Twenty-seven members and one guest attended today’s Club meeting by Zoom to hear Vincent Chen’s ‘Member behind the Badge’ talk. Sincere thanks to those who contributed a total of $370 to Club funds when registering for today’s meeting. This brings to $1,255 the total amount donated at Zoom meetings in August. This is an outstanding effort and boosts the funds available to the Club for service projects.
While we don’t have any members’ birthdays to celebrate this week, we do have one significant birthday, that of the Club itself. The Rotary Club of Hawthorn was founded on this day in 1953 and today we celebrate the Club’s 68th birthday. We wish the Club many more years of fellowship and service.
Member behind the Badge:
Vincent Chen was our speaker today and provide
d us with some fascinating insights into his life as a child and young man in mainland China. Like many of us Vincent took a relaxed approach to study in his younger years, preferring to play on the beach bordering his school than to be top of his class, but he soon matured into a high achiever. Vincent studied engineering at university but soon decided that engineering was not for him and taking advantage of the opening up of China under Deng Xiaoping he moved into the import/export business. This led to business travel to the USA, Europe and other parts of the world. It was a friend in Mornington who persuaded Vincent and his family to move to Australia and settle in Melbourne.
d us with some fascinating insights into his life as a child and young man in mainland China. Like many of us Vincent took a relaxed approach to study in his younger years, preferring to play on the beach bordering his school than to be top of his class, but he soon matured into a high achiever. Vincent studied engineering at university but soon decided that engineering was not for him and taking advantage of the opening up of China under Deng Xiaoping he moved into the import/export business. This led to business travel to the USA, Europe and other parts of the world. It was a friend in Mornington who persuaded Vincent and his family to move to Australia and settle in Melbourne. We are fortunate that Vincent chose to join the Rotary Club of Hawthorn. He has become in a short time one of our most active members, joining the social, vocational and membership committees.
Thankyou Vincent for telling us about the Member behind the Badge.
A full report on Vincent’s talk is below.
Forthcoming events
Given the high level of community transmission of Covid-19, Club meetings will continue to be held by Zoom for the time being, and other events planned for September will probably need to be postponed.
Events likely to be affected are the opening of Rotary Centenary Park Playground on Sunday 12 September and the Lunch and a tour of the Burwood Brickworks Shopping Centre on 14 September.
The Mock interviews scheduled for 15 September have already been postponed to Wednesday 20 October.
An important date to note in your calendars is the End Polio Walk on Sunday 24 October.
Working with Children responsibilities
A reminder to members about the Club’s obligations regarding working with children.
Under Victorian law and the Club’s Child Safe Policy all Club members and volunteers must hold a current Working With Children Check regardless of whether Club activities they attend involve children or not.
Some Club activities such as mock interviews are intended to involve direct contact with children. Other activities which family members may attend, like barefoot bowls, may also involve contact with children, but the presence of children at these events is incidental to the main purpose of the activity.
Club members and volunteers who attend activities intended to involve children must in addition to holding a current Working With Children Check, also complete a Rotary Volunteer Information and Declaration Form.
If at any time you have any questions about your Working With Children status or the volunteer declaration form please contact the Club Protection officer, David McNamara.
Acknowledgement
We should never take for granted the work that is done by members behind the scenes to enrich the life of the Club, and at meetings from time to time I’ll be taking the opportunity to acknowledge the work of these members and thank them for their contributions.
This week I’m singly out for mention the work of our Bulletin editor Gordon Cheyne and those members who support the Bulletin by contributing items for publication.Who else but Gordon would have the devotion and perseverance to publish the Bulletin each week, literally within hours of our weekly meetings. Gordon not only keeps us up to date with Club news, but he also writes a summary of the talk by that week’s guest speaker, titillates us with gossip from around the traps, and seeks to dispel the Covid blues with jokes and cartoons.
Thank you Gordon, and other Bulletin contributors, for your sterling efforts.
Avenue of service report
Peter Lugg gave members a report on International Service activities we hope to progress this year, Covid permitting. They include an exciting opportunity for the Club to assist in the rebuilding and equipping of the surgical facility of a hospital in the Kampong Speu province of Cambodia.
Peter’s report will be in the next Bulletin.
Next Club meeting
The Club’s next meeting will be held by Zoom on Tuesday 31 August. Our guest speakers will be Professor Russell Tytler and Dr Peta White of Deakin University who will talk about their report ‘100 Jobs of the Future’ which predicts what jobs of the future will be like and the skills they will require.
A talk that is not to be missed.
Until then please stay safe and well.
Thought for the Week
Our thought this week comes from another member of the Stoic school of philosophers. Earlier this month we featured a quote from Epictetus, a former slave, and one of the three most influential Stoic philosophers. The other two were the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Seneca, a playwright, philosopher, and imperial advisor to the Emperor Nero (during the earlier, more stable part of Nero’s reign).
This week’s thought comes from Seneca and is about making one’s own luck (which he no doubt needed 
working for Nero).
working for Nero)."Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."