Andrew’s Thoughts
Last week was one of the quiet ones with no meeting so little to report. The Board met on Friday and I shall obviously report back at our Club Assembly on Thursday. The great news is that Françoise Cleret has been accepted for Club membership and that Gordon Bentley’s transfer from Dubbo has been finalised. So in the past 24 months, with all that that has thrown at us, we have six new members, and I am quietly confident there may be a seventh.
The success of sponsoring the High School’s MUNA continues to garner positive publicity which is excellent. This is in a large part due to Ange’s great efforts and liaison with Narooma High.
Wednesday sees the delayed start of the PCSG 2022/2023 season when we welcome Amie Proberts, the specialist Prostate Cancer nurse covering both Bega and Eurobodalla Hospitals. We hope for a good turnout.
So in summary, we’re definitely moving forward and I am quietly confident about the Club’s future. As ever, it is onwards and upwards mes amis!
THIS WEEK
Thursday 8 September: Dinner Meeting 6 for 6.30pm – Club Assembly at Narooma Golf Club
The Week that Was
More on MUNA
We received some extensive publicity about our Club’s sponsorship of the Narooma High Year 11 team to the prestigious Model United Nations Assembly (MUNA) in Canberra 19-21 August. Narooma News journalist Marion Williams also did a ripper of a follow up to our media release by interviewing Narooma High teacher Monique Wicks and student Yeshe Smith Macpherson revealing our Narooma team actually received a standing ovation from the Assembly.
While our three Narooma students spent two months preparing for MUNA and learning about public speaking and speech writing, once there they had to quickly master negotiating and collaborating, sometimes even changing alliances.
Narooma represented Iran and over the weekend debated six resolutions from Iran’s perspective. Iran was part of the Middle East bloc with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the latter represented by King’s College. Yeshe told Marion, “We asked if we could see their speech so we could cover different things and know how to support what they were going to say but they wouldn’t let us”.
As Iran, they agreed to support one of Saudi Arabia’s resolutions but after negotiations and collaborations with other blocs “we realised we were against it and ended up changing our minds after hearing other countries speak”. “We did a whole speech about it which won a standing ovation,” she said. “It was a really cool moment.”
These students will go places!
Board Meeting
The Board had quite a productive meeting last Friday: Andrew will fill us in this Thursday. Whale raffle tickets are selling fast.
Out and About
Bega Rotary Spring Book Fair
The Rotary Spring Book Fair is on this weekend at Bega Showground Pavilion (Fri 9 & Sat 10 Sept 9-5). Good quality books plus DVDs will be available. Entry by gold coin donation and sales are by EFTPOS or cash. Please bring a bag.
Ten rules for email etiquette
These tips on email etiquette from the Law Society of NSW should help us all, not only with ‘in club’ communications.Rachel Clements, Director of Psychological Services at Sydney’s Centre for Corporate Health suggests the following checklist.
1. Use a clear, professional subject line clearly showing whatthe email will cover. Many decide whether to open an email depending on the subject line.
2. Proof-read every email you send: Check for spelling, grammatical or other errors. Have you spelt the recipient’s name correctly? Errors compromise your credibility.
3. Write your email before entering the recipient email address in case you accidentally send the message too early.
4. Use appropriate level of formality – Such as, begin with “Dear” or “Hi”. Please use “please” and “thank you” where necessary, and always end your email with the appropriate phrase, “Kind regards”, “Thank you”, “Sincerely” etc.
5. Keep emails brief and to the point
6. Double check you have the correct recipient
7. Ensure you CC all relevant recipients: It’s unprofessional to leave out a colleague or client from a relevant email chain. Be mindful of who should be informed about a given matter and respect that.
8. Reply to your emails: Replying to an email is good etiquette, especially if the sender is expecting a response. Acknowledging you received the email but will get back to the sender at a later time is a professional alternative to ignoring or avoiding certain emails.
9. You don’t always have to “reply all”. The accidental “reply all” on a private email is a huge trap. Think about who needs to read your response; no one wants an email chain that has nothing to do with them.
10. Include a signature block: If your recipient doesn’t know anything about you, they may be sceptical of the authenticity of your email. It is professional to include your full name, title, your company and your contact number.
NEXT WEEK
Thursday 15 September 7am – Business Breakfast Meeting at Narooma Surf Club. Guest speaker Sally Bouckley of Southbound Escapes who recently took on the lease of the Visitors’ Information Centre. Bookings essential with President Andrew by Monday PM. Cost $10.