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?
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