Membership
Its members were formerly composed largely by employees of John Haig, the whisky blend whose bottling plant and offices used to be situated in the eponymous small Fife town, workers for Tullis Russell, a paper-mill on the banks of the nearby River Leven - in fact, Mr. Tullis was one of the founding members in 1842 - and a mixture of farmers and local Health Service professionals. With the closure of John Haig, one source of members was stopped; however, the club survives.
The current membership displays an eclectic range of backgrounds; while many members have Markinch roots, others appear to have joined through happenstance.
Until 2009, though, all members shared a common gender. Ladies had never featured in the membership lists, although they had occasionally been drafted in to prevent a rink from being a "man" short in a game; none, however, had ever attended a Markinch Curling Club supper - other than as waitress or barmaid - until December 2008, when Morag Erskine was present as a representative of Pitlessie Curling Club. After this ground-breaking event, Morag's name, along with those of Marianne Sankey and Karen Turley, now features in the list of members.
Read more about this topic: Markinch Curling Club
Famous quotes containing the word membership:
“The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don’t acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)