The Week that Was

Last Thursday night saw a great crowd turn out at the Narooma Kinema to see the Narooma Premiere of the movie ‘Lion’. At very short notice Chris O’Brien and others were able to organise this fundraiser to assist Michael’s 1000km walk, well done to the team who made it happen and thanks to John and Janette from the Kinema who offered us the movie as a fundraising event. In all we made over $800.00 to support Michael’s trek, not a bad effort when you consider we only had one week to get things, including publicity, organised.

The movie? Well it was fabulous, Nicole Kidman was at her very best and the audience seemed to love the story. I can also report that a few tissues had to be shared at critical moments to wipe away a few tears.

Last weekend saw PETS (President Elect Training) for incoming Rotary presidents. Unfortunately, your incoming president could not attend as he decided he better attend his daughter’s wedding! The wedding was fantastic and by all accounts the PETS training was worthwhile. Below is an article by AG Bob Antill summarising an address by a South Australian Rotarian at the seminar.

Rotary moving forward.

No meals, no raffles, no president chains and adds on Facebook.  This is some of the directions Rotary in Australia is heading.

As membership falls with not only Rotary but also other service organisations we are being asked to adapt the way we do things to matching the changing times.

At this year’s 9710 President Elect Training in Canberra, Mark Huddleston from South Australia gave a very comprehensive overview of a club they had set up in South Australia. They meet every two weeks but on a different day and different venue. They are not a dinner club, don’t have gongs and other paraphernalia, no fines or raffles, no banners, no singing or pomp or guest speakers or acronyms. The aim is to attract younger members, reduce costs to members and make it more fun.  It seems to be working with the new club going from strength to strength.

Kodak was the most common example of a company that saw change but didn’t understand the significants of not doing something about it. Like the photo we saw at one of our meetings of a New York street full of horses and carts with only one car, the next picture taken 10 years later shows only cars.

To quote Bob Dylan “the times they are a changing”. Our challenge is to either embrace the changes that are coming and make them our own or to do nothing and slowly vanish into thin air. The rules are now such that you can think outside the square, be positive and tailor your Club to suit what works for you and your community, this is the best way to increase membership and propel us into the future.

Bob Antill AG group 1.

The Week Ahead

This week we head off to Moruya to join with Moruya and Batemans Bay to celebrate Rotary’s 112^th birthday as well to receive defibrillator kits from Joshua Clarke the Assistant Commissioner, Regional Operations for St John Ambulance. The kits were purchased using funds raised at last years combined Rotary Clubs’ race meeting, they will be deployed at various locations around the Eurobodalla Shire.

The meeting will be at the Moruya Golf Club from 6:30pm. Please note the bus is not running.

Don’t forget the markets this Sunday – see John Doyle to volunteer to assist.

Our meeting on 2 March will be a Club assembly and Board meeting and believe it or not it is time to start thinking about our directions for the 2017/18 Rotary year – it would be great to hear your suggestions and ideas.

Clean Up Australia

The Club as volunteered to assist with Clean Up Australia on Sunday 5 March.  The project has now been running for 26 years with volunteers having removed 331 thousand ute loads of rubbish at over 166 thousand locations across the country.

A great effort to clean up waterways, parklands and beaches in our beautiful corner of the world.

Our Club will be responsible for the section from Mill Bay to Apex Park. PP Ange is the coordinator for our Club. Please let Ange know if you can help out. Her contact details are ang.9dragonfly@gmail.com or mob 0422103757.

The clean-up will commence at 9:00am at Mill Bay on the 5^th.  Wear some sturdy shoes and bring along a pair of gloves.

The 1000km Walk.

Michael takes off for the 1000km walk in about three weeks time. Last week he spoke to the Cooma Rotary Club about the walk, this Thursday he will be at Batemans Bay drumming up support. Below is an article that appeared in some digital editions of the Narooma News about Michael’s presentation at Cooma.

COOMA ROTARY CLUB GIVES A HELPING HAND TO NAROOMA ROTARIAN

 Last Wednesday (8 February) Narooma Rotarian Michael O’Connor attended the Cooma Rotary Club and received a great welcome from their President Mark Cooper and members. He and coach Murphy (his dachshund) travelled to Cooma on Wednesday to explain why he is walking 1000km, starting in about three weeks time.

Michael talked about why he is walking 1000km and how walking that distance with 22kg on your back takes some planning: preparing food; posting it to places along the Bibbulmun Track where he is walking and planning for all kinds of weather, snakes, ticks, spiders etc.

As one insightful Cooma Rotarian said to Michael, “You know there are easier ways to raise money.” His reply was “But I have the joy of knowing as I make my 1.5million steps over beaches, hills, forests and bush that I am walking for two causes I am passionate about, END POLIO and the kids in Rang’I Kenya.” He does admit that a bit of madness (in the nice sense) does help.

Cooma Rotarians passed his bucket around and raised $365 to go towards The Rotary Club of Narooma’s 1000km Epic Walk. What a sum of money from just 30 at the meeting giving that these Rotarians are constantly giving their time and money to worthy causes.

It got even better as he and Murphy went to have breakfast at, you won’t believe it, MURPHY’S CAFÉ in Cooma where Mark JN, the Sergeant at Arms for Cooma Rotary owns and runs it (Michael did not know this). He immediately offered if you have a collection box I will put it on the counter and we might get some more support for you.

It is experiences like that that makes being a Rotarian very rewarding according to Michael.

Michael said to Narooma News, I don’t mind if people think I am nuts at 68 years of age (closer to 69) to do this as long as they think “Wow if he is doing this for these causes they MUST BE WORTH SUPPORTING.”

You can donate to The Rotary Club of Narooma Inc PO Box 151 Narooma NSW 2546 or BSB 082-744 A/c 823614070 or on the Everyday hero website.

The Week that Was

The highlight of last Thursday’s meeting was the induction of Joan Morgan into our Club. Joan was introduced by Chris O’Brien and inducted by President Michael. Welcome to Joan and her partner Rob Wilson.

We were also fortunate to have Carl McEvoy our 2015 Tertiary Scholar with us. Carl gave a short presentation on his studies in Film and Writing at the University of Technology, Sydney. In the past year he has written a short screen play that was voted as outstanding by his peers as well as making a short film. This year he hopes to further develop his film making and writing skills.

President Michael gave the three minute talk, updating us on his preparations for his epic 1000km journey to raise funds to help end polio and to support Rang’I school in Kenya. Michael also passed around some samples of the food he will be eating along the way; all I can say is good luck Michael!Rang’I Kenya Rang’I Kenya Friends of Rang’I

Our guest speaker was Vic May. Vic told us about his struggles with drugs and alcohol and his determination to beat his addictions.  He also told us how he had turned things around and now works with others to help them beat their addictions. Vic proved to be a brave person with a passion to help others – a most inspiring speaker.

The Winners

Pudding!                                Laurelle (10)

Wine                                       Rod (28)

Port                                         Mike Young (13)

Maltesers                               Anthony (15)

The Week Ahead

At very short notice we were able to secure the premiere of ‘Lion’ at the Kinema as a fundraising event to support Michael’s walk. A big thank you to John and Jeanette from the Kinema for offering us the premiere. Please invite as many friends as possible to come along on Thursday to support Michael’s walk and to have a fun night out.

 Lion tells the story of five year old Saroo who gets lost on a train which takes him thousands of kilometres across India away from home and family. Saroo must learn to survive in Kolkata, before ultimately being adopted by an Australian couple. Twenty-five years later, armed with only a handful of memories, his unwavering determination, and a revolutionary technology known as Google Earth, he sets out to find his last family and finally return to his first home.

Lion has been adapted from the true story ‘A Long Way Home’ by Saroo Brierley. 

See the trailer below.

Clean Up Australia

The Club as volunteered to assist with Clean Up Australia on Sunday 5 March.  The project has now been running for 26 years with volunteers having removed 331 thousand ute loads of rubbish at over 166 thousand locations across the country.

A great effort to clean up waterways, parklands and beaches in our beautiful corner of the world.

Our Club will be responsible for the section from Mill Bay to Apex Park. PP Ang is the coordinator for our Club. Please let Ang know if you can help out. Her contact details are ang.9dragonfly@gmail.com or mob 0422103757.

The clean-up will commence at 9:00am at Mill Bay on the 5^th.  Wear some sturdy shoes and bring along a pair of gloves.

Next Week

There will be no meeting next Thursday, instead we will join with Moruya and Batemans Bay Clubs at Moruya next Wednesday. Please let Bob Antill know as soon as possible if you are attending.

Outside the Square

Last Thursday we had our first meeting of 2017. It is a special meeting as we had the young people attend who have participated in educational events in the past year or received awards from Rotary. We had 29 for dinner.

Sabine Kildea was the first student to address the meeting, as she was awarded our $9,000 Narooma Rotary’s scholarship for a student finishing year 12 at Narooma High School in 2016. Just listening to Sabine’s plans for her future made me feel tired and oh to be young again. She aims to study international relations and law, have a period in Geneva and then to undertake post graduate study in the USA.

Sabine was followed by Keely Clark who received a ‘special one off award’ of $1000 reflecting the determination and attitude she took to her studies and working numerous jobs so she could study paramedics and nursing.

Both Sabine and Keely noted it was their involvement in Rotary’s Model United Nations Assembly held in Canberra each year that had played a very significant part in their development and future plans.

Melanie Miller, our 2016 scholarship winner, then talked about her plans to study Clinical Exercise Physiology at the University of New England this year. She had a gap year following her completion of her HSC. Having lectured at UNE from 1980 to 1990 I had a good chat with her about the campus and the cold of Armidale.

Elliott de Frenza kept us entertained about his experience in December attending a number of Universities and factories organised by Engineers Australia. It was evident that the experience will be a significant benefit to him going into his ear 12 studies.

The last speaker was Luca Potts who went to the Conoco Phillips Science Experience at the University of Technology Sydney for 3 days earlier this year. For a year 9 student it was truly a mind expanding experience.

It was great to hear from these students as it showed that Rotary can make an impact on the lives of students from our community

All of the above was clearly INSIDE THE SQUARE for this week. Tomorrow I am off to Cooma to attend Rotary and tell them about our 1000km walk for END POLIO and a Library in Rang’I Kenya.

I am presently having an EMAIL seminar with a 73-year-old Western Australian who has walked the Bibbulmun Track 4 times. The more I learn the more I wonder what madness drives me.

I have booked my flights (one way as I don’t know where I will end up) and booked accommodation at points along the track so I can collect food supplies that I have to posted over to WA. The logistics of organising supplies when the distance from one small township to another is often more than 100km is quite fascinating and challenging. Being a forced vegetarian (a term I use due to allergy to meat even though I love it) it has also been a challenge to make appetising meals to cover more the more than 50 days I will be on the track.

I will be leaving for WA on the 4 March so you will shortly be all spared OUTSIDE THE SQUARE for some time.

The Week that Was

Last Thursday night was the Club’s first meeting for 2017 and it was at our new venue, the Narooma Golf Club.

Although there were some teething problems with numbers and table arrangements it was a great evening. As is tradition the Club’s first meeting each calendar is dedicated to our youth and last Thursday was no exception.

Michael’s article ‘Outside the Square’ provides an excellent summary of our 2017 Youth Night.

It is worth noting that two other current tertiary scholarship holders were unable to be at the meeting. Carl McEvoy, the 2015 winner, will be at this week’s meeting. Connor Ross, the 2014 winner, was otherwise engaged being sound designer and operator for Narooma Youth Theatre’s performance of ‘?Hamlet’ at Central Tilba.

Chis O’Brien gave a three-minute talk on her experiences in publishing Narooma’s local tourist magazine. Believe it or not Chris has been publishing the magazine since 1994 and is up to edition 90 (actually its more as Chris didn’t start counting for a few years!). Initially Chris starting out publishing a magazine that advertised cars for sale, unfortunately it was not a great success leading her to branch out to local tourism.

It was great to see Lynda Ord back at our meetings after some time away recovering from surgery.

The Winners

Chocolate biscuits               Iris

Wine                                       Gloria (guest of Chris O’Brien)

Port                                         Bob Aston

Rhubarb                                Luca Potts dad

Pen                                         Luca Potts

The Week Ahead

Our speaker tonight is Vic May, Vic is a support worker with SEWACS (South East Women’s and Children’s Services). Vic will tell us a little about himself as well as his work.

When he left school Vic worked in the construction industry for a number of years. In 2000 he undertook further study as well as working in a major detox unit in Brisbane for 2 years. He then went on to run a male only drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic. In 2015 he changed pace and moved to the south coast to work with his brother as texture renderer. In July last year he started working with SEWACS as a male outreach worker.

South East Women and Children’s Services Incorporated (SEWACS) is an umbrella organisation for a range of programs providing safe and supportive options for women and children who have experienced or are experiencing domestic and family violence and are at risk of homelessness as a result of this violence.

More information about SEWACS can be found on their website. Click here to access the site.

A Board Meeting will take place at the conclusion of the normal meeting.

Busking Competition

Sandra and the crew have been doing a wonderful job promoting and organising the Busking Competition. Click here to see the latest Narooma News article.

Ducks from the air

Just in case you haven’t seen it yet below is a YouTube clip of our recent duck race.