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.