Weekly Message From President Ngaire
What a great meeting we had on Tuesday. It’s a long time since I’ve heard so many chuckles around the room during our speaker’s address.
All I can say is that surely Anemone Kirk, our Exchange student from Denmark, must top the ‘best speakers’ list for this year. This confident 16 year-old started by quipping that she wasn’t a mermaid – she has 2 legs - and then went on to give us the most entertaining commentary on the use of showers after PE in Denmark, politics (their female Prime Minister keeps getting into trouble for saying the wrong things!!!), her ‘busy’ mother (on a tractor), her father whom she prefers in clothes other than business suits, and school life as an exchange student in Australia. The questions were many and Anemone responded delightfully. The thank you gift of hand made soap, made by Alola, was the best choice, given her frequent use of the school showers here.
Chris Hanson introduced us to our new Police mentoree, Inspector David Griffin, who has been a member of the Victoria police for 33 years. He now heads up the State Highway Patrol. We hope to see Dave often at our weekly meetings.
We were most concerned to hear from Ian Cathels that member Jack Ings has had a serious recurrence of his leg problems, and is back in Cabrini indefinitely. Our love and thoughts are with you, Jack, and we wish you a speedy recovery.
The sun smiled last weekend on a hugely successful Garden Design Fest. RC of Kew has already banked $80,000 so it is a phenomenal result. A very special thank you to our amazing Garden Captains, Elizabeth Foxworth, Anne Scott and Chris Hanson, who went above and beyond to ensure their gardens were set up and manned, the coffee was flowing (Templestowe) and the Girl Guides were happy (Ivanhoe). A terrific job, thank you team, for your work over the past 6 months and your commitment to the outcome. Thank you also to Anne and Ken, Elizabeth, Ralph, John Christoffelsz and Faye, Ian Stoney and Charles for your double shifts, Charles Morrison for helping out with the afternoon delivery on Sunday, and to Kevin Rose and David Corrigan (Malvern) and all who helped with the break down and delivery of equipment back to storage on Sunday. John Christoffelsz organised the raffle and Faye was marvellous on the coffee machine. A particular thank you also to your partners and family who delivered goods to sites, helped fill the rosters and cheerfully promoted the concept of Rotarians at Work. It was a fun way to earn big dollars for our RCH designated charities, Lille Fro, Girl Guides, Alola and Sumba.
The Olave Baden-Powell luncheon on Thursday December 6th will be a significant lunch for RCH as we will be presented with a plaque in recognition of our contribution to their Corporate Friend program. The money donated will be used in Leadership Development Programs for Girl Guides throughout the Asia Pacific region. Anne Scott, Gordon and Sheila Cheyne and I are attending and we invite you to join us. Anemone will be our Club guest at the lunch, and I understand she was rushing home to charge her camera in happy anticipation of some photos with HRH Princess Azizah Iskandar of Malaysia, who is the patron of the Olave Baden-Powell Society.
Ken McNamara, Gerald Swinnerton and I had our first meeting on Tuesday about the AAMI Tennis Parking in January. It is so exciting to think we haven’t lost this source of revenue. The tennis is happening earlier this year so please make a note now in your diaries: Tuesday, January 8th is set up day, to mark out the parking bays – from 4 to 6pm. There’s no RCH meeting that day, so we may have a BBQ or casual meal afterwards. The AAMI Classic goes from Wednesday 9th to Saturday 12th January, and we need about 24 people every day. We’ll be looking for your help with filling those rosters – and then we have a rest from fund raising. Promise!!
Such good news from Noel Halford about the change of venue which will simplify the logistics for our Christmas Lunch on Sunday December 23. Noel is looking for help with organising certain aspects of the function. Transport and Santa are in place, (has anyone told Bernie??) but many other tasks await your volunteering.
Noel McInnes exhorts us to get our District 9800 Conference registrations to Robert Ball, either on-line or by post, before December 12. David Pisterman also needs to know you’re coming so he can reserve your accommodation at The Olive.
We now have our numbers for the group concession rate for the Rivoli, planned for Wednesday December 5th, to see the latest James Bond thriller, Skyfall. No limit on numbers, please phone or email me if you can join our group: ngairec@bigpond.net.au Need to know date: next Monday, November 26.
We’ve had a great response to our invitation to celebrate Christmas together on Thursday December 13th, perhaps because it is a night without formality or fundraising. We deserve it!! This evening is all about fellowship and celebrating our team achievements this Rotary year. We have special entertainment organised and your 3-course meal and drinks is only $75 per head, so please make sure you are included on John Christoffelsz’s list.
I will look forward to seeing many of you at Sackville Grange on Saturday for our Club Vision session run by the District team. Please be punctual, we start at 9am sharp.
We have Pip Smibert speaking to us next week in his Member Behind the Badge presentation, something to look forward to. Also our AGM is scheduled, so another good reason to see you at lunch on Tuesday.
Enjoy your weekend and thank you again for all your support in the Gardens.
Yours in Rotary,
Ngaire
Thoughts for the week:
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”
“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”
- Albert Einstein