Narooma Rotary Beacon 21 December 2017

Bob’s Blog

Hello Everyone

On Saturday I, along with Lynda Ord, Sandra Doyle and Peter Bull interviewed 12 Narooma High students for the Narooma Rotary Scholarship. Although standards varied we can be assured that all applicants were great representatives of their school. We will announce our 2018 Scholar at the Australia Day Awards evening on 25 January. The successful applicant will be a wonderful ambassador for Narooma Rotary. One thing that became very clear during the interview process – we must promote ourselves with young people in our community. Very few of the applicants had a good knowledge of Rotary and what it does.

President Bob and John Doyle kept the sausages up to the crowds at Carols by Candlelight on Sunday

This week we celebrate Christmas with dinner at Casey’s. I am sure it will be a great night with good food and excellent fellowship. I understand Merinda has put the choir through their paces at secret training sessions and all will be in fine form by the time Thursday comes around. I have been asked not to sing – I can’t understand why! Remember the Club will provide all the drinks on the night, so just bring yourself, dressed in the Christmas Spirit.

Don’t forget our next meeting will be on 20 January 2018 at our place. It will be a cocktail party with a range of mouth-watering cocktails to choose from. The cost will be $20 including drinks and finger food. We will of course run a raffle with a range of interesting prizes to choose from.

Therese and I wish you and your families all the best for the festive season.

Bob

The Week that Was

 The worldwide Rotary family

Last week we were reminded three times of the wonderful worldwide network of Rotary.

Charmaine White, recently returned from visiting a friend in Chicago, toasted the Rotary Club of Long Grove in Chicago which she visited while there. It’s a breakfast club with a really active crew, she said. One Rotarian had recently returned from helping out in Puerto Rico after Cyclone Irma, and another was off soon to assist in Nicaragua which is also recovering from a recent cyclone.

Angie and Chris spoke about their visit to the RC of Amsterdam meeting

Then Chris O’Brien and Angie Ulrichsen presented President Bob with a banner from the RC of Amsterdam which they visited at the Hilton Hotel during their recent overseas jaunt.

AND we again welcomed Jenni Lean from the Rotary Club of Port Moresby, now living in New Zealand, who was in Narooma visiting her brother Jeff.

AGM

Our Annual General Meeting last week elected the 2018-2019 Board with Rod Walker already confirmed as President. The meeting elected Vice President Laurelle Pacey, Treasurer Lynn Hastings, and four Directors – Angie Ulrichsen, John Rungen, John Doyle, and Sandra Doyle.

The Club is still looking for a secretary for 2018-2019, and a President Elect 2019-2020.

 Carols by Candlelight

Our sausage selling team at Carols by Candlelight on Sunday – Lynn Hastings, Angie Ulrichsen and Charmaine White

We had a top team serving sausage sandwiches at the Carols by Candlelight on NATA Oval, while some of our Rotarian choristers were on stage singing their hearts out. John had to get extra sausages, such was the demand, while those in the van loved the simplicity of only selling the one thing, except that took from their great skills of ‘on-selling’…

Duck Tickets

If you can, please take a spot on the roster for selling duck tickets. Super seller Michael O’Connor was spotted in front of IGA Narooma this week going really well. Good spot, next to the moving Santa that can keep kids (and ticket sellers) amused for hours.

See you Thursday night at Casey’s Café.

Cheers Laurelle

Narooma Rotary Beacon 14 December 2017

Bob’s Blog

Hello Everyone

Believe it or not we are nearly half way through the 2017/18 Rotary year. With our AGM this week it is may be time to reflect on our year to date.

Socially the move to the Golf Club has been worthwhile with a good selection of meals to choose from. Our Italian Night and Lift the Lid on Mental Illness dinners were great fun.

Angie has organised informative and entertaining guest speakers and our ‘Rotarian Presents’ nights have been great successes with visits to Rolf’s Patisserie, The Dental Surgery and the Men’s’ Shed along with excellent presentations from Michael and Frank. We also launched our Friends of Rotary initiative and held a successful function to thank our ‘Busking Sponsors’ night.

Our Club visits Narooma Men’s Shed for Peter Hartley’s ‘Rotarian presents’ (unfortunately Bob Antill did not make the photo, far left).

We have conducted five successful markets and catered for the Early Falcons and Narooma Motors car shows. We also organised and ran an outstanding Renewable Energy Expo to keep our community informed.

We have made significant donations to the Foundation, Shelter Box and Australian Rotary Health. We have also made donations to many local organisations such as St John Ambulance. Our Whale Watching raffle made $1,400 to go towards local surf clubs.

Have we made a difference? I think we have.

Board members, please don’t forget the Board meeting 5pm this Thursday.

Have a great week.

Bob

The Week that Was

Rotarian Peter presents the Men’s Shed

Everyone enjoyed our visit to Narooma Men’s Shed, courtesy of Peter Hartley, as part of the monthly ‘Rotarian Presents’ program instituted by President Bob. Peter ‘was pleased and surprised everyone turned up’, adding  ‘I think it was a full house’.

Wal Sheehan explains about Men’s Sheds

Narooma Men’s Shed President Wal Sheehan explained what a Men’s Shed is… ‘it provides a safe and friendly environment where men can make things at their own pace in their own time with other men’.  He said ‘it’s the hands on making things that many really enjoy’.

He said morning tea time is particularly popular and some come just for that. ‘Many  really need a chat over a cuppa; it overcomes the social isolation many men feel, such as after they retire or after losing their wives. It’s men looking after men.’

We split into three groups led by Peter, Wal and Peter ‘Curly’ Carles for a tour of the impressive workshops on site – woodworking, metal working, the potting shed, furniture repair shed and the morning tea room cum MACS Studio. Most were impressed with the quality of the work with several members eyeing off products like the backyard beehive, and the jigsaw table.

In the Men’s Shed impressive potting shed – Angie Ulrichsen, Lynda Ord and Wal Sheehan

Wal said the Australian Men’s Shed Association (AMSA) is the peak body supporting almost 1000 Men’s Sheds across Australia. It was established in 2007. Interestingly Rotary played a key factor in the formation of the Men’s Shed movement in Australia: it is a key community service addressing men’s health.

Back at the Golf Club, Peter was again in the spotlight proposing the International Toast to the Rotary Club of the Bay of Islands in New Zealand which also meets on a Thursday night for dinner. His choice was prompted by his recent holiday in New Zealand. He mentioned New Zealand’s most important historic site is at the Bay of Islands, where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the British Crown and the indigenous Maori in February 1840.

We welcomed Rod Walker’s guest Geoff Drake from Cobargo to our meeting, as well as our regular guests Iris and Merinda.

Duck Race

Tickets for our Australia Day Duck Race Duck Race tickets will be available this Thursday, should anyone like to take a book (20 tickets). The idea is to try and sell most of the tickets on the street or around caravan parks. A roster will go around this Thursday to sell tickets at the markets, IGA on the flat and at Dalmeny, Woolworths and caravan parks. Please take the time and fill in a couple of spots on the roster. Proceeds from the Duck Race will go to Australia Rotary Health and to top up our Tertiary Scholarship fund.

Frank claims Expo credit as his happy moment

Frank told us last week that roof-top solar installations across Australia in October exceeded 100MW of capacity, and then last month they exceeded 120MW knocking off the previous record set in June 2012. He claimed, ‘Analysis by Eden Solar concludes this was largely due to the excellent Renewable Energy Expo in Narooma organised by our Club’. ‘Thanks to the efforts of the Expo Committee, all-time records are now being broken, and solar is now more cost-effective than playing golf,’ he said. Needless to say he paid up.

Moruya Rotary helps decorate main street

Moruya’s main street is looking very festive thanks to the team work between Moruya Rotary and the Moruya Business Chamber. In the early hours of Sunday 3 December, Moruya Rotarian Rohan Gleeson along with Chamber members Rob Pollock, Puddy Harrison and Col Chesher with two kindly electricians spent hours erecting 13 Christmas decorations on the specially designed poles along one side of Vulcan Street and four at the roundabout. On the opposite side of the street, Moruya Lions Club already had their Santa’s on top of shop awnings.

Rotary provides the public liability insurance (required by Essential Energy) and labour as needed, and the Chamber the decorations (purchased with the help of a $6,000 Council grant every three years) and labour. Most of the tinsel was replaced this year and they replaced the LEDs with bud lighting.

Bega Hospital carers’ accommodation a Rotarian’s dream

The first stage of subsidised accommodation for patients, carers, friends and relatives at the new South East Regional Hospital at Bega opens on Friday. Community Carers Accommodation South East (CCASE) president Lynne Koerbin said the project started as an idea from Janet Brandon when president of the Rotary Club of Pambula in 2012  and then transformed into a community project embraced across south-east NSW.

It was funded by the Federal Government ($450,000), Bega Cheese ($250,000) as well as Bendigo Bank, EC Blomfield Holdings, Bega, Tathra and Pambula-Merimbula Lions Clubs, Bega, Pambula and Merimbula Rotaries, the Eden Lionesses, and the Country Women’s Association of Pambula and  Merimbula Branch. Our  Club also contributed.

Stage one of the three stage project consists of six motel style rooms and estimated to accommodate 1750 overnight stays each year. It will be handed over to the Southern NSW Local Health District to operate.

CCSAE has raised enough money to also fund the second stage.

District Conference 2018

The District Conference is on at Mittagong RSL 23 – 25 March. The District Committee has put together a great programme with some impressive guest speakers, led by retired Governor General Major General Michael Jeffrey. Registration is now open on the District website. The $100 includes lunch and the conference dinner on Saturday night.

The new District in brief

The new much larger Rotary District comes into being on 1 July 2020. It encompasses current Districts 9700 and 9710. Our Rotary International Director Noel Trevaskis believes larger and better resourced Districts are more able to support Clubs as they endeavour to grow and strengthen Rotary.

A Transition Management Team is overseeing its formation. It consists of DG George Weston (9700), DG Steve Hill (9710), PDGs Irene Jones (9700) and Bob Greeney (9710), and the DG of the new District who will be elected in March 2018. The team invites all of us to send them any ideas we have on what the new district should do to fulfil its main role of being a resource for the clubs in doing good in the world.

Assistant Governor positions will go. They will be replaced with the new position of Area Governor responsible for a bigger area covering no more than 15 Rotary Clubs plus any Rotaract or Interact Clubs within those areas. A new Area Governor manual will soon be available on the District website.

The District will soon call for expressions of interest to nominate for District Governor for the new District for 2020/21. The Transition Team sees the DG’s role changing to more administrative oversight of the District Board and programs, with limited travel around Clubs.

More information is in the recent circulars from Noel Trevaskis and Steve Hill.

Cheers Laurelle

Peter Bull, John Rungen and Rolf Gimmel last week

‘Home schooling’, courtesy Peter Bull

Here are some things our parents taught us…

  • My father taught me logic: ‘Because I said so, that’s why.’
  • My mother taught me foresight: ‘Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you’re involved in an accident.’
  • My father taught me about justice: ‘One day you’ll have kids and I hope they turn out just like you.’
  • My mother taught me hypocrisy: ‘If I told you once, I’ve told you a million times; don’t exaggerate.’

Narooma Rotary Beacon 7 December 2017

Bob’s Blog

John Doyle thanks our speakers Carmel Mackin and Alexander Macdonald who spoke about their fascination with Italy

Hello Everyone

What a great night we had last Thursday. Our theme was Italian with lots of red, white and green streamers, flags and outfits! Our speakers Carmel and Alexander gave an informative presentation on parts of Italy less travelled and the food was excellent, especially the dessert. I think we will plan more theme nights before the end of the Rotary year.

The Club’s Annual General Meeting will be held on 14 December. President Elect Rod is looking for members to serve on the Board; please consider putting your name forward because we need active Board members to keep the Club vibrant and relevant to our community.

Although we won’t meet over the holiday period, the Club will be active with lots of events on the agenda. Activities include Carols by Candlelight on 17 December, Christmas at the Races on 24 December, Rotary Markets on Thursday 28 December, the annual Rotary Duck Race on Australia Day on Friday 26 January, the Narooma Motors event on 27 January, followed by Markets on 28 January. Throughout January we will also be selling tickets in the Duck Race. Please help out where you can, especially by volunteering to sell Duck Race tickets. Ticket should be available this Thursday.

This Thursday we will begin our meeting at the Men’s Shed, where Peter Hartley and some members of the Men’s Shed will give an overview of the operation of this important and much needed facility. Please be at the Shed by 6:00pm; following the presentation we will move to the Golf Club for dinner.

Finally a reminder that our Christmas Party will be on 21 December at Casey’s. Final numbers are needed by 14 December. The cost is $30 for three courses; the Club will provide beer and wine.

Have a great week everyone.

The Week that Was

An Italian love affair

Members and guests really embraced the spirit of the Italian night last week when we heard from Carmel Mackin and partner Alexander Macdonald’s about their love affair with Italy. Pasta, lasagne and tiramisu set the scene last Thursday night at the Golf Club for them to take Rotarians and their guests on a journey which started on the island of Sicily. Sicily is famous for not only the Mafia and the volatile Mt Etna, but also for fantastic ancient ruins and stunning buildings. Sicily is also famous for puppetry. Puppets used in the shows are up to 1.5m high and are controlled with skill perfected over thousands of years.

Lynn Hastings and Lynda Ord  in the Italian spirit

Carmel studied Italian for one year at university then gave up until much later when she revisited the language at the University of the Third Age. She fell in love again with the language, the romance and the style of Italy. Their travels took them through the Italian Riviera into the mountains to Modena, the home of Enzo Ferrari and a wonderful museum which celebrates him and his Ferrari creations, then on to Florence.

From staying in an Old Church airbnb built in the early 1500s where the bells rang out every 15 minutes through the night, to one where the climb up ancient stairs to the apartment was their aerobic work-out for the week. Italians are not only passionate about their wine and food but how they present and serve it. At one delicatessen, the ham Carmel and Alexander purchased was wrapped in floral paper tied off with ribbon, good enough for a birthday present.

John Doyle thanked them for their talk and whetting the appetite of those present to check out deals for trips to Italy in the New Year.                                             Bob Antill

Into the Italian spirit: Sandra Doyle, Judy Grey and Merinda Antill

Our Rotary Tertiary Scholarship

Lynda Ord is delighted the Club has received 13 applications for this year’s Rotary Tertiary Scholarship. A panel of President Bob, Peter, Sandra and Lynda will interview all applicants on Saturday 16 December. The Scholarship is made possible thanks to a bequest by Alexander Birch. This next scholarship winner will be the 28th student from Narooma High the Club has helped pursue their studies and achieve their dreams. That assistance now totals about $240,000. Part of the proceeds from the next Duck Race will top up the scholarship fund which is rapidly being depleted.

This is the final year of the Rotary scholarship for two of our students  – Connor Ross (2014 Bachelor of Arts (Music Industry), RMIT) and Carl McEvoy (2015 – Bachelor of Media and Communications – Media Production at UTS). The scholarships continue for our other two scholars Melanie Miller (2016 – Bachelor of Clinical Exercise Physiology UNE) and Sabine Kildea (2017 – Arts degree at ANU). Hopefully we will catch up with some of them at our Youth night in 2018, as well as our new Scholarship winner.

Some Expo postscripts

The major prizes for the Expo’s poster competition for Narooma Public School students on improved garbage bin lid designs for the school playground were presented by Member for Eden Monaro Dr Mike Kelly at the Expo. Sandra Doyle, competition organiser, presented certificates to the other prize winners at Monday’s school assembly. A great success overall.

On electric cars: Hot on the Renewable Energy Expo and the interest in Vin Edward’s Tesla car, interesting new research shows pure electric cars are already cheaper to own and run than petrol or diesel cars in in all the markets they examined: UK, Japan, Texas and California. An article in Guardian Weekly this week says researchers at the University of Leeds analysed the total cost of ownership of cars over four years, including purchase price and depreciation, fuel, insurance, taxation and maintenance. This was the main reason for the rapid increase in sales in electric cars sales in these countries.

Lynn Hastings and Peter Bull navigate the scissor mop/broom during the Expo clean-up

More ‘groaners’, courtesy of Peter Bull

  • I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded dough.
  • When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble.
  • I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.
  • Don’t worry about old age; it doesn’t last.