President’s Message 20th July 2020

Last week’s meeting, again conducted by the carrier pigeon Zoom, was well supported by 18 members plus our ADG Emma Davis. Members were given and availed themselves of the opportunity, to express their views on the direction of the club for the next 12 months but particularly up until Xmas.4 members prior to the meeting provided written comments on my thoughts, that had been sent out via carrier pigeon “email” a few days before.The was a consensus that since the lockdown of Victoria, in the previous few days, it was unlikely that we would be able to get back to face to face meetings much before Xmas and maybe not even then.
We therefore needed to accept this reality and ensure that meetings remained relevant and interesting. Further,that the club during this time needed to refrain from “navel gazing” and ensure that we remained outward looking and relevant in the community, but equally important was to ensure we retained and enhanced our rotary friendships and supported each other. At the board on Tuesday night many avenues were explored to achieve the above and in addition to make the meetings fun. I commend you to watch our programme for the next few weeks and trust that you will agree that what is planned is in line with those goals. In particular I hope that members will engage fully in the ‘Ethics’ discussion. We will advise you before as to how we see that working over Zoom. Personally, I am keen to hear next week about Bruce N’s exploits over many months in a Volkswagon Kombi. To engage members more socially we would like to make one meeting per month informal where members have a meal (maybe ordered from a local restaurant) and we enjoy just eating, drinking and chatting –still whilst on Zoom.
Despite the somewhat restricted time sthe club has nevertheless maintained its focus on community service,recently being instrumental in donating second hand kitchen equipment to the value of $2500 to the Darusalum Community Group,which involved manpower but no cash from us –thanks to Neil Wilson for facilitating this.Go to our facebook page.
Plus -Wayne Dunstan has advised that the Cool-room and Fridges have now been installed at Walwa Bush Nursing Centre (WBNC) at a cost well below that was first quoted to the WBNC. The club thanks to Wayne and his son for making this happen. The club and the WBNC certainly got ‘bang for the bucks’ raised at the Bushfire Relief night with Athol Guy. Youth activities are expected to be curtailed for some months, however the Board has agreed to donate $100 to Macleod College towards enablinga student to attend the Conoco Phillips Science Experience in January 2021.
So see you all 20th July to listen to Big Bad Bruce tell us how to survive in a Kombi.
Capt “biscuit” Cook