THIS WEEK: Club Assembly
This week’s meeting will be a Club Assembly where President Rod will discuss with us a possible presidential scenario for the 2019-2020 year.
You will recall in the last Beacon Rod outlined that the Board had discussed possibly sharing the presidential role through the coming year between several former Club Presidents and he wants to discuss this with us all this week. Rod said our Assistant District Governor Allan Russell said there is a precedent where one club rotated the presidency every three months so that a 12-month commitment was not required.
Our Board agreed to this in principle and there was some interest from Board members to nominate, but it was agreed that we should put the idea to members at this Club Assembly. If that is the Club’s wish, the Board would seek nominations as soon as possible.
The Busking Festival committee will meet at 5pm at the Golf Club.
THE FORTNIGHT THAT WAS
Anzac Day
Our Club was well represented at the Anzac Day services with four of our members in the community choir – Robyn Miller, Lynda Ord, Sandra Doyle and Chris O’Brien, Laurelle Pacey marching, and John Doyle attending.
John and Sandra Doyle laid the Club’s wreath at the memorial.
Narooma Oyster Festival
At the Markets on Sunday, it was decided to withdraw from taking the food van to the Oyster Festival’s community concert, largely because of the difficulty with manning the van at that time, what with so many members being away.
Holiday Markets
The gate takings were down a bit even from the last market at $835. We only took $364.55 at the van and the wishing well was $63.70. All of which suggests that many holidaymakers were heading home that day. The town had certainly been buzzing up until then.
Last meeting
At our last meeting which was on the 18th April, Laurelle Pacey spoke about how Narooma has a plethora of war memorials with only two referencing its own servicemen and women; most are generic. She explained how Narooma has come to have seven different war memorials between Dalmeny and the Uniting Church in Narooma. They are:
- the Memorial Hall (Kinema) – built 1925 as the town’s memorial to its soldiers at the First World War and containing the Honour Roll to all soldiers from the district who went to war. All Anzac Fay and Remembrance Day services were held here until 1975. The first function in the Hall was the crowning of the Queen of Narooma, all related to raising funds to pay for the Hall.
- The central window in the Uniting Church Tower, erected in 1933 in memory of soldiers who gave their lives for their fellows during the Great War. More recently the RSL installed a plaque stating it was also a memorial to subsequent wars.
- The CWA Rooms were erected in memory of those who served in the 1939-1945 War. Erected between 1948 and 1950.
- Clock Tower in Thomson Park, now without a clock, was erected in 1975 as the Narooma War Memorial by the RSL Sub Branch and Narooma citizens. It was erected in memory of those who gave their lives in all wars the cause of freedom. Called. Anzac Day and Remembrance Day services were then held in front of this memorial from then until the new war memorial was built at Club Narooma in 2012. An Honour Roll to the district’s servicemen and women was only installed in 2013, an initiative of Trevor Bennett and Narooma Historical Society.
- Avenue of Remembrance of New Zealand Christmas Bushes on the Flat – an RSL Sub-Branch initiative, dedicated in 1995 as part of the Australia Remembers programme commemorating 50 years since the end of the Second World War. It honours the men and women who served Australia during World War II.
- Club Narooma war memorials – dedicated i18 August 2012 to all conflicts.
- The Anzac Memorial Drive on part of Dalmeny Drive, established in 2018 to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War.
International toast at the last meeting
Lynda Ord proposed the International Toast to the Rotary Club of Paris Notre-Dame, after the devastating fire at the Cathedral earlier that week. She wrote to the Club beforehand and was delighted to receive the following response from the Club’s Public Relations Secretary Laetitia Andreu.
Dear Lynda and Friends from the Rotary Club of Narooma. Thank you for your support and your kind message. The structure and most of art works were saved.
She welcomed the support by many French and other billionaires and multinational companies which will help ensure the Cathedral will be rebuilt. The Notre-Dame Rotary Club was founded in 2006. Interesting to see the Club’s average age is 42 years, over 65% of its members are women, and it meets twice a month.