Meeting of November 24, 2009

First of all…
We were very happy to welcome back for a visit, Peter Flude from the Rotary Club of Beaumaris (Victoria). We also had my brother Robert visiting us on the tail end of his three-month tour of the Middle East (including Lebanon, Beirut, Turkey and Iran).

Also joining us was David W’s guest, Peter Sackett. We also had apologies from Peter F.

Hopefully, everybody has had an opportunity to read Peter C’s business plan for the raffle so we can discuss it at the meeting.

November dates to note…
Tom B has a birthday on November 28
David W and Kathy have their 28th wedding anniversary on November 28
David L’s wife Maree has a birthday on November 29
Peter C and Vicki have their 23rd wedding anniversary on November 29
Arthur C and Hilary have their 36th wedding anniversary on November 30

Last Week’s Meeting (November 17, 2009)…
We opened up with David W taking the H&T.

At this point we realised that Rob B had entirely neglected to pay for his dinner! And then Anthony J admitted that he’d forgotten too! Sorry guys, but I had to officially log that.

Anthony J let us know that that he’d received some correspondence from the Mitchell Conservatorium of Music that they’ve awarded the scholarship that we donate every year has been awarded to Nicola James, who plays the viola.

David W gave us an update on the meeting he attended with RC Bathurst Daybreak about the district conference. He told us that things are sounding really good. All they wanted was a few more details on the round of golf that Bob has been organising for them. Bob P said that he’d clarify whatever they needed.

I also understand that Rob B, Adam S, and Danielle B had a meeting about the Australia Day duck race we’re organising. I’m not sure what was covered at the meeting but if any Rotarians want more details they should contact any of these three.

There was also some discussion of the meeting schedule over the next few weeks. We’ll be doing a tour of the Bell Tower on December 1 and Greg S will be giving of a tour of Devro on Dec 8. While Sally was not in attendance, apparently she and Danielle will be getting some suggestions for the Christmas party together. Please correct me if I’ve got that wrong…

For New Year’s Eve we won’t be doing a BBQ but will be doing something with the parking for the city. David N and I will be liaising with Danielle on this. More details to come…

On Saturday, December 12, the city will be doing a Garage Sale on Mount Panorama. There’s a great potential to spin to money with gold coin donations for parking but we’ll need A LOT of Rotarians. We’ll run it in two shifts: first shift from 7 a.m. to 9:30 and then from 9:30 to 12 noon. PLEASE EVERYBODY KEEP THE MORNIG OF DECEMBER 12 OPEN.

David W then introduced his guest to the club, Peter Sackett. Peter did his apprenticeship in the mid 1970’s as a mechanical engineer working on manufacturing machines. He did it part and it took him 9 years! His first job was in Bundaberg ensuring the trains kept running. The trains were transporting a million tonnes of sugar cane each year along 500 kilometres of tracks. He describes that job as playing with the ultimate train set.

In 1986 he moved to Bathurst to work as a development engineer at Uncle Ben’s. He then moved to Parks to work at Australian Topmaking Services in 1995. But in 2000 he said that he got sick of the 24/7 factory jobs… jobs where he’d get called at almost any time of the day or night if a machine went down. So after 25 years, he finally went into business for himself and formed a mechanical engineering consulting group: Central Design and Engineering.

His firm has done components of the Mount Panorama race control tower and the pit redesign, the Bathurst Visitor Information Centre, the Carillion Bell Tower, parts of the new hospital (just the steel work and NOT the design), and the Bathurst Aquatic Centre.

He started out with four people and is now up to 24 engineers. He then started outsourcing his IT department which has now become a separate computing firm. Then he expanded further into an energy management firm. And what started as their own in house printing is now a called Print Flow. I was truly amazed how he took his original small firm and spun it further and further using whatever came along that seemed like a good idea. And his philosophy that it’s easier to replace clients than it is to replace staff was really outstanding; you need to take care of people.

This week’s meeting (November 24)…
I think this meeting will be about discussing the duck race. We can’t miss getting the local schools involved so we’ve got to start acting on this if this duck race is going to work as a fund raiser.

I also think there will be substantial discussion around Peter C’s business plan for the raffle.

In the coming weeks…
Dec 1st – Carillon Bell Tower (Rob B)
Dec 8th – Devro (Greg S)
Dec 15th - Chris B
Dec 22nd - Christmas Party
Dec 29th - No meeting
Jan 5th - No meeting
Jan 12th – Rob B to organise am informal cycling/walking BBQ River Park
Jan 19th - Steve E to organise a family BBQ and activities
Jan 26th – Committee - Aust day, duck race

Meeting for November 17, 2009

First of all…
We were very happy to welcome our Youth Award winner for the month, Catherine Cockerill, and her dad Doug. It was also great to welcome Arthur C’s guest to the meeting, Deputy Mayor Ian North.

Once again, it was nice to see Sally join us. Hopefully we’re all taking opportunities to get to know Sally.

I’m still also hoping to hear from our secretary Anthony J regarding the minutes of the AGM. I will forward those around the club as soon as I get them from him. Anthony, if you’re reading this, can you please forward them on to me ASAP.

I’ll be circulating to members by email a copy of Peter C’s plan for a raffle next year. If you’re a club member and haven’t seen a copy of the business plan soon, then please email me.

Finally, Alan B has noticed that the attendance rate at meetings in the first few months of this Rotary year that was really great (over 90%) has plummeted to about 70%. I know this blog is almost as good as getting to the meeting, but come on Rotarians! Please make every attempt to get to meetings!

November dates to note…
Tom B has a birthday on November 28
David W and Kathy have their 28th wedding anniversary on November 28
David L’s wife Maree has a birthday on November 29
Peter C and Vicki have their 23rd wedding anniversary on November 29
Arthur C and Hilary have their 36th wedding anniversary on November 30

Last week’s meeting (November 10, 2009)…
Nev D let us know that the Christmas cakes and puddings have arrived. If you’d like personal order or have an idea of local businesses that might order cases to sell, let Nev know.

Rob B reminded us of the Darwin lecture. The Darwin Lecture will be happening on a Tuesday night (November 24) though it will not be replacing our regular meeting, as we have previously discussed.

Pres Adam gave us an update about the third instalment of the interclub challenge between the Rotary clubs in Bathurst. It is still planned to be a lawn bowls event but will NOT be on Dec 16th as Adam announced. This date conflicted with RC Bathurst East Christmas party so has been postponed to an unspecified date. Personally, I think the other clubs are just running scared of our athletic prowess ;-)!

We’ve had a few dates open up in our meetings for guest speakers or events. Greg S suggested a visit to Devro while Rob B suggested a visit to the Bell Tower. Both are great ideas and we’re looking to other members for their ideas for meeting activities, particularly for our Christmas party.

Next up, Arthur invited his guest, Deputy Mayor Ian North, to present on “Get Knotted”. This is a program about raising awareness of men’s health issues, in particular, prostate cancer (not that there is no ‘r’ so it is pronounced pros-tate, not pros-trate). It is not about raising money for research, but just to promote awareness and getting checkups.

The “Get Knotted” campaign is about collecting neck-ties… enough neck-ties that when they are all tied together there are enough to go entirely around Mount Panorama. Considering that there is not a Guinness Book of World Records record for most ties, this will qualify as a world record! Currently, they’ve got 6,500 ties and the event isn’t happening until February 11.

They currently have some heavy hitters for public support including Country Energy and the NSW Fire Service. They even have a tie signed by Australian rockers, Silverchair. Even bigger than all of those, “Get Knotted” has the full support of the Rotary Club of Bathurst!

Ian also gave us an update on an expansion on the Mount Panorama. The plan is for a 4.8 km and a 2.3 km circuit that will be able to take all kinds of motorcycle racing. The layout planed is to run around the old drive in.

This week’s meeting (November 17, 2009)…
The program this week has as our guest speaker Peter Sackett, being brought by David W. Peter is a principal with Central Design & Engineering, a consulting engineering company based in Bathurst and Orange. Pete is going to come along and tell us a bit about himself, his company and what is happening in his industry - Pete always has something really interesting going on in his work.

In the coming weeks…
Nov 24th – does anybody have any ideas?
Dec 1st - David L
Dec 8th - Nev D
Dec 15th - Chris B
Dec 22nd - Christmas Party
Dec 29th - No meeting
Jan 5th - No meeting
Jan 12th – Rob B to organise am informal cycling/walking BBQ River Park
Jan 19th - Steve E to organise a family BBQ and activities
Jan 26th – Committee - Aust day, duck race

Meeting for November 10, 2009

First of all…
I’ve heard from Peter C regarding the business plan for next year’s proposed raffle. He has told me that it’s not quite ready yet but will circulate it soon. I agree with him working on it for an extra week because there’s no point in him circulating something that isn’t as good as he can make it.

I have not heard from Anthony J regarding the minutes from the AGM so I have not circulated them either. I’ll send them around by email as soon as I have a digital copy of the minutes from the secretary.

Due to the high cost of the Darwin Lectures, we’ve decided that we’ll have regular meeting after all on November 24. If anybody has a suggestion for a guest speaker for that meeting please let me know ASAP.

I'm pretty sure we need a board meeting, so could all board members please prepare to stay behind this evening?

November dates to note…
Tom B has a birthday on November 28
David W and Kathy have their 28th wedding anniversary on November 28
David L’s wife Maree has a birthday on November 29
Peter C and Vicki have their 23rd wedding anniversary on November 29
Arthur C and Hilary have their 36th wedding anniversary on November 30

Last week’s meeting (November 3, 2009)...
We had as apologies Rob B, David N, and Pres Adam (so I, your ever-faithful Past Pres, sat in the head chair).

As our club guests, we had Sally back again as well as our guest speaker, Ash Bland. I mentioned in last week’s blog that sitting next to Ash at dinner is a great place to be and he certainly did not disappoint me. He’s as interesting to chat to on-on-one as he is as a guest speaker.

Arthur C gave us a quick update about the “Ties Around the Mount” project for prostate cancer awareness. He let us know that the collection of enough ties to get all the way around Mount Panorama is going well and also gave us some insight into the logistics of stringing that many ties out end to end. The date has been set as (Thursday) February 11 so any Rotarians able to free up some time on that date would be greatly appreciated… it’s going to take a lot of hands to get all of those ties out!

Peter C gave us an update on the progress or the raffle he’s proposing for next year. While he reports that he’s got the support of the incoming DG, Bathurst East has declined to help. Pete says he’s drawing up a formal business plan and will send it to me to be circulated as soon as it’s ready.

After David L cleaned us out of any change, bills, watches, rings, property deeds, gold dental fillings, and anything else that might be of any value in the sergeant’s session, Andrew C welcomed Ash for his presentation. His presentation was particularly useful because, as he pointed out, while we’ve all heard the climate change hype on the news, few know what it’s really about. Ash explained that while the sun’s heat can come in through the atmosphere as UV energy, the radiant heat does not escape as well. According to the climate change theory, impeding the heat loss is an accumulating level of human-generated carbon dioxide. Thus, the theory is that carbon dioxide is a “greenhouse gas” and is serving to cause global warming by trapping the sun’s heat.

“Why should we care about carbon dioxide? After all, Australia only contributes 2% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.” Unfortunately, everybody on the planet will experience the same effects so it’s on us all to do our part. Considering that heat equals dryness, Australia will probably feel the effects of global warming WORSE than most countries. Also, increasing world population (11,000 people were added to the planet’s population during our meeting!) with diminished water will lead to diminished food availability. A reduction in resources can only lead to further world conflict. As one of the world’s leading Western cultures, Australia needs to lead the way.

And this is where some who were expecting a sermon from Ash on how to be green were a bit surprised… Ash told us that carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas causing global warming was the THEORY, but there is no way that the issue is that simple. According to Ash, “When a problem is defined poorly, you get stupid solutions.” There’s some debate over if the condition of global warming is man-made or if it’s just the natural cycling of the global climate. We know that the globe has gone through periods a few million years ago where there were no polar ice-caps at all. So why should we act? Maybe all of these plans to reduce carbon emissions won’t do a thing to reduce global temperatures. But what’s the worst that can happen if we DO reduce carbon dioxide? Even if reducing carbon dioxide doesn’t solve global warming, it’ll still reduce the pH of the oceans, saving ocean-based life and reduce acid rain, saving land-based life.

Considering that most carbon dioxide comes from power production (note that at this point in Ash’s presentation Bob P started shifting uncomfortably in his seat) the current line of thinking is that if governments begin “cap and trade” programs where they only allow their country to produce a certain amount of carbon dioxide (cap) and then let industries buy (trade) permits to produce that carbon dioxide, industries will then self regulate their carbon production. As carbon-producing products become more expensive consumers will then regulate consumption.

This all sounds like it’s going to be catastrophic to our economy. Lower production and consumption means fewer jobs. And the jobs will only be picked up by developing countries anyway, so it will only be Australia that loses unless THE ENTIRE WORLD signs on to this plan. But why would these developing countries sign on? They’re only building their economies now how most western countries built theirs a few deceased before: by massive production and export. So the economics of this problem are very complex indeed. And to further complicate the problem, maybe the problem is not carbon dioxide at all… maybe it’s water vapour (a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide) from de-forestation.

So is global warming man-made? Is the amount of carbon dioxide being put into the air sufficient to cause it? Could it be caused by water vapour rather than carbon dioxide? Should Australia really be leading the charge and sacrifice its economy? There are all questions that were hotly debated (but in a good nature) by the club with Ash well past 8 o’clock.

Ash was not a “greeny” pointing his finger and claiming to have all the answers. Ash mostly just raised the issues around the problem so that we could all understand that the solutions presented in the news are not that simple. And for that we all say a big thank-you to Ash for teaching us what all the hoopla is about.

This week’s meeting (November 10, 2009)…
Arthur C has arranged for Ian North and Bobby Bourke to come in to talk about the ties around the mount project… more appropriately known as “Get Knotted”. Thanks for coming up with this on such short notice Arthur.

In the coming weeks…
Nov 17th - David W’s guest Peter Sackett
Nov 24th – does anybody have any ideas?
Dec 1st - David L
Dec 8th - Nev D
Dec 15th - Chris B
Dec 22nd - Christmas Party
Dec 29th - No meeting
Jan 5th - No meeting
Jan 12th – Rob B to organise am informal cycling/walking BBQ River Park
Jan 19th - Steve E to organise a family BBQ and activities
Jan 26th – Committee - Aust day, duck race

Meeting for November 3, 2009

First of all…
All board members note that we have a board meeting after the regular meeting this week.

November dates to note…
Jack A and Ruth have their 58th wedding anniversary on November 3
Tom B has a birthday on November 28
David W and Kathy have their 28th wedding anniversary on November 28
David L’s wife Maree has a birthday on November 29
Peter C and Vicki have their 23rd wedding anniversary on November 29
Arthur C and Hilary have their 36th wedding anniversary on November 30

Last week’s meeting (October 27)…
Firstly we were happy to welcome a club guest, Sally, for dinner. It seems likely that we’ll see more of Sally in the coming weeks and we should all take the chance to get to know her.

We had apologies from Alan B, Nevil D, Peter C, Danielle B, Frank S, Steve, E, and Tim S.

We heard updates that Andrew C’ mum is okay after her car accident last week, Steve’s wife Lisa is on the mend, and that Peter C is also on the road to recovery. We feel all of these health scares as a club and we are happy that everybody is coming along.

Rob B gave us an update on RC Daybreak hosting a movie night on Wednesday, November 11th. They will be showing “Amelia”, a movie about Amelia Eirhart, the most celebrated woman aviator. All are welcome, but this will not be replacing our regular meeting on November 10.

Rob is also looking for help covering the November 10 program. It was supposed to be Daybreak’s event for the Inter-club challenge and was to be lawn bowls but that has been postponed. So if you have any ideas for a club guest, please let Rob B and/or I know ASAP.

Rob also gave us a quick update on the November 24th program about the Charles Darwin lecture. I’ve further investigated this with one of my university colleagues. It will be at BMEC on Nov 27, 6:30 p.m. arrival for a 7 p.m. start but I’m not sure how late this will go. Tickets are $65 each ($55 for seniors, but I don’t think that applies to anybody in our club…). While it sounds like a very interesting program, it may be cost prohibitive. I’ll bring some brochures on Tuesday and collect opinions on if I should move ahead with making bookings.

We’re looking for nominations for RYPEN (Rotary Youth Program for Enrichment). RYPEN targets year 9 students who have not yet experienced leadership positions. We are not looking for students who are already "high achievers" but more those who need to be “brought out of their shell”. If you know somebody like this, please bring their name to the next meeting.

Bob P let us know that our fund raising licence has been approved so we can continue to hold events to raise funds for our club.

Bob also let us know that our annual golf tournament has been locked in for the first weekend in May, 2010. We should all be thinking about potential sponsors for holes.

RYDA (Rotary Youth Driver Awareness) is also "rolling" through and needs some Rotarians to volunteer some time. The RYDA Program is a road safety education program targeting 16 and 17 year olds who are starting to drive or ride in a vehicle driven by their peers. It’s running 2-4 November 2009 in Bathurst. Contact David N if you can give some time, particularly on the 4th.

Finally, Pres Adam gave us an update on the bowling that happened on October 6. Our club had 11 Rotarians attend the night and averaged 206 points, led by Rob B. RC Bathurst East had 12 members attend and averaged 186. Finally, RC Daybreak averaged 213 but only had one member attend. So, while having the highest average, Daybreak has DQ’ed. I'm not sure if we shouldn't be too, having been beaten in attendance by East at an event we were hosting. I missed the evnet myself so I'm not on a moral high-horse here, but still...

The regular proceedings concluded at about 7:20 and we proceeded to have our AGM. I’m not sure if AGM minutes are appropriate for posting on the internet so I will consult with the board and post them next week if appropriate. Any Rotarian wanting to review the minutes from the AGM should contact club secretary Anthony J.

This week’s meeting (November 3)…
This week we’ll see the return of Ash Bland to talk about global warming. We know that Ash is an environmentalist and has written a book on the subject. We’ve heard Ash speak several times at our club meetings and he’s a very good public speaker and very interesting to sit next to at dinner.

In the coming weeks…
Everybody please get me details of their guests / activities ASAP so I can keep the entire club up to date.
Nov 10th - ???
Nov 17th - David W’s guest Peter Sackett
Nov 24th - Rob B – Charles Darwin lectures, to be discussed
Dec 1st - David L
Dec 8th - Nev D
Dec 15th - Chris B
Dec 22nd - Christmas Party
Dec 29th - No meeting
Jan 5th - No meeting
Jan 12th – Rob B to organise am informal cycling/walking BBQ River Park
Jan 19th - Steve E to organise a family BBQ and activities
Jan 26th – Committee - Aust day, duck race

Meeting for October 27, 2009

First of all…
I’ll apologise, particularly to those of you who depend on the blog to keep up to date with what’s happening in our club, for missing the past two weeks. I’ve been away but will update you with what I’ve been up to later in the blog (keep reading!).

October dates to note…
David Lowe has a birthday on the 26th.
President Adam and the first lady Liz have their 10th wedding anniversary on the 30th.

Last week’s meeting (October 20th)…
We kicked off straight into H&T with honours being taken by Greg S. The kitchen was quick with dinner so, being in the president’s chair, I delayed the rest of proceedings until after dinner (I was REALLY Hungry and got a nice pepper-steak).

Once we were all fed and watered, we had apologies from Nev D, Tim S, Steve E, and Peter C. Bob P reported to us that Peter C is on the mend after his surgery which we were all relieved to hear. We also heard that Steve's wife was not well, so all our best to Steve and Lisa.

Bob reported to us about the food safety program he had completed on-line. Danielle B had circulated to some of us an on-line food safety training program that the Bathurst council uses. Unlike the other program that Peter F had recommended, this one is free. Bob reckons it takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete. He tells us that you need to turn the pop-up blocker off in your web browser and also suggests to turn your sound off; while you can have the training program read the entire thing to you, it’s faster and far less annoying for you to just read all the information yourself.

Bob tells us that it won’t let you fail the certificate so it’s easy enough.There’s no reason why we all shouldn’t do this certificate, so if you can get on-line please go to www.bathurst.imalert.com.au to do the training. I've already heard through and email update that Alan B has completed it too.

David W gave us a quick update on the District Conference being organised by RC Bathurst Daybreak. As a remained, the conference is being held on March 19-21, 2010 so we should all make an effort to attend. David also told us that they are looking for a volunteer to liaise between the speaker at the podium and the AV department. This is to ensure the slides, video, and audio all match the speaker’s presentation. While it shouldn’t be a hard job, it will involve attending all sessions for the entire duration. If you’re interested in this role then please speak to David W.

Bob P, speaking on behalf of Rob B, spoke about the schedule of guest speakers. Please arrange your guest speakers well in advance. By doing this, I can keep everybody up to date with what’s coming up so we all know what to expect when we show up on a particular evening.

On a related issue of upcoming events, Daybreak will be hosting a movie night on November 11th. They will be showing “Amelia”, a movie about Amelia Eirhart. She was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross awarded for becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. In her attempt to fly around the world at the age of 40 in 1937, she went missing and was never hear from again. Note that Daybreak’s movie night on November 11th will not replace our meeting on November 10th.

We were supposed to be holding our AGM tonight but there were quite a few members not in attendance so we decided to postpone it for another date (to be announced soon). This allowed for us to have a truly brilliant impromptu guest speaker… but I’m trying to remember who it was… hmmmmm… who was it? OH, WAIT! It was me! Truly brilliant!

I’ve been off doing some consultancy work with Nike (pronounced Nike-ee) at the Nike World Headquarters in Portland, Oregon. It’s a truly amazing facility of 200 acres holding 17 buildings and 4,000 staff. They have their own research labs, mini-manufacturing facilities, chemical engineers, Nike-sponsored athletes… truly amazing!

Nike are developing a program to add value to buying Nike products. The analogy the marketing guy gave was that if you buy a high-performance car, like a Ferrari, they don’t just sell you the car and off you go… they take you to a track and teach you how to drive the car properly so you get the most benefit. It’s the same thing if you buy a Land Rover… they take you to an off-road course to teach to how to drive off road. Clearly, I never got such attention when I bought my little red Suzuki...

Nike’s program will involve a series of fitness tests that you can download on-line and do on a local basketball court. There will be tests for jump height, straight-line speed, as well as agility. The customer then enters their test scores in to the website. The website then assesses their scores and tells them what the need work on. It will also give them some training drills about how to work on it. They are calling this system SPARQ (Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction, Quickness). So a customer may have great straight line speed but has trouble taking that speed into another direction (i.e. agility). So the website will give them a bunch of agility drills.

They’ve been holding closed testing sessions and have accumulated thousands of test results form basketball players on a pilot system (http://www.sparqtraining.com/basketball/protocol). Unfortunately, Nike does not employ data analysts… particularly ones with a real interest in sport or experience with elite basketball programs. This is where I came in.

I spent the week stratifying the level of players that they had tested (high-school, those who received collage scholarships to play basketball, and those with professional contracts) and correlating them to test scores. I found that there were clear relationships between competitive level and fitness… that if a player was weak in any area of their fitness it could cost them a collage scholarship or a pro career.

We also spent a lot of time with basketball coaches from around America developing new tests and drills to train weaknesses.

This week’s meeting (October 27)…
The program for the meeting this week is in the hands of Author C. I haven’t heard what Author has planned so this week will be a bit of a mystery.

In the coming weeks…
November 3rd – Andrew C is on schedule. Andrew, can you please let me know what your plan is?

November 10th – On the schedule was the third event in the challenge between the Rotary Clubs in Bathurst. It was supposed to be Daybreak’s event and was to be lawn bowls but the roumor is that this has been postponed. Maybe Anda can give us an update?

November 17 – Was to be Peter C’s night but has been taken by David W. Our speaker will be Peter Sackett. Peter is a principal with Central Design & Engineering, a consulting engineering company based in Bathurst and Orange. Pete is going to come along and tell us a bit about himself, his company and what is happening in his industry - Pete always has something really interesting going on in his work.

November 24th – Rob B has something about the Charles Darwin lecture at BMEC. Rob, can you please let me know if this plan is confirmed and fill me in on the details so I can post the specifics?

Meeting for September 29, 2009

First of all…
We’d all like to pass on our best wishes to Peter C. Last week was Pete’s last meeting for the next while until he’s recovered from the surgery for his prostate cancer. Here’s to a speedy recovery, mate.

September dates to note...
The 42nd wedding anniversary of Bob and Jenny is on the 30th.
Jack and Ruth Aubin have their 58th wedding anniversary on November 3.

Last week’s meeting (September 22)…
Rob B reports that he’s being in touch with Peter F regarding the food services training course that supposed to be happening for the August 29th meeting. Reports are, first of all, that it will probably be the road control training course instead. Secondly, this plan was supposed to be confirmed but as of yet I still haven’t heard. So the best I can suggest is that we’ll all show up at the RSL as usual, we’ll all have dinner there and see what Peter has planned. I’ll also suggest that those of us who have laptop computers to bring them.

We also got an update from Anthony J about the district conference. Unfortunately, Anthony was mostly asleep at the meeting with Daybreak and missed most of the details. Furthermore, he seemed to have forgotten he had fallen asleep until he stood up to give us his report. However, if you’re looking for details on some of the activities happening at the conference then give Anthony a call.

After Andrew C won the H&T and I won the draw (thanks to Neville for bringing a whisky cake so I didn’t have to take the white wine), Peter C proposed a fund raising idea for 2010. There was a general consensus that Pete’s idea to raffle a Holden / Ford ute, a $25,000 holiday voucher, and $10,000 cash as prizes was a good one. We’d print 30,000 tickets to be sold for $10 a pop. We’d recruit the other two clubs to help us sell them for an equal share in the takings. We’d need to sell 10,000 to break even with a potential profit of $200,000 (i.e. $66,000 per club). We’d obviously target as a major selling time during the 2010 races. There was a lot of discussion about details that were, in fact, never going to get ironed out that night so I called a halt to the discussion, but there was widespread support in principle for the idea.

We then heard from Bob P for his presentation on nuclear power. Bob certainly did not disappoint, marvelling us all not just with his scientific knowledge but also with his ability to explain the extremely complex world of particle physics.

Bob started off just explaining the idea of a nuclear power station. To me, it doesn’t seem much more than a giant tea kettle: it uses the heat generated by nuclear fission to boil water. The steam from the water then spins an alternator which then generates electricity. Most power plants use something to spin a turbine: wind, hydro, coal, or nuclear… the only one that doesn’t is solar. The big advantage of nuclear power over coal-fired is how clean the emissions are; nuclear power emits only steam as opposed to the ash that comes from coal. Bob tells us that 25% of the total coal burned results in ash, so Mount Piper that burns 2 million tonnes of coal dumps 500,000 tonnes of ash into the atmosphere per year!

Bob then gave us some background into what makes up an atom: protons and neutrons that reside in the nucleus of the atom, and electrons that spin around the nucleus. As small as a neutron is, by applying Einstein’s E=MC2 (where e=energy, m=mass, and c=the speed of light), a neutron flying off at the speed of light still generates a huge amount of energy.

Nuclear power will use a fissile atom called uranium 235. The reactor fires a single neutron at a single atom of U235 to get a chain reaction started. The collision of this neutron and U235 splits the U235 into Barium141, Krypton92, 3 neutrons, and a bunch of energy that was used to hold the U235 atom together (called “binding energy”). The binding energy gets transferred into thermal (heat) energy to boil the tea kettle, while the three neutrons go on to split apart more U235; the more U235 split, the more neutrons that get generated to split apart more U235. So one neutron fired at one atom of U235 at the start results in a chain reaction that, if uncontrolled can flatten a city! Fortunately, the whole thing can be controlled by using carbon rods to absorb excessive neutrons. For comparison, per volume you get (literally) a million times more energy out of a kilogram of U235 than coal.

The big disadvantage of nuclear power is the initial set up cost of about $5bil. One it’s going, it’s as cheap as chips being 33% of the price of wind and 20% the price of solar. Many think that the safety is a disadvantage too, but there have only been two incidents worldwide since people started using nuclear power in the 1970’s. Of the two incidents (Three Mile Island in the U.S. and Chernobyl in Russia) only Chernobyl resulted in any emissions being released. 14% of the world’s total electrical power comes from nuclear power stations without incident. So it’s safe, it’s cleaner than coal (even the pipe-dream of so called “clean coal”), and it’s economical so why not use it?

This week’s meeting (September 29)…
Again, all I can suggest is that we show up at the RSL for dinner and we’ll take direction from Peter F from there. Also, if you can, please bring your laptop computer if you have one just in case we’re all trying to do the on-line training program.

Also, can somebody please remember to ask Adam at the meeting if he's heard anything more about us doing the fencing for the Riding For The Disabled group this Saturday?

In the coming weeks…
The October 6th meeting was in the hands of David N, but that has become the second event in the interclub challenge. Remember that the family bowling will kick off at 6 p.m. while Rotarians will have a usual start time of 6:15 for 6:30 p.m. at the bowling lanes. Presumably we'll need some sort of RSVP from the other clubs to know how much food we need to prepare?

The October 13th meeting is in the hands of David W. How go the arrangements David?

On October 20th we have our Club AGM. This is where we discuss club business in an open forum as well as elect the club's BOD for next year gets elected too so, to have your say, it's important to attend.

For October 27th, Arthur C is in charge of the program. Arthur, can you let me know your plans?

And on Nov 3rd, new comer Andrew C has a night to plan.

Meeting of September 22nd, 2009

First of all…
For those of you who missed this week’s meeting, you missed another cracker! I don't have the official attendance stats, but with how full the room was it was clear that there weren’t many of us who missed it. Attendance has been a real strength this year and the fellowship hasn’t been better since I joined Rotary.

We had apologies from Jack this week who is back in hospital again. So we should all have a good thought for Jack.

September dates to note...
Anthony’s wife Bronwyn has a birthday on the 25th.
The 42nd wedding anniversary of Bob and Jenny is on the 30th

Last week’s meeting (September 15)…
Guests this week included Peter Carter (our guest speaker) and Gabii Starr (our youth award winner for September) both represented by Tim S. Steve E introduced Steve from RC Tamworth West as a visiting Rotarian who we were happy to have back with us, and David Stein as a club guest.

President Adam has spoken more to Bill F, a former member of our club. Bill is looking for a hand to do some fencing for the “Riding for the Disabled” group up on Mt Panorama. We’re looking at Saturday, October 3 to take down the old fencing and pour the concrete. Then we’ll need another Saturday to put the new fencing up. We’ll be looking at an 8 a.m. start. Obviously the following Saturday (October 10) won’t work for our second session because of the races. I doubt we'll get more detail at this week's meeting because Pres Adam won't be able to make the meeting, but more information will come soon. Adam... maybe you can let me know of Oct 3 at 8 a.m. is a confirmed date by phone or email, and let me know the location too?

Andrew C gave us a great sergeant session. It was so good that he had to put the collection plate down because it was getting too heavy! You’d never guess it was the first time he’s done the job. Well done mate. I’d certainly like to see Andrew as sergeant more often because I finally won a H&T session!

Andrew C also awarded Gabii Starr the Youth Award for September. Gabii is from Bathurst High and was certainly a musical virtuoso. She plays the violin, tuba and piano. She also brought her mum and brothers.

Peter C awarded the footy comp prizes. This year’s winner was Nev D and second place was Pete C. While Nev took $150 for 1st place, with so many attendees at the meeting, shouting the club for drinks must have led to his prize shrinking quite a bit. Anyway, in the end, it raised $250 for the club and gave a lot of fellowship over the season, so a big thanks to Pete for running it again. The more people involved the more the club raises so let's build the numbers for next year.

President Adam also got to induct another member into the club… his second in three months! David Stein is a very worthy person to be inducted into our club and gave an outstanding acceptance speech about the honour of being inducted as a Rotarian. David will be entrusted with the classification of ‘legal services’ and will be on the club services committee. Welcome to the club David.

We then had a great presentation from Peter Carter, a local herpetologist. He started his presentation by telling us that he’s been collecting snakes and lizards since he was 9 years old, when he started with a baby brown. He later qualified for his ‘catch and release’ license, which is what you need to be a “snake catcher”, and it’s a detailed process to get… it’s not just a matter of applying and paying a fee.

Peter now has 120 reptiles in his collection which he has shown everywhere from the Bathurst Show to the Australian Science Festival in Canberra (10,000 visitors per day). Also as part of his practice he takes calls to catch snakes from private individuals (ring him on 04 1225 3751) as well as the national parks and police. He does all of these call outs as a volunteer! He says the worst kind of snake to handle is the Eastern Brown, which is unfortunate because they are the second most deadly snake in the world!

As one would expect as a person who deals a lot with snakes, he’s also been bitten a few times and gave us a commentary on the worst snakes to be bitten by. He's been biten enough times, in fact, that he’s on a first name basis with most of the staff at Bathurst Base Hospital! If you have a snake at your place, his advice is not to try to kill it because most (80%) of snake bites happen when the person is trying to kill the snake; obviously if you’re attacking the snake, it’s going to defend itself.

Peter was an outstanding guest speaker who is clearly very knowledgeable and really entertaining. To have Andrew C with his great sergeant session and David S’s induction and inspirational speech led to a great meeting.

This week's meeting (September 22, 2009)...
As we often find, some of our best guest speakers are not "guests" at all but come from within the club. This week, we'll be hearing from Bob P about nuclear power. There's not many people in the state who know as much about power as Bob so be sure to come along and I'm sure you'll learn something. I'll be chairing the meeting because, as I mentioned before, our President won't be able to make it to the meeting this week.

In the coming weeks...
As far as I know, on September 29th we still have Peter F planning the food service certificate. I know there were some logistical issues with the number of computers available. Pete, if some of us have our own laptops that we could bring, would that help? Also Pete, can you please let me know where and when we all will be meeting?

I see on the schedule that the meeting on October 6th is David N. David, this is out bowling night for the Inter-Club Challenge so there is no need for you to book a guest speaker.

October 13th is David W. who is still looking for a guest speaker But he does have a guest speaker for Peter C's night on November 17. On November 17 we'll hear from Peter Sackett, a principal with Central Design & Engineering, a consulting engineering company based in Bathurst and Orange. Pete is going to come along and tell us a bit about himself, his company and what is happening in his industry - Pete always has something really interesting going on in his work.

Then, on October 20th, President Adam has planned our AGM. Obviously, attending the club’s AGM is an important date on the calendar where we can discuss all matters of club business. This is a night that all Rotarians should make a special effort to attend.

On October 27, we have Arthur C on deck. Arthur, can you please let me know of your guest's details as soon as you have them please?

Meeting of September 15th, 2009

First of All…
I’d like to thank Jack A from bringing along the Youth Award winner for August, Emily Brady.

Also, I’d like to say welcome back to Graeme as a visiting Rotarian. I’m sure Graeme will be back this week since he took home the H&T honours along with the bottle of wine that went with it. Graeme also took on a three-minuter spot to tell us about his club

Also a visiting Rotarian, we met Steve from Tamworth (NOT Wagga, Adam!). Steve also took a few minutes to tell us about RC of West Tamworth.

September dates to note...
David N’s birthday is on the 10th (hope it was a good one David)
Anthony’s wife Bronwyn has a birthday on the 25th
The 42nd wedding anniversary of Bob and Jenny is on the 30th

Last week’s meeting (September 8, 2009)…
Anthony J has indicated that he’ll be looking for help to liaise with RC Bathurst Daybreak about the assistance they will need in organising the 2010 District Conference. To whoever meets with RC Daybreak about the roles our club will take on, be sure to confer with the senior members of our club before agreeing to anything. We have already agreed to “do the golf”.

Bob P reports that he is planning to begin planning for our annual golf tournament, a different event than the golf for the District Conference. Bob will be calling for committee members very soon. The golf tournament is a major fund raiser for our club so this is an all-hands-on-deck event.

President Adam let us know that we are locked into the bowling lanes on October 6. We have a total of six lanes booked, four for the tournament and two family lanes. The family bowling will kick off at 6 p.m. while Rotarians will have a usual start time of 6:15 for 6:30 p.m. at the bowling lanes. We’ll bowl first and then eat after. I’ll happily put my hand up to be on the food service squad. Bowling teams will be made up of four Rotarians per team with two teams facing off per lane.

Considering that the bowling night that was supposed to happen this evening was postponed and we had no alternate plan for this evening, the meeting was a short one and we adjourned at 7:30 p.m. To close the meeting we had what was perhaps the more horrible "singing" of the national anthem in our club’s history :-)! Without a proper musical note being hit we eventually limped across the finish line, but we all hope that Pres Adam has made a note to never (EVER) ask Peter F to lead us off again!

This week (September 15, 2009)…
This week, Tim S has arranged for Peter Carter to come speak to us. Peter is a herpetologist, which is to say that he specialises in snakes and lizards. Tim, thanks for sending me the email over the week to inform me of our guest speaker plan… or was it your wife Sue who actually sent the email? I suspect that it was in fact Sue, which naturally will cost you a fine at this week’s meeting.

In the coming weeks…
Just to keep everybody up to date, I’ll send out the following reminder to please think well ahead and let me know what’s happening well in advance with whom their guest speaker will be. The idea behind this blog is raise awareness among members about what’s planned for each meeting. I think that in the last few months attendance has been really good in no small part to well planned and well run meetings (well done Pres Adam!), so let’s all stay on top our meeting schedule.

On September 22nd, we have Bob P addressing the club about nuclear power. We all know that Bob certainly knows about supplying power so, as the power demands of the world increase, we should all take a big interest in what Bob has to say.

As far as I know, on September 29th we still have Peter F planning the food service certificate. I know there were some logistical issues with the number of computers available. Pete, if some of us have our own laptops that we could bring, would that help? Also Pete, can you please let me know where and when we all will be meeting?

I see on the schedule that the meeting on October 6th is David N and October 13th is David W. Can you both please let me know by phone or email ASAP what your plans are please?

Then, on October 20th, President Adam has planned our AGM. Obviously, attending the club’s AGM is an important date on the calendar where we can discuss all matters of club business. This is a night that all Rotarians should make a special effort to attend.

Since I'm the writer of this blog I can say whatever I want. Since the Eels will play the Dragons in about 15 minutes...

Go the Eels!

Meeting for September 8th, 2009

First of all…
It’s very important to note that bowling is cancelled for tonight. Apparently school groups have all lanes booked out on Tuesdays until early October. More information will be coming for the new date of the second inter-club challenge. It’ll still be a ten-pin bowling night hosted by our club, it just won’t be this week…

We should say a big thanks to those Rotarians who brought guests to last week’s meeting. Greg S brought Dominic and Judy who were visiting from Melbourne, Steve E who brought his guest David, and Rob B who brought Ash back to be our guest speaker. We also had a visiting Rotarian, Graham.

We also welcomed back Jack A. Good to have you back in the ranks mate.

September dates to note…
David N’s birthday is on the 10th
Anthony’s wife Bronwyn has a birthday on the 25th
The 42nd wedding anniversary of Bob and Jenny is on the 30th

Last week’s meeting (Sept 1, 2009)
Apparently, Tim S is having trouble booking a guest speaker on September 15th so he is looking for suggestions or for somebody to help him out. Anybody with any ideas should contact Adam or Tim ASAP.

Peter C represented our club at the Bathurst Base Hospital’s ‘Health and Art’ tour. Turns out it was mostly a dog & pony show to hit us up for donations. Any individual members who want to make a donation should contact Pete but we won’t be making a donation as a club.

President Adam reminded us of the Edgell Jog happening this Sunday (September 13th). Any Rotarians wanting to sit and record finish times of runners should show up at the Bathurst Court House this Sunday. This is one of those things where many hands make light work, so the more the merrier.

Adam also reported about hearing from a former member of our club, Bill F. Bill is apparently involved with a group looking for help to build some fencing around a riding arena. Since we’ve never been a group to shy away from getting our hands dirty there were nods from around the table that we should chip in to get involved. Considering my ability in wielding tools is worse only than a Spanish princess, I’ll volunteer to run the BBQ to feed the troops. More detail on date and time to follow.

We also had a sobering moment from Peter C who announced that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. True to Pete’s form, he announced it with his head held high. Then, with a smile on his face he announced his plan to beat it and that his odds are strong.

Our guest speaker for the night was Ash B who had a photo presentation of his trip to East Timor. He and his wife are looking to launch an aid program because, as Ash called it, it's “the poorest place on Earth” where the average family income is less than a dollar a day. While the country generates some income from oil and coffee, it certainly can’t be a promising sign when most of your country’s income ($13.5 B) is foreign aid. Combine that with the destruction caused by the militia and the Indonesians in 1999 and there was very little in the way of intact buildings.

Still, Ash didn’t focus much on the poverty. Ash was much more impressed by the resilience of their spirit. He took a lot of photos of happy children who didn’t seem to want for anything. He was particularly impressed with their capacity for sustainable living, such as their use of bamboo. They used bamboo to make everything from irrigation pipes to their houses to rope. With kids this happy, Ash wondered what the social cost of our modern conveniences is.

Of course there were many problems too. In particular was paying for children to go to school and the sanitation of conditions… particularly when, several years ago, the militia blew up the toilet block of a school of 467 children. The school still teaches students, but does not have a toilet block to speak of. There’s also still a lot of civil unrest and guns are commonplace.

So thanks Ash for an enlightening photo presentation. While East Timor still has its share of problems, the resiliency of their spirit clearly still continues on it their day to day lives.

Next meeting (September 8)…
With the bowling cancelled I’m not sure what’s on the cards for this week. I guess you’ll just have to show up tonight for a batch of “President’s Surprise”.

In the coming weeks…
On September 15th, Tim S would like some help coving a guest speaker this week.

On September 22nd, Bob P will be presenting on nuclear power. With world power consumption to increase by 40% by 2050, I hope to hear some of Bob’s ideas to where it’s all going to come from.

And on September 29th, we have in the schedule that Peter F will be following up on the food services training. Can anybody who sees Pete get some details on this for me?

Meeting for September 1, 2009

First of All...
I'd like to thank the Rotary Club of Bathurst for its donation on behalf of the weightlifting program at the Western Region Academy of Sport. On Saturday, August 29 we hosted our first competition in the region at the CSU gym. Six lifters, three coaches and three officials came up from Sydney to participate in the competition. Additionally, there were three lifters, two volunteers, and myself as a coach and event organiser from our own club. The feedback I got from the visitors about the competition and the standard of our lifters was very positive... considering that some coaches and officials were of international standard, I took this as a very positive sign!

Our female lifter totalled 92kg over the two lifts while both our male lifters totalled 140kg. If there is a call for a three-minuter at this week's meeting I'll be sure to give some details of just how competitive we were.

September dates to note…
David N’s birthday is on the 10th
Karl’s wife Eva has a birthday on the 12th
Anthony’s wife Bronwyn has a birthday on the 25th
The 42nd wedding anniversary of Bob and Jenny is on the 30th

Meeting Last Week (August 25)…
I arrived at last week’s meeting at the Tutorial Centre to the smell of sizzling snags. After a solid 45 minutes of fellowship and five sausage sandwiches later (I felt compelled to make up for what Jack would have eaten too) Anthony took us into the school’s computer room. As we filed past the classrooms many of us reminisced as we saw the small-sized chairs and had a special feeling of deja vous at the naughty corner...

Anthony took us through the links to click on to get us through the process doing an e-makeup. For those of you who want the step-by-step process for future reference:

1. Go to http://www.rotary.org.au/
2. Click on “Rotary Districts”
3. Click on “9700”
4. Click on “Links”
5. Click on “Meeting Make-up at Rotary eClub”
6. Click on “Make-up programs”
7. You will arrive at a page of links to videos, podcasts and written articles about Rotary and its programs, leadership, social issues, and a whole lot of other interesting things. For an e-makeup, you should spend at least 30 minutes working your way through the programs. Take note of which ones you work through because you’ll need their titles later. Thirty minutes is not as tedious as it may sound at first… just writing this blog entry I got sidetracked reading articles and spent 40 minutes there without even realising it!
8. Once you’ve worked your way through the programs, click on “Request makeup”. You’ll be prompted to make a donation which you can think of as your weekly $15. However there is no requirement to donate and you can just look for the “Click here” link.
9. From there, find the button to “Request Makeup Form”
10. There are four pages you’ll need to fill out. There are red asterisks next to required fields… be sure to fill these in because when you try to submit the form, you’ll get sent back to the beginning if any required fields are missing.
11. On page two is where you need to enter how long you’ve spent on the different programs (minimum of 30 minutes) and the name(s) of the program(s) you reviewed.
12. On the fourth page is where you put where you want the record of your e-makeup to be emailed. You can either email it to yourself, print it, and bring it to Alan Brown to be recorded, or just enter Alan’s email address and it will be sent directly to him. Alan’s email is alanb(insert the symbol for ‘at’)cnf.com.au.

I unfortunately had to duck away early so I missed if anything exciting happened after about 7:30. I wish I could say that I had to leave early because I had a hot date to get to, but it was actually because I had to get back to work to meet with a research participant at the gym…

Next Meeting (September 1)…
This week, Ash Bland will be filling in for Frank S as guest speaker. Many of you may recall that we’ve had Ash as a club guest before when he spoke to us on his book about the environment. I presume Ash will be presenting in his capacity as an environmental consultant, but I’ll try to have more details next week. Rob B, can you please confirm this with Ash?

In the coming weeks…

The September 7th meeting will be the second of three challenges in the Bathurst Inter-Club Cup. This will be an evening of 10-pin bowling and, in the spirit of The Cup, is a night that families are welcome. We’ll meet at the bowling alley at 6:15 and have a BBQ dinner there. This sort of endeavour needs the support of all of us, so we’re really hoping for a big turn out from our club.

On Sunday, September 13th will be the Edgell Jog. We’ve committed to the organizers that we’ll supply people to record finish times. The runners will get a time as they cross the finish line from event organizers, but nobody actually writes the times down… so that’ll be our job. With a lot of Rotarians there, it’s a pretty simple job and is done in about an hour-and-a-half.

On September 15th, Tim S will be organising the guest speaker. I’ll be sure to get the details on what ideas he has him next time I see him.

Then, on September 22nd, Bob P will be presenting on nuclear power. So many people think it’s dangerous, but I’m sure Bob will show us that the issue is not quite so cut-and-dry.

And on September 29th, we have in the schedule that Peter F will be following up on the food services training. Can anybody who sees Pete get some details on this for me?

Meeting of September 25th, 2009

First of All…
It’s very important that everybody note that we are meeting at the Tutorial Centre this week (August 25th). Anthony has arranged for us to use the computers at the school for his technology lesson on navigating the different Rotary websites.

There are only a few of us who have paid their subs for this financial half. Please see Bob P ASAP about making your payment.

We should all have a positive though for Jack Aubin who was in hospital for the August 18th meeting. Hope to see you back soon, Jack!

Finally, our nominee for the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) was accepted. Her name is Amanda Calaher from West Wyalong. More on this in the coming weeks.

Meeting last week (August 18th)…
Our club guest this week was Peter Flude from the Rotary Club of Beaumaris. Peter is a Past President of our club and visits our club on his periodic returns to Bathurst from Victoria.

While all of us are familiar with the bush fires that hit Victoria in the early stages of 2009, Peter gave us a photo presentation of the devastation that the fires caused. While for a long time only residents were allowed into the area, Peter got the photos we saw from one of their members who had a summer home that was lost in the fires. Peter had photos of what the home and other tourist landmarks in the area looked like before the fire hit… and after.

There were two facts in particular that Peter had about the magnitude of the fire that really caught my interest. The first was that the water being dropped from the water bombers (like the sky-crane they call “Elvis”) didn’t actually reach the fire it was being dropped on… the water dropped had vaporised from the heat long before it got anywhere close! The second was that the heat from the fire was so intense that fires were starting 500 metres ahead of the fire itself. How can people expect to defend their property when it’s bursting into flames with the fire still 500 metres away?

Peter had one story about the population of a town being evacuated to the middle of a sports ground. The logic of using the sports ground was that the ground would be big enough that the fire couldn’t reach them. Fortunately, a police sergeant figured out that the distance from the fire to the middle of the field would not be enough to escape the heat so, without any authorization from his superiors, evacuated the field and got everybody out of town in time. Without that decision almost a thousand people would have died from the heat and smoke, even though the fire wouldn’t have actually reached them in the middle of the field. What an amazing story that I, for one, never heard on the news.

Ash Bland then chimed in to give us some more perspective on the magnitude of the fire. We all remember the Canberra fires of 2004… well Ash told us that those plumes of smoke reached 4 kilometres into the sky. The Victorian bush fires reached in excess of 30 kilometres up!

Peter then told us that their club alone had raised $20,000 for relief work. Their decision was to make $10,000 available to the District Governor’s Appeal that would be held on to for 6 to 12 months. This time would allow the DGs to establish where the shortfalls were from other sources of funding. The other $10,000 went into the community for immediate relief work. The RC Beaumaris held working bees (that all Rotarians are familiar with!) to rebuild a playground, some of the over 10,000 km of fencing destroyed by the fire, and a sports pavilion.

While Andrew C moved the “vote of thanks” from our club, I’d like to thank Peter again for his wonderful presentation. I am very proud of the almost $3500 that we raised and donated to the RC Beaumaris and that they put to such good use. Some may question why such a priority was placed on a sports pavilion and a playground, but the sentiment of our own DG (Irene) is that Rotary is all about community… by rebuilding the areas where people gather, we’ve helped then start rebuilding their sense of community.

This week’s meeting (August 25th)…
A reminder that we’re meeting at the Tutorial Centre for a lesson on how to use many of the resources that Rotary makes available to us over the internet. We’ll meet there instead of at the RSL though we’ll still meet at the same time (6:15 for 6:30).

In the coming weeks…
On September 1st, Ash Bland will be filling in for Frank S as guest speaker. Many of you may recall that we’ve had Ash as a club guest before when he spoke to us on his book about the environment. I presume Ash will be presenting in his capacity as an environmental consultant, but I’ll try to have more details next week.

The September 7th meeting will be the second of three challenges in the Bathurst Inter-Club Cup. This will be an evening of 10-pin bowling and, in the spirit of The Cup, is a night that families are welcome. We’ll meet at the bowling alley at 6:15 and have a BBQ dinner there. We won the first challenge (snooker hosted by Bathurst East), so this is our chance to seal our victory on The Cup! But I’m sure that neither the East nor Daybreak clubs have any intention of letting us do that…

On Sunday, September 13th will be the Edgell Jog. We’ve committed to the organizers that we’ll supply people to record finish times. The runners will get a time as they cross the finish line from event organizers, but nobody actually writes the times down… so that’ll be our job. With a lot of Rotarians there, it’s a pretty simple job and is done in about an hour-and-a-half.

On September 15th, Tim S will be organising the guest speaker. I’ll be sure to get the details on what ideas he has him next time I see him.

Then, on September 22nd, Bob P will be presenting on nuclear power. So many people think it’s dangerous, but I’m sure Bob will show us that the issue is not quite so cut-and-dry.

And on September 29th, we have in the schedule that Peter F will be following up on the food services training. Hmmmm, I’m not sure exactly what’s going on with that, but I’ll fill you all in with next week’s blog.

Meeting of August 18th

First of All…
A big “Congratulations” and “Welcome” to Danielle Ballinger, who was inducted as a full Rotarian last week. Peter Crewes would also like to add “Thanks for coming”…

As an ongoing reminder, Bob needs half-annual subs ($125) from each member ASAP.

We’d also like to extend our thanks to DG Irene for attending the meeting. It’s always a privilege to listen to someone with such a longstanding and dedicated service to Rotary. While I don't have the official numbers from Alan, I'm sure it was once again over 90%, and once we had partners in the room too we had the RSL staff looking around the club for more tables so we could get everybody seated!

Last Week (August 11th)…
A few points of business were raised (while we waited for a quite late dinner):

1. Rob B mentioned that a shade house is being constructed for McKillop College. The shade house should be ready to put up in 6-8 weeks.
2. For those interested in helping out for the BBQ at the Tutorial Centre Garage Sale, Anthony is hoping to kick things off at 8am. Apparently the garage sale circuit is like a religion to some people so an 8am start is necessary.
3. There was some discussion over making the second inter-club challenge event a debate rather than a sport. Jo Dawson and Ruth Aubin gave us a perspective on the start of the cup. The cup itself originated from the Inner Wheel as a way to bring Rotary families together, so the event needs to be something where everybody can participate. Therefore sports were chosen. We’ve decided to make the second event a bowling event (if that’s 10-pin bowling or lawn bowls, I’m not quite sure but I’m sure Pres Adam does).
4. Rob B has agreed to attend a planning meeting with the city regarding the events of Australia Day. If you don’t know, we’re planning to hold a Duck Race down the river as part of the festivities. Rob, the meeting starts at 5:15 on Tuesday. Ring Danielle if you need more information.
5. Speaking of volunteers for meetings, incoming Pres Pete C has agreed to attend a tour of the Bathurst Base Hospital as part of the “Health & Art Program”. Pete, this’ll be on Thursday (August 20).
6. As I mentioned before, we inducted Danielle as a member. Again Danielle, welcome on board! Danielle was a big winner of the night because she also won the draw and the usual bottle of one of Australia’s top bottles of wine.
7. Speaking of prize winners, Jo Dawson took home the H&T victory and bottle that goes with those honours. Yum!

We got through all this before we finally got to eat. After dinner, DG Irene was introduced to make her address. She spoke quite passionately on the international components to Rotary, stemming from her experiences at the 2003 RI Conference in Brisbane, an event which clearly affected her deeply.

Irene spoke of the RI goals focusing on clean water, health, hunger, and literacy. RI’s intent is that, in the face of the global economic crisis, it is these Rotary programs that cannot suffer. The Future Vision Plan will be to divert funds to these programs that truly need it. Irene plans for the district to do its part by focusing on the Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) program. It has been a united goal of all Rotarians to rid the world of Polio, and now that we a closing in on that goal after over 20 years, we need to stay focused on such international world health goals.

Irene also spoke of the Rotary movement spreading into countries with people that that truly need help. Irene explained that once Rotary has a club in a country, we can implement Rotary programs there… countries like Afghanistan, one of Rotary's newest countries. Also, places like Darfur in the Sudan where citizens of these countries seek refuge in Peace Communities from the genocide going on there.

With so much focus on international programs, I thought it could be easy to be overwhelmed with how large all of these issues seem and how impossibly small any contribution from District 9700 would be. But Irene emphasised that what we need to do to help is “to keep the spirit of Rotary alive in our communities”. Everything in Rotary starts with individual communities and works its way up.

Clearly, attending an RI convention is an incredible experience… an experience that we can all take part in when the RI convention is in Sydney in 2014!

Next Meeting (August 18)…
The meeting will be attended by Peter Flude who will be talking about the Victorian Bushfires. I’m sure this will be a very heart-felt presentation by all because of link to Peter and our substantial financial contribution to the RC of Beaumaris for bushfire relief.

Also, this will probably be the last bulletin before the Tutorial Centre’s Garage Sale on August 22nd, so I’ll urge everybody one more time to contact Secretary Anthony about what they can do to help.

We’ll also be having a Board meeting after the regular meeting, so could all board members please arrange to stay behind for a bit longer after the meeting.

In the coming Month…
On August 25th, club secretary Anthony will be presenting a technology lesson on the resources at the various Rotary websites, particularly using http://www.rotaryeclubone.org/ to do make up meetings.

On September 1st, Frank S is down to arrange a guest speaker but I’ve heard a rumour that that’s pretty unlikely to happen. Does anybody have somebody in mind that they’d like to invite? Please let Rob B and me know if you do… soon!

On September 8th, our club will be hosting the second event in the interclub challenge. I’m sure Pres Adam and Chris B are liaising with the other club presidents in Bathurst to ensure that the second event is as well attended by all clubs as the first.

Can everybody try to keep clear the morning of Sunday, September 13th clear for the Edgell Jog.

On September 15th, Tim S is down to arrange a guest speaker. Tim, can you let me know what’s on for that so I can post it in the blog?

Meeting of August 11th, 2009

First of all...
Alan Brown has asked me to congratulate our club on having over 90% attendance for July! That's an outstanding effort that I'm sure he'll have great pleasure in reporting to DG Irene this week. Well done everybody!

Also, as with last week’s blog, I’ll remind everyone that $250 annual (or $125 half-annual) subs are due to Bob ASAP.

Birthdays...
Rob B’s wife Jo was on August 4th
David W’s wife Kathy is on August 10th
Karl M’s was on August 4th
David W’s is on August 8th
Bob P’s in on August 10th

Last Week (August 4)...
A few points of business were raised:

1. The Edgell Jog will be going ahead on Sunday 13th September 2009 with a kick off time of 10:30am. If we can get as many Rotarians there by about 9:45amto set up for recoding finish times.

2. Anthony J reminded everybody that on Saturday 22nd September, the Tutorial Centre will be having a Garage Sale. Anybody wanting to help out on the day or that have anything in their garage that they'd like to donate should talk to Anthony ASAP.

3. RC of Daybreak will be hosting the District 9700 Conference on March 19-21 2010. It is a massive undertaking and we as a club have agreed to support it. David Weeks will be attending the first meeting of the Bathurst clubs to see what support they will need. I'm sure we'll be hearing from David soon on how we can all help out and show strong inter-club solidarity that Pres Adam is trying to build.

For those few who missed last weeks' meeting, you missed a cracker! Karl and his wife Eva put on a great tag-team show about their travels through Europe. Karl being the eldest male member of his family went over for a family reunion.

They booked their travels through APT Tours. Talk to Karl's son-in-law for more details.

Karl and Eva talked briefly about the planes, trains, boats and cars they took on their travels through Kuala Lumpur, Germany, Holland, etc. but mostly focused on the engineering marvel of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal that was constructed in 1992. The canal joins the Rhine-Main and the Danube to create a single waterway from the North Sea to the Black Sea, allowing boats to get over the mountain range! The boat they were on took them the entire length from one sea to the other. Karl was amazed at the idea of a boat crossing a mountain range.

Their trip started on the North Sea in Holland and finished on the Black Sea in Romania. They talked extensively about the wines along the and particularly the architecture in Budapest. Karl even went so far as to say that modern builders simply couldn't build some the structures they saw.

By the end, Karl said that his only complaint was that there was (almost) too much culture.

Next Meeting (August 11)...
I’ll remind everyone that DG Irene is visiting our club this week and I know we’re all looking for excellent attendance. So please everyone make a special effort to make this meeting and arrive at 6:15pm. Please invite partners along too.

Adam and Anthony: remember that you’ll need to meet the DG at the club at 5pm. The rest of the Board will meet at the RSL at 5:30pm. To the best of my knowledge, DG Irene has not asked us to come with anything prepared.

In the coming month…
The August 18th meeting will be attended by Peter Flude who will be talking about the Victorian Bushfires. I’m sure this will be a very heart-felt presentation by all because of link to Peter and our substantial financial contribution to the RC of Beaumaris for bushfire relief.

On August 25th, club secretary Anthony will be presenting a technology lesson on the resources at the various Rotary websites, particularly using http://www.rotaryeclubone.org/ to do make up meetings.

On September 1st, I think Frank S is our speaker organiser but I’m not aware of his plans. Can somebody please remind Frank of his upcoming meeting on September 1st?

Then, on September 8th, Adam and Chris are organising the second instalment of the Bathurst interclub challenge. I think the event is tenpin bowling, but I’m sure that Adam and Chris will have more detail as the date approaches. It would be great if our club’s attendance and participation were has high (if not higher) than the snooker night where we had 11 members and took a 1-0 lead towards that championship. If anybody can lend Adam a hand for this event, I’m sure he (and his wife Liz) would relly appreciate it.

Meeting for August 4, 2009

First of all…
I think we all should say a big thanks to President Adam for the leg-work he put in to the snooker tournament that happened on July 29. The fellowship that happened between clubs was outstanding!

Last week’s meeting (July 29)…
There was a great, if not occasionally late, roll up of Fellows from Bathurst, Bathurst East, and Daybreak clubs. There were 11 members from Bathurst, about another 10 from Daybreak, and over a dozen from Bathurst East.

We attended the regular meeting of Bathurst East and participated in their usual business. It was nice to know that their sergeant-at-arms was just as willing to take our money as well as from his own members. As well, he was as ruthless as our own David Lowe.

We were also treated to the company of their ‘Pride in Workmanship’ award winner, the Father of the Catholic Church in Bathurst. If you ever get the chance to chat with the Father, I’d highly recommend it; he’s a really entertaining man.

By 7:30, the meeting was adjourned and we filed out to the snooker tables. Adam got those of us interested in knocking a ball around a table into teams of two to face off against a team of two from another club. It was also great to see that even the members not interested in playing still came out to the snooker tables for fellowship after the meeting.

Rules were set so that we played with only six red balls and the usual assortment of other colours so that games wouldn’t take too long. A 20 minute time limit was also set such that the team leading after 20 minutes was declared the winner. A team winning its game won their club 5 competition points while losing won their club 1 participation point (I think that’s right…).

I’ll take a moment to brag that the team of Eric & Greg S as well as the team of Eric & Andrew C won both games. I’m not sure the results of the other games but I get to brag about my own prowess becasue I'm the one writing the report. Clearly Bathurst teams won a few other games as well because RC of Bathurst won the night with a score of 20 points to 8 points each from East and Daybreak.

Next week (August 4)
Karl M will be presenting his experiences from his recent travels through Europe.

In the coming month
At the Aug 11th meeting, the DG will be visiting, so please make special note of this in your calendar. The usual meeting time applies for Fellows (6:15 for 6:30) but note that Fellows on the Board will need to arrive at 5:30 p.m. for a sit-down with the DG. Adam and Anthony will need to arrive at 5 p.m. for the president/secretary meeting with the DG. Also note that partners are welcome to the regular meeting.

Alan Brown, I believe you’re taking the lead in liaising with Peter Flude who will be attending the August 18th meeting to talk about The Victorian Bushfires?

All Fellows (and interested family members) should note that on Saturday, August 22nd there will be a garage sale at the Tutorial Centre. I’m sure we’ll get more information from Anthony in the coming weeks regarding this.

At the August 25th meeting, Anthony will again be up to bat to give us all a Technology Lesson about using the Rotary website, doing E-makeups, and the like. Thanks Anthony!

As a final note, the treasurer has asked me to remind all Fellows that subs are due in the coming meetings. Payments are $125 now and a second $125 due in January.

First of all
My apologies for not having a blog entry for last week or attending the meeting. A professional opportunity arose that was too good to refuse. I'm doing an e-makeup for the meeting and thanks to Peter Crewes for taking notes at the July 21 meeting for me.

Last week's meeting (July 21)
The guest speaker was John Cummerford who is the Director of Bathurst City Library. John spoke about his involvement, as a committee person, with the world renowned Sommerville Collection. He spoke about what it means to the town of Bathurst and what is hopefully pending for the future.

Mention was made of the Charles Darwin lecture dinner whereby the fossil museum is behind this idea. The Nov. 24 date is already listed down on our calendar of upcoming events. The club also officially welcomed back our GSE representative Danielle Ballinger who spoke on her recent experience in Italy with GSE9700. Her DVD presentation showed us visitations to Ducati, Fiat (marketing) factories, Mayoral offices, and riding for the disabled. The GSE Team also visited Rome and Florence. Danielle was more than a worthy representative of our club. She indicated she had an exceptional time and thanked us greatly. For more info on what they did, you can visit the blog they kept at http://gse9700to2070.blogspot.com/.

Next Week (July 28)
No meeting Tuesday instead there will be a combined meeting with Bathurst East on Wednesday (Snooker Night) in an effort to win the cup. One of Adam's goals in his presidency is to foster relations between our club and other clubs in Bathurst and in the district.

In the coming weeks
At the Aug 4th meeting, Karl M will be presenting his experiences from his recent travels through Europe.

Then, on Aug 11th, the DG will be making a visit. I'll mention this well ahead of time so that we can have a really good turn out for this meeting. Also note that partners are welcome to this meeting.

July 14

Last Week

First of all, a correction to my spelling of Andrew Camilleri’s last name in last week’s blog. Sorry Andrew. As well as to my spelling of Pardey (with an e).

On a technical note, I think I’ve fixed the code for printing the Bulletin from Firefox so you should have no problems now (thanks Alan for pointing this problem out). For the rest of you who have no idea what I’m talking about… never mind.

We had an excellent roll up for Adam’s first meeting as president, including Danielle’s first meeting back since arriving home from Italy. The meeting was started with the presentation of a few cheques from President Adam to:

1. Anthony Johnson - A cheque was presented that would be going towards the Tutorial Centre’s new interactive white board.
2. Steve Ellery - A cheque was presented to the PCYC, and Steve made special mention of the school breakfast program.
3. Eric Drinkwater – A cheque was presented to the Western Region Academy of Sport, and Eric made special mention of the weightlifting program and their upcoming competition.

During the Club Assembly, the first order of business was the meeting schedule (up to after the Christmas break) that Rob Barlow has put together (see below). We all know the importance of having guest speakers and ensuring that notification of who they are and what their topic is appears in the Bulletin at lest a week in advance. So please, plan your guests well ahead and don’t leave the rest of us wondering what’s going to be happening at that evening’s meeting. Even if you’re not going to be at the meeting, be sure that we’ll take excellent care of your guest. So, when you know what you’ll be doing for your meeting, let me know so I can put it in the bulletin.

Steve Ellery raised the idea of promoting the club in the community by sponsoring a Rotary Community Hero program, similar to the Jack Aubin Youth Award but for adults. In addition to raising awareness of the club, this award would also have the effect of brining to the club potential members each month. Concerns were raised that a local radio station already struggles to find nominations for a similar sort of award. As a club we agreed that it would be worth investigating.

Jack Aubin was vocal about the club’s participation in high-visibility community projects, such as the New Year ’s Eve fireworks. Notwithstanding Bob’s misspent youth stuffing crackers into letter boxes, Jack was not suggesting we have any involvement in the fireworks themselves, but that we could do a sausage sizzle or something. Danielle said she would get us more details on how to get involved.

Steve Ellery also began the discussion of Rotaract, which spurred on the discussion of our involvement into other youth programs (RYPEN, RYLA, NYSF, etc.). This also began the discussion about why not having possible Rotaract members as Rotarians. To the best of my knowledge, there was no decision made of if we would 1) pursue sponsoring a Rotaract Club or 2) invite potential Rotaract members to visit our club meetings. I’m sure discussion will be ongoing.

Finally, as a club, we all agreed that in principle we would support Arthur Cheers’ involvement with the “Ties Around the Mount” project in support of men living with prostate cancer.

This took us until 8:30 that evening so we decided to call the meeting to a close.

This Week
Attending this week as our guest speaker will be Fiona Thompson from the Bathurst’s Conservatorium of Music. She’ll be presenting to us about the Conservatorium’s role in the community and the sort of things our annual contribution to them goes toward.

In the coming weeks
Please check the schedule to make sure you know when you’ll be responsible for a guest speaker. Please plan ahead and let me know as soon as you have a plan so I can get it in the bulletin well in advance.


July 7th (Adam) Club Assembly – plan the year

July 14th (Eric) Conservatorium of music

July 21st (Greg) John Bx City Library- Charles Bean

Wed July 29th (Adam) RC BX East – inter club challenge – snooker

Aug 4th (Karl) Karl M Experiences of Europe

Aug 11th (Adam) DG – Club Visit Partners Welcome

Aug 18th (Alan) Peter Flude – The Victorian Bushfires

Sat Aug 22nd (Anthony) Garage Sale at the Tutorial Centre

Aug 25th (Anthony) Technology lesson – using Rotary website etc

Sep 1st (Frank)

Sep 8th (Adam/Chris) RC BX – interclub challenge-tenpin bowls

Sun Sep 13th EDGELL JOG

Sep 15th (Tim)

Sep 22nd (Bob) Nuclear Power

Sep 29th (Peter F) Training – food service certificate

Oct 6th (David N)

Oct 13th (David W)

Oct 20th (Adam) Club business forum - AGM

Oct 27th (Arthur)

Nov 3rd (Andrew)

Nov 10th (Adam) RC BX Daybreak interclub challenge –lawnbowls

Nov 17th (Peter C)

24th (Rob) Charles Darwin lecture dinner BMEC – fossils

Dec 1st (David L)

Dec 8th (Nev D)

Dec 15th (Chris B)

Dec 22nd (Adam) Christmas Party

Dec 29th No meeting

Jan 5th No meeting

Jan 12th (Rob) Informal cycling/walking BBQ River Park

Jan 19th (Steve E) Family BBQ, tennis, bowls, swim, badminton

Jan 26th (Committee) Aust day, duck race

Bulletin for July 7

Last week: June 30, 2009 - Changeover

SOME SPECIAL EVENTS

Induction of New Member – Andrew Camalerie

Attendance - almost 100% for members of our club. I originally booked for 36 people which ballooned out to almost 50 attending on the night. Clearly word got out that the RC Bathurst Changeover dinner was the place to be!

OTHER SPECIAL EVENTS

Toast to Rotary International by Bob Pardy

Response to the Toast to Rotary International by PDG Alan Josey

President's Report by Eric Drinkwater

Treasurers Report by Bob Pardy

Induction of Adam Schembri as President for 2009-2010 by Eric Drinkwater

Vote of Thanks to Retiring Office Bearers & Board by Eric Drinkwater:

• David Lowe (Secretary)
• Bob Pardy (Treasurer)
• Alan Brown (Membership)
• Rob Barlow and Greg Stanley (Foundation)
• Anthony Johnston (SAA)
• Peter Francis (Administration)
• Steve Ellery (Publicity)
• Adam Schembri (Service Projects & Vice President)
• David Nicoll (Past President)

Introduction of Incoming Office Bearers & Board by President Adam Schembri

• Peter Crewes (Vive President)
• Anthony Johnston (Secretary)
• Bob Pardy (Treasurer)
• Steve Ellery (Membership)
• Neville Dawson (Foundation)
• David Lowe (SAA)
• Rob Barlow (Administration)
• Peter Francis & Greg Stanley (Publicity)
• David Weeks (Service Projects)
• Eric Drinkwater (Past President)

This week: July 7, 2009 - Club Assembly

This week will be Adam's first official meeting as club president so he is planning to outline his vision for the coming year, including some major projects. This will be an excellent time for all members to voice their opinions and suggestions for the coming year. For this exercise to be successful, we need a large attendance of members.

I'm also thinking that Danielle Ballinger, our GSE team member, will be visiting us on July 7. With the Club Assembly we won't have time to get a full account of her GSE experience in Italy, but I'm sure she'll be keen to chat; I'm sure sitting next to Danielle for dinner will be a prized seat!

In the coming weeks

On July 14, our guest speaker will be somebody from Conservatorium of Music. And then, hopefully we'll all get to hear from Danielle and see some photos at the July 21 meeting. More details on these in next week’s Bulletin.