President's Musings

A very important day for our Club, being the first visit from our District Governor, John Lane and his lovely wife, Bo, during his year in the top job.  Congratulations on such a large number of members who came along and in particular, thank you for making the DG and his wife feel so welcome.
 
As well as out two VIP guests, we had our Assistant Governor, Wendy Gilsam, from the Kawana Club present.  Once again we were joined by our resident Victorian Rotarian Ken, regular guest Greg McRae and someone who is quite familiar to us, Jim Lombard (minus a couple of fingers), who was recognised as a Paul Harris Fellow (PHF) at our ChangeOver Dinner.  Jim is chomping at the bit to join our Club and we look forward to welcoming him, when the process is complete.
 
Our most recent PHF, Genta, is really in the news at the moment.  He told us of his most successful Japan Festival held at Currimundi School last Sunday, where he had an amazing 1207 guests come along.  A fantastic result, Genta. As though that wasn't enough, it was also his birthday.  We are all very jealous of Genta. For someone in his mid fifties, why does he still look like a teenager?  We hope you had a very happy day, with lots of well deserved celebrations.
 
Our International Toast, proposed once again by Alan Still, took us to our sister club in Japan.  The Rotary Club of Komaki in District 2760.  Once again, Alan baffled us all with his recall of some amazing facts and figures about the Club..........we really have to check up on some of these facts.
 
The DG then addressed us, talking about some of the things that will be happening in our District during his year.  Some of the areas covered were:
 
  • John decided to begin his Tour of Duty for the year in our PNG Clubs.  Unfortunately, it was at the time of the election and John discovered what it was like to be involved in "blood sports", so he hightailed it out of there quick smart.
  • One of the goals for RI this year is to "end trachoma".  This is a middle ear health problem very common in our indigenous society.  Rotary would love to be behind its eradication.
  • 1 July 2020 will see all our District's boundaries change.  We were told our District will stand to gain quite a section of the coastal towns, north of us.  We look forward to this occurring.
  • Our RI President, Ian Riseley, an Australian, will be visiting our District on 18 March next year.  Let's hope we are lucky enough to meet him, somewhere.
  • The RI goal of planting one tree for every member of Rotary will be happening throughout the year.  Our District Planting date is planned for March 2018.
  • Membership; always a hot topic.  A tip from the DG.  Don't tell prospective members all about Rotary but instead, tell them, "Why You Joined".
  • The Rotary Foundation: a reminder, this is our Charity organisation 
  • The District Website is currently being upgraded (perhaps a job for Les) (It looks like it's already in hand, I hope - Ed)
  • Global Grants; an idea for our Club, RC of Toowong has a project of providing precious water to areas of PNG.  We can participate in this and this satisfies our requirements for Citation.
The DG's wife, Bo, then spoke to us about her pet project, being "The Purple House".  We learnt that the Purple House is now a Purple Bus, that travels the outback, servicing our indigenous communities providing facilities for Renal Dialysis.  This is such an important project, as our indigenous people can now have the treatment in "their country", without having to be transported thousands of miles to Alice Springs, where they spend their whole lives waiting around each day for dialysis, where it seems it's a matter of just waiting to die.
 
As a token of appreciation for the work done in this area and to encourage more, our Club presented Bo with a cheque to enable her to continue her good work in this important field.
 
Chris Milligan announced there will be another Bunnings BBQ on Wednesday 23 August.  Thank you to those members who have volunteered their services.
 
Neville Woodforth and his gang of merry men and women will be busy again this week, setting up on Tuesday and being landed with 250 students from Meridan College for yet another successful RYDA day for Driver Awareness. We really need to roll this program out for the larger community, not just Learner Drivers.  I learnt so much, volunteering at the previous day.  Something to think about.
 
Our illustrious Board held our monthly meeting on Monday night.  Many items were discussed and these will be made public to all members when the minutes are released (see elsewhere in this bulletin for details).  We have many exciting things in store for our Club and you can read all about them on our ClubRunner facility.
 
One of the ideas is to have a 'social event' on the last Friday night of each month.  We'd like to start this month, the date will be Friday 25 August.  Initially we decided to approach Genta to have us at his Restaurant, however that is not possible, this month.  Stay tuned for where we are going.  Get the latest update here
 
Have a great week, everyone, and enjoy our summer temperatures.
 
Duties for next week are:
 
  • Desk - Judy Clark
  • Chair- Stephen Engstrom
  • 3MM - Deborah Taylor (only 3 minutes, remember)
  • Intro - Helen Fox
See you next Tuesday!