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PP Judy Ross opened the meeting and welcomed all present including guests DG Stephen Lamont, AG Janie Preston, Geraldine Delaney, Margaret Stuckey, Alice Keogh, Lizzy Smith, Jessie O'Connell, Sarah Forbes, and Exchange Students, Mathilde, Axelle and Tim.
Judy advised that President Brian Trenery sent his apololgies for not being able to attend and that unfortunately Brian's brother had passed away. All of us at Rotary express our sincere condolences to Brian and Jenny over this sad loss.
Judy then introduced District Governor Stephen Lamont. For those who don't know Stephen, he is a Geelong boy born and bred, who studied pharmacy in Melbourne then returned to work in the Grovedale Pharmacy, which he now owns. He and his wife Gaye live at Airey's Inlet and Gaye works in the pharmacy with Stephen. He belongs to the Rotary Club of Kardinia and is a staunch Geelong supporter.
Stephen thanked members for their warm welcome and the "warn weather". He is due in Casterton later in the week. Stephen stated that despite being DG and still working, he and Gaye are keen to undertake an activity with our Club later in the year. To give back to the community is why he joined Rotary and would still like to be involved and get to know people by doing things together. He has already been given a job of picking up rubbish in Geelong and drew the 5:30 am time slot!
One key message to clubs that Stephen would like to see is as much collaboration as possible. Everyone has a talent but can't do everything by themselves unless there is collaboration and to do and share the work together. This makes a Rotary Club stronger. One step further would be collaboration with outside clubs and we are already doing this with the shared responsibility of 3 exchange students.
And of course, collaboration with the community and Stephen provided an example of the Rotary Club of Mt Gambier running a forum on the problem of drugs. They had to run the forum twice because instead of the 200 anticipated people, they received a response from over 350. The drug problem is not solved this way, but Rotary has been the catalyst.
Stephen then described the origins of how funds for a mobile medical bus in the Northern Territory were raised. This was started by a conversation between three men, one from India, one from the US and one from India when they started talking about poverty, especially extreme poverty in India and how there were similarities in the NT where people didn't have basic medical help.
2017 District Conference
Steve also encouraged members to go to the District Conference in Geelong on March 31 - April 1. The theme of the conference is "Be Bold". This conference will also have a session open to the public to demonstrate to others what Rotary is all about. These people might not be ready to join Rotary yet, but may do some time down the track.
Rotaractors are also encouraged to attend and a guest speaker on the Friday night will be a Rotaractor fron Tanzania who is a nurse and has spoken at the UN Youth Assembly and started two clubs in Tanzania. The organizers are looking at subsidizing Rotaractors to make it easier to attend this event.
Kim Ledger, Heath Ledger's father will be talking about the problems of drugs.
For those wishing to stay on for another hour, there will also be a hands on activity of putting packages together for young disadvantaged mothers.
And on the Saturday night at the Conference Dinner everyone is encouraged to come dressed as their favourite Bond character, with prizes for the best dressed male and female and for club members dressed as a film theme. An "Astin Martin" the prize!!
DG Partner's Project
Gaye Lamont will be supporting Indigenous Nursing Scholarships through Australian Rotary Health. The scholarship will go to a second year nursing student from D9780 and is valued at $5,000 ($2,500 by Rotary and $2,500 matched by the government). So far Gaye has enough funds for 1 student and is working towards funding a second. Any support of this project would be welcome.
Following Stephen's talk the rest of the night was informal and he took the opportunity to meet club members and get to interact with one of Warrnambool's famous maremmer dogs.
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Tim has send the following report in and it looks like he's taken very well to football (soccer and Aussie Rules). Enjoy.