President James opened our meeting with a call for Rotary Grace and then reminded us that a parking policeman was seen in the vicinity of Romano's. A warning for all those in a one hour site. He also welcomed our sole visitor Olie Campbell, a Social Security Adviser and former marketeer at our Sunday Market site.
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| Olie Campbell and David Benn |
SATURDAY MARKET
OIC Gerry Gerlach provided the Market Report to Club. There were 27 stalls with a variety of goods.
Income for the day was from various sources:
Barbecue takings $1,050, profit from Barbecue $692. Stalls $1,585. Gate $772.
After deduction of expenses e.g. entertainment $2781.90 was banked.
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| Team left to right: Wal Paton, Greg Conkey, Bob Willis, Michael Knight, Rick Priest, Rob Nicholson, James Hamilton, Stephen Anderson, John Smith, Pahil Burgess, Peter Crozier, Front facing away: Mark Hillis, Frank Fuller, David Benn |
MEMBERS CHOICE
Today's member's choice was presented by Peter Crozier. His choice of subject was the topic: Woke. He assured us it was not political. Here is his article:
WOKENESS
The term woke or wokeness is meant to denote an awareness to important issues especially of social justice.
Many of us don’t understand what woke or wokeness is about so I thought that I might utilise an article from a weekend paper a couple of weeks ago.
The article was written by a creative director in advertising and is written along the lines of branding.
I’ve been building brands for twenty years and I’ve never seen anything like woke. It’s a mistake to think of this ideology as just a bunch of disorganised radical students virtue signalling wherever the woke wind takes them. It’s better to think of it as a highly sophisticated lifestyle brand.
Let’s run through the elements needed to create a brand. First, you need to know your market. A strong, loyal and plentiful customer base is essential. The 2008 financial crisis gave birth to a generation with no faith in capitalist ideals, nor any hope of owning a home. That, along with the death of religion in part, saw swathes of the population simultaneously want to rail against the system and find something to believe in.
Customers of woke are offered a sense of moral superiority, a group identity and are freed from mental responsibility thanks to victim mentality. Sounds good.
You need a brand personality that people can identify with. Woke is ostensibly empathetic and virtuous. Even better.
You need a mission statement that sets out core brand objectives. Precisely what it means to advocate for “social justice” is constantly evolving.
You need a brand book that explains how the brand behaves in all circumstances and how it relates to the world.
You need a brand strategy to dominate the competition. Cancel culture is effective. Constant public beatings, figurative and online, create widespread moral complicity. Woke is already in all media free of charge. The brand has whole media outlets devoted to it. Any brand needs a social media strategy and woke is without peer when it comes to going viral. The promised land for any brand is word of mouth where your customers do the selling for you. woke has countless highly motivated brand ambassadors in the form of influencers willing to spruik the ideology constantly via pre-approved hashtags.
Who owns this brand?
Everyone who wants a piece. It sells a grand narrative of achieving social justice through a collection of half thought out assertions. In reality, woke threatens to undermine the values of Western civilisation. Not bad for a bunch of blue -haired uni students.
(My take on this article is that it is a more sophisticated way of shooting the messenger. In this case using the term "woke" as a derogatory term for those holding a different view on issues, to your own. Much the same way the term "political correctness" is used. Ed. What's your take?)
PERSONAL STORY
Stuart Herriot very bravely addressed us on the subject of death and dying. He said he was inspired to tell his story to inspire us to keep up our health checks. Following a PSA blood test some three years ago, Stuart attended his doctor's surgery for the result. It turned out that his doctor was able to tell from the blood test that he had other more urgent matters wrong and his Prostate was ok. Following more tests he was diagnosed with Multiple Myaloma, a cancer of the blood. His doctor told him his life expectancy was about eighteen months. After nine months of chemo and stem cell intervention he was recovering when he had a brain haemorrhage and required cranial surgery. Following this, Stuart continued further treatment and is feeling well at present. He believes his use of farm chemicals over many years may have contributed to his development of this life threatening disease. His message is to keep up your medical checks and avoid chemicals.
GEARS AND BEERS
Phil McIntosh brought us up to date on registrations and other matters. So far there are 2,700 riders registered for our October festival. 317 for the 100 kilometre ride, 217 for the 10 k ride, 250 for the 30k ride, 488 for the Sat mystery ride and 1,119 for the dirty one thirty. Our bank account is bulging to the tune of $232,000.
Phil is appealing for sponsorships and asks members to put their thinking caps on and give names to Frank Fuller or Peter Crozier. They will follow up your leads.
Other issues to be addressed include use of Morrow St., Council Car Park on corner of Morrow and O'Reilly streets., The traffic management plan., Quotes for equipment hire,. Funding Applications. $20k has been awarded from State Government and hopefully we will get an equal amount from Council.
APOLOGIES
Greg Conkey, Shane Carroll, Ward Gaiter, Jonty Shuter, John Ferguson, David Wishart, Bill Parker, Craig Bromley, Phil Burgess, John Flynn, John Ireland, John Mason, Paul Milde, David Pyke, Neil Schirmer, Ken Taylor.
MAKEUPS
Gerry Gerlach, Richard Baguley, Wal Paton, Peter Crozier, Andrew Crackenthorpe, John Smith, Mark Hilis, Frank Fuller, Bob Willis, Rob Nicholson,
Michael Knight, James Hamilton, Phil Burgess, Greg Conkey, Rick Priest, David Benn, John Gray.
LUCKY DRAW PRIZE
Winner this week was Peter Clucas