Notes from the Meeting 8 June 2017

OPEN:

President Mike officially opened the meeting with the loyal toast.

INTERNATIONAL TOAST:

 Bryan Mason proposed the toast to the Rotary Club of Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
The 2017 Rotary International Convention is will be held at the Georgia World Congress Centre from 10-14 June and guests from over 100 countries will attend. This year Bill Gates will be one of the keynote speakers.

 

Some facts about the Rotary Club of Atlanta are that it was founded in 1913, and has been honored by Rotary International as one of its truly outstanding affiliates, with its members referring to the club as "the world's greatest Rotary Club."  With over 500 members it is one of the largest Rotary Clubs. It has been a long tradition that a member of the Club must be a key leader in his or her field, a person of integrity whose sense of values includes an obligation of community service. The Club is pleased that not one week goes by that does not bring recognition of one — and usually several — of its members for significant leadership of a major civic enterprise.

 

ESRAG (Environmental Sustainability Rotarian Action Group) will host a Post Convention Workshop to discuss their strategy and highlight their Tree Planting Challenge - 1.2 Million Trees by Earth Day, 22April 2018.

 

FUNDRAISING AT THE QUEENSLAND AIR MUSEUM:
The Open Cockpit Weekend at the Queensland Air Museum is on the 1st and 2nd July this year.  We will be providing hamburgers from 9am -4pm on Saturday and Sunday.  As in past years, we'll devise a roster so people can commit to a few hours, and as always we welcome family members to assist.  An email has been sent to all regarding this.  This is one of our major fundraising events and is also a lot of fun, so everyone is encouraged to attend.Peter Asher informed us that along with the F-111 there would be a range of other aircraft visitors could see up close, and that over the weekend we could expect more than 5000 visitors to pass through the gates.  That's a lot of hamburgers. 

 

DONATIONS IN KIND:

Don Wilkie and Bryan Mason travelled to Brisbane to assist other Rotarians in their efforts to send much needed items to schools and hospitals abroad.  There were about 50 Rotarians and many were packing shipping containers, but Don and Bryan were sorting books in a large warehouse owned by the Uniting Church.  There was a plethora of items from clothing to beds to dental chairs which had been donated, but the real challenge is finding the funds to pay for the transport.

 

GOLF DAY:

Tony Long says we now have 9 confirmed sponsors for our golf day and Ross Harrison has again agreed to do the Helicopter Drop.The Golf Day will be on FRIDAY, 6TH OCTOBER 2017.  The recipients of the proceeds will be Life Flight and STEPS.

 

RIKI TIKI:    

Win Fowles conducted a very educational Riki Tiki teaching us a few facts about the USA.

 

SERGEANT at ARMS:    

Don Wilkie was a fair sergeant and did a great job.

 

VOLUNTEER RECOGNITION:

Barbara Bailey did a wonderful job at coordinating our recognition of some local volunteers.  

As she said,  volunteers build better communities and do so by meeting real life needs.  

Each of the recipients has embodied the spirit of volunteering and contributed to community while changing the lives of the individuals they touch each week.  Pictured here (from left to right) President Mike, Joel Archer, May Gowlett and Gary Hall.  They were all humble recipients, and shared stories of the people whose lives they touch.

 

RAFFLE:

Conducted successfully by Graham and Les.

 

CLOSE:
President Mike thanked all for attending and thanked the duty team.  The meeting was closed with the singing of the National Anthem, this time accompanied by music.