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In September that year STGA chairman Douglas Russell announced that after careful and lengthy consideration and consultation with the Glasgow Education Authority it had been decided, regretfully, to suspend the training classes in Glasgow.
‘It is an unpalatable fact that there is not enough employment for Glasgow based guides to justify turning out more guides,’ he said. ‘The result of this unhappy situation has been that new guides in Glasgow have mostly resigned their membership after a year or two.’ Russell included figures relating to the Glasgow training classes since 1960 and they show how challenging it was to qualify.
In 1960/61 some 17 candidates enrolled for classes and only four candidates passed their tests. They were Miss M Ferguson, Miss J.R. Wright, Miss M.S.Hutchison and Mr H.M.Hutchison. Only Miss Wright worked as a full time guide.
Even more people started the course in 1961/62 – 33 of them – but only five candidates passed their tests and only one of them, Miss J Watson, went on to work as a full time guide.
The other four cancelled their membership between 1964 and 1966 because of a lack of work.
The pass rate continued to be low with eight out of 30 passing in 1962/63, two out of 21 passing in 1963/4, seven out of 33 in 1964/65, three out of 39 in 1965/66 and only one out of 30 in 1966/7.
In November Bill Nicholson wrote to Russell to tell him he had had a meeting with Glasgow councillors Wilkie and Methven to discuss the future of guide training classes in Glasgow. A few Glasgow guides including William Davies were also present.
“Considerable dissatisfaction” was expressed by the decision of the STGA to cancel the classes.
“I told those present that the primary interest of the (Scottish Tourist) Board was to get qualified Guides who, having obtained the diploma and badge, could be available to act as guides not only in Edinburgh and Glasgow but throughout Scotland. I further pointed out that apart from the very small number of trained guides in Glasgow it was clearly evident that there was little employment for Guides in Glasgow and that, as a Board, we could not support the promotion of classes in which the majority of those attending were there simply to increase their local knowledge. This was accepted. In the course of the discussion it was evident that Glasgow wanted to promote its own classes and they accepted my point that the promotion of such classes could only be financed in Glasgow.’
Nicholson said since the meeting he had received a letter from William Davies advising him
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