Lille Fro has supported some of the most disadvantaged children in a remote corner of India to ensure they have adequate nutrition and are provided with education opportunities over the past 15 plus years. The results of this project are starting to have a positive impact on these remote villages as the students complete their studies and return to establish families in the region.

Tamara was also very appreciative of the support provided to Lille Fro by Hawthorn Rotary over the years.

Covid impacted her plans for developing projects over the past three years and she is in the process of re-establishing the fundraising to complete work on a new school facility in the region.

Hawthorn Rotary have been involved in maintaining the charitable trust status within Australia for Lille Fro Foundation and we hope to continue to work with her and the Trust moving forward.

Member news update

Rebecca Tamusuza has advised me she will be unable to attend any in-person meetings this year due to her role working with schools in the Tarneit area. She has requested her membership status be deferred for a year. We hope we might see Rebecca at one of our evening functions.

Deferred July Board Meeting

Due to some technical issues with starting the Zoom Board meeting last Tuesday afternoon, we had to cancel the meeting.  I have now had a lesson from Ian Bentley to overcome any hitches in the future. Thank you Ian!

We have a number of Board members away at the moment and attempts to re-schedule the meeting have not been successful to give us a quorum. Given we did not have any urgent matters to discuss we will carry them forward to the August meeting.

Rochester Flood Victims Support Project

As previously advised, we are working with Rochester Rotary to provide additional support to the local residents impacted by the October flood event.

We have provided them with blankets, doonas, children’s books and puzzles donated by residents of Sackville Grange; we have also purchased fire blankets, small fire extinguishers and sensor lights to help residents living in caravans and small sheds awaiting the rebuilding of their homes.  

In total Hawthorn Rotary have agreed to provide $6,000 of support to the Rochester Flood victims with half of these funds provided by Sackville Grange residents and the balance from Survey St Trust.  To date $2,000 has been spent and for the balance we are awaiting recommendations from Rochester Rotary on how they feel it would best benefit their community.

I will keep you posted on the progress of this project.

Schedule of meetings and activities for 2024

Over the next few weeks I plan to speak with a number of members for feedback on how they would like the meeting schedule to look for 2024 and I plan to have a Club wide survey as part of this process.

We will discuss this further at upcoming Board meetings to determine if the current mix of in-person meetings at Kooyong with a Zoom meeting each month is considered appropriate.

Upcoming Events

·      Salvo Hawks next game Wednesday 26^th July at 11:30am; we need a couple of extra members as goal umpires and for the pizza run

·      Rotary Hawthorn 70^th Anniversary Dinner. The Club’s 70^th Anniversary Dinner will be held on Thursday 24^th August, the anniversary of the actual date on which Rotary Hawthorn received its charter. Bookings can be made online at www.trybooking.com/CJETL.  Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate all that has been achieved by our Club over 70 years. The Social Committee has planned an evening of fun, historical tributes and fellowship. Wear a touch of Platinum or Silver!

·      District Governor Ron Payne will be the guest speaker at our meeting on 19^th September at Kooyong.  The lunch meeting will be followed at 2pm by a Board meeting to be attended by Ron as well.

·      Rotary Club of Nhill weekend 25^th & 26^th November. Save these dates in your diary as we are planning a Club visit and the Nhill Club will organise a special dinner with the local Myanmar community.  Noel Halford has organised a group booking at the Zero Inn Nhill, you can contact them on 03 5391 1622 to confirm your accommodation.

·      Rotary District Conference 2024.  The District Conference will be held in Bendigo on 12-14 April and David Pisterman has agreed to act as our Club’s “On to Conference” organiser.  As outlined by David at today’s meeting he has organised accommodation packages for the weekend and will share these details.

Next week’s meeting

The next meeting is by Zoom on Tuesday 25^th July and the guest speaker is Darren Park author of “To Catch a Thief”. How does a forensic investigator catch a person committing fraud? Darren will answer this and many other questions about what happened behind the scenes in a number of real fraud investigations in Australia and overseas.

Over my business career I have worked with some incredibly reputable and successful business directors and managers and a few who have actually gone to jail for some of their actions, and in between a couple of others who should have but were not caught with enough evidence.  I look forward to Darren’s talk and hope you will join in as well.

Doug McLean

President, 2023-24