realised that time was running short to get the boiler project into its installation phase & many urgent phonecalls were made to push it along.We will shortly be placing our order for the new boiler (at last) and hope everything goes smoothly from now on. Hugh Henderson is now on board to project supervise & we're very grateful for his help & advice. It has also been a time for coughs and colds, some spending their Christmas holidays feeling distinctly under the weather, but we're back now and raring to go. We start the New Year with some  freshly revamped chairs for the upstairs lounge thanks to a local upholsterer. We're really grateful to have so much local loyalty within the community & as local day groups start up again we get the chance to play our part again in serving our community.

6th December, 2010

It's really cold and the snow is thick on the ground. The main roads have been cleared and the A9 is open, but the trains and buses are still unreliable. Our weekend group (40 people) had to cancel as did all events during the week but one (children's christmas crafts). Even the Council of Management was cancelled for tomorrow as people are having trouble digging their cars out! The intrepid Glynnis still made it from the back of beyond into work last week and this, so it shows what can be done with a lot of determnation and a four wheel drive. Still, more chance to catch up on admin as emails aren't snow reliant and the post seems to be working fine. A great big thank you is due as we have received quite a few donations as a result of Iain's appeal at the BU assembly. This is really encouraging as we realise how much support and goodwill towards us there is out there. Next year's weekend bookings are filling up nicely, but there's still plenty of room midweeks, so if you have a midweek conference or holiday in mind, please think of us.

It looks like we won't have the new boiler in for Christmas, as we're still waiting for a technical certificate before it can go through building control, but it's in process, which is  good. Please pray for Hugh, our works supervisor, and the different specialists involved as they co-ordinate their plans, ready for the start of work. We've already noticed the chalet is warmer since the walls were insulated, so it's good to see tangible improvements.

22nd November, 2010

Just had a self catering group in from Kingussie for the weekend. They enjoyed attending the church next door on Sunday morning and having the table tennis table up. There were kids everywhere and the church's Sunday Club was very busy - but fun. Last weekend was a ladies fellowship, many of them having come from Africa in the last 5 years, and they were all vegetarian, some even vegan. They really loved the food & said it was the best they had had at any conference centre - lovely vegetarian curry & lasagne - but then Iain had the advantage of the ladies from the Scottish Deli cooking their food. They also appreciated how baby friendly we are, using all our cots at once and happy with all the warm milk etc. we could supply over & above what is normally expected. It's good to see people really enjoying their stay here and leaving with a smile on their faces.

Adult learning has continued to meet every week in various classes during the day and we now have a youth cafe every Thursday night organised by the local council. It's been going quite well so far, although they tried getting a teacher in for street dance classes the last couple of weeks, but  it didn't generate enough interest.
The insulation people have been to do the attic of the main building and the cavity walls on the dining room and chalet so that's the process started. It's exciting to be at the beginning of something new, but a bit nail biting as well, trying to make sure all the t's are crossed and the i's dotted for claiming the grants and satisfying all the regulations. Building control have asked for a few more details which the boiler supplier has to give us, so please pray we are able to give them all the information they need in good time.
A funding committee has been set up to help with the 40th anniversary plans. A lot of groundwork still has to be done before any trustfunds can be approached, but following our appeal at the Baptist Assembly we've already had several generous donations. God is good.

9th November, 2010

We've had snow on the hills and winter is becoming a reality. A bit of an emergency as there was a gas leak at the Centre yesterday. Fortunately  it was just a smell - no explosions or anything. The ladies in the kitchen couldn't cook  though and we retreated to the office & reception with an electric heater until the gas man declared it all fixed.

The  powerpoint presentation at the Assembly went really well & ended with a round of applause. It seems to have put the Centre firmly back on the map again for many people & Iain had a lot of  people coming up to him afterwards with good comments.

We've just finished with the craft fair, which was in the dining room for 2 weeks during which we had B & B. We also had a mountain leadership course staying with us for the week who hope to come back again (They particularly commented on the friendly & helpful attitude of staff) and a relaxed disabled group with their carers for an overnight. The weekend was busy with a church weekend from St Devenick's church & there's another church coming this weekend. We're very grateful that our weekend bookings are looking very healthy even in the off season, and the week bookings are beginning to pick up a bit too. We've just designed a double page advert for a schools magazine and are hoping it will yield good results in the coming year.

The Council of Management are meeting today to see what needs to be done to take the Centre forward and particulary to take forward the 40th anniversary plans for developing  & upgrading the building. Please pray for all the details & decisions.

28th October, 2010

Good news. We now have 100% funding for our heating project. Many thanks to Community Energy Scotland (our biggest funder), Rural Tayside LEADER Programme 2007-2013(we got their largest grant in Perth & Kinross this session!), the Gannochy Trust, Pitlochry Baptist Church and you, who  through your giving, have enabled us to put £2050 of Atholl Centre funds towards this. Planning permission has come through for the boiler & solar panels. We're just waiting for building control now. This means that we can start work with the insulation now and so a firm is booked in for mid November to put cavity wall in the Chalet and thicker loft insulation in the main building.

We've been busy preparing for the Baptist Assembly where we'll have a stall and a  5 minute powerpoint presentation on our 40th anniversary appeal. It was brilliant to have Ken, a business consultant, help us formulate our slide presentation and Ian, an author, stranded at the Centre due to illness, who wrote a fantastic script for us. The printing of the leaflets and newsletters which will go out to the churches at the assembly has gone to the wire due to a broken machine, but they will be ready - just. Please pray for Iain, our director & Allan Berry, our chairman, as they travel there and represent the Centre. Please also support our treasurer Norman McNeish in prayer, who has had to resign due to serious ill health. He has also had to resign as treasurer of the Baptist Union.

We had a good first conference  " A Safe Place"  on mental health in the church on the 16th Oct put on by International Christian College, Glasgow. It was greatly appreciated by everyone who went and a group from the Hub at Queen's Park Baptist, Glasgow, who've been the ones encouraging ICC to go with this, made it into a weekend away & loved the restfulness & warm welcome while staying at the Centre. Someone has already done a write up, so we'll upload it as soon as we get a hold of it.

Highland Perthshire Autumn festival is underway as I write. It's a 2 week affair with the Enchanted Forest son et lumiere display every evening, lots going on in the main street & an art & crafts fair put on by local artists at the Centre.The 2nd week Perthshire Amber, a brilliant traditional & modern Scottish music festival, organised by Dougie Maclean, is also on. We're open for B & B while we have the craft fair in, so please come & enjoy all the autumn events.

7th September, 2010

OK so where did the rest of spring and summer go? It's a long story. As you can see we changed the appearance of our website. We also changed our website provider, but the changeover has not gone as smoothly as we had hoped, so there have been a few months where we had no access to manage the website and have only regained access in the last couple of weeks. A lot has happened since I last wrote. We've had lots of groups coming, and also some B & B which started in July this year. This week we have an ME group with us. This is their second year with us and they really appreciate that we can have so many wheelchair guests at once and that we can make their stay special by making tasty meals, catering for several different diets at once. We also offer the services of a local sports and therapeutic masseuse for this group, who find her work very beneficial.

We've had extra help over the summer with some of our local students, Ewan & Josh  for quite a few weeks and Callum, Eilidh & Catriona for shorter periods, enjoying some paid employment. Julie joined us from France for 3 weeks as a temporary worker and Fatima from Portugal has been with us all summer as a volunteer. It will be very quiet when they have all gone and we wish them well for their futures. Elizabeth, who has been cleaning with us for a few months now, is moving down south so we wish her all the best too. Christine, who has volunteered once a week as a secretary for the last 3 years, is retiring from the Centre. We are very grateful for her faithful support & service & wish her a peaceful retirement.
The plans for a new wood pellet boiler, solar panels and insulation are coming to fruition. We have now received promise of 50% funding from Community Energy Scotland and 5% from the Gannochy Trust and should hear soon about planning permisssion. We are waiting to hear from LEADER (EU Funding) about a further 35% of the total cost. They meet this Friday(10th Sept) so please pray for that meeting. If all goes well we hope the boiler will be installed in November.