Club Bulletin No 2, Vol 21, August 2 2002 The Cam |
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| Features | If you are not getting The Bulletin let the committee know! | News |
President's Message | Missed Meetings | ||||||||||
| Guest Speakers And Coming Events |
Aug 2 |
Club Forum |
| Duty Officers | August | Dean Wolfenden Sandy Astill Ian Brauman |
| Duty Officer's Duties | Placing all the gear in Rotary Room after and before each meeting. | |
| Reminders | ||
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President's Message 2ND AUGUST 2002 On Monday we welcomed our inbound Youth Exchange Student Laura from the Netherlands who commences her year with our Club. After some confusion locating her at the airport Laura was safely in the hands of Brian & Royale White who will host her for the first part of her stay. Many thanks to those members who were able to make it to the airport to make Laura feel welcome. On behalf of the Club I welcome Laura to Australia and to our Club. We all hope that her stay with us will be an enjoyable and worthwhile experience for her. We had our first Board Meeting on Tuesday where a number of issues were discussed. The Directors have resolved to support the Interplast Program with a contribution of $ 1000. Rtn Graham Koch will visit our Club next Friday 9th August to talk to us on the work of Interplast. The Club has received forms to nominate a young person for the National Youth Leadership Forum to be held in Canberra from 29th August - 1st September 2002. If you would like to nominate an appropriate young person then please talk with Robyn Goodwin (Vocational Service) or Gina Raccanello (New Generations) and they will assist. We also had a Combined Presidents Meeting this week where a number of important matters were discussed. We are still accepting nominations for a GSE Team Leader to Turkey. The Business Liaison Association is desperate for ushers to help students and parents at the Careers Expo to be held at Fred Moule Pavilion from 29th - 31st August 2002. There are 2 shifts of 3 hours approx on Thursday & Friday and on session on Saturday morning. Our Club is required to provide one usher for each session, so if you can help out please contact Robyn Goodwin urgently. Ron Cheeseman is actively involved in the production of a video to be used to publicise Rotary during Rotary Awareness Week in September. Please remember to keep pushing our Rotary Community Art Union tickets. The closing date is not too far away and we need to make sure that all of the tickets are sold. If you know of an organization that may benefit from being involved in our unique Art Union then please call John Quinn (Community Service), Herman Ehrlich or David Kirchner and they will take it from there. Upcoming events that members are encouraged to be involved in include the FNQ Youth Assistance Fund Testimonial Dinner to honour Ted Elliott ( a great Rotarian and member of our Club) that will be held at Brothers Leagues Club on Friday 9th August 2002. So far we have 20 members from our Club attending which is fantastic support, however if you would like to join us please contact me or Michael Plunkett for a form. The next evening 10th August 2002 we have ( be member request) our Christmas in the Mountains function at the Lake Eacham Hotel. Numbers for this are also excellent so if you want to come and have some fun and fellowship please let Gina know and book your own accommodation at the pub. August is Rotary Membership Extension Month, so please think hard about introducing a new member to Rotary this month. If you have someone in mind all you need do is contact either David Kirchner (Membership Co-ordinator) or myself and we will contact the person to invite them to a meeting. We have inducted 2 new members recently in Dean Wolfenden and Carl Pie so lets keep the momentum going. That's about it for this week. See you all at the Hilton at 12.30pm for 1.00pm - remember the parking arrangements. Take care of each other, and be sure to talk to someone about Rotary this week. Garry Shirvington President Rotary Club of Cairns-Mulgrave 2002-03 Rotary 4-Way Test 1.
Is it the TRUTH? |
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A Message From The R.I. President By Bob Aitken, Managing Editor Rotary Down Under Rotary Down Under July 2002 Rotary's Literacy Month of July Past Governor. Likes Disaster Fund Idea
Relay For Life Again |
A Message From The R.I. President Rotary Down Under July 2002 Sow the Seeds of Love in your club, you vocation your community and throughout the world. Dear fellow Rotarians, I am looking forward with great anticipation to our year of service of 2002-2003. Rotarians at the grassroots level are the inspiration and strength behind our distinguished organization. Their dream and tireless dedication have helped transform communities and countries for nearly a century. I am a firm believer in working from the bottom up, rather than the top down. Rotarians themselves are in the best position to know what is important to their clubs and communities. I feel that in the past, too many new programs have been introduced at the beginning of each Rotary year. This year, I will not implement any new programs, goals, or quotas. It is important to focus on those projects and programs already in place, rather than diffuse our efforts. The 2002-03 Presidential Citation reflects this philosophy. I encourage club leaders to set their own goals and initiate their own ideas. Each club should determine how it will carry out activities I all of the Four Avenues of Service (club, vocational, community and international). Similarly, each club will set its own membership and fund raising goals, consistent with the bottom-up approach. I invite clubs to focus on the following areas: · Increasing membership based on specific club goals (consistent with R.I.'S overall goal to increase net membership to 1.5 million member by 2005). · Participating in or financially supporting at lease on project or program of The Rotary Foundation. · Initiating or continuing at least on activity within each of the Four Avenues of Service. One major focus of the 2002 - 03 year will be supporting PolioPlus. The Rotary Foundation of R.I. has launched a new campaign, Fulfilling Our Promise: Eradicate Polio to raise $U80 million to help achieve our goal of eradicating polio by the year 2005. The World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. We must commit ourselves fully to this noble effort; otherwise, 20 years of progress may be lost. I also invite Rotarians to begin preparations for Rotary's milestone centennial in 2005. One way to commemorate this historic event is to implement a Rotary Club Centennial Community Project. It might take the form of a park for children, a shelter for the homeless, or a vocational centre for the unemployed - whatever is most needed in your community. This project will serve as a lasting reminder of Rotary's contributions and mission of service. This year's R.I. theme is Sow the Seeds of Love, based on my belief that meaningful service comes from the heart. I encourage all Rotarians to Sow the Seeds of Love in their clubs, in their vocations, in their communities, and throughout the world. As Doctor Jonas Salk once said: "The greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more." I believe we can change the world, one life at a time. No project is too small or insignificant, especially to those it benefits. My hope is that these seeds of service will blossom and live on for countless generations to come. Bhichai Rattakul, President, Rotary International. By Bob Aitken, Managing Editor Rotary Down Under Rotary Down Under July 2002 How often do we hear comments at club assemblies on the importance of running club meetings to time? It's a chestnut with members regularly complaining about presidents and chairmen who allow meetings to ramble on past the scheduled closing time on cold winter nights. During the past month, I had the great delight of brief working tour of three Rotary clubs in the central rural districts of Victoria at Castlemaine, Bendigo and Maryborough. Apart from the usual high standard of Rotary service always evident in country Rotary clubs, I can't let the occasion pass without special mention of the efficient organization of the Rotary Club of Castlemaine's Paul Harris Fellow Recognition Night. President Vincent Cappi has his brother Felix as chairman and with club secretary Ruth White efficiently hovering behind the scenes the program ran like clockwork. With a 6:30pm start, approximately 60 Rotarians and guests enjoyed a delicious meal, the usual director's reports, a profitable sergeant's session, the dignified induction of three impressive new members, short addresses from yours truly and the then District 9800 Governor Ann White, full recognition of three new deserving Paul Harris Followers, the usual votes of thanks, presentation and photographs and the meeting concluded at 8:30pm. Nothing was rushed at any stage and a healthy buzz of fellowship was evident during the evening. Congratulations Vinni. The meeting was a shining example of how to run a great Rotary meeting. Sadly, another chestnut - all-male Rotary clubs - raised its head during June. One wonders how long it will take Rotary's few remaining diehards to realise that the rules of Rotary changed for all time in the last century . . . . . 1989 to be exact. Rotary clubs are a vocationally-based service organization and we cannot hope to be truly representative of the community if we exclude females from membership. Females now comprise more than 50 percent of the workforce in most western countries. The worst aspect of this lingering situation is that sections of the media delight in highlighting the situation whenever it surfaces, holding Rotary to ridicule as an out-of-touch, conservative organization. Thankfully, on this occasion, many of the writers did acknowledge Rotary's good works and that most Rotary clubs had undergone suitable change. Jottings from Director John Words can be powerful, dangerous, funny and inspirational. In many instances they are instructional and invaluable. The basic problem is that they only exist for those who can read. In Rotary's Literacy Month of July we ponder on a simple statistic that about one-quarter of the world's people cannot read at all and even more are functionally illiterate. Many of these people are close to where each Rotary club meets - your Rotary club. For those of us who can read, the very idea of being functionally illiterate is a problem. Literacy is an essential tool - it is as practical as a paintbrush, a screwdriver or a car and is needed by all participants in any community to function fully. It is fundamental to raising standards of living and personal self-esteem. Consider just health aspects of family life. If we could not read the directions on a medicine bottle or measure accurately, then it follows that the required medicine will be most likely administered incorrectly. Individuals must be given life-long learning opportunities to move along a continuum that includes reading, writing and the critical understanding and decision-making needed to make decisions in the family, the community, employment situations and even in recreation. Rotary can help. Your can help. John G.Thorne, of the Rotary Club of Hobart North, Tas., is a Rotary International Director 2002-04. He can be contacted through thorne@tassie.net.au or www.geocities.com/john.thorne Support the Rotary Vision First Rotary Down Under July 2002 I was interested in the letter from PDG Geoff Dubois in April's Rotary Down Under on disaster funds. In particular his statement that "it has become increasingly noticeable that many institutions and individuals look to Rotary as a charity organization with our funds being available for handouts. Many of these institutions are quite capable of raising funds in just the same manner as Rotary Clubs." We often express disappointment that our communities are not aware of Rotary. Yet it is surprising how many people and organisations know where we are when they want something. I am not suggesting that we shouldn't help when we can, and in most of our own local communities there are needs where we are able to help. There are no doubt occasions when there is an urgent national need, diasters such as the N.S.W. bushfires being one, when everyone helps. I have seen the situation where a Rotarian believes that the Rotary club exists to help his or her particular charity. However, I often wonder why Rotarians and clubs so often make a great deal of effort in fund raising or supporting charities which already have a well-established structure, often with paid fund raising offices and staff, while at the same time ignoring our own Rotary charities, in particular The Rotary Foundation, the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund, Rotary Overseas Medical Aid for Children and other. For example, I don't think that the Anti-Cancer Foundation raises funds and then gives them to the National Heart Foundation, as worth as both of these organisations may be. Yet we do this sort of thing constantly. Perhaps our charities are too big for many Rotarians to understand. They can easily perceive and want to help a handicapped child in their own community, a community which usually has extensive charitable and tax-funded facilities to assist that child. They can't relate to a handicapped child in another country where little if any of this support is available, and in which the child has little future other than to become a beggar. They can't see the results of medical research, results which may assist thousands of people, but may not become evident for many years. They cant see that by helping bright young people today, we are helping those who will be leading our society in the future. They cant see that by enable young people to gain a better understanding of the lives and cultures of people of other countries and nationalities we are helping promote a world in which all people may one day be able to live together in peace and harmony. Rotary is a big organization with a big vision, a vision that extends beyond our own club communities, our own Districts and our own country. Rotary has programs that reflect this vision. Should we not be giving our greatest support to our programs and our vision? Geoff Schahinger Rotary Club of Hindmarsh, S.A. District 9500 Past Governor. Likes Disaster Fund Idea This letter is in total support of the opinion Geoff Dubois expressed in Mailbox, Rotary Down Under (April, 2002). For years now I have flirted with the idea that a National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) be set up along the lines of Australian Rotary Health Research Fund (ARHRF). Briefly, it would have a growing pool of funds suitably invested and only the interest accrued be available for immediate disbursement, in cases of need, this to be determined by the Board of Directors. The disbursement to be made and administered through Rotary clubs in the region affected. This does not preclude the hands-on assistance given so willingly, sometimes heroically by Rotary members from essential services, and other service clubs. Here I have to say that I have always believed that Rotarians are apart from other service clubs in that each member is regarded to be the best in their classification, by their fellow members, and that most importantly are experts as entrepreneurs. This last, is the single most important role of Rotarians in disaster, i.e., they have the ability to network and mobilise from the community at large, support in the form of necessities from immediate relief for those affected. The Rotary Club of Eltham, Vic., was working on the idea of a Safe Water Kit for use in disasters. From my stage in life I do not see the need for my presence at disaster sites, certainly not to win brownie points, to get warm fuzzies or to boost my now non-existent Christian zeal, or to be able to advertise that Rotary woz 'ere. This is an opportunity for us to reaffirm our effectiveness as Rotarians in general but more specifically in the face of disasters. Reg Prasad Rotary Club of Darwin Sunrise, N.T. National Science Summer School Inc 15 July 2002 Dear President, I congratulate your Club on having your nominee selected by your Rotary District to attend the National Youth Science Forum in Canberra in January 2003. The majority of the 1150 Rotary Clubs in Australia nominated nearly 1,700 students from whom 282 participants were selected. We invite you, with your student, to attend an orientation session at the location set out in the NYSF Guide which was sent to your student on selection. The student will also receive a subsequent specific invitation from the Rotary District Chairman. This is the next major step in the lead-up to the National Youth Science Forum for the students now that they have been chosen to attend in January. Would you be good enough to invite your nominated student, the bearer of this letter, with parents, to one of your Club meetings and to allow him or her to express thanks to the Club at the meeting. I have sent to the Principal of the nominee's secondary school a certificate for the Principal to present to the student before the school year ends. If any of your members are likely to be in Canberra in January, please remind them of the meetings of Ginninderra Rotary Club which are held at the NYSF on Wednesday January 8 and January 22, 2003. Out of town Rotarians are particularly welcome. Can you ask your student to be a guest speaker at one of your Club meetings early in 2003, once the National Youth Science Forum has finished, to explain to your Club the value of the programme. We will be sending to your early in 2003 a certificate of completion to present to the student on that occasion. Parents of the student would like to attend. Perhaps you could set the date now. The student will be given, by the NYSF, a certificate to be presented to your Club on that occasion in recognition of your nomination. The student is also expected to present to you, and to your District NYSF Chairman, a written report on the activities on the NYSF which should be available by then. Please note that activities for the NYSF are confirmed and tickets purchased immediately after Orientation around October 23rd. Any withdrawal from the NYSF after this date will be subject to a 20% service fee in addition to any penalty that the airline may apply for cancellation. May I congratulate your Club on identifying a successful student and look forward to your participation in the future. Yours sincerely, (R L Jory) Director, NYSF An exceptional show of community support in Cairns on 1st and 2nd of June has led to the most successful inaugural Relay for Life event in Australia, with over $200,000 being raised by the community. Over 12 moths of hard work and planning by Chairperson Sandy Astill and her committee of Cairns Rotarians and community leaders comae to fruition when 1500 participants gathered at Barlow park for the big day. An amazing array of decorated campsites added a colourful flavour to the event, which involved teams of 10-15 people walking relays around a track for 18 hours. This amazing even could not have been achieved without the help of many sponsors, volunteers, team captains, team participants and donors who contributed so much to the fight against cancer. Our sincere thanks go to all of them. In Brisbane on the same weekend, participants from 45 teams braved threatening weather to ensure the success of the first Brisbane Relay for Life, raising over $60,000. A Toowoomba even in April raised over $40,000, and two more events on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts September promise to be huge successes. Thanks for your email; I trust all is well with you and your family and that your life has come back to some form of normality since Relay. We are now busy preparing for the Gold and Sunshine RFL's, which will be held in September. In response to your email, the Cairns total is now at $214,674.86, an amazing total which will long be remembered and which, as I have indicated before, has set the benchmark for future events. Regarding projects for allocation of funds, I propose to name a specific cancer research grant to acknowledge the Cairns Relay for Life event, this grant will be call "Cairns Rotary Clubs Relay for Life" Research Grant and will be named for a period of 2 years. Most of the research grants we make are ongoing, i.e. it is rare for a cancer research project to begin and end in one year. The funds raised by Cairns RFL will assist this particular researcher to continue with his project. The project I have in mid to fund is one which is being undertaken by Prof Frank Gardiner, on eof Queensland's leading urologists. Prof Gardiner is undertaking research into prostate cancer, specifically "Diagnosis and prediction of the nature history of prostate cancer: use of ejeculate for molecular profiling". I am happy to talk with you further about this project and what funding by Cairns Rotary Clubs means in terms of acknowledgment. Additionally, if any applications for research funding are received from NQ/FNQ in the next round of applications, and if the application succeeds in receiving funding according to the normal peer review process, we would name that grant in recognition of the Cairns Rotary and RFL. The balance of the funds raised will go towards the Gluyas Rotary Lodge in Townville, and I propose naming of the units in the Gluyas Lodge in recognition of the Cairns Rotary Clubs Relay for Life. As you know, the funds raised in NQ/FNQ do not exceed the funds expended in the region. The balance of the funds raised for RFL in Cairns will go towards providing accommodation for cancer patients from FNQ who are required to travel to Townsville for radiation therapy. Kim McDougall Cancer Council Of Australia |