President John Bolto welcomed Rotarians and the many guests to the meeting.
The national anthem was sung in a reasonable manner because John Thornton OAM kept everyone together.
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Visiting Rotarians and Guests:
We have around 33 guests at tonight’s meeting hence unable to introduce all individually. A special welcome to the members of the Metso who will tell us about themselves and play.
Also welcome to Natasha Rogers from Greenback as our speaker. We will also hear briefly from Bill Richardson (RC Matilda Bay) regarding their golf day and dinner supporting mental health.
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Apologies and LOA: 4 LOA & 16 Apologies and Hon. 40 members were in attendance and 33 guests.
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Question of the Week:
Q: In what year did the Rotary Council of Legislation remove the provision that Rotary was for males only? (Not the date of the first women members)
A: 1989 (first woman 1987)
Answered correctly first off by John Lindquist.
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Birthdays & Anniversaries: Bob Davis
Bob announced the following birthdays and anniversaries:
Member’s Birthdays;
Partners Birthdays
- Andrea McGeorge
- Jennifer Laurie
Anniversaries
- Russell & Annie Hawkins - 40 years
- John & Katrina Hopkins - 25 years
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Members Attendance: 40 members at 63% attendance rate.
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Other Announcements:
| Bill Richardson from the Rotary Club of Matilda Bay spoke about their charitable Golf Day coming up soon. Flyers are on the table and information attached to this Bulletin. The Golf Day supports Mental Health initiatives. Played in teams of 4 people but this gives you 8 places at the evening dinner. Please put a team together. |
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Committee Reports and Announcements:
Public Image: (Kevin Jackson)
There was a very good article in The Post regarding the opening of the Men’s Shed.
Also, consider going to the “one in a Million” dinner at UWA Club which is an RC Crawley fundraiser.
President’s Report: Pres John Bolto
No report as such but Pres John introduced Natasha Rogers who will give information about the Greenbatch Foundation and answer questions.
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Guest Speaker: Natasha Rogers - Greenbatch Foundation
Natasha opened by handing around products and materials made from recycled bottles.
She is the Operations Manager of the Greenbatch Foundation - a Not For Profit organisation committed to education regarding re-cycling plastics. Currently, a plant in WA exists that handles 2,500t/day.
There are four parts to her organisation;
- Container Collection Sites
- Schools Recycling (90 schools have signed up)
- Community events programme
- Experiential Education Facility
Why is Rotary a good fit as a partner? Because Rotary’s motto is “ Together People Create Change”!
This is what Natasha wants to do in the world of Plastic Recycling.
The MOU signed with Rotary indicated that an Education Facility is put together for a cost of $150k. To date, $70k has been raised just $80k to go but they are getting there. The facility already partially exists in Mt Claremont.
Why? In Australia today we use 353,000 tonnes of plastic pa. We need to do something substantial to recycle this instead of just landfill. We need local solutions. This can no longer be exported. Currently, 85% of HDPE goes to landfill.
In WA - we have containers for change. Greatbatch will pay 6 cents per container and there are potentially 1.3 billion containers!
Once the WA scheme starts in June if you take your contained to refund site you will get 10 cents per container. There will be 175 refund sites, eventually going to 210 sites.
93 schools have committed to collect. Rotary comes into it with business & school contacts. This can give Rotary Clubs valuable fundraising revenue.
The Greenbatch Foundation ;
Engage / Educate / Empower
Things that we can do now;
- Purchase recyclable products 1 & 2 NOT 4 & 5.
- Don’t “Wish -Cycle” That is put everything in your recycle bin. Be very selective and improve your household recycling – not contaminated.
- Buy recycled products
It’s up to you!
A number of interesting questions were asked and answered by Natasha.
Pres John thanked Natasha for an informative talk.
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Guest Speakers # 2: Metso
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Kim Smith introduced Ann Bray from the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (Metso). They have been going since 1977 – 4 decades of playing wonderful music. All with a common passion - Music!
Ann Bray briefly spoke.
She introduced the principal players and members of the Metso. Noting that it has been playing great music and mentoring wonderful young talent for over 43 years. They are a top community orchestra primarily playing out of Hale School.
Why have we NOT heard about The Metso before?
- Too modest
- Lost in the crowd
- Haven’t advertised well particularly Social Media.
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However, they now have a Website and will be getting out more see metso.org. They now also have an online magazine. Please access this.
Metso has a great young artists programme and has supported and mentored some world-beating talent!
Yonna Sunderland spoke about their conductors, music directors and some great young artists.
- Chris Dragon is their Music Director. He is currently working in the USA but still does the job for Metso!
- They have a variety for world-class conductors including Raymond Yong.
- They have a range of very esteemed artists who have and are playing with them.
- This includes Shuan Hurn Lee who started studying music at UWA when he was 14 years old !! He won the World Class Cliburn award in 2019.
- Max Wung a 14-year-old Cellist.
- Emmalene Huning an18 year old who has just started studying at The Royal Academy in 2019.
Lynette Swarbrick then introduced us to her string section. They then played an impressive selection of Mozart pieces, Moon River and a Tango ( ed: I was waiting for someone to dance the tango!)
Pres John talked the Metso for a great night, noting that we are looking at a Metso / RDC event later on in the year if we can get it to work. Based on tonight it seems likely.
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Future Events: President John Bolto
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March 16th – Tales of Clontarf – Ross Kelly
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March 23rd – Dr Rohan Hocking, PYC Therapeutics
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March 30th – Ian Hardy, Warden of St Georges College
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April 6th – Vocational Service Award
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THANK YOU
President John thanked;
NGC staff.
On Par Caterers.
Recognise our very generous Sponsors;
- Lizzy Bee-supplier of flowers
- Butler Settineri – Hon Club Auditors
- Paragon Consultants -Our Foundation’s Auditors
- PSZ Accounting for providing Xero Accounting software and Sharesight Portfolio reporting software to the Charitable Trust.
He called on members to recognise RI President Mark Maloney’s Presidential theme for the year, "Rotary Connects The World," and to Acknowledge the Flag.
