The meeting this week was our annual commemoration for ANZAC day, which was well attended and the guest speaker, Dr Graham Pratt, gave an interesting perspective on the main battles of WW1.
Dr Pratt has a military background and his talk highlighted the futile nature of most of the major battles in WW1 due to poor planning, limited intelligence and the use of outdated military strategies.
My direct connection to the ANZAC’s is limited, unlike most other Club members, but I did have a father-in-law in NZ and Terry’s Dad who served in the NZ Army and Australian Navy respectively. Both men saw active duty during the Second World War and experienced first hand the loss of fellow ANZAC’s while serving. Like most men who served in their generation it was only later in life they were willing to share small stories of their experiences and how it shaped their lives.
LEST WE FORGET
The meeting this week included the induction of two new members, Mark Eldredge and Tamara Cannon. Tamara has had a long-term association with our Club first via her mother Ngaire and in more recent times the work with Lille Fro, her charity in India. Mark has a telecom and marketing background and his first Club project will be to join Ian Bentley and Ari Talantis on the update to our Club’s website.
I look forward to working with both Mark and Tamara on their Rotary journey.
Photos: Mark Eldredge with sponsor Ian Bentley and President Doug; Tamara Cannon receiving her Rotary "Show-bag", with sponsor Anne Scott in attendance.
Footing tipping last week was a bit of a challenge with Ari Talantis having the best result 6 out of 8 games by picking all the underdogs. Demons of Old has moved up to number one spot and your President is just hanging on at number 2 with Richard Logan moving up to number 3.
Announcements:
I am pleased to announce the Bunnings Barbeque on Saturday raised $2,242 for future Club projects. It was a busy day and I would like to especially thank David and Karun McNamara, Andrew and Pam Crockett, the members who manned the barbeque – Master Chefs Andrew, Noel, Sue Z and Vincent and Terry as chief coordinator. We were very lucky with the weather and the team spirit on display by all our Members was very rewarding, in addition to the funds raised.
I would also like to share some very good news on the planning for our Lift The Lid lunch, which is scheduled for Friday 18th October. Craig Tiley, CEO of Tennis Australia, has agreed to be our guest speaker. We have asked Craig to speak about the evolution of the Australian Open, the challenges during Covid and hopefully the Djokovic drama, as well as mental health programs to support up and coming and past tennis players, which will link in with our Rotary Mental Health theme. Over the next few months, we will be working to secure sponsors and auction/raffle prizes but with a high-profile guest speaker we are feeling confident it will be a huge success. I urge members to save the date now – Friday 18th October.
Our next meeting is on Tuesday 30thApril at Kooyong when our guest speaker will be Mark Howlett, President of Rotary Glenferrie. In January Mark joined a Rotary group organised motorcycle tour around India and visited a number of Clubs and projects across the country. Mark will share his stories and experiences from the trip, which he says was quite inspirational and exhilarating. I have also talked Dennis Shore into sharing some of his highlights from their recent trip to Nepal to attend the Katmandu District conference on behalf of Rotary International.
I hope you will be able to join us.
Doug McLean
President 2023-2024