OUR NEW PRESIDENT:
Peter Higgs was introduced as the 40th president for Rotary club of Caloundra Pacific. Peter’s motto for the year is Rotary's motto of "Service above self".
Peter introduced the guest for the night, Ruby (Barbara’s granddaughter) and also welcomed back Will and congratulated him on becoming a Pop again.
Peter thanked everyone for their hard work at the QAM open day, and commended the excellent comradery! $5k was raised with a net of $3k which is great work by all!
The student exchange dinner was held at Dicky Beach Surf Club with all of the parents and students in attendance. Gertrud went home last Wednesday, and it was sad to see her go as she was great fun! Our next exchange student, Clarissa, arrives 21st of July. Nicole from WPC has volunteered to be a host family for the new students.
Peter spoke about why we are here and where we are going. The Rotary Wheel needs to be bigger so we can portray to others how much difference we make in the community. There are 1.2 million Rotarians and the number is declining, but we are a big enough group to have a seat on the UN and in the top 10 foundations in the world – THIS IS A BIG DEAL! Our motto – Service above Self is all about doing good in the world. Peter said we need to collaborate with fellow Rotary groups to make a bigger impact and fundraise more. He would like everyone to think of fundraising ideas and bring them back to the next meeting to discuss.
INTERNATIONAL TOAST:
The international toast was completed by Win Fowles were he did a makeup in 1999 at the Rotary Club of West Jerusalem in Israel.
They meet at the King David Hotel every week with around 15-18 members with 12 attending meetings each week. The language used predominately is Yiddish as opposed to Hebrew which is more commonly used in the area. There is a German pastor there also and the only common language was English, which the members used to help Win understand.
ROTARY ANNIVERSARIES:
Dave Millar – 48 years
Kevin Curd – 36 years
Gordon Watson – 35 years
Win Fowles – 22 years
Peter Asher – 11 years
RYDA:
Kevin Curd would like to thank Don Wilkie for assistance with setting up RYDA. The program dates are as follows and we still need volunteers for set up and the day:
19 July, 10 July, 2 August, 9 August. Volunteers are much needed on 1 August for set up, 8 August for set up and 20 July for assistance with the children.
SLEEPOUT:
Les spoke about the sleepout raising funds for St Vinnies. There were 74 people who all started on the beach but as it started to rain around midnight they had to move up to the surf club veranda area. It took Les 3 days to recover after some creaky bones and arthritis but it was well worth it as they raised over $126 000.
CLUB UPDATE:
Les, as Sergeant, asked people to sit at different tables every week to get to know new people.
Barbara spoke about vocational talks, she will be creating a roster to get this up and running again. Everyone will be involved and have their chance to speak during the year. Dave Handy will start next week with a 2 minute talk.
Kevin Long reminded everyone the Golf Day is 6 Oct. He still needs 6 more teams to compete.
THE YEAR AHEAD:
Kevin Leadbetter spoke and asked everyone what community projects we would like to be involved in this year:
· We will continue with Hope Within Reach
· We will continue helping with Zonta even though the project has been completed. We will help with manpower at fundraisers but not provide physical support.
· We will continue with Caloundra Biggest Morning Tea
· We will continue with Clean Up Australia Day. Kevin will also put some thought into how we can make an educational proposal to this cause
· We will continue with QAM Open Day
Kevin also had an idea to develop a community museum, a subcommittee has been approved to be formed.
Rotarian of the Month is Tatiana Porter. Unfortunately Tatiana had to leave early therefore Nicole accepted the award on her behalf.
Peter reminded everyone of our theme which is “making a difference” . He also said the new Corporate Member has brought extra motivation to the group.