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 12th June, the Market on 23rd June and finally Changeover on 4th 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.