We continue our historical glimpses with some memories from Noel Halford, who was our President in 2006-07.
What a year it turned out to be!
I was delighted to be President of our Rotary Club in 2006 – 07: in the year that saw our own Bernie Walshe accept the appointment of District Governor 9800 and become the fourth DG from the Rotary Club of Hawthorn since its Charter in 1953.
The highlight that dominated my year as President was undoubtedly the role Hawthorn played as host club for the District Conference which was held in Canberra in March 2007. As DG Bernie Walshe’s home club we traditionally assumed the role of organizing the District Conference for that year and it is with pride we can say it was a great success.
The success of this conference was in no small way due to the untiring efforts of Conference Chair, Noel McInnes, Ian Warren and of course my friend, the late Tony Charlton, who organised the most impressive range of Guest Speakers ever seen at any D9800 Conference.
The logistic
s and the detailed organization of this Conference was most impressive particularly when the original Canberra Venue was declared unavailable after the booking had been confirmed. Noel McInnes and his committee introduced Plan B which saw the smooth relocation to a number of mini venues within the Australian Institute of Sport precinct.
s and the detailed organization of this Conference was most impressive particularly when the original Canberra Venue was declared unavailable after the booking had been confirmed. Noel McInnes and his committee introduced Plan B which saw the smooth relocation to a number of mini venues within the Australian Institute of Sport precinct.The ultimate success of this conference was clearly due to a great club team effort and the response to requests made by the organizing committee of members was amazing as was the generous support of all sponsors, particularly Lexus of Blackburn, the lead sponsor.
Notwithstanding the demands on the club members throughout the year leading up to the Conference, there were some achievements that were noteworthy. These included the Rotary club of Hawthorn Boroondara Paper presented by Bernard Salt (right) to a well attended Business Breakfast.
In that year, we engaged with community partners Camcare and the former Foundation Boroondara (now Boroondara Cares) on a significant community service project. We played a lead role into the establishment of an enquiry into child poverty and social isolation within Boroondara.
We also participated in the organization of our first Boroondara Community Christmas Lunch which is now a flagship community event.
During this Rotary Year we sponsored two outstanding local students to the National Youth Science Forum as well as sponsoring a RYLA candidate.
This was the year when we supported Chinatsu Endo a Japanese Ambassadorial Scholar who has since worked on UN projects in Nigeria, Sudan, Kazakhstan and now resides in USA.
In summary it was a most challenging year but made enjoyable by the support and commitment from all club members some of whom are no longer with us, but their contributions will never be forgotten.
Noel Halford
Noel’s Presidential Report can be found in ClubRunner Documents HERE
(You may need to log into ClubRunner to access this)
Photo: Marjorie and Noel