Weekly Bulletin (Mar. 24, 2024)

It was a busy week for me this week with the Rotary Conference in Mount Gambier. Tony Austin, Joan Austin Anne Adams, Rachel Furnell and Tim and George and Brooke McLeod also attended. It was a really interesting conference for me which I was mildly surprised about as when I have been to conferences before I have felt there was not a lot of interesting presentations but that may have been more my issue than the actual conference quality.

Brooke presented her experience with The Science and Engineering Challenge. Her
enthusiasm shone through, and she received acknowledgement and praise from the District Youth Representative who spoke in glowing terms of her skills and ability at organizing the event.

Our Tony Austin was presented with a District Avenues of Service Award for recognition of his and his team’s wonderful life changing work in Papua New Guinea. All club members can take some credit in this award for all the work everyone here has done with the birthing kits and days for girls items that have also changed lives.

I made a couple of excellent contacts at the conference – a Doctor Lowen Clarke who happens to be head of the Ethics Committee at the department of Fairness Families and Housing He has written several books on trauma and PTSD for both adults and children. A fascinating sounding man. We also had a talk from a man who is a professor and expert in pain management, and he introduced us to the new term - Bio plasticity which is your body's way of keeping all your body systems strong and resilient while protecting you from harm. It is the reason acute pain may sometimes persist, becoming chronic. When exposed to a significant threat, your body's systems may become overprotective. Your body begins to amplify its many protective functions, especially its ability to produce pain.

I would encourage all to give the conference a go – next years is at Torquay and we could possibly go and add on a couple of beach days as a club. Holiday. Keep it in mind.

Apologies from Glen Brotchie, Andrew Body and John Hunt who is in Fiji.

The program for the meeting was Dr Jodi Fleming - Topic Flourishing Clinical & Health Psychologist, author & Positive Psychology Practitioner.

Remember next week is Team Photo evening. Be there at 6 if you can to order your dinner and photo will be taken at 6.15pm.

Have a great week.

“Hope is a waking dream.” — Aristotle

President Janet Blackley