This week President Andrew provides an update on Board vacancies, reports on an Honorary Membership presentation, and reminds members to book for the Changeover Dinner and renew their Club membership for 2022/23.Changeovers
Pam and I are attending Rotary Glenferrie’s Changeover tonight, and Rotary Kew’s Changeover on 23 June.
I am looking forward to our own Changeover on Saturday 25 June, presenting awards and recognition to those members who have made notable contributions to the Club in 2021/11, and introducing the members of our new Board. I hope those of you who have not headed off to warmer climes will join us.
Don’t forget that bookings close on 17 June. Why not invite some guests along as well? The Changeover Dinner is an opportunity to introduce people to the world of Rotary and find out about the impressive range of our Club’s service and social activities.
Announcements
Secretary position
Some good news about the vacant position of Secretary next year. Becca Tamasuza, who I am looking forward to inducting to the Club on her return from Uganda in August, has kindly agreed to handle the Secretary role from the beginning of 2023.
Becca is unable to take on the role earlier due to PhD research and writing commitments, so we need someone to act as Secretary from July to December. The role could be shared by two members, each doing three months, or shared in some other manner.
Measures have been taken to reduce the Secretary’s workload over the next six months in the hope that this will encourage volunteers. I will handle compliance matters normally handled by the Secretary, and Pam has kindly agreed to act, temporarily, as membership secretary and relieve the Secretary of administrative tasks associated with onboarding new members.
So please respond to my request for one or two members to assist me and the Board by taking on the role of minute secretary for the next six months. The Board meets by Zoom at 5.30 pm on the second Tuesday of the month.
Please call me if you are able to help.
Presentation of Certificate of Honorary Membership
Last Friday it was my great pleasure to visit Dr John Carre-Riddell and present his Certificate of Honorary Membership for 2022/23. I had hoped to present the certificate at the Changeover Dinner, but unfortunately John will be unable to attend. John’s daughter Fiona, who was visiting from the US, joined us and took this photo.
John joined the Rotary Club of Hawthorn in October 1972 and is our longest-serving member. One of the Club’s quiet achievers, he served as Club President in 1990-91.
This was John’s response to being made an Honorary Member:
On this occasion, I was going to make a very long and serious speech, but I’d first like to say thanks so much to the board, I feel humbled and flattered.
I will now only be attending “zoom” meetings.
I wish our great club every success. The world needs Rotary now more than it ever has.
Thank you all for your kindness and friendship to me, especially in recent times.
P.S. Go Dees!
Our warmest congratulations to John for this well-deserved recognition of his long and distinguished service to Rotary and to the Club.
Bookworms
The
Club’s voracious consumers of literature, the ‘Bookworms’, met last night by Zoom and discussed Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club. They also welcomed new Bookworm, Dorothy Gilmour. What did they think of the book? See the report below.
Club’s voracious consumers of literature, the ‘Bookworms’, met last night by Zoom and discussed Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club. They also welcomed new Bookworm, Dorothy Gilmour. What did they think of the book? See the report below. Membership reminder
Invoices for the renewal of Club membership have been sent to members.
Please reduce the administrative work involved in sending reminders by renewing your membership before the end of June.
Next meeting
N
ext week there is no Club meeting because we have the Changeover Dinner on Saturday night.
ext week there is no Club meeting because we have the Changeover Dinner on Saturday night.The next Tuesday Club meeting - and the last for this Rotary year - will be on Tuesday 28 June by Zoom. Our speaker will be Dr Jenny Gray, CEO of Zoos Victoria. Jenny is a past President of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums and her PhD thesis was ‘An Ethical Defence of Modern Zoos’. It’s bound to be an interesting talk so don’t miss it!
Until then stay warm, safe and well.
Thought for the Week
Today being World Blood Donor Day, I thought this humorous reflection on the art of medicine might remedy any winter blues.
The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
- Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet, known by his nom de plume Voltaire (1694-1778), was a French poet, dramatist, historian, activist and philosopher who played an important role in defining the eighteenth-century movement called the Enlightenment. His ‘common sense’ crusade against superstition and prejudice and in favour of religious toleration was his single greatest contribution to the progress of Enlightenment. But he wrote as many plays, stories, and poems as philosophical tracts. In verse, he wrote in every form – epic poetry, ode, satire and epistle, and even occasional and light verse; his drama, also written in verse, includes both comedies and tragedies. Although the tragedies have not survived in the modern theatre, many live on in the opera, as, for example, Rossini’s Semiramide and Tancredi). He was also famous for his irony and wit.