Welcome to Jemila from ican (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons). Jemila will be speaking to us at a later date.

 

Welcome back Tony – good to see you back on your feet.

 

Tonight is a Committee meeting night. Community Service with Delia and Fundraising for the rest of the members with a focus on the Dinner Auction.

 

 

Thank you to those who attended early to help with the folding of the Dinner Auction letters. They will now be posted to donors. Thank you also to Brophy and south West Credit for their ongoing support.

 

Science and Engineering Challenge will be on April 29^th. It is a fantastic day. If you can help out please let Anne know. We need 16 helpers.

 

Catering for our Dinner meetings – Is being discussed at Board level also. Please let Anne know if there is something that you think we can do better. We are working with the Footy Club to keep the cost to $18. We need to decrease wastage, so apologies are essential. Members who are absent without apology will have to pay for their meal. If we have extra turn up for meetings (unaccounted for guests) they will default to the Roast of the day. We will have 5 meals rotated for the next 3 months. There will be no dessert, but a Fruit and cheese platter will be placed on each table after the main meal. Possibly soup for the winter.

 

Venue changes for some upcoming meetings:

Feb 25^th at the RSL.

March 3^rd at the Wangoom hall.

March 17^th for Pizza at the Community Garden.

 

A reminder of the Social Saturday – Morning tea at Glenn and Marion’s on Feb 22^nd at 9 Recreation Drive, Warrnambool.

Head out along Mortlake Road and turn onto Wollaston Rd. Follow around and past the new Special Development School. Straight along Goodall Road and then left onto Recreation Drive. Please see map below.

 

 

Stewart joined the Rotary Club of Warrnambool on 12th February 1980 with the classification of 'stud beef breeding'. He remained an active member for 29 years, resigning due to ill-health on 30th June 2009. It says much about this mans dedication to Rotary that he was prepared to travel a round trip of 100 kilometres each week to attend Rotary , bearing in mind that there would be much to do assisting in running a large beef property. On his retirement the Club honoured Stewart with Honorary Membership.

 

During those years Stewart was involved in a while range of activities and a member of many Committees in Rotary. 

 

He was at various times a member of the Community Services Committee which is responsible for capital works in the community such as the construction of electric barbeques, planting of street trees and many like projects. 

 

He was also a member of the International Committee which funds various projects overseas, as does the Club at present in North-Central New Guinea with the sinking of bores and provision of water to jungle villages. 

 

He also supported the Rotary Foundation which allocates millions annually to help improve lives of disadvantaged people besides allocating tertiary scholarships and many other worthy projects. 

 

Stewart was a member of the Youth Committee at various times and many will be aware of Rotary's involvement with Youth Programs such as Youth Exchange, Young Achievers, Science Summer School and others. 

 

At times Stewart also supported Vocational Service which recognises those in the workplace who have given outstanding service in their employment.

 

But it was as a member of what is known in Rotary as Club Service that Stewart really excelled. This Committee is responsible for the administration of the Rotary Club. Stewart was for more than half his years of membership the Chairman of the Attendance Committee. This is an important task because laxness in attendance matters can be chaotic for the functioning of the Club. It was Stewart's task, assisted by a roster of members, to record the weekly attendance of Rotarians, apologies and those who did not apologise. From time to time he would report to the Club at it's dinner meeting about percentage attendance for those who had not attended for some time and importantly collected and balanced hundreds of dollars worth of weekly dinner fees. He was also required to extract the names of Rotarians who achieved 100% attendance each year for recognition on Changeover Night. Some will remember Stewart arriving with his brief case containing a large book ruled to list the Rotarians' names and spaces for every week of the Rotary year. 

 

Stewart Bell wasn't one for the limelight but preferred to carry out his allotted tasks in the background. It was fitting that in June 2005, Stewart Bell was presented with a Paul Harris Fellowship in recognition of his then 25 years of valued service. 

 

The Rotary Club has missed the presence of Stewart Bell and passes on the condolences of President David and current members to his family assuring them that Stewart was a monument to the ideals of Rotary service.