Our Chair today was Richard, who felt honoured to be the Chair for the first time.
A special welcome to Keith, Bob and Keanon
Paul and Keanon will be introduced more formally later.
Paul and Keanon will be introduced more formally later.
Thanks for the photos Irish
Apologies from Jim David & Robyn Pam Darryl and Ian
James delivered the President Report:
- “all roads lead to the Events Centre“ – the conference is on Friday Saturday and Sunday. There are 360 registrants. There is now no need for a table moving roster as the Events Centre will now supply the tables. Looking for someone with a towbar to take the conference trailer from the Salvation Army to the conference. There is a team for Wednesday morning to do the show bags, however people are still needed for the pack up on Sunday
- Special thanks to Roger and Irish for the work on our website and social media
- Volunteers are needed for RYDA on 6 April. Day managers are needed and there are job descriptions to work from
- Board meeting yesterday
- Kath has been given three months leave due to health issues and downsizing
- James is always amazed at the scope of Rotary - Operation Cleft is an example – They have conducted over 14,500 cleft repair surgeries in Bangladesh since inception in 2005, & plan to conduct 1,000 operations each year.
The International Toast was to the Rotary Club of Warsaw, Poland who are responding to the Ukrainian refugee crisis
Thought for the Day was from Gandhi “the trouble with “an eye for an eye” is that the whole world will become blind"
Time for a couple of jokes–
If a child with refuses to have a nap, are they guilty of resisting a rest?
The daughter said “can I have a bookmark“ her father replied “Hey! you are 11 years old - don’t you know my name is Brian
If a child with refuses to have a nap, are they guilty of resisting a rest?
The daughter said “can I have a bookmark“ her father replied “Hey! you are 11 years old - don’t you know my name is Brian
James was able to present Paul with his Rotary badge
Chair Richard thanks James for his report, and introduced Mark for Three Minutes on Rotary
Mark spoke about an article in Rotary Down Under about “Putting Members First” he also acknowledged our new Rotary International President-elect, Jennifer Jones, with the theme for next year, which resonated with Mark, “Imagine Rotary”
Jennifer will be the first female Rotary International President. He also spoke about the significance of the logo.
The logo for the theme was designed by Riki Salam, an Australian artist and graphic designer specializing in contemporary Indigenous art, design, and communications. The circle in aboriginal culture signifies our connections to one another. The dots around it represent people and there are seven because of Rotary´s areas of focus.The circle and the dots together become a navigation star – our guiding light. The solid line underneath is what is referred to as a digging stick and it is used when doing hard work. And since Rotary members are people of action – it represents a tool for getting things done.
Directors
Bernie spoke about The decision to not proceed with The Hub, as there were many things preventing the project from moving forward. There was some residual monies totalling about $450 which will be donated to the flood appeal – the Salvation Army were considered to be the best organization to progress this action
Richard introduced Paul and Keanon
They moved from the United States a few years ago, and felt that Rotary was a good way to meet people and integrate with the community.
Keanon, who likes snow, now has pet mollies - they are a tropical fish and he has 8 plus a baby. The closer the tank is to their natural habitat, the longer they will live. Their names include (and apologies for errors and omissions) Chris Lana Kara Fishy and the baby is Rocker. They eat tropical pellets and algae. We were most impressed by Keanon’s public speaking - President material in a few years?
Paul was born in Western Australia, however his mother and her mother come from Harvey Bay.
He originally worked in the mining industry in Blackwater, and this is where he first got into computing. He also worked in a coal mine in Indonesia, and has worked in Europe.
He was a dive instructor on the Barrier Reef, where he met his wife, who was from America. They spent three months camping together before she moved back to America. He followed her to the US where they stayed for 25 years in Colorado, living off the grid in the Rocky Mountains. She died five years ago.
He missed the ocean and by chance stayed at a friends house at Golden Beach, and ended up living there – but he still misses the snow
Australians don’t know “how lucky they are“
There were a couple of questions including from Richard about diving
We had a new Sergeant today – Deborah, however we have, apparently been “too well behaved“ with not enough people spilling the beans, however, being Sergeant was “too good an opportunity for revenge“
Mark informed us that today was the Ides of March, however this was not a thing in Roman times, and the idea came from the Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar
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Gender Debate
A language instructor was explaining to her class that in French, nouns unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine. 'House,' in French is feminine 'la maison.' 'Pencil, in French, is masculine 'le crayon.'
One puzzled student asked, 'What gender is computer?'
The teacher did not know, and the word wasn't in her French dictionary. So for fun she split the class into two groups appropriately enough, by gender and asked them to decide whether 'computer' should be a masculine or feminine noun.
Both groups were required to give four reasons for their recommendation.
The men's group decided that computers should be of the feminine gender ('La Computer'), because:
1. No one but the creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourselfspending half your pay check on accessories for it.
The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine ('Le computer'), because:
1. In order to get their attention you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but they are still clueless;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they are the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you'd waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.
The women won.