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.