| Otterburn XXI |
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Members of the Otterburn Society, The Otterburn Tower Hotel, November 2002. From left to right, Gavin Murray-Thriepland, Andy Jordan, Aude Dulieth, Karl Beattie, Basil Firth, Richard Tarn, John C Beck, Alastair Scarborough, Randall Flack, Jeremy Fetherstone |
| The twenty first annual meeting, the "coming of age" of the Otterburn Society was celebrated in the tradition and style that one might have associated with such a gathering. The agenda followed the usual format. The meeting was memorable due to the universally high quality of the presentations. Toggies were a different matter, however members were delighted that Aude, who having assiduously practiced the technique, delighted the members with a superb climax this year. |
| The Wolfgang
award has been traditionally awarded to the member who is judged to have
made the best contribution to the Otterburn Society Journal.
At the conference, Jeremy seamed unperturbed by the significance of his failure to publish last year's journal. In the absence of a journal, it was agreed that the Wolfgang award should be presented to the member who made the most entertaining presentation. There was much debate about each member's presentation, but one presentation stood out, if only for the fact that it had been the FIRST presentation that the member had made since the formation of the Otterburn society, that had not been made "off the cuff" and had actually involved some preparation. |
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Mr Flack impressed the members with a power point presentation on the Gyrotiller, a variant of the delta tiller and went on to present a working model demonstrating the concept followed by a video of the testing of the full sized equipment constructed. This was indeed impressive. Mr Flack was applauded throughout his presentation !. Whilst being questioned by the assessors however, it became obvious that Mr Flack was not the only person worthy of the Wolfgang award. |
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It transpired that the model had been made by technicians at Pearson Engineering, that the presentation had been written by an Engineer employed by Pearsons, and compiled by the very capable Angie, and that the video was produced as part of a United States DoD contract. It was unanimously agreed that the Wolfgang award should be therefore awarded to Mr Randall Flack, the engineers and technicians of Pearson Engineering, Angie and the United States Department of Defense. On behalf of the winners, Mr Flack gracefully accepted. In recognition of his failure to win the Wolfgang award for so many years, Mr Flack paid the ultimate forfeit, and lost a massive three stripes from his society tie. The Twenty First Annual General Meeting was chaired by the Chairman. The minutes were circulated to members together with a statement of income and expenditure. In spite of an exhaustive agenda, members enjoyed the Society song book with considerable gusto prior to the roast beef sandwiches and even enjoyed a long awaited trip to the lake to reenact the battle of Otterburn. It was particularly wet and muddy this year !
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