PRESIDENT'S POST

Posted by Andrew Crockett
This week President Andrew reports on today's Club meeting, reminds us about forthcoming events and makes a heartfelt plea for members to come forward to fill board vacancies next year.
 
Twenty-two members and guests today’s Club lunch to hear Kerry Kornhauser OAM and Mikaela Stafrace speak about the exciting work of WomenCan Australia. (Photo - Kerry and Mikaela with MC Noel Halford)
 
We were also honoured to have as our guests today the Presidents-elect of our fellow Riverside cluster clubs; Teresa Liu, President-elect of Glenferrie Rotary, and Pennie Cornwell, President-elect of Kew Rotary.  
 
WomenCan is a charity that helps women, particularly those who have faced barriers to entering the workforce, to reclaim their financial independence by rebuilding their confidence, connections and work capability.  Barriers to employment experienced by women include the need to care for children, lack of vocational training, problems accessing stable accommodation, language and literacy problems. The Placement Circle program provides a peer-supported model to connect women to TAFE training, jobs, and through its social enterprise arm, WomenCan provides facilities services such as trades, gardening, and cleaning, in places where women live, learn and work.  A current focus is training women for work in the aged care sector where there is great demand for skilled workers.
Micaela pointed out that in addition to care roles, women are also well suited to trades and occupations requiring fine motor skills.  Trades such as electricians, plumbers and cleaners, and drivers of trucks, trains, trams, and buses. 
A recent project of WomenCan is providing migrant women with an opportunity to learn to drive.  A good example is female Afghan judges who have sought refuge in Australia to escape from the Taliban regime under which women are not permitted to drive. 
 
Vacancies on next year’s board
I recently wrote to members about vacancies on next year’s board which we need to fill.  
As you know we need a President-elect to take over from me as President in July 2023 and a Secretary to take over from Ian Bentley in July this year.  These two roles can, and often are, combined since the President-elect position carries no specific portfolio responsibilities.
We also need a Membership and Communications director to lead the recruitment and onboarding of new members and oversee the Club’s communications.  
Joining the board is a great opportunity to serve the club.  Being part of the leadership team is enjoyable and rewarding, and we support each other so that no role becomes too onerous.  
Every Rotarian should be prepared to take on a leadership role of some kind in their club at some stage of their life in Rotary.
Members of the Board and I will be approaching members over the next few weeks in an effort to fill these roles.
    
Forthcoming events
  • Our current affairs discussion group the ‘Fixers’ will meet by Zoom on Monday 9 May at 5.45 pm.  We’ll be discussing the topic ‘How should we respond to the concept that we live in a time when legitimate debate is silenced so that some people are not offended?’.
  • The Club’s vocational tour of the award-winning Burwood Brickworks Shopping Complex will take place next Tuesday 10 May.  The cost is $20 all of which will be donated to Rotary’s Ukrainian Refugee Fund.
  • The District 9800 Assembly will take place by Zoom on Saturday 28 May from 9.00 am to 12.00 pm.  More information about the Assembly will be available shortly.
  • The Club’s book group, the ‘Bookworms’ will hold their next meeting by Zoom on Monday 13 June when they will be discussing The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.  
  • Our last vocational tour for 2021/22 will take place on Tuesday 14 June when we will tour Rotary’s Disaster Aid Centre in Endeavor Hills, followed by a tour of the Australian Gardens in Cranbourne.
  • Our final event for this year, the Changeover Dinner, is on Saturday 25 June.  
  • The Camberwell Art show will be held from 25 June to 3 July at the Advanced Technologies Centre in Swinburne University.  
 
Avenue of Service Report
Community Service director, Denbigh Richards, updated members on the Club’s current community service projects.  His report is elsewhere in the Bulletin
 
Next meeting
The next lunchtime meeting is at Kooyong on 17 May when it will be my pleasure to induct our newest member, Dorothy Gilmour.  Dorothy is a current Rotarian and director of Rotary Safe Families.  She is transferring from Rotary Southbank to Rotary Hawthorn and we become the new host club of Rotary Safe Families.  Following her induction, Dorothy will tell us about the ‘Member Behind the Badge’.
Until then I hope you all stay safe and well.
 
 
 
Thought for the Week
 
This week’s reflection on democracy comes from a former Vice President of the United States.
 
Surely anyone who has ever been elected to public office understands that one commodity above all others, namely the trust and confidence of the people, is fundamental in maintaining a free and open political system.
- Hubert H. Humphrey
 
Hubert Humphrey served as Vice President to Lynden B Johnson from 1965 to 1969.  Known for his advocacy of liberal causes (such as civil rights, arms control, a nuclear test ban, food stamps, and humanitarian foreign aid), and for his long and witty speeches. Humphrey resigned from the Senate in 1965 when he became vice president. His numerous contacts and experience in the Senate were of great value to the administration. He was successful in helping to pass significant legislation, including the Voting Rights Act in 1965. By 1966, however, Johnson's domestic program, the Great Society, was losing support as U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War escalated. After Humphrey questioned Operation Rolling Thunder and the limits of what military action could achieve in Vietnam, Johnson decided to exclude the vice president from high-level meetings, and Humphrey's influence declined. When President Johnson declined to run for another term in 1968, Humphrey won the Democratic Party's nomination. His campaign got off to a tumultuous start with the infamous 1968 Democratic Convention. Humphrey's attempts at unity and references to the ‘Politics of Joy’ seemed wholly out of touch with the riots and protests going on outside. Furthermore, Humphrey had difficulty distancing himself from Johnson's unpopular war policy since he had been an advocate of it and continued to serve in the administration. He lost a close election to Richard Nixon.  He was re-elected to the Senate in 1970 and was deputy President pro tempore of the Senate from 1977 until his death from cancer in 1978.  In one of his final speeches Humphrey said: "It was once said that the moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped."