Narooma Rotary Beacon 15 December 2016

Outside the Square

It has been another relatively quiet Rotary week for me. Last Wednesday I attended the last planning meeting for the upcoming race day at Moruya. I hope to see as many Rotarians as possible attend the race day on Sunday 18 December as it is a huge fundraising event for the three Eurobodalla Rotary Clubs.

Last Wednesday also saw me selling duck tickets at IGA and again the feedback from the public about the work of Rotary in our community was excellent.

At Thursday’s meeting Charmaine gave us a wonderful talk on her family’s gigantic efforts in building a huge sailing

PP Charmaine – Guest Speaker 8 December

 

boat from scratch. The 6 years it took to construct the boat must have been really hard work but it obviously gave her fantastic memories and skills.

Thursday also saw us having our final meeting at the Whale. Jen and Matt were having a well-earned rest so we could not thank them in person for the support they have given week in week out to our club for many years. Jen told me earlier that our club has been meeting at the Whale since they came to the motel and for many years before that (Since 1999 – Editor).

After our Christmas Party at Casey’s this Thursday our next formal meeting will be 2 February 2017 at the Narooma Golf.

Finally, I wish all members and their families a relaxing and enjoyable festive season.

The Week that Was

16 members were present, along with regular guest, Iris.

Ang and John Rungen at 8 December meeting

As President Michael mentioned PP Charmaine entertained us with a great talk about her father setting about to

build a sailing boat – back in the 70s. It was an activity that had all the family working together on and off on weekends for more than 6 years to build the boat. Charmaine’s dad was not an experienced sailor or boat builder, however, he and the family persisted to build a beautiful craft that has given the family many hours of enjoyment. The boat is still in the family with Charmaine and her brother planning to sail her from Hobart to Sydney in January.

Bob Aston gave a three-minute talk on his experience as a scout attending a World Jamboree in Japan as a 15-year-old. John Rungen proposed the International Toast to District 5500 in recognition of that District’s efforts to raise funds to end polio by conducting a bike ride.

President Michael updated us on his fund raising efforts (for has 1000km walk) to end polio. He encouraged all members to share his Facebook posts promoting the walk.

Other news including the fact that the Expo made about $1000.00 profit and RYDA is scheduled for 3 and 4 April 2017. Narooma Rotarians are needed for 4 April.

The Winners

Eggs donated by John Rungen    Peter Hartley (30)

Bread donated by Rolf                    Bob Antill (5)

Vegies donated by Rod                  Iris (7)

Eggs donated by Bob Antill           Michael O’Connor (14)

Lollies donated by Michael             Bob Antill (9)

Port                                                     Chris O’Brien (36)

Wine                                                   Iris (46)

Foundation Facts

Did you know THE ROTARY FOUNDATION has been named the 2016 Outstanding Foundation by the Association of Fundraising Professionals?

Did you know that your personal contributions increase your PHF recognition amount to the same value AND give you PHF points at the rate of one point per dollar which can be transferred to create a new PHF or PHF level?

Did you know that you can view your own personal giving progress to THE ROTARY FOUNDATION via “My Rotary” on the Rotary International website at www.rotary.org.

Click here to read a story naming the Rotary Foundation as an ‘Outstanding Foundation’ by the Association of Fundraising Professionals

An Interesting Fact (Thanks to Frank)

The world speed record for solving a Rubik’s cube is currently 0.637 seconds! Don’t believe it?  Google for “0.637 seconds Rubik’s Cube”

The Whale

Vaughan Bridgeman a former host at the Whale addresses a 2001/2 meeting. Also in the picture, Bill Hardie, James Denny, Bob Aston and George Barker.

Last week’s meeting was the last one at the Whale before we move to the Golf Club early next year. The Club has been meeting at the Whale since the Lasallian Centre Motel kitchen and dining room were destroyed by fire in December 1999. During the 17 years we have met at the Whale we have been fortunate to have been looked after by many managers and owners, most notably Vaughan Bridgeman, Robert and Michelle Wignall (Robert was a member of the Club) and Matt and Jen. Thank you to Matt and Jen and the staff at the Whale for serving us for so many years.

 

 

 

 

 

This Week

It’s time to celebrate – yes it’s the annual Christmas Party, this time at Casey’s. Normal start time, please remember to bring your own drinks.

The Beacon

This will be the last edition of the Beacon until our first formal meeting of 2017. Keep an eye out for emails to keep us informed of holiday events and activities.

 

 

Narooma Rotary Beacon 8 December 2016

Outside The Square

2016-06-30 Rotary Changeover 028 (2)Fortunately, this Rotary week was a much quieter one for me and members following on from the very successful, yet hectic, Renewable Energy EXPO.

What was most pleasing for me as president was the number of people who came up to me to THANK ROTARY for putting on the Expo. They thought it was great and it was something that was really needed in the town. It was also mentioned how seeing Narooma Lions cooking up a storm was great, demonstrating that cooperation between service clubs in the town was alive and well.

The buzz was reflected in the great news coverage in the Narooma News. Not only did they publish great stories about the Expo our Meals on Wheels meeting also got a run. These articles demonstrate that the Rotary Club of Narooma is active and productive in the community.

On Thursday we had our AGM and Board meeting which was well attended. Mark Wallace our District Governor elect (2017/2018) and Janet from Canberra South ( hope I got that right) were surprise visitors to the Club. Mark let us know his plans for the District and in particular his desire to get more female members into Rotary.

Bob Aston has been appointed to the Board as President elect and the election at the AGM voted in Laurelle Pacey as Vice President, Sandra Doyle as Secretary, Lynn Hastings as Treasurer with Peter Bull, Lynda Ord, John Doyle, Chris O’Brien and Frank Eden as Directors for 2017/2018.

Finally, it was announced that the club members decided unanimously to continue our weekly meetings as dinner meetings with a move to the Narooma Golf Club for meetings commencing in February 2017.

The Week that Was

13 members were present and we had two guests. DGE Mark Wallace and Janet from the Canberra City Rotary Club.

Mark gave us a brief overview of his plans for the 2017/18 Rotary year. These include increasing the number of women members, Rotary Clubs working together on projects and activities (a bit like Narooma, Moruya and Batemans Bay) and greater interaction with Rotract and Interact Clubs. Mark indicated that hopes to visit at least one of our Rotary Markets and to help out where he can.

Mark also encouraged us to send a strong contingent to the 2017/18 District Conference that will be held at Chevalier College Bowral on 6, 7 and 8 October 2017.

As it was the AGM for the Club, various reports for the 2015/16 year were presented and adopted. Club Secretary, Rod Walker has emailed a copy of the minutes and auditor’s report to members. As President, Michael has indicated the 2017/18 Board was also elected.

 The Raffle Winners

Bread                                    Bob Antill (9)

Book – Narooma’s Past      Charmaine White (1) – The prize was donated by Laurelle         

Chocolates                            Lyn Hardingham (14)

 Port                                      Michael O’Connor (26)

 Wine                                    John Rudgen (6)

 Maia Zuco

Angie Ulrichsen also mentioned that she had been in contact with one of our Rotary Scholars, Maia Zuco. Angie told us that Maia had just completed her honours year at Macquarie University in Psychology. Her honours project included a research thesis validating a new system for measuring electrical brain responses. Maia was awarded first class honours for her study and research. Maia has won a University Scholarship to undertake a Masters of Clinical Neuropsychology.

 Another example of the great outcomes we get when we invest in young people from Narooma.

 Renewables Expo

On Monday 28 November Angie and Sandra Doyle attended a Narooma Public School assembly and presented certificates and prizes to the winners of the Narooma Rotary Renewables Expo poster competition. The winners were;

Hannah Chessell –              Certificate for Presentation

Certificate Winners with Angie and Sandra
Certificate Winners with Angie and Sandra

Alyesha Fletcher –               Certificate for Understanding

Eliza Gray-                          Certificate for Effort

Ruby Efraemson-                Certificate for Research

Seth Leecham-                   Certificate for Creativity

Layton Moore-                    Honourable Mention for Understanding.

I understand that due to the high standard of entries the judging panel of 5 of the Expo Committee members found it extremely difficult to come up with the winners.

Upcoming Events

Check the Events Tab for upcoming events including the Christmas Party, Combined Clubs Race Day and Post Christmas Markets

Some Humor

A Young Executive & His Boss

A young executive is working late one evening. As he comes out of his office about 8 pm, he sees the Big Boss standing by the shredder in the hallway, a piece of paper in his hand.

“Do you know how to work this thing?” the Big Boss asks. “My secretary’s gone home and I don’t know how to run it.”

“Yes, sir,” says the young executive, who turns on the machine, takes the paper from the Big Boss and feeds it in.

“Now,” says his boss, “I just need the one copy…”

T1617EN_LockupR_PMS-C

 

 

Narooma Rotary Beacon 1 December 2016

Outside the Square

What a week, so much went on that it seems a blur.

Last Wednesday 23rd saw me at the IGA Narooma selling the last of the race day tickets. It was freezing cold and I

Donna, Michael and Carol Meindl
Donna, Michael and Carol Meindl

had no jacket, but it was great to meet the locals and visitors impressed with what we were doing.

This was followed by an EXPO meeting to finalise the event planning.

Thursday, saw us having our regular Rotary meeting at Donna’s and my home. By the response it seemed that the idea of eating a ‘Meals on Wheels’ meal was a great way to introduce the service. Carol Meindl gave us a wonderful rundown on the service and by the noise of the conversation it seemed everyone had a good time. Some even said it was a “fun” night.

Friday had many of us setting up the leisure centre for the Expo.

Narooma Rotary President Michael O’Connor, MC Narooma Rotarian David McInnes, Lisa Miller from the Office of Environment and Heritage, Solar Council CEO John Grimes, Expo Coordinator Frank Eden and Lawrence McIntosh from SolarShare Canberra.
Narooma Rotary President Michael O’Connor, MC Narooma Rotarian David McInnes, Lisa Miller from the Office of Environment and Heritage, Solar Council CEO John Grimes, Expo Coordinator Frank Eden and Lawrence McIntosh from SolarShare Canberra.

What an EXPO! The response from the community was to put it mildly, amazing. It shows that vision and passion of one of our members can lead to a great outcome. Once again thank you Frank for encouraging Rotary to take up the challenge.

Not only did we get a great number of visitors, the exhibitors were delighted. The excellent speakers on Saturday night just added to the event.

One interesting outcome was the positive reception to Charmaine’s idea

to promote the provision of solar lights for communities in Timor Leste, Cambodia and Vietnam. My experience was that the majority were not really interested in a light but rather in what we were trying to provide for children and

Shelby Grace jamming with Lawrence Macintosh at the markets.
Shelby Grace jamming with Lawrence Macintosh at the markets.

families in those countries. I think the quote of the EXPO was when I was explaining what Narooma Rotary were trying to achieve by selling the lights one customer said. “If you stop talking I will make a donation” I promptly got the donation.

Finally, Sunday saw us working at the markets and at the EXPO. Unfortunately, I was unable to get to the EXPO as I was at the markets, but by all accounts it was just as good as Saturday. At the markets I think I may have embarrassed the Rotarians who came with me when I was hustling for donations to our 1000km walk. It worked – I got $425.50 in donations.

Bit tired now so I will sign off

Michael

The Narooma Rotary Renewable Energy Expo

To everyone who helped with the expo, a big thanks!

It definitely proves that there is a lot of interest in renewable energy, with one installer telling me he has 50 leads to

The crew at the entrance to the Expo
The crew at the entrance to the Expo

follow up!

Saturday saw a big crowd of over 400 people in the Leisure Centre which was just big enough for some 20 exhibitors, mostly local with some from Bega and Canberra. On Sunday there were fewer people but we still had over 200; we think that those with a keen interest to make savings on their power-bills had come the day before.

At the time of writing, final figures are not in yet but I expect them to show that the event was very successful. Attendance was at the high end of expectations and in dollar terms vastly more than expected, which is not bad for a free event.

We had two tables at the entrance to the Leisure Centre. At the first we asked for people’s postcode which allowed us to collect some attendance numbers (not everyone filled it in) and an idea of the demographic.  A large number were from out of town, some obviously travelling (Adelaide, Wodonga and Melbourne), but many came from across south-east NSW and some from Canberra. One Canberra couple had come down especially for the Expo.

We gave people tickets for a lucky door prize.

On the second table we promoted solar lights organised by Charmaine White. Loads of people donated $10 or $20. We quickly sold out of the stock we had pre-purchased.

The Lions Club also sold out early with yours truly leaving it too late for a burger-with-the-lot.  And the pancake lady

Rotarians with some solar panels
Rotarians with some solar panels

sold out too!

The highlight of the weekend for me was the information night.  A great buffet dinner for $30 pp was provided by the club which definitely set a convivial mood.

John Grimes, CEO of the Solar Council was first up with a very interesting account of past and present situation.  Some $45 billion has been spent in recent years providing mostly unused grid capacity. He also provided a very clear explanation of net metering and smart meters.

Our MC for the night, David McInnes introduced Lawrence McIntosh from SolarShare Canberra. Lawrence also does work for UTS in Sydney and was involved in some recent work looking at virtual net metering and mini grids.

Our third speaker, Lisa Miller from the Office of Environment and Heritage, spoke about ‘Demystifying Solar’, with a ton of practical advice and a free USB stick with lots of information.

I love Narooma. Local businesses were so generous in sponsoring this event.  Thank you all!

The expo committee also deserve a special thank-you.  Without your efforts, this event would not have happened. John, Angie, Mike, Chris, and Laurelle, thanks for your expertise and enthusiasm.  One committee member is so fired up she wants to do it all again – in ten years time…

Frank Eden

Committee Chair

 The Week that Was

I think Michael and Frank have summarised the week very well – it was full on and a great one for Narooma Rotary. The Expo certainly put us front and centre in our community. Check out our Facebook page to see a Narooma News video highlighting the event. Click here to access the page.

Some Humour

What is a Grandparent

Answers by 8-year-old Children

Grandparents are a lady and a man who have no children of her own. So they like other people’s.

A grandfather is a man grandmother.

Grandparents don’t have to do anything except be there when we come to see them. They are so old they shouldn’t play hard or run.

It is good if they drive us to the store and have lots of quarters for us.

When they take us for walks, they slow down past things like pretty leaves and caterpillars.

They show us and talk to us about the colour of the flowers and also why we shouldn’t step on “cracks.”

They don’t say, “Hurry up.”

Usually grandmothers are fat, but not too fat to tie your shoes.

They wear glasses and funny underwear.

They can take their teeth out.

Grandparents don’t have to be smart. They answer questions like “why isn’t God married?” and “How come dogs chase cats? “.

When they read to us, they don’t skip. They don’t mind if we ask for the same story over again.

Everybody should try to have a grandmother, especially if you don’t have television, because they are the only grown-ups who like to spend time with us.

They know we should have snack-time before bedtime and they say prayers with us every time, and kiss us even when we’ve acted bad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Narooma Rotary Beacon 24 November 2016

Outside the Square

2016-06-30 Rotary Changeover 028 (2)Well it was a week of ticket selling and packing bags. Wednesday saw me outside the IGA on the Flat and on Saturday outside the Newsagency selling race tickets and promoting the Expo. On Wednesday I was helped by Bob Antill and by Charmaine on Saturday. We have sold over 90% of the race tickets allocated to the Club.

On Thursday we toasted the Rotary Club of Blenheim South, the closest club to the earthquake that rocked NZ last week, and the hamlet of Kaikoura that seemed to be worst hit by the earthquake.

Finally, on Saturday, at Charmaine’s house, eight of us packed bags for the Renewable Energy Expo. Many thanks to Charmaine, who once again showed her generosity in support of Rotary.

Remember: this Thursday, we are feasting on the delights of Meals on Wheels and learning about the work the organisation does in our community.

Come and have drinks from 6.00pm

Michael

The Week that Was

Last Thursday 15 members were present along with three guests:

Sandra thanks Robin following her presentation
Sandra thanks Robin following her presentation

our guest speaker, Robin Scott-Charlton and regulars, Sandra and Merinda.

Robin Scott-Charlton, inspired us with her tales of a recent trip to the USA where she participated in a choir  that performed in many  churches, predominantly African American, in areas as diverse as Chicago, New Orleans and Memphis. In between performances Robin was able to tour the sites, including Graceland – the home of Elvis.

After her presentation Robin was joined by Merinda, Angie, Chris and Sandra for a bit of soul signing. See the clip below.

The winners

Eggs: Peter Hartley (39)

Bread: Merinda Antill (21)

Port: Sandra Doyle (31)

Wine: John Doyle (5)

Sweets: Laurelle Pacey (3)

Needed – Board Members 2016/17

An effective Club needs a strong and active Board to operate productively. If you are interested in keeping up the good work of Rotary in Narooma please nominate for a position.  Please let Michael know of your interest.

The week ahead

2016-renewable-energy-expo-a4-3nov16-v4This week is a big one for the Club with the Assembly and special ‘Meals on Wheels’ dinner on Thursday and the Narooma Rotary Renewables Expo on Saturday and Sunday. The Committee has done a wonderful  job organising the Expo. Let’s hope that the weather is bright and sunny and that crowds flock to the exhibits.

Some Humour

An elderly gent was invited to his old friends’ home for dinner one evening. He was impressed by the way his buddy preceded every request to his wife with endearing terms-Honey, My Love, Darling, Sweetheart, Pumpkin, etc.

The couple had been married almost 70 years, and clearly they were still very  much in love. While the wife was in the kitchen, the man leaned over and said to his host, “I think it’s wonderful that, after all these years, you still call your wife those loving pet names.”

The old many hung his head. “I have to tell you the truth,” he said, “I forgot her name about 10 years ago.”

 

 

Narooma Rotary Beacon 17 November 2016

Outside the Square

The Rotary week began with Donna and I attending the Lions Youth of the Year at the Narooma Golf Club. It was a great night and well adjudicated with our very own Charmaine White The chief adjudicator. Alicia Bate, a fellowr firie with John at Dalmeny was the winner.

I have been told that Narooma Lions will be holding the Statewide Lions Youth of the Year in March 2017. I will be on the Bibbulmun Track by then but it would be great if we could fill a table at the event.img_2129

On Thursday we had a interesting meeting and talk on the Christine Noble Foundation by Terry Cassels. Interesting for me was that she was living on the streets of Dublin around the same time that I was handing out soup to the homeless all around the city on a Saturday night.

I informed Allan Spencer, head honcho of the National Busking Championship that we agreed to host the Championship on the 27 May 2017. He was delighted with our response.

After the wonderful Wooden Boats afloat event I went to the Lions markets to say hello. They were packing up when I arrived but by all accounts they had a successful market.

Finally, remember the dinner meeting on the 24th November is at our place 153 Old Highway. 6.00pm for 6.30pm Latecomers and their friends will be accepted but they will miss out on the meals on wheels cuisine but there will be other food and drinks.

This week

Robin Scott-Charlton speaks about her recent experiences on a trip to the USA

Don’t Forget

Next week’s meeting will be a Club Asembly at President Michael’s place. Michael has already emailed members the agenda items. The fare will be from Meals on Wheels – should be fun.

and of course don’t forget the Renewable Expo, the Committee have don a wonderful job putting it together, I reckon it will put Narooma on the map as Renewable Town. If you haven’t yet done so check out the Pelican Digital video at:

Drone Flyover of Narooma from Tim at Pelican Digital

 

The Editor is back(well almost) 

Yes folks the Editor is back – well almost. I am currently finalising this edition of the Beacon in our hotel room in Hong Kong, iPads and the Internet make the impossible possible. Therese and I will be back home on Tuesday. Thank you to Peter Bull and Frank for keeping the Beacon rolling whilst I was away. I enjoyed keeping up with Club events through the weekly newsletter. It seems that the Club has a busy time ahead with the Renewable Expo at the end of the month as well as planning for the National Busking Competition next May.

Just a little bit of snow in Helsinki
Just a little bit of snow in Helsinki

Therese and I have had the trip of a lifetime. The three months away have gone in a blink of an eye. We have experienced the full range of temperatures from more than 40 degrees in Dallas to minus 7 or 8 in Helsinki as well as some varied and interesting cultures. There were many, many highlights for us along the way; two however, stand out. One being able to spend some time with our daughter, Clare, for a couple of days in England and for over a week in the Italian city of Bergamo where she is studying for the year. She delighted in showing us how she was mastering Italian language and culture. The second was spending a week in Northern Ireland with  Jonathan Coulter and his family. Jonathan was a Rotary EXchange student who stayed with us for a time in 1997 when Therese and I lived in Nyngan. Jonathan still believes that the year that he spent in Australia was one of the best and the exchange program helped him greatly to set his future goals.  Jonathan has a doctorate (as does his wife) and now plays a significant role in prostrate cancer treatment research at Queens University, Belfast. Another example of the value of Rotary in our society.

Narooma Rotary Beacon 10 November 2016

Outside The Square

I thought things would settle down after the weekend in Goulburn at the District Conference, alas it was not to be.

On Monday I attended a great Probus meeting at Club Narooma. The club welcomed me and were happy to hear about our 1,000km walk. I think by the end they believed me, that 1,000km would be walked. I outlined the END POLIO campaign and the Library project at Rang’I in Kenya. Very generously they donated $85.00 and bought some jewellery from Rang’I.

On Wednesday I and ADG Bob Antill went to Moruya for a meeting on our Race Day in December and then back to Narooma for a Rural Fire Training night.

Thursday saw us having a full Assembly at Club Narooma where many issues were raised. Particularly important is for the Club to make a clear decision as to whether it is a Dinner meeting club or not. Emails will fly setting out the issues we need to deal with. Of particular importance is our AGM on 1st December where all positions for the club in 2017/2018 are up for grabs.

SOS WE NEED ALL HANDS ON DECK FOR THE EXPO ON 26TH AND 27TH NOVEMBER

On Friday Donna and I went to Cooma via Canberra. At Braidwood I bought new boots for the 1,000km walk and in Canberra I purchased and had fitted ( I did not realise this was going to happen) a 85 litre pack. Being lighter by hundreds and hundreds of dollars we then moved on to Cooma.

Saturday saw me at 6.30am at the Park helping to set up the National Busking Championships. Met John and Sandra and we kept meeting around Cooma selling busker dollars. Chris and Ange were also there, but I did not see them during the day. I did see Chris at the Cooma hotel later that evening.

I did not come away empty handed, as I won a guitar and collected some towels from a raffle I had bought tickets in at Bega the other week.

Got home on Sunday exhausted and ready for another week of ROTARY.

– Michael

Constitution and By-Laws

The constitution and by-laws documents are now to be found on our website, on the members-only page. The logo has been added to the constitution, some formatting changes have been done, and spelling errors corrected (thanks Mike and Michael).

From now on, these documents are “gospel” and will only be changed at the request of the Club secretary.

– Frank

Renewable Energy Expo

Preparations for the Expo are progressing well.

Electric Farm Utility Vehicle
‘Blondy’ and ‘Grumpy’ discuss the merits of electric vehicles, pictured in front of one of the many electric cars which will be on display at the expo

Many thanks to the expo committee who have done a sterling job helping to organise this event, thanks to Niels Bendixsen, from Three Squared  for our logo artwork, and to Rachel who did our poster and the big banner that will go up soon.

And a big thank-you also to all of our sponsors, we have had so much support from our local businesses!

Keep on eye on facebook – we have commissioned a video by Tim from Pelican Digital, who has taken some fantastic footage from his drone.  It will be out real soon.  And I hope by now you have shared the “Dave The Solar Cat” video – if not please follow the link and or send me a friend request.   I cannot overstate the importance of facebook to our promotion of this event – we do not have the funds to do promotion in more conventional ways.

If you do not have a facebook account, just send emails to your friends !

Narooma Rotary Beacon 3 November 2016

OUTSIDE THE SQUARE:

The Rotary week began with a very successful joint meeting with Moruya, and Batesman Bay at the Moruya Jockey Club. We presented Brian Crowden a Paul Harris fellow, a true Friend of Rotary. Brian is the Secretary and Manager of the Moruya Jockey Club and in that role has helped our clubs to raise over $50,000 for the Oncology Unit at Moruya. Brian is continuing with his support and hopefully we can raise sufficient funds, together with a District Grant , to purchase 9 defribrillators for our region.

Thursday I was in Goulburn registering for the District Conference and setting up my stand at the House of Friendship. The Conference went from Friday to Sunday and with promoting the Expo, talking to Rotarians about our 1000km walk , some were incredulous where I raised $132-00 which I thought was excellent considering the competing demands for money that came from all directions.

Narooma Rotary attracted a lot of interest, as the Kenya jewellery I was selling made us stand out and I nearly sold out.

Exhausted by it all.

The Conference began with a fairly sad opening where there was a roll call of all the Rotarians in District 9710 who are no longer with us., including George and Jack. There was an excellent talk on Rotarians Against Malaria, a program that I would hope we can get behind in coming years. . This was followed by Greg North, a Bush poet and comedian, which gave us some light relief. There were many other interesting presentations and Australian Rotary Health Sport Initiative and Handup Congo were, for me, well worth attending the Conference.

Our District Governor Steve Hill put on an excellent Conference and I had a very enjoyable conference dinner sitting with our Bega Rotarians.

Next week I have a talk to give to Probus about our 1000km walk, a Race Day committee meeting on Wednesday and on Thursday we have our ASSEMBLY AT THE NAROOMA CLUB. Hope you can all make it as we have some significant matters to discuss.

Cheers

Pres. Michael

A thought before having a swim in the ocean this year:

“Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes or shark attacks. (So, watch your Ass! )”

EXPO FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN

There are three kinds of people – facebook junkies, facebook lurkers and facebook haters. Whatever category you feel you belong to, the team organising the expo needs your help.

If you are a FB lurker, we need you to set aside your natural inclination to avoid participation, and instead, you need to share, post, reshare, and “like” every expo post you see in the next few weeks.

For brevity, lets include everyone who doesn’t give a toss about facebook into the third category, the FB haters. I’m there. Somehow I feel disturbed enough by reality without the tunnel vision of a facebook feed. If you are, or know anyone, in this category, we have a solution for you – make sure you grab some flyers at the next meeting! Or if you want to send an electronic copy of the flyer, see our normal rotary website naroomarotary.org.au and click on “flyer” just under the Expo heading. Or click here:
naroomarotary.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Expo-Flyer4-1.pdf

The FB junkies are mostly aged less than 30 and suffer from a disease known as FOMO ( fear of missing out). Anyone who forgets to register for the Renewable Energy Expo buffet dinner will experience the symptoms of this debilitating disease when they miss out on a good feed and are turned away at the door. Fortunately there is an easy solution, and it doesn’t involve facebook. Simpy go to the website and register!
expo.naroomarotary.org.au

But YOU know about this event by reading the Beacon – what about all those thousands of potential attendees? Here is where YOU come in – share each and every expo facebook post. Mike has kicked off the ball into a rolling state:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154597944118784&set=a.10151486107223784.538243.781398783&type=3

Share it! image-1

Soon there will be a solar cat video (see above photo) on facebook – share that one too. Even better, make a funny comment.

Lets spread the message!

 

 

 

ROTARIANS-at-LARGE:

John and Sandra Doyle were among several Rotarians at the Quota Club Indian Dinner Fundraiser. John thought he was going to a Melbourne Cup calcutta but was pleased with the Calcutta Curried Chicken anyway!  Meanwhile PP Bob is on the last leg (or his last legs!) enjoying a wee dram in Scotland.

14670603_696328167191415_43346370401383833_n

image

Narooma Rotary Beacon 27 October 2016

OUTSIDE THE SQUARE

A busy week for all and particularly all those who were at the markets today ( Sunday). A wonderful effort to get the markets up and running with so many away, and then that awful wind to contend with.

Monday saw me having a meeting with Frank, Sandra and Rod at Rod’s home, where we think we have solved the issues with the model Constitution and By-Laws for our club. I am sure most would agree that we can put our time to better use than trying to draft a meaningful document out of the ( interrupted – called out to a structure fire at home besides Ange’s. Fortunately not serious and so stood down as the town firies had it under control) gump they gave us.

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District Governor Steve Hill expressed his delight at meeting the Board at our home and then all the club members at the Golf Club for dinner. I think it would be safe to say that we all enjoyed his visit and the venue and the food appeared to please most members. In fact I did not hear any complaint and I did thank them the next day.

Sunday, today, was the markets and unfortunately the weather was not kind and so it was exceedingly quiet, but alas the work that needs to be done remains the same. A great effort.

Remember that this Wednesday we are meeting at the Moruya Jockey club and there is NO MEETING AT WHALE THIS THURSDAY and Thursday 3rd November we are meeting at the Narooma Club and NOT DALMENY as previously advised.

Pres. Michael

Last Week:

Attendance: 15 members, 7 guests, 2 visiting Rotarians

Wheel: Eggs – DG Steve Hill (20); Bread – Sharlie Young (5); Port – Rod Walker; White Wine – Rolf Grimmel; Red Wine – DG Steve (20); Crafted Biro Pen (courtesy John Doyle) – Enid Holmes (6)

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Club Guest: Rory Sturgeon & his mother Alison. Youth Director Sandra Doyle introduced Rory, our student participant to the NYSF ConocoPhillips Summer Science School held recently at the ANU. Rory was an outstanding participant who spoke so confidently and with such enthusiasm it was hard to realise that he is just 14-years of age. I am sure he is destined for great things in the future. He was a credit to his family and the Club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rotarians-at-Large: PP Bob Aston may well have reached the ultimate goal in his endless quest to promote peace and well-being to the world.

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Narooma Rotary Beacon 20 October 2016

OUTSIDE THE SQUARE:

You may have noticed in the Narooma News that a new stall will be at the Narooma Rotary Club Inc markets and hopefully this weeks News will have an article about our 1000km walk.

World Polio day is the 24th October so I hope to launch our public fundraising awareness for our 1000km walk at the new stall at the markets on the 23rd. given that we are collecting for END POLIO and Friends of Rang’I library project. It would be wonderful if members when attending the market pop by and garner support from the public.

Thanks to Charmaine we should have posters/flyers for the walk ready and after the EXPO on 26/27 November we can really push the fundraising. Charmaine gave up her lunchtime to photograph me down on the flats with my backpack on so she could then design our posters.

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What a wonderful and inspiring talk by Allan Spencer on the National Busking competition. I think I can safely say we were all blown away by the concept and what they have achieved in such a short space of time. Many thanks to Sandra for sowing the seed as it were by bringing the busking competition to our attention, her ambition for us to consider as a club and giving Chris our program organiser the details so she could invite Allan. What a fantastic contribution from a new member and if we do run with the idea her enthusiasm and knowledge for the project will augur well for success.

I hope to visit Cooma as does Sandra and John for their busking competition and I would encourage other members to consider making an effort to see it in operation, as it is only with knowledge and experience that we can make a considered decision about whether we can hold such a competition in Narooma. It would not be necessary to see it from start to finish, if you can only drive up and back on the day, to get a understanding of the operation and the work involved.

Starter my longer walks ago to get in motion for our 1000km walk and after Mr Murphy had his constitutional walk of 4km I set out to Dalmeny and back , between 26 and 27 km and along the way saw whales frolicking in the water.

Saturday saw me at Mogo wearing one of my other hats, training to be a village firefighter.

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Finally, remember the DG visit at the Narooma Golf Club this Thursday 6.00pm for 6.30pm with the Board welcome to come to my place at 4.00pm to meet the DG.

LAST WEEK:

Attendance: 14 members, 6 guests & 2 visiting Rotarians

Wheel: Eggs – Peter Hartley & Mike Young; Bread: Chris O’Brien; Wine – Iris Domerier; Port – Rod Walker; Chocolates – Chris O’Brien; Rotary Cap – donated & won by Colin Holmes, then auctioned for $5 to Pres Michael; The Busking CD & T-shirt donated by guest speaker Allen Spencer – Rod Walker.

International Toast: John Rungen proposed a toast to the RC of Bombay in recognition of their work in public health.

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About Rotary Club Of Bombay –

The Rotary Club of Bombay is one of the pioneers in India of the rotary movement, devoted to the ideal of Fellowship through service. It was founded on March 19, 1929. The Club meets every Tuesday at 1.15 p.m. at the Taj Mahal Hotel, the very place where the founders had their first get-together. The first president of the club was Rtn. Charles N. Moberley. Sir Phiroze Sethna, one of India’s most illustrious sons, was the only Indian among the other European founder members and the first Board consisted of only eight members. Most clubs in Dist 3140 can trace their roots to the Rotary Club of Bombay.

Reading the list of subsequent presidents is like scanning the ‘Who’s who’ of Bombay of the time, bearing names of personalities who even to this day have left their mark on the multifaceted life of this great Metropolis. Amongst the first few presidents of the Club we have had names like Sir Shapoorjee Billimoria, Sir Sultan Chinoy, Sir Jamshedji Duggan, Sir Vithal Chandavarkar, Sir Francis Low, Sir Behram Karanjia and many others.

The membership of the Club has grown from 38 in 1929 to around 350 today. The unique single classification concept of Rotary allows the Rotary Club of Bombay a membership compromising a high performance cross-section of Bombay’s successful business and professional men and women, all accomplishers in their own field ranging from doctors to architects, legal luminaries to bankers, entrepreneurs to educationalists and merchandisers to communicators. The Club offers a stimulating fellowship based on a fascinating diversity of interests in business, arts, sciences and the professional expertise of its members.
This Club has inspired the incorporation of 26 Interact clubs, with about 750 school children as members, and 6 Rotaract clubs with a membership of about 200 college students. There is also a very active Inner Wheel Club.

From the very beginning the pulse of Rotary has been and always will be Community Service. Today the Rotary Club of Bombay has diversified its activities through the work of over fifty committees constituted to look after the various avenues of service. Of these, over 20 contribute to community service. The Club has been able to attempt a number of service programmes only because of generous donations of time and money by the members.

The prayer in silence with faith for love is service in peace. – Mahatma Gandhi

Rotarian-at-large:

PP Bob Aston again working hard on his endless world trip to promote Rotary.

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GOLD, GOLD, GOLD! 

Rolf’s son, Bob Sheriden-Gimmel, won the gold medal at the recent World Skills Australia finals in Melbourne. Plumbing competitors are required to complete tasks including the design and fabrication of a basic bathroom and laundry with hydronic underfloor heating, which may include cold, tempered, hot water, gas, heating, hydronic, waste and rainwater harvesting.  Congratulations Bob!                                        10646933_10155497459465343_2023972288922243934_n     image

 

Narooma Rotary Beacon 13 October 2016

OUTSIDE THE SQUARE

I am back outside.

This week saw us selling Race Day tickets at Narooma and Dalmeny and so thanks to Ang, Bob, Chris and Lynn for their help. Unfortunately, the weather defeated Ang and Peter last Saturday, but we have sold more than a third already so we are well on our way to achieving our goal of sell 1000 tickets. Question why do we seem to think in multiples of 1000, tickets, walking, donations etc.

On 5th Bob and I attended Moruya for a race day meeting and so please put 18th December a day that you can come to Moruya to help race funds and have a great day.

Given that I have little to no interest in horses your President has been given the task of being one of two judges selecting the best fashion on the field. I am still laughing at their decision and Donna is to say the least amused.

Another date is the 15th December to keep free as provisionally that is our Christmas Party.

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On Thursday we had what I hope everyone thought was a productive Assembly and thank you for participating in Chris’ idea that we should wear hats for Australian Rotary Health fundraiser for mental health. I know we have collected more than $100 and our happy moments for the rest of the month will add to that sum so that we can make a good donation to the cause. I think the idea that happy moments we have helps to fund research/services on mental health is a nice link.

Saturday saw Bob and I attend Bega for our meeting of fellow franchisees discussing club development.

In thinking about Rotary International (RI), Districts and Clubs and the edits of the Council on Legislation this week I came to the view that we are franchisees and RI is the franchisor. Surprisingly that view did not evoke shock / horror. In fact it was later mentioned as a description of our relationship with RI.

The day did get me thinking on many things and this week we are having a special Board meeting to recap and reorganise for the rest of our Rotary year. We all need to be adaptive and willing to change and that is why I like being outside the square.

Our District Governor Steve Hill will be visiting us on the 20th. It is a partners evening and I would like as many as possible to attend and give him a warm welcome.

Finally, a good news story is that our Club will soon be forwarding $2000 to Shelterbox to assist in the latest crisis to hit Haiti .

Pres. Michael

LAST WEEK’S MEETING:

Guests: Anne Colquit (from Hatsavvy), Lachlan Riley (NHS teacher & MUNA co-ordinator), Shania Woodward (MUNA participant). image-1

Wheel: Eggs – Lynn Hastings (1); Bread – Sandra Doyle (34); Rocky Road – Rod Walker (12); Port – Lynn Hastings & Wine – Bob Antill (43).

 

 

 

 

 

International Toast: Chris O’Brien proposed a toast to to the Rotary Club of Tours, Loire Valley, France.

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Hat day at Rotary

You don’t have to be mad to wear a silly hat but sometimes it helps! Narooma Rotarians donned a variety of hats on Thursday night to help raise money for Mental Health.

October is Mental Health awareness month and Rotary Health will be the recipient of the money raised during October. Hat Savvy Anne (Anne Colquit) attended the meeting to talk about her wonderful Hat and a brief history of the trade.

Getting into the spirit of the evening were Narooma High School teacher Lachlan Reilly and student Shania Woodard and Shania’s dad Glenn . Lachlan and Shania recently attended the Model United Nations debates in Canberra with the assistance of Narooma Rotary and were keen to let the members know of their experiences.

President Michael O’Connor was able to announce that we have now purchased two more Shelter Boxes through our recent “Whale watching raffle”. This is timely as Hurricane Matthew has devastated countries in the Caribbean and help including teams from ShelterBox are on the way. It is good to know that when there is a disaster and people are in desperate need that we in Narooma are part of the help program.

Rotarians-at-Large: Further correspondence from PP Bob on yet another gruelling leg of his World Rotary Fact Finding Tour. (“Of all the bars in all the World, he had to walk into …”)

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