Rowan's funeral

Rowan Dore's funeral is to be held at St Margaret's Church at the Green, Rottingdean at 2pm on Wednesday January 4. Apparently, all are welcome. Many thanks to Karen Hoy at the Argus for keeping us informed.

The Argus carried some letters of tribute to Rowan on Wednesday. They can be found be scrolling down to news extra here http://archive.theargus.co.uk/2005/12/21/

If you want to pay your own tribute to Rowan feel free to post on this site.

ADM delegates

The branch is entitled to send two delegates to the union's Annual Delegate Meeting in Liverpool from March 23 to 26. If you want to stand you must either come to the January meeting or let us know if you want to be nominated. If there's more than two candidates then who goes will be down to a vote on the night.

Rowan Dore

Argus reporter Rowan Dore, 56, (on right of pic) was found dead at his Rottingdean home on Thursday. He joined the paper in the mid-90s after working for the Press Association in London, where he lost his job in one of PA’s purges of older journalists. He was always grateful to NUJ officials for the help he had at the time of his departure from PA.

Widower Rowan had four grown-up children – a son and three daughters. The branch – which he represented at three union annual conferences - would like to extend heartfelt condolences to the family on an irreplaceable loss that is keenly felt by every member who knew a kind and generous man. We have no news on when his funeral will be held.

**Adrian Colley adds: One of life’s lovely blokes, Rowan will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him.

And it seemed everybody DID know him. Having worked with him in Brighton on the Argus it appeared he was acquainted with half the city. When I went with him to the NUJ’s annual conference in Liverpool I wondered whether his contacts extended to half of Britain too. He seemed to know the whole world. And who wouldn’t have wanted to know him?

Rowan had the perfect journalistic gift of a bottomless curiosity and was always genuinely interested in what people had to say. He also loved making new friends. Despite having been a reporter for 30-plus years, he was never in danger of turning into the archetypal seen-it-all-before grizzled hack. Far from it. For him, every story was as fresh as a daisy. His was a cynicism-free take on the world – an enviable disposition and one that makes his death so much harder to bear.

An ego-free zone, sometimes you wondered if he was too agreeable. He was an old-style gent journo who loved to hear your tales and had an infinite fund of his own.

And he always remembered your stories – if he ever introduced you to a stranger he would always regale them with a tale about you, complete with flattering chuckles, that reflected you in the best possible light and make you appear one of the most fascinating people on the planet – a rare ability and one of the keys to his social success. He was impossible to dislike.

Rowan always came with a slight sense of the surreal. The brother of a singer-songwriter, who else but him would have been seen out and about Brighton and beyond with the Monty Python actress Carol Cleveland, a great friend? In his days as a Parliamentary reporter for PA he knew dozens of MPs and his love of the theatre saw him review many productions across Sussex.

I recall a night out with him last year. We met in Porto, Portugal, during the Euro 2004 football tournament for a long night. He was there with friends from Brighton – one the owner of a nightclub, the other I only ever knew as Fish. A long night ensued and a nightclub was sought for futher entertaininment. He had a few drinks and disappeared. After scouring the club for him, I finally tracked him down to the ladies loo. In Portuguese ‘Mulheres’ is the word for women and he’d mistaken the M on the door for ‘Men’ and he’d gone in there for, er, a rest. Luckily he was the sole resident at the time. I had to have a loud row with the bouncers, who weren't impressed to see two men hanging around the loos, before claiming him. We managed to swagger out at 6am to watch a glorious sun rise over the River Douro. The oldest swingers in town we may have been but Rowan had a youthful zest that put many half his age to shame and that was part of his charm.

There was no bad side to Rowan and I cannot recall ever hearing a waspish remark pass his lips – not something you can say about many in our profession. He represented all that was best about journalism.

I’ll remember his cherub’s face and twinkling eyes and his unfailing unfeigned delight at seeing you. Though I knew him for at most eight years, he was one of my closest friends. His life may have been cut short but I know for sure that it was full and rich. He was proud of his charming children, Chelsea winning the title and his unerring ability to dig up a story when the Argus needed a quick shot in the arm.

Many of us were reduced to tears by last week’s news. He was a wonderful, wonderful man and I’ll miss his chuckles.

**More pictures, from Jemima. These were taken at ADM, April 2005. Thanks to Dave Rotchelle.

Christmas party - TOMORROW!

Only one week to go - THURSDAY DECEMBER 15 at 8pm at the Cricketers pub in Brighton. This month's meeting backed £300 worth of free booze. That's up on last year's £215.20 (see the accounts) so it should be a good night out.

Basically a repeat of last year's do only the upstairs room - The Greene Room - has been refurbished to look a lot snazzier.

See you there.

Exiled journos' network

From EJN:

You may have heard or read about the official launch of the Exiled Journalists' Network (EJN)- a group set up by and for refugee journalists trying to rebuild their career and life in the UK. We're humbled by the support we've received from the union to launch this outfit.

I'm writing requesting if the branch might help by paying a contribution towards our EJN Emergency Relief Fund for destitute asylum seeking journalists whom majority of them have exhausted their legal challenges and are now not eligible for assistance due to Section 4 of the Immigration laws.

We're getting legal advice from the Headland House on some of the cases but some of our members are in difficult circumances hence my appeal for assistance from your branch.

Cheques can be written payable to the Exiled Journalists' Network (EJN) and post to our address on the signature.

We also encourage members of our network to joim NUJ branches and anyone who've approached your please refer them to the network.

Free tomorrow night?

This looks fun. A hot tip, courtesy of Christina Zaba at Bristol NUJ.

Tomorrow evening in Brighton there's going to be a debate, set up by the No2ID campaign and sponsored by Brighton and Hove Unison branch, between Peter Tatchell and hapless Blairite poodle and junior minister Andy Burnham.

Tatchell, it's confidently predicted, will make mincemeat of Burnham. The funny thing is, Burnham doesn't know that he hasn't got a leg to stand on.

Bound to be something juicy in there. Anyone fancy calling in and telling the branch how it went?

Details:
Farewell to Liberty debate
7.00PM
6 December, Quality Hotel, West Street, Brighton

Contact:
Andy Player
Brighton NO2ID co-ordinator
brighton@no2id.net
01273 749061
07818 027408

Job finding service Pt 2

Brighton's Source needs a new features editor according to this month's issue. "NCTJ, full driving license (sic - perhaps they need a sub too) and car an advantage" says the ad.

Applicants should contact Amelia Lawrence on info@brightonsource.co.uk by Friday December 16 or call Brighton 561617.