Meeting for April 6th, 2010

First of all…
David W is making a desperate appeal for help on the B2B. : “At last week’s Meeting I advised that Daybreak is short of manpower for the B2B this weekend. They are finalising their roster this afternoon and really need our help. They need 1 to 2 people to help set up at the Pits on Saturday from 7:30am till11:30am working with Tony Thurling and Paul Field. The more there the less time required. On Sunday again 1 to 2 people to assist with registration from 7:30am till about 11:30am working with Hugh O’Reilly. And 2 to 4 people to assist with traffic direction (no qualifications necessary) out on the course. Your own transport is required and you will need to be in position from 8:30am for about 3 to 4 hours. Fellows, this is a fantastic Rotary activity and it would be priceless for inter-club relations if we could get out in force and help Daybreak to run this iconic event. Accordingly please urgently return email me if you can help on Sat or Sun or both so I can get your detail to the relevant contacts.”

April dates of note…
Adam’s wife Liz had a birthday on the 1st
Alan B has a birthday on the 8th
Steve E has a birthday on 15th
Karl and Eva have a wedding anniversary on the 23rd
Nev and Jo have a wedding anniversary on the 24th

Last week (March 30th, 2010)…
This week we had apologies from Rob B, Pete F, and Chris B.

We were visited by Nola Ramsey , Bathurst 2010’s Citizen of the year. We were presenting to her a cheque for $3,000 that we raised in the Australia Day Duck Race for the Riding for the Disabled group (photo attached).

We’ve had a request for help raising funds for a cancer hospice in Orange. I’m not sure if the club is going to have any involvement but as it initially sounds like a worthy cause, it should come up for further discussion.

Katrina, our National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) representative from All Saints apparently had a great experience in Canberra and is very keen to come talk to our club about her experience.

David W reminded us about 1. The Bathurst half marathon on May 2 and 2. The B2B (see above, this coming weekend).

Anthony J has told us that we have selected a RYLA candidate (James) who Anthony assures us is a worthy candidate.

Pete C made sure to remind me that of all the roles that everybody in our club has taken on for the Art Union which I listed last week, I did not list that Bob P is keeping track of the money. So there you go Pete… I’ve posted it THIS week!

We’ve go two CSU students trying to find sponsors and are doing a lot of the publicity for the golf tournament on May 2. The golf tournament is in the afternoon on the same day as the half marathon (in the morning) so all club members will need plan their time well for that day.

During this meeting we circulated a response back to the DG for signatures from club members. This response concerned the email she circulated to many of us regarding the district conference. If anybody would like to see the email or our response, please let me know. I’ve email our response to the DG but have not received a reply.

A big congratulations to Andrew C who has lost 30kg!

Alan B mentioned that he ran into Noel Masters at the Paris Exhibition in Canberra. While Noel was before my time with RC Bathurst, he was a member and PP of our club that many of our current members still remember. Alan reports that Noel is doing well.

We then heard from our guest speaker for the evening. Nola was representing Riding for the Disabled, a group that’s been in Bathurst for 30 years. They provide horse riding for people with disabilities in the Bathurst & Lithgow regions for the purposes of sport, therapy and exercise. I can assure everybody that the balance and coordination required to ride a horse is immense. For those people who cannot or will not ride, they’ve also opened a petting zoo which operates one day per week.

They operate the horse riding only two days per week (Thursdays and Fridays) and have approximately 50 registered people riding 11 well trained horses. On their operating days, they have 4or 5 one-hour classes with 6 or 7 rides per class. They receive no government funding but have an operating budget of $30,000 per year.

Riding for the Disables is a great cause truly worthy of our support. While we provided her with a cheque for $3000, we also offered Nola a few days of labour. She was very grateful for our donation and said she’d get back to us with a list of one-day projects that need doing. In particular it sounds like they are in desperate need of good security fences since they have had four break-ins with the idiots terrorising the animals.

This week (April 6th, 2010)…
The program is in the hands Sally. Her guest is Tony Perry. I'm not sure exactly what Tony will be talking about but I'm sure it'll be interesting.

Next week (April 13, 2010)…
Alan B is organising John Pearson as our guest speaker. I think it will have something to do with overseas students from Japan but we’ll see next week.

In the coming weeks…
Please check to see where your name falls next to guest speaker. Please let me know in advance what you have planned so I can put in the blog. It’s kind of pointless having great guest speakers planned is nobody knows they’re coming!

April 13 – Guest Speaker: Alan B (John Pearson); VoT: Steve E; Welcome: Karl

April 10 & 11 - B2B
April 20 – Guest Speaker: Frank S (Steven McKelvie from Country Link); VoT: Peter F; Welcome: Peter C
April 27 – Guest Speaker: David S; VoT: Chris B; Welcome: Sally
May 2 – David W (Half Marathon)
May 2 – Bob P (Golf Tournament)
May 4 – Guest Speaker: Nev D; VoT: Peter C; Welcome: Tim
May 11 – Guest Speaker: Danielle; VoT: Sally; Welcome: David N
May 18 – Guest Speaker: Anthony J; VoT: Andrew C; Welcome: David W
May 25 – Guest Speaker: Steve E; VoT: Tim; Welcome: Eric
June 1 – Guest Speaker: Peter F; VoT: David N; Welcome: Frank
June 8 – Guest Speaker: Chris B; VoT: David W; Welcome: David S
June 15 – Guest Speaker: Greg S; VoT: Eric D; Welcome: Nev
June 22 – Guest Speaker: Karl M; VoT: Frank S; Welcome: Danielle
June 29 – Adam S / Peter C