Narooma Rotary Beacon 20 July 2017

Bob’s Blog

 Hello Everyone

As I mentioned at last week’s Club Assembly one of our major funding raising efforts will be to support Australian Rotary Health.

Australian Rotary Health is one of the largest funders of mental health research in Australia. It also provides funding into a broad range of general health areas, provides scholarships for rural medical and nursing students including Indigenous health students. Australian Rotary Health also provides funding into areas of health that do not readily attract funding and promotes findings to the community. To find out more about Australian Rotary Health click here to check out their website.

With the changeover gone and the cooler weather about it is interesting to note that many of our members have decided take a well-earned holiday and head to warmer climates. Peter Bull is trying to improve his golf on the Gold Coast and Mal has headed off in the caravan to seek the sun. If Facebook is any guide Chris and Ang are having a great time exploring Northern Europe. Iris has even left Frank to his own devices and headed off to Germany to catch up with family. Lyn Hastings is heading to the USA and Rod will be heading off to Canada soon.

These absences combined with other members tasking short breaks significantly reduce the number of members available to help at Club events and activities. The best way to address this is to increase our membership, something we need to discuss and act on in the not too distant future.

Have a great week.

Bob

The Week that Was

 Some points from the Board meeting and Club Assembly

  • Busking Festival thank you to sponsors’ night – Board has proposed for Thursday 31 August 5.30-7pm at Golf Club. Details to come.

    Our Club’s wheel of fortune with John Doyle and Enid Holmes
  • Barbecue for old Falcon car rally Sunday 15 October – Board agreed to request to provide a barbecue, requiring two shifts. Details to come.
  • Our 60th next year – Board is looking for ideas of how best to celebrate it.
  • Membership ideas – President Bob raised possibility of associate membership as a way of interesting potential members, and of ensuring current members feel involved with current projects.More items next week.

Narooma Lions thanks for the Busking

We had a lovely letter from Narooma Lions President Margaret Latimer congratulating us ‘for the outstanding success’ of the busking festival in May. She said, ‘Rotary’s foresight, energy and commitment were exemplary’. She thanked us for asking Lions to be part of the event and said how much they all enjoyed  it.

More updates from our Tertiary Scholars

Melanie Miller, our 2016 Scholar, has done really well in her first semester for her Bachelor of Clinical Exercise Physiology at UNE. She achieved a distinction in Human Anatomy, a credit for Exercise Science and a distinction in Human Physiology. Mel had a gap year in 2016. Bob Antill is her counsellor.

Sabine Kildea, our scholar this year, received a credit in all four subjects – Criminology, Politics, International Relations and International Security. She is doing an Arts degree at ANU. Michael O’Connor is her counsellor.

Meanwhile Carl McEvoy, our 2015 scholar, is waiting on his results which won’t be out until later this month. He is doing a Bachelor of Media and Communications – Media Production at UTS in Sydney. Angie Ulrichsen is his counsellor. This will be his final scholarship payment.

Narooma Lions Drug and Alcohol Forum

Narooma Lions plans a community forum on Saturday 11 November to raise awareness about the impact of drug and alcohol abuse on individuals, families and the wider community. A session for high school students will be on the day before. Our Board has agreed to Lion’s request for support, but asked for some clarification on how we might best do that.

District merger’ ‘in the wind’

President Bob mentioned in the last newsletter that there is a proposal to merge our Rotary District 9710 with the neighbouring District 9700 from 1 July 2020. That’s ‘redistricting’ in Rotary jargon. We will be asked to vote on the proposal at club level soon.

D9700 covers clubs in central and southern NSW including Orange, Bathurst, Wagga Wagga, Griffith, Forbes, Parkes, Cowra and Young as well as Grenfell and Lake Cargelligo (where Bob started his teaching career). Should the two districts merge, the distance from clubs at the District’s extremities will be over 550km.

This proposal has come about because a Rotary International (RI) policy states the RI Board may eliminate or change the boundaries of any district with fewer than 1,100 Rotarians or move the clubs from such districts into adjacent districts. D9700 in April had 1143 members and falling. Short of a hike in membership, D9700 is heading for that 1,100 number. (Interestingly, our D9710 has 1306 members, 18 less than July last year.)

RI Director Noel Trevaskis stepped in and pre-empted this mandatory change so the two districts could have a say about their future. He met with the current DGs, DGEs and DGNs late last year and discussions continue. Our DG Steve Hill says should the merger proposal go ahead, a committee would be formed to look at how it should happen.  He adds it would not affect what happens at club level.

Interestingly Steve also noted that before 1977-1978, our Rotary District was called D270 and included most of the area now known as D9700. He wondered if this merger proposal is ‘Back to the Future’.

Can anyone help OzHarvest August-October

OzHarvest is looking for two volunteers to collect good but excess fresh food and vegetables from Bermagui Woolworths and the 777 Store, and from Narooma Woolworths on Tuesdays and Thursdays 8.30-9am, particularly from August through to October. That’s while their two regular volunteers are away, although they are also looking for more assistance longer term. That food is then to be dropped off at Katungul Aboriginal Medical Centre in Narooma and Bermagui and Wallaga Lake Preschools

OzHarvest is a national food charity which collects such food from supermarkets. growers and restaurants that would otherwise end up in landfill and deliver to local charities. If you are interested, please ring the OzHarvest Sapphire Coast Coordinator Christine Welsh on 0438 407 364.

Rotary International President Elect dies

RI President Ian Riseley has passed on the following news.

It is with the heaviest of hearts that I share the sad news that the President-elect of Rotary International, Sam F. Owori, died last night as a result of post-operative complications from a planned surgery. Sam was a special person in so many ways, and his unexpected death is a huge loss to Rotary, his community, and the world.