This week’s Member Behind the Badge with Peter England was a very interesting combination of the England family’s journey from Melbourne to Sydney and back plus his varied roles with an IT focus.
Peter also highlighted his ongoing support for Scotch College, which he credits with providing the life skills to enable him to achieve success in his working life.
I am pleased to announce as part of the Rotary District Regionalisation Project that Dorothy has been appointed a Rotary Specialist. Dorothy will promote Rotary SAFE Families under the banner of Gender Equality and is recognised for the work it does in the “Prevention of family violence to any community or diversity”.
The Rotary District Regionalisation team have also announced Michael Stillwell from Rotary Kew will take on the role of Rotary Community Leader for our Group-2 of Clubs, which is mainly based on Boroondara and Stonnington Clubs. This role will involve increasing the public profile of Clubs in the region, looking at areas we can work together to promote projects and to increase membership.
As members will recall Rotary Hawthorn and eight other Rotary Clubs have supported restoration of the Alma Doepel, a three masted Australian built sailing ship. We have received the latest update on the Alma Doepel restoration. With the completion of the deck at the end of April the hull of the Alma Doepel has now been declared watertight. This flags the beginning of the next step in the restoration, which is to return the ship to the water and mast-raising is being planned for the end of May this year. The current plan is to have all the restoration work completed by November 2025. In the longer term it is envisaged to use the ship as a youth training vessel commencing in 2026. (Photo- Wikipedia)
CWA Boroondara have invited members to join them for an Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea event to raise funds for the Cancer Council on Saturday 25 May, from 10.30am – 12noon at Auburn Bowls Club, 2B Munro Street, Hawthorn East. The cost is $15 pp donation and will include a selection of morning tea items and coffee/tea. RSVP: For catering purposes, please advise your total number of expected attendees, and any dietary requirements, by Sunday 12 May, to Sue Seymour on suecrockett@gmail.com
The annual Changeover Dinner is scheduled for Tuesday 4th June at Kooyong LTC starting at 6:30 pm. It will be a fun filled evening with a few surprises, an email invitation was sent out last week and details and booking information will be included in this week’s Bulletin.
Footing tipping this week had a couple of cliff hanger games with the final outcome going either way if you are a Melbourne or Geelong supporter or Carlton and Collingwood supporter. The Rotary Hawthorn ladder is now headed by Richard Logan with myself and Demons of Old breathing down on him.
The next Club meeting is Tuesday May 21st at Kooyong and the guest speaker is Neil Cole. Neil is a multi-award winning playwright and author who won the Aspire Award in 2017 from the Supreme Court of Victoria for his ground-breaking work on psychiatry in the theatre. He is also a former criminal lawyer, mental health advocate, former member of parliament and Alzheimer's researcher. Neil’s latest book is titled: Trials and Tribulations In Community Law.
I hope you can join us for Neil’s talk on a number of interesting topics.
Doug McLean
President 2023-2024