Tuesday 23 November

Meeting Tuesday 23 November

Guests, Apologies & Prizes
Greg brought along special guests, Keith & Jan Bayliss. Keith was the guest speaker and is the Site Coordinator at Bathurst Hospital.

Visiting Rotarian, Peter Flude was welcomed on the evening, always good to see him at our meetings.

Apologies from David W, Sally B, Adam S, Rob B & Jack A.

Heads & Tails won by Alan B.

Raffle was won by Greg S, who kindly donated the wine to our visiting Rotarian, Peter Flude. This was a well deserved present after Peter was hounded during the Sergeant session by stand in sergeant, Anthony J!

Meeting Minutes
Anthony read out some correspondence received;
- Letter from the National Boys Choir about their visit to the area, and they would be keen to do a fundraising concert if the club are interested in organising the details. The members agreed this would be a good idea, but would need to have some more discussion around it and brought up at the next board meeting.
- A sheet was sent around for everyone to update their Rotary Down Under contact details, if you weren’t there please ask Anthony for the details.
- Some more information was passed around for business owners to promote their business through Rotary, again ask Anthony if you missed out.

Nev D reminded everyone about the Christmas Cakes & puddings again, please put in your order soon.

Guest Speaker
Keith Bayliss was introduced to the group as the Site Coordinator for Bathurst Hospital. Keith has been an electrician for 33 years and worked in the power industry including Wallerawang and Eraring Power Stations. He has also worked as a security installer and as an electrician at the former Bathurst Base Hospital for 10 years.

He is now the Site Coordinator at the newly renovated Bathurst Hospital and works for the contracted company called Spotless. Spotless are a very large company who employ over 30,000 staff across 30 countries. Some of the larger contracts they currently have include Qantas, fencing, housing, sporting venues (they will be catering for the Rugby World Cup in NZ next year). Something which you may not know about the company is that Spotless created the steel coat hanger, and started as a small dry-cleaning business.

The current contract which Spotless have with Bathurst Hospital is for 28 years and extends to the soon to be completed Bloomfield and Orange Hospital sites. The contracts include security, porters/wards man, cleaning, maintenance and grounds. Keith is responsible for the rosters, which are worked out on a 24 hour basis, paying all staff under his supervision, and ensuring when jobs are logged in the computer system they are completed within a suitable timeframe.

It is a 24/7 job, and was very full on when the new hospital opened, but has now settled down and things seem to be running more smoothly. Keith is also involved in the refurbishment of the heritage building which will be used for training and administration purposes. This is hoped to be complete by April 2011 for the different areas to move in.

It was very sad to hear last week that Neville Barlow (Rob B father & former member of our club) had passed away.

Neville was a former Bathurst Mayor and a good man. He was one of the most community minded man of his time and his passing is our loss. He was a can-do man. He was a capable and highly regarded businessman of the 80s and 90s. If something was good for Bathurst then he was always the first to put his hand up. He was one that we could all aspire to be.

His funeral will be held on Wednesday, 1st December, 2010 commencing at 11am. The cortege will leave All Saints' Anglican Cathedral, Church Street, Bathurst at the conclusion of the service for Holy Trinity Lawn Cemetery, Gilmour Street, Kelso.

Tuesday, 9 November 2010

Meeting, 9 November 2010

Upcoming dates of note:
David W and Kathy have a wedding anniversary on November 28
Pete C and Vicki have a wedding anniversary on November 29
Arthur and Hilary also have a wedding anniversary on November 30

Guests, apologies & prizes
Apologies from Eric D, Adam S & Chris B.
Danielle brought along special guests Bob & Cheryl Buckley
Anthony J kindly stepped up as sergeant for evening and kicked things off with heads & tails. Alan B was the lucky winner.
Later the raffle was quite controversial with Frank S claiming the win, even though Anthony swore black and blue it was his ticket which he left lying around. I say, 'you snooze, you lose!' Well done Frank!

Meeting Minutes
Anthony also provided us with a 3 minute session about the donations which the club has presented to his school and what they have been doing with the money. The school has been looking in to the fact that what kids are eating affects the way they behave at school. So the money has gone towards building a vegetable garden at the school, so that these vegetables can be used to provide healthy meals for the students, enhancing their behaviour.

The aim eventually will be that the school can provide the children with 3 meals a day, teaching them to cook these meals as well. The school has also purchased an aquaponics kit, which will enable them to have fish also. Anthony would also like to get the parents in the school to teach them how to cook healthy meals at home. This sounds like a great initiative and I'm sure the club are happy to continue to support it whenever possible.

Rob B reported that the program up until the end of the year is on track, and he did attempt to put the 2011 program up on the blog. It is yet to appear, but I will search for it!

David W asked everyone to think about the Duck Race and pitching in to help promote the ducks. He asked if anyone was happy to stay back after the meeting to have a chat, could they please do so.

Anthony put his other hat on as secretary and reported some incoming correspondence including receipts, cheques and a number of invites to school presentation days.

Nev D reminded everyone of the usual Christmas Cake/slices/biscuits sale. They are $15 each so please tell Nev if you would like any.

Guest Speakers
Tonight I decided to invite relations of mine, Bob & Cheryl Buckley, who also happen to be heavily involved in Lions on a local, national and international level.

Bob spoke first and covered off how Lions work for the same purpose as Rotary, improving the lives of other people. A similar project which Lions works on like Rotary's eradication of polio, is the eradication of childhood cancer. Bob has been invited to be a member of the board to work on this project.

Bob has been a member of Lions for 20 years, taking on a number of roles including secretary, president, zone chairman, district governor and national chairman. He spoke about the many great experiences both he and Cheryl have had traveling around Australia and the world as part of Lions.

One of Bob's biggest issues as a district governor was the same as all service clubs, increasing membership. It is becoming harder and harder to attract people to belong and especially the younger generation.

Bob & Cheryl both worked on a great project, raising $13,500 for Bob to shave of his moustache which he had for a number of years. All of this money went towards the eradication of children's cancer project.

Bob also had the opportunity to sit down with the former PM and discuss how service clubs could be better utilised to get messages across to the community. The PM was quite interested in this concept, and let's face it, it makes sense.

Another achievement which Bob mentioned was the current TV ads airing for Lions, he signed off on whilst national chairman. Since these ads started to air they have received over 1,000 enquiries on membership.

Cheryl then got her chance to speak to the group about her experience with Lions. Cheryl was originally a Rotaract member when she was younger, and Jack A used to look after the group. Cheryl believes that service starts at home, and learnt this from a very young age at her own home.

Cheryl also spoke about the importance of women in service clubs, but they do need more flexibility due to work and family commitments, as do most men these days. Cheryl has been a Lion for four years and enjoying traveling and supporting Bob in his many roles. She has decided to take on the role of President for the next year which will be a new challenge for her, but one which she is definately up for.

Cheryl mentioned about the struggle to get more and new members, but her approach is just to ask people, as many people as you can think of. Another idea is to ask couple's to come along, it is something they can do together, pending family obligations, or take it in turns to attend meetings and give service to the club.

Bob and Cheryl have most certainly achieved quite a lot as Lions, and really gave our club some things to think about and maybe some new ideas or approaches.

The invite is also open for our clubs to get together and work together on projects, or just to socialise. They both mentioned that in many towns they visited, the service clubs work together on projects, which can help to lighten to load.

Tuesday, 2 November 2010

Meeting 2 November 2010 - Melbourne Cup Day

Upcoming dates of note:

David W and Kathy have a wedding anniversary on November 28

Pete C and Vicki have a wedding anniversary on November 29

Arthur and Hilary also have a wedding anniversary on November 30

Special mention to go to Jack & Ruth Aubin who celebrated 59 years (1951) of marriage on 3 November. Congratualtions to Jack & Ruth.

Guests, Apologies & Prizes

Alan B brought along his guest speaker for the evening, John Fry

Apologies from: Danielle B, Anthony J & Adam S

Sally was the 'lucky' winner of the luck door prize and David W the winner of heads & tails.

After the Mebourne Cup draw at last week's meeting, Alan B was the winner of the bottle of port, he drew the winner Americain, well done Alan.

Meeting Minutes

Rob B has the 2011 list for guest speakers, so please make sure you make yourself aware of when your week is.

Fellows at the meeting dicussed at some length the facilities at Mayfield Gardens and how it was great to see some good old Rotary fellowship at the BBQ each weekend.

Nev D reminded everyone to let him know about their Christmas Cake orders asap, would be wise to get in before Eric does!

The program over the next few weeks until Christmas will be as follows;

Tue 9th Nov - Danielle B - Bob & Cheryl Buckley

Tue 16th Nov - Jack A is unable to organise Carla Archer, so Rob B maybe able to (TBC)

Tue 30th Nov - Frank S (TBC)

Tue 7th Dec - Dave N or Rob B

Tue 14th Dec - Sally P organise Christmas Drinks

Tue 21st Dec - Danielle B Christmas Party, details TBC and discussed

Another reminder, the Australia Day Duck Race will be going ahead again next year. David W is looking for people to help out with the organisation of this, and also to promote the buying of ducks. It will be discussed at this weeks meeting and volunteers are wanted!

Guest Speaker - John Fry

John worked as an environmental officer for Evans Shire Council, and is now heavily involved with Conservation Volunteers Australia and a self professed 'greeny'!

John is also involved with the Sisters of Mercy ecological project 'Rahamin' and has worked with them to set out a 5 year plan which includes the following initiatives:

- energy targets (retro fit buildings)

- perma culture (based on traditional land management, low fuel, water etc - sustainable living)

- educating schools kids in the catholic school system

- let your vegetable garden grow freely

From the DG:

** GSE hosts required.

The Philippines team arrives in Wagga on 20/02/11 and flys out of Orange after the annual conference. (April 1-3). I am required to submit their itinerary (including hosts and their addresses, dates, activities, locations, etc.) before 21/01/11. At this stage I know nothing of the team, their details are due with me December 7th.

Would you please make known to your members that the team is coming and that clubs will be asked to host the team. Many clubs have provided this service for many, many years and, I anticipate, will do so once again. They will tell you that it gives the club a lift, gets professional people in the community involved, and can be a stimulus for recruiting new members.

Meeting 26 October 2010

Upcoming dates of note
Arthur C’s wife Hilary has a birthday on November 5
David W and Kathy have a wedding anniversary on November 28
Pete C and Vicki have a wedding anniversary on November 29
Arthur and Hilary also have a wedding anniversary on November 30

Guests, Apologies & Prizes
Apologies were received from Nev Dawson, and there were no special guests at this weeks meeting.
Heads and Tails was won by Anthony in record time, I think it only took a couple of coin tosses. Alan B won the raffle later in the evening.

Meeting Minutes
Anthony reported not all that much correspondence, there was a letter from RIPEN for the Services Director which we eventually worked out was Chris Bennett.
David W asked that everyone please do some make ups if you are unable to attend the meeting, and let him know.

The program over the next few weeks will be as follows:
Tue 2nd Nov - Alan B will be bringin along John Fry
Tue 9th Nov - Danielle B (TBC)
Tue 16th Nov - Jack A will organise Carla Archer (TBC)
Tue 30th Nov - Frank S (TBC)
Tue 7th Dec - Dave N or Rob B
Tue 14th Dec - Sally P organise Christmas Drinks
Tue 21st Dec - Danielle B Christmas Party, details TBC

Just for fun, after all coins had been exhausted, we had a Barrier draw for the Melbourne Cup –
Cost $ 1.00 (those who didn't pay need to pay up this week, if not you will be charged $1.00 fine on top of your $1.00 sweep)
Prize being a bottle of Port donated by Pres. Pete.
Barrier Member
1 Weekes, David
2 Drinkwater, Eric
3 Aubin, Jack
4 Matiszik, Karl
5 Ellery, Steve
6 Ballinger, Danielle
7 Johnston, Anthony
8 Brown, Alan
9 Pardey, Bob
10 Matiszik, Karl
11 Crewes, Peter
12 Stanley, Greg
13 Sargeant, Tim
14 Bembrick, Sally
15 Smith, Frank
16 Drinkwater, Eric
17 Smith, Frank
18 Bennett, Chris
19 Schembri, Adam
20 Barlow, Rob
21 Nicoll, David
22 Johnston, Anthony
23 Ellery, Steve
24 Pardey, Bob


Congratulations are in order following the elections at our AGM.
The new board voted in will take effect 2011 – 2012.
The results are as follows:-
President - Johnston, Anthony
President Elect - Bembrick, Sally
Secretary - Weekes, David
Treasurer - Stanley, Greg
Club Administration - Barlow, Rob
Membership - Nicoll, David
Public Relations - Bennett, Chris
Service Projects - Schembri, Adam
Foundation - Drinkwater, Eric
Imm Past President - Crewes, Peter

A big thank you to all those that made the effort for Mayfield Gardens. For those that were ‘turned around’ due to the enclament weather that we experienced my apologise as it was beyond my control.
The numbers indicated by our members wanting to help was certainly very pleasing and gratitude has been extended by the Oberon club so well done fellows.

From the DG:
DG Neal has reported that the official visits of the 42 club has been completed.

Last year Clubs in the District donated over $1.4m – that is about $1200 per Rotarian. The great majority of that was donated to local community projects and groups, with additional support to national Rotary projects like Australian Rotary Health and ShelterBox as well as The Rotary Foundation and Polio Plus.

Generally I found the Clubs in good health, although most face some challenges.
Healthy Clubs have:
Well run meetings that are enjoyable, interesting and welcoming to visitors
Projects that engage and involve all members
Support a range of Rotary programs
Membership being a common challenge.

District 9700 Conference
Friday 1 to Sunday 3 April 2010 in Orange
Further details: will be available on the District website in December and you will be able to register online.