Narooma Rotary Beacon 13 June 2019

Rod’s Ramble

Hi

This will be my last Ramble for my Presidency. Not much to report in this last week unless our depleted Cinders team can come home with the trophy.

Cinders is on this Wednesday (12th) at Moruya so there is no regular meeting this Thursday (13th). I am away now until the end of June, as is VP Laurelle,  so Charmaine will warm the chair from 20th June. As this is my last Ramble, I would like to thank all members for allowing me to be your President in 2018-19.

It seems amazing that it’s been a full 12 months since Rod Walker took over the presidential chain from Bob Aston.

There were some notable achievements in the year and we distributed $27,749 to local and international charities, our Tertiary Scholarship holders, and funding other youth activities. I will single out a few for my gratitude as without them we would not have pulled off the fundraising and community events we did. The list indicates the breadth of our activities and how well we do with a small membership. They are in no particular order:

  • Laurelle Pacey for her counsel as Vice-President, our vocational awards night and the Beacon
  • Bob Aston for his work as Secretary and his work promoting our Tertiary Scholarship
  • Sandra Doyle as assistant secretary and general dogsbody. She was everywhere.
  • Lynn Hastings our ever vigilant Treasurer
  • Chris O’Brien for managing the Markets (and those who worked on the markets).
  • Angie Ulrichsen for our speakers, film night, the Whale Watching raffle, RYPEN, RYDA and van purchases.
  • John Doyle for market logistics and caravan management
  • John Rungen for heading the Busking Championship committee (and everyone on that Committee) and the Bowel Cancer program
  • Charmaine White for the Australia Day Duck Race and her work in Timor Leste
  • Peter Bull for assisting with the selection of our Tertiary Scholarship recipient and the occasional good joke
  • Frank Eden for managing the web site
  • Rolf Gimmel for caravan duties and his consistent work as Sergeant-at-Arms
  • Every other member for contributing when and where they could to the markets, raffle selling, 60th birthday celebrations, busking and barbecues.
  • AND to Michael O’Connor raffle seller extraordinaire

We are trialing a new form of leadership for 2019-2020. Let’s get behind our ‘Presidents Four’ and have another great year contributing to our community. All the best to Charmaine and her Board for 2019-20. Rod

THIS WEEK: Our Cinders Trivia Trophy

This Wednesday (12 June) we join our friends at Moruya Rotary to battle over trivia for the much coveted Cinders Trophy. It’s always a lot of fun. This year we are playing on their home turf at Moruya Golf Club, commencing 6.30 for 7pm. Cost is $17 pp. What we will lack in numbers  we are sure to make up for in quality.

There will therefore be no meeting this Thursday 13 June.

The Week that Was

Last week was a fairly laid back meeting with many away but still lots of chat, a slide show of the Busking Championships.

Spotted by the Beacon’s roving reporter Bob Aston in England in the village of Norton St Phillip, just outside Bath.

PP and PE Charmaine White gave the International Toast to the Rotary Club of Dili in Timor Leste, a club she is associated with through the dental project in Timor Leste.  The Rotary Club of Dili was chartered in 2002 with 32 Members.

Meanwhile, our travelling correspondent PP Bob Aston spotted a redundant phone box in Wales that has been-re-purposed to house a defibrillator… alas Frank and John, any redundant phone-boxes in our area seem to have already been removed.

Out and About

Moruya and Bay Rotary Changeovers

We have been invited to attend Moruya’s Changeover on Wednesday 26th  and Batemans Bay’s on Thursday 27th June. If you would like to attend one or other, please contact President Rod Changeovers .

Bega Rotary Winter Book Fair

Bega Rotary’s Book Fair is on next month from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th July in the Bega Showground Pavilion. This is a mammoth undertaking by the Bega Club

They are expecting to have over 30,000 fiction and non-fiction books ready for sale. With storage space at a premium, they only accept books in quality condition and do not accept Encyclopaedias or Readers Digest which do not sell, They will be moving storage facility before the next book fair.

Bega and Monaro RYDA   

Over 300 Bega Valley and Monaro Year 11 students recently attended the Bega RYDA at Frog’s Hollow Go Kart Track south of Bega. Bega Rotary has coordinated the Rotary Youth Driver Awareness Program since 2007, catering for 5,000 students. Narooma High students’ first RYDA was at Bega (and possibly the second) before they started going to Moruya. Schools that participated this year were Bega High, Eden Marine High, Bombala High, Lumen Christi Catholic College, South Coast Anglican College, Monaro High and Jindabyne Central with a small group from Moruya.

NEXT WEEK (20th):

Retired Narooma engineer Jeff Lean will talk about the social and economic drivers of climate change, subjects he has studied closely. Jeff feels considerable confusion and misinformation by government, financially interested parties and well-meaning but ill-informed green groups have clouded the issues and delayed working towards solutions.  He will also discuss meaningful community and individual actions.  

FOLLOWING WEEK (27TH):

Our guest speaker will be the new Principal of Narooma High Fiona Jackson.

Narooma Rotary Beacon 6 June 2019

THIS WEEK:  

First a Board meeting at 5pm, followed by an evening of fellowship to enjoy each other’s company, with some photos from our wonderfully successful Busking Festival.

LAST WEEK

Wrapped in love – President Rod launched his President’s Raffle last week – the prize a beautiful quilt made by his wife Jennifer.
Lynn Hastings received a Paul Harris Fellow

President Rod was full of surprises last week by presenting several awards that we would normally see presented at Changeover. His reason for going early? Most recipients would not be here for the changeover.

John Rungen received a double whammy – Paul Harris Fellow and Club Rotarian of the Year
Sandra Doyle was also made a Paul Harris Fellow

He named three members as Paul Harris Fellows – Lynn Hastings, John Rungen and Sandra Doyle, and presented John Rungen with the Club’s Rotarian of the Year Award. Congratulation to all recipients; their recognition is well deserved.

President Rod also promoted his President’s raffle of a lovely quilt made by his wife Jennifer. Books of 25 tickets are available from Rod – $2 each or three for $5. He will draw the raffle at our Changeover which is now on Thursday 4th July, instead of 27 June as is published on the tickets. All proceeds will go to local charities.

For our International Toast last week, Frank Eden toasted the Rotary Club of Kigali Virunga in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Chartered in 2000, it is the only English speaking club in Rwanda. It has given birth to four Rotaract and three Interact Clubs around Kigali. Their flagship project is the Kigali Public Library. Kigali has about one million people; it lost a significant proportion of its people in the 1994 genocide. It’s reported to be the cleanest city in Africa. Just over the border in Congo is North Kivu where 1900 cases of Ebola have been reported; of those, 1250 died, 490 were cured… presumably the rest are still sick. Frank said there is now a vaccine against Ebola but ignorance, misinformation and fear are frustrating containment.

Other News

Congratulations to Batemans Bay Rotarian PDG Maureen Manning who has been elected as our District’s Delegate to the Zone Nominating Committee for the 2020 Rotary International Convention in Honolulu.  We will see Maureen in a month; she will be the DG’s representative at our Club Changeover on Thursday 4th July.

By the way, if you were interested in going to the Honolulu Convention 6-10 June 2020, the early bird price of $395 ends 5 June.

Rotary Convention in Hamburg wraps up

Rotary International’s biggest event of the year ended in Hamburg this Wednesday. More than 24,000 Rotary members from 170 countries have been attending the 110th annual Rotary International Convention.

During the convention:

  •  Pressing world issues were discussed like polio eradication, pollution, refugee migration, disease prevention, and literacy.
  • An inspiring range of speakers from all over the world addressed the Convention
  • Delegates also had the opportunity to enhance their skills in areas like fellowship, integrity, diversity, service, and fellowship.

The next RI Convention in Australia will be in Melbourne in 2023.The convention is the most valuable conference ever won by Victoria. It is expected to attract 20,000 Rotary members from more than 200 countries and regions worldwide and to inject over $88 million into the Victorian economy.

NEXT WEEK:  Our annual Cinders

Next Wednesday (12 June) we head to Moruya to ‘battle’ with Moruya Rotarians for the coveted annual Cinders trophy. It’s always a lot of fun. This year we are playing on their home turf at Moruya Golf Club, commencing 6.30 for 7pm. Cost is $17 pp.

This Thursday we are finalising numbers so hopefully you have gathered some knowledgeable friends to make up for so many of our members who are away. The trophy last year was shared between the two clubs, and is currently in Moruya’s safe keeping. We shall try to organise car-pooling on Thursday for those who want it.

There will therefore be no meeting on Thursday 13 June.