Ten plus ten is the same as eleven plus eleven, I’ll show you.
Ten plus ten equals 20
Eleven plus eleven equals…go ahead and say it!
Well, my second meeting was a vast improvement on the first, with some semblance of order, but please don’t let Nooka know how much we missed him.
Last week we had a presentation from Abbey Titmus who is our National Youth Science Forum nominee, I think if Abbey doesn’t follow a science career, she would be a successful politician with a confident and informative presentation.
So, what is NYSF?
The National Youth Science Forum is a not-for-profit organisation that runs a number of programs to encourage young people in their passion for science, it is not cheap, but we have fantastic local financial support for Abbey, and that is what Rotary is all about, and that is making things happen.
In my capacity as Assistant Governor Services I attended the District Leadership Meeting on Sunday and learned two rather disturbing statistics
District Membership dropped by 10% last year
The percentage of Rotarians under 40 years old is 2%
Lastly, just a reminder for my two main goals for the year
Lets work on assisting WUNTA and lets get some Corporate Memberships active in or membership.
We have kicked off a new Rotary year with a new president. Our new president, Rob Harris, has been a member of multiple Rotary clubs, has served in many roles at a club level, and is currently an assistant district governor. That’s right, Rob is woefully overqualified for the role of president of our club. We don’t know how that slipped through the system. I suppose all we can do now is accept that we face a year of competent leadership.
Congratulations Rob and best wishes for the year ahead.
We thank Boré for another great cartoon.
Minutes:
Attendance: Brendan reported that 17 members indicated their attendance in the Stack App, 22 turned up to eat, and one member turned up intending not to eat and then changed his mind (he decided to eat, he didn't deciding to leave). Brendan reported three guests in attendance. Our three guests were Abbey Titmus, Lyn Titmus, Glenn ‘from Kelp Street North’ and Chris McEwan. For the first time in living memory, we had an apology; Father Scott Lowrey raised the etiquette bar this week by apologising.
Meal: Corned beef with a mustard sauce and vegies. First class.
Dillo and Rob got the show on the road and invited reports;
· Rob reminded board members that a board meeting in overdue, with a date yet to be chosen.
· Rob attended a Group C meeting, in effect an enlarged version of the old Group 5. ADG Cheryl Bellman is sick and in hospital. We extend to Cheryl our thoughts and best wishes.
· Les is organising some assistance for Loved and Shared. Hayesey and Matt put their hand up to drive the ute around and give them a hand.
· Matt gave us a footy tipping report in Nooka and Bob’s absence. He advised that nobody tipped nine last week. Lew mentioned that he tipped nine, he just got half of them wrong. Robbo is out in front on 110 after deciding to tip on the Wednesday after the round this week. Dillo is in second place with 108 while Rob, KY, Nooka, and T Bone are all on 107.
Abbey Titmus spoke to us about her National Youth Science Forum application. Abbey is in year 11 at Emmanuel College. She is studying Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics as well as some other less important, non-science subjects. Abbey lives on a small farm with a sister and two brothers. She aspires to go to university, perhaps to study veterinary science. Her older sister is a past NYSF attendee and is currently studying vet science in Queensland. She has been inspired to attend NYSF after her sister spoke so highly about it.
Abbey’s presentation was going very well until Greg unwisely invited members to ask questions. One member asked Abbey how she originally found out about NYSF. Abbey repeated that her sister had previously attended. Another member asked Abbey what she wanted to do when she left school. Abbey repeated that she was interested in veterinary science. Bruce advised Abbey that vets made a lot of money and then told a story about how his friend had a sick dog that the vet treated for five days at great expense when the dog was going to die anyway. Encouraging words from our Charter President indeed. No doubt impressed by the cognitive abilities of our members, Abbey departed to continue on her journey towards the NYSF. We thank Abbey and Greg for their presentation.
Rotten returns.
This week Ron reveals to us his winter holiday plans.
WiFi
Your correspondent once invited a Rotary exchange student to join me for a few hours at my work. I thought I was showing him an occupation and a side of life he may not have been familiar with. The exchange student arrived and immediately asked for our WiFi password. The young man was completely disgusted when I told him we did not have any WiFi at work, and did not speak to any of us again for the remainder of his stay.
Pip Ritchie understands the problem perfectly, and sends us this report.
Rotary Horse Racing Report.
Power of Song, the David Zaharakis of Warrnambool Central Racing, had a run again in Ballarat last week. The pre-race assessment of the field by the commentators was the worst I had ever heard. One horse, Look Sharpish, they rated as the only horse who could win. They thought rest of the field was terrible. In their words, the race had ‘a very long tail’. One horse, Allaboutattitude, was 10 years old and had raced more than 100 times, none of them good. They thought it was unlikely this horse was going to start running fast now. Power of Song, they noted, had ‘no speed’ and so was too slow to beat the favourite. Despite this, punters had Power of Song as the second favourite behind Look Sharpish.
Uncharacteristically, Power of Song got out of the gates well, got a nice sit over the journey, then powered to the front as they entered the straight. PoS stormed down the straight like honey running down the side of a jar. The favourite flashed past and it was Look Sharpish first, daylight second, then Power of Song, followed by another large gap to the rest of a very ordinary field. PoS bagged enough cash to cover two weeks’ worth of training fees and should be back at the races soon. Hopefully, within two weeks.
Amazingly, the favourite won, the second priced favourite came second, and all the horses everyone thought would be terrible, were terrible. The punters exactly predicted the result of this race. Are we living in some sort of bizarre parallel universe? Who knows?
More exciting racing news as it comes to hand.
R. Gordon R. McInally
RI President, 2023-24
"As we begin this journey together, I take inspiration from Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns, who in the 18th century spoke of all the world becoming kin, promoting “Sense and Worth, over all the earth.” This has long been my call to action, and I share it now with you.
Let us build peace within and spread it freely. Let us create belonging and imagine the future of Rotary afresh. Let us work together joyously as we Create Hope in the World."
