April is looking like a busy month for Rotary Hawthorn members with a number of upcoming events. We have a meeting at Kooyong next Tuesday 9^th April with Sophie Flynn as our guest speaker, I have provided additional background information below in Announcements. 

A number of members have registered to attend the Bendigo District Conference on Friday 12^th to Sunday 14^th April.  Rotary SAFE Families will have a display area at the conference and Dorothy will be on hand to encourage other Rotary Clubs to join in and support this project.  Terry and I are looking forward to having our first Conference experience.

We have the Bunnings BBQ on Saturday 20^th April with a full roster of members on duty for the day.  All Members are encouraged to visit Bunnings Hawthorn during the day to sample the gourmet sausages we will be offering to customers and to catch up with fellow members.

Our annual ANZAC meeting is one of the major events in our Rotary calendar and this year we will have as guest speaker Dr Graham Pratt on Tuesday 23^rd April at Kooyong. He was commissioned as a lieutenant serving as a specialist officer, served in Vietnam and retired in 1987 as lieutenant colonel. His talk will cover From Gallipoli to Afghanistan - the continuing place of the Anzac legend in our nation. Members should encourage friends and family to attend this special lunch meeting to share in Dr Pratt’s story.

Announcements

Rotary Hawthorn AFL Tipping Competition Update.  Round 3 has concluded with the top tippers being Demons of Old, President Doug (a few lucky wins this week) and Purring.  Don’t forget to submit your tips for this week’s round.

The next Club meeting will be at Kooyong on Tuesday 9^th April at 12:45pm.

Our guest speaker is Sophie Flynn. Sophie is a lawyer with around 20 years of work experience, mainly in international humanitarian programming and policy.  She is currently working with UNICEF in a Chid Protection Programme role. The presentation will focus on Rotary and UNICEF's strong partnership, against the backdrop of UNICEF's role within the United Nations and UNICEF's mandate and work around the world.

Sophie is also the mother of Evie Flynn, our Club’s Rotary Exchange student in France.

The Board will also be meeting on Tuesday 9^th April at 5:30 pm.

Doug McLean

President 2023-24