Rod’s Ramble

What a weekend! Blessed with beautiful weather we successfully delivered the Busking National Championship and our monthly Market thanks to a small but hard working crew. Congratulations and thanks to all those involved. The vibe on both days was fantastic and I have never see as many people on the Flat and around NATA Oval as there were on Saturday.

We are now rolling towards the end of another Rotary Year but there are still a few important activities we need to complete. Firstly we have Cinders on 12^th June, the Market on 23^rd June and finally Changeover on 4^th July. Between now and then, I will be running my President’s Raffle which is a quilt made by Jennifer to be raffled over the next six weeks and drawn at our Changeover. I will have the Quilt and tickets available this week.

With so many members either travelling (6) or incapacitated (3) over June, it will be challenging to participate in all those events so please help where you can. See you Thursday. Rod

THIS WEEK: Fellowship where we can just relax and enjoy each other’s company

The Week that Was

Busking fills our town with music

What a wonderfully successful Busking Championships on Saturday with the town buzzing from the Flat to the Plaza and, as Rod said, beautiful weather. This was Narooma Rotary’s third Narooma Championships, part of the Australian National Busking Championships (ANBC) and a significant event in Eurobodalla’s River of Art Festival.

At the awards presentation at the Golf Club Saturday evening, President Rod paid tribute to everyone who made the event possible – the many wonderful sponsors, Rotary’s hard working committee, the 48 buskers who took part from a wide geographical area, the 50 volunteers who helped on the day, and the community who turned out in force to enjoy the day.

The committee consisted of John Rungen (chair), Sandra and John Doyle, Lynda Ord, Chris O’Brien, Heather Ferguson, Jen French and Laurelle Pacey.

River of Art Festival co-chair Di Jay has thanked Rotary on behalf of the River of Art committee. “Well done Rotary with the busking champs,” she said. “Totally amazing day in Narooma. A pleasure to be collaborating with and promoting your event under the Festival umbrella.”

ANBC instigator Alan Spencer of Cooma praised our event. “Narooma’s regional championships are first class, one of the best in Australia,” he said. “Each year it’s becoming more professional both in the way it’s run and in the standard of performers. A lot of these buskers even in high school are now getting gigs and that’s showing in their growing professionalism.”

NATA Oval, behind the Visitors’ Centre, again had four busking hot spots sponsored by businesses away from the centre of town as well as a display of classic cars from the Combined Eurobodalla Classic Cars and new cars from the AMH Motor Group in Moruya.

A free shuttle bus, courtesy of Symons, ferried spectators between venues while the Golf Club’s bus ferried those buskers who needed transport around town.

MC Nadine Howard (Sandra and John’s daughter) noted at the presentations the extraordinary number of local businesses sponsoring prizes this year, reflecting the fantastic support of this Busking festival by the community. E

The five judges (Sandra and John’s granddaughter and long time busker Shelby Holland , Alan Spencer of ANBC, Ian Campbell of AboutRegional and RiotACT, Cr Lindsay Brown, and Fiona Brown of Slightly Twisted Productions) caught up with all acts through the day and made 27 awards. All are listed on Facebook and in the media.

The major award of Open Champion was awarded to local duo Stitch consisting of Bev Long and Zoey Pepper. The major  People’s Choice award (receiving the most Busker Votes) was Potent Soap of Batemans Bay (Jordan Young, Jack Gallen, Caeden Devane and Brendon Barnes).

Narooma’s major winners will be invited to compete in the ANBC National Grand Final in Cooma in November.

Last Week’s meeting

What a fascinating meeting last week with a large number of guests, not surprisingly many of them dog lovers. Chris had her good friends visiting from Victoria, Club regulars Gloria and Neil.

First though, John Rungen gave the international toast to the Rotary Club of Binghamton in New York State. It’s an old club established in 1912, has 41 members, and meets for lunch on Tuesdays. Their sub-committees often meet over breakfast. Their main focus over the last two years is tackling the opiate epidemic which includes driving public awareness towards the proper disposal of medication.

We welcomed Narooma High student Breeanna Glass, fresh from the RYPEN Camp at Mogo. She delivered an engaging talk in quite a confident way about her initial feeling of boredom, thinking she would rather not be there; by the end of the weekend she had made two new close friends and realised that being a teenager is not boring. She has been invited to be a leader at a future RYPEN Camp. Many thanks to Ang for making this happen and giving Breeanna this opportunity.

Then of course it was over to our guest speaker Angela Keogh who spoke about dog behaviour, and by necessity dog owner behaviour. Her presentation was very entertaining, encouraging us to try and interpret what a dog’s body language might be indicating about how they were feeling. Angela is highly qualified , very experienced and obviously highly respected by all those who have used her services.

More on the new District 9705

On 1 July 2020, District 9710 joins District 9700 to become the new District 9705. Membership of 9700 had fallen below 1000, hence the RI decision. A transition team of past District Governors is sorting out the many administrative matters involved.

Michael Moore is nominated as the first Governor of the new District for Rotary Year 2020/21. Because of the number of clubs and the distances involved, he will have six Area Governors, replacing but having greater duties than the present Assistant Governors. Each will have no more than 15 clubs, plus Rotaract and Interact Clubs. Our area will extend from Bowral to the Victorian border. Within the planning task, PDG Phil Armstrong is heading a focus team looking at District programs in the vocational, international and community area.

Rotary fills Narooma with music

We have a huge weekend ahead of us with the Busking Festival all Saturday plus the markets to follow on Sunday. Hopefully we are ready for it, thanks to a lot of work by the core Busking team. There is mounting excitement among those in our community who have been before and enjoyed it immensely.

Our Festival is a regional championship of the Australian National Busking Championships (ANBC) with the final in Cooma in November. It’s also one of the major events in Eurobodalla’s River of Art Festival which concludes this weekend.

On Saturday, we have 50 buskers who will perform at three or four of the 32 busker hot spots between 9 and 3. There’s a map in our two-page feature in this week’s Narooma News. Busking HQ will again be in a cabin in Easts Riverside Park, manned by our incredible admin team headed by Sandra, Lynda and John R. All buskers register there as well as volunteers; volunteers return with money and votes. John Doyle is overall site manager and chief ‘fixer’.

Narooma business owners have sponsored spots in front of their businesses while some businesses in outlying areas have spots on NATA Oval where there will also be large displays of collectors’ and new cars. A free bus with Chris on board will take people between venues. A programme showing hot spots with a busker timetable will be available online and on the day from information stalls opposite the Ice Creamery on the Flat and on NATA Oval, and from roving Busker Vote sellers wearing a Rotary vest.

Buskers are competing for $10,000 in prize money. Narooma’s five judges determine most prizes, including the $1,000 prize for the overall winner. Our judges this year are ANBC coordinator Alan Spencer, Shelby Grace, Lindsay Brown, Fiona Brown, and Ian Campbell of About Regional.

Everyone can vote for their favourite busker for the People’s Choice prize of $1,000 by buying a busker vote from our sellers for $1. The busker gets 10 cents from each $1 vote. If the purchaser writes their name on the back of each vote, they enter a lucky draw. Buskers keep any money they collect. Any profits go towards enhancing music and performance education in our area.

The Festival culminates with a free busker concert at Narooma Golf Club from 4pm followed by prize presentation (activity in HQ 3-5 is frantic, counting votes and sorting out prizes!).

Then it’s the markets on Sunday! Hope everyone is feeling fit. Then we can relax… Great work everyone.

THIS WEEK:

Our guest speaker is Angela Keogh who works as a canine behaviour consultant and professional dog (and owner!) trainer. Her subject will be ‘Real help at both ends of the leash’.

We also welcome our Narooma High student Breeanna Glass who we sponsored to the three-day Rotary Youth Programme of Enrichment (RYPEN) at Mogo. She will be talking briefly about her RYPEN experience.

The Week that Was

With both President Rod and VP Laurelle away last week, Rolf Gimmel ably chaired the meeting. Our speaker was Julie Kirk, the Regional Operations Manager for Red Cross’ Central Region. Julie explained how Red Cross supports the health and wellbeing of local communities through a range of programmes. She explained the various programmes including the Community Visitors Scheme, Learner Driver Programme, Save-a-Mate, Community Development and Emergency. Robyn Miller thanked Julie on behalf of the club.

Other news

Check your Bowels

Rotary’s annual bowel cancer awareness campaign ends soon. Age is an important factor in bowel cancer. The risk begins at age 40, doubling every five years and more rapidly as the person gets older. Bowel cancer is one of the most curable cancers if detected early. BowelCare kits cost $15 and are available from local pharmacies until the end of May.

Cinders battle for Trivia crown

On Wednesday 12 June, we ‘battle’ Moruya Rotarians for the coveted annual Cinders trophy. The trophy last year was shared between the two clubs, and is currently in Moruya’s safe keeping. This year we play on their home turf at Moruya Golf Club, commencing 6.30 for 7pm. Cost is $17 pp.

Hopefully you are coming with lots of very knowledgeable friends to make up for so many of our members who will be away. If you haven’t already done so, please fill in the attendance sheet for Cinders. We need final numbers by 5 June. Car-pooling is suggested.

Moruya Rotarians head to RI Convention

Moruya Rotarians John and Shirley Hayes will have a Moruya Rotary Club booth in the House of Friendship at the Rotary International Convention in Hamburg 1-5 June.

Shirl and John are managers of the Moruya RAWCS Sexual Health Education by Pictures Project. In February this year they travelled to Mindanao in the southern Philippines as part of joint RAWCS, Mindanao Poverty Relief Action team and Department of Education to deliver this much needed information to both female and male students.  Over three weeks, Shirl, John and the team from Mindanao Poverty Relief Action team visited 14 high schools and gave three- hour lectures to over 3,000 students and staff.  Teachers were concerned at the high rate of young teenage pregnancies and the lack of knowledge of sex and its outcomes. 

They were so inspired by the success of this project and the positive comments they received, Shirl and John have taken a stand in the House of Friendship to talk about this project to the Convention’s 24,000 delegates. 

Keep 8 August free for Bega Rotarians

Ange has organised with Bega President Margaret Taylor to have a combined meeting on 8 August, 6 for 6.30pm, at Cobargo Hotel. Ange reminds us this was initiated by the interest shown by our Club in Noel Trevaskis’ talk to us last year and the Business Breakfast Club started so successfully by Bega. We wanted to know more about the Breakfast Club so here’s our chance. Already about 15 Bega Rotarians have expressed interest in attending.

NEXT WEEK: Fellowship where we can just relax and enjoy each other’s company

Rod’s Ramble

While we had low numbers last week, there was a good vibe at the meeting. I think when the numbers are low the big table format we used last week works best; when there is a guest speaker separate tables of eight probably work best.

At the Board meeting, we agreed in principal to run the Renewable Energy Expo again in early November. Frank will lead the charge but he needs a group of willing assistants. We will put together a committee in July so if you can help out please volunteer. 

Frank also has suggested we need to do some succession planning for maintenance of the web site. We need someone with a basic knowledge of and confidence with computers to be mentored by Frank. If we can’t find someone in the Club maybe you know someone else who could help out? If interested, please let me know.

We will have a lot of people away over the next three months so we need everyone available for the Busking and the Markets in May as well as the Markets in June. Please try and be available on those days. Spouses, partners and friends also most welcome.

The Board is in the process of finalising our charitable distributions for 2018-19. We have already distributed over $17,000 and have about $5,000 available. If you have a local charity/service group you think we should support let me know.

I have just been offered a large body of work which means I will miss the meetings on 16 and 23 May and 13 and 27 June. This also means we will have to move the Changeover date to 4 July. Rod

THIS WEEK:

Our guest speaker is Julie Kirk who will talk about Red Cross services available on the South Coast. The range of services they provide these days is extraordinary so Julie’s talk will be particularly informative.

The Week that Was

It was great to welcome Peter Bull back. He gave an entertaining and interesting talk about Karen’s and his experiences on their recent Ghan expedition. The train was 1km long and passengers were taken to their carriages in golf carts!

Presidents x four for 2019-2020

It was with a sense of great relief that members at the Club Assembly supported the Board’s recommendation to have four presidents through 2019-2020, one every three months. Charmaine White will do the first three months, Ange Ulrichsen the second, and Bob Aston and Rod Walker will share the first six months of 2020. Laurelle offered to stay in the role of vice president through the year to give some continuity, if that works out best for the Club, rather than do one three month term as president.

BowelCare

Our BowelCare coordinator John Rungen drew everyone’s attention to the fact that Rotary’s annual bowel cancer awareness campaign is underway.
BowelCare kits cost $15 from local pharmacies and are available until the end of May.

Age is an important factor in bowel cancer. The risk begins at age 40, doubling every five years and more rapidly as the person gets older. bowel cancer is one of the most curable cancers if detected early.” John made an interesting point that this programme is available for everybody regardless of age, whereas the free National Bowel Cancer Screening Program is only provided to those aged 50-74.

Peter and Laurelle spoke about how Rotarians used to be more involved in distributing the kits, which thankfully we don’t have to do today.

RYPEN

Ange told last week’s meeting she is delighted that two Narooma High Aboriginal students will attend RYPEN this weekend at Old Mogo Town – Breanna Glass and Layton Moore. We hope to hear back from them in coming weeks about their RYPEN experience.

RYPEN (Rotary Youth Programme of Enrichment) is an intensive three-day program of plenary sessions, workshops, and sport and entertainment activities. Participants are given the opportunity to hear from people who have achieved in business, sport and entertainment. Those presenters will share their experiences with students while emphasizing the need to work hard and stay focused. Participants interact with peers from different backgrounds and improve their team working and leadership skills, and all in an informal atmosphere.

Appropriate too that this is taking part in May which is Rotary International’s Youth Service Month.

Changeover dates changed

In view of Rod Walker’s work commitments, our Club changeover has been moved from Thursday 27 June to Thursday 4 July. Hopefully more people will be able to participate at that time in this important event. Rod and incoming president (for three months) Charmaine White will work out the details. It will be two courses at $35 per person. Partners and Guests welcome.

Other news

Cinders’ battle for Trivia crown

On Wednesday 12 June, we go ‘into battle’ with Moruya for the coveted annual Cinders Trophy. This year we are playing on Moruya’s home turf at Moruya Golf Club, commencing 6.30 for 7pm. Cost is $17 pp. John Doyle will circulate an attendance list for Cinders over the next two weeks.

This is a great fun night. The trophy last year was shared between the two clubs and is currently in Moruya’s safe keeping. Car-pooling is suggested. Guests of Rotarians are particularly encouraged, President Rod adds particularly if they are knowledgeable about all things ‘trivial’. We need final numbers by 5 June.

Our Mother Club Bega

Ange has organised with BegaRotary President Margaret Taylor to have a combined Narooma-Bega meeting on 8 August 6 for 6.30pm. The tentative venue is Cobargo Hotel where we have met many times over the years. It will be great to catch up with Bega Rotarians again.

D9710’s last conference

The last District 9710 Conference will be held at Ulladulla on 8 March 2020. The following year D9710 will disappear as a district and amalgamate with D9700 to become the much larger D9705.

Next week:

Our guest speaker will be Angela Keogh who works as a canine behaviour consultant and professional dog (and owner!) trainer. Her subject will be ‘Real help at both ends of the leash’.

Rod’s Ramble

Hi all

We held a successful Assembly last week where it was decided that because we had no nomination for President in 2019-20, we would rotate former Presidents for periods of three months. The four Presidents would also be members of the Board for 12 months.

Charmaine volunteered to take the first three months from July to September and Laurelle and Ange agreed to take one of the other three month periods . That leaves one three month period to be filled.

Under the circumstances, this is a good result. Two factors impacted on this situation. Firstly a number of members are away for lengthy periods in 2019-2020 and  we have some members dealing with serious health issues. Hopefully 2020-2021 will be better. We already have a President Elect in Rolf so that is a great start.

We were also without a Secretary for 2019-20. Sandra Doyle has agreed to be Correspondence Secretary while I have agreed to be Minutes Secretary, with the understanding that others would need to relieve us from time to time. I encourage all members able to assist by stepping up to these roles when needed.

Our next event is the Busking Championship on Saturday 25 May followed by the Markets on Sunday 26 May. All hands available will need to be on deck to help with running these events; hope you can help.

Also please keep in mind our Changeover on Thursday 27 June. Rod

The Week that Was

Last week

Our Club Assembly last week particularly focussed on how the Club would deal with having no nomination for president next year (see Rod’s Ramble). The outcome reflects everyone’s determination to ensure the Club’s survival and being able ‘to continue to do good in the world’ and in our own community.

Charmaine White raised the possibility of the Club assisting an exsiting solar power programme at an orphanage she visited during her time earlier this year on a dental aid project. This will be discussed further by the Board this week.

We also welcomed visiting Rotarian Lindsay Jones from the Rotary Club of Balwyn, a very active club of more than 70 members in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Lindsay said he found it very rewarding being a member of Balwyn Club. Their main fundraiser is their weekly Sunday Camberwell markets, going for over 40 years, which raises about $900,000(! surely there’s a nought too many!) a year to fund a wide range of charitable causes. They usually have about 400 stalls at $60 per stall, and the markets require about 20 people to run. He also mentioned the Club’s involvement with the Box Hill Miniature Steam Railway once a month

Lynn Hastings’ son Todd Hardingham also graced our table. He was visiting en route to Merimbula to do a gig as a professional photographer.

Laurelle gave the International Toast last week to all 61 Rotary Clubs of Sri Lanka, particularly the Rotary Club of Colombo Central, in the wake of the tragic bombings of three Christian churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka just days before. The only reference Laurelle could find on Club web sites to the bombings was this:

The Rotary Club of Colombo Central stands together and strong with the rest of Sri Lankans at this very difficult period. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who lost their loved ones. Once full verification is done to the current situation we will initiate projects to rebuild churches and assist families of the victims.

Our thoughts are with them.

Narooma Oyster Festival

Our Club decided it was not in a position to take the food van to the Oyster Festival’s Friday concert, largely because of the difficulty with manning it. That decision freed up some members to just enjoy Friday’s music and fireworks, with Charmaine’s daughter Lizzie fronting headline nine-piece powerhouse party band Big Boss Groove from Canberra. Fantastic.

Next week:

Our guest speaker Julie Kirk will talk about Red Cross services that are available on the South Coast. The range of services they provide these days is extraordinary so that will be particularly interesting. We will also be joined by our Assistant Governor Alan Russell of Batemans Bay.

Just a reminder May is Youth Services Month.

On another note:

Physicist Albert Einstein was not only a renowned physicist but also famous for some of his inspirational quotes, like these…..

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

“Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts.”

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