/ District Governor: Jane Cox
Assistant Governor: Lorraine Wilson
President: Noel Howard.
Tel: 0355724623. Mob. 04393110
Email:
Secretary: Bob Penny.
Tel: 0355711823
Email: /

BULLETIN

MEETING 3814 / MEETING 3815
MONDAY 8th February 2016 / MONDAY 15th February 2016
Chair: Leo Cummins / Chair: President Noel
Program: Terry Sim – Journalist with “Truth” / Program: CLUB VISIONING AT 3PM
Cashier: Glenn Howell / Cashier: Glenn Howell
Bulletin: Tony Wark / Bulletin: Rose Howard
Bar: Peter Dyson / Bar:
Fines: Damien Meagher / Fines: None this week
Set up: Peter Schroder / Set up: Willis Duncan
Coming Dates
March 18th – 20th / DISTRICT CONFERENCE
March 23rd bbq at Harness Racing Venue / COMBINED SERVICE CLUBS MEETING
April 12th (Tuesday) / STRATHDOWNIE

REPORT OF MEETING NO.3813

Lorraine was in the chair for the meeting. The International toast was proposed by Murray, who must have been following the tennis and noted Novak Djokovic's sixth win. Novak was born in Belgrade, Serbia, so he proposed a toast to the Rotary club of Belgrade (club 64478). It was charted on 21st Feb 2004 and meets on Tuesdays at the Hyatt Regency. The president is Olivera Stanic.

President Noel welcomed our visitors, Liz Brinkmann and Des Watts.

Les has recently had a birthday.

Announcements:

  • The President’s dinner will be at the Botanical onFriday 19th Feb. This could be a good night to bring guests.
  • Club visioning will be heldon Monday15th starting at3 PM.
  • District conference registrations are still open.
  • Rotary Club of Portland Bay will be starting the Great South West Walk on3rd April.
  • Rotary has formed a regional drought co-ordination program which will be coordinated from the Dept. of Agriculture (or whatever its name is now) in Horsham. It is also forming an Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group (ESRAG). This will develop projects to promote environmental sustainability, awareness of climate change, actions to reduce greenhouse gases and mitigate climate disruption.
  • The combined services club meeting is proposed formarch 23rd.
  • Anyone who wishes to do a Club Visioning questionnaire, please do so and send it to DG Jane by Monday.

Reports:

  1. Sec. Bob reported that the fund raising raffle with Ballarat South had been quite successful again with most tickets sold. It will be drawn in the near future.
  2. Club service director Peter reported that we were giving a donation to Jenny Clark for her work in Tanzania. This is the largest East African country but one of the poorest countries in the world and Jenny described her work at a previous meeting.
  3. Willis reported that the Inter Club bowls competition will be on the9th March.
  4. Leo suggested that members and friends might like to come to his“Ivanhoe” property to look at the twinner cows at calving time since it may be the last one there. This could be a vocational visit, see the article in the beef week section of the Western District Farmer. The invitation was forTuesday 15th marcharriving5.30 - 6pmto look around then have a BBQ. More details to follow.
  5. Kevin managed to get round to everyone during the fines session. Once again the Bali kids did well.

Lorraine then introduced our GUEST SPEAKER, Des Watts, from the Rotary Club of Berri. Des is travelling round Australia on an 11 week trip to raise awareness of Disaster Aid Australia, a project of the Rotary Club of Endeavour Hills. Des is driving a Toyota Land Cruiser emblazoned in Disaster Aid livery. This is his 4th trip promoting things for Rotary, clearly he doesn't like mowing the lawns at home. Some of his enthusiasm for these projects dates back to when he was working in an orphanage in Sri Lanka and was really touched by one of the little children he was working with. When it came time for him to go he was saying goodbye and that he had to go home and the child replied that she had no home to go to.

Des showed us the "SkyHydrant" sustainable drinking water solution. This is a very smart water purification unit that produces safe drinking water without the need for power or chemicals. It uses an ultrafiltration membrane which can operate under gravity with a low head and a single unit can produce enough water for 1000 people. In disaster areas clean drinking water is almost always one of the urgent needs. The SkyHydrant costs about $5000 and is produced near Brisbane.

Disaster Aid Australia also provides the Family Survival Pack for deployment on Disaster areas. This is a heavy duty 190 litre plastic box which contains the tent, blankets, cooking utensils and many other useful items which can help rebuild broken lives. The pack costs $800.

Des showed us some videos of these things being deployed in many disaster areas in recent years. These included Pakistan, Kenya, Philippines, Haiti and Sudan etc. It was good to see the blue tents and blue boxes being put to use and the people involved clearly appreciative. The Disaster Aid sends in DART teams in quickly to assess the needs and start the required responses. Then they get us involved in rebuilding these devastated communities using local resources as much as possible. As well as clean drinking water and shelter, these people need dignity, hope, courage, pride and self worth and safety.

The meeting closed with President Noel's cheque presentation to Des, and the singing of the National Anthem.

Pres. Noel with Des Watts & his travelling van Pres. Noel, giving Des a cheque from our Club

Pres. Noel with Des Watt and the “SkyHydrant” water filter