Great to have the mini safari exchange students along last week they help to create a great atmosphere around the tables. Many thanks to all those gave their time and homes to make their stay an enjoyable one there was much sadness as they departed heading back to their home clubs.
Cheers
Tim Goodall
Apologies to Macca.
Also meeting apologies are now directed via the Club Secretary (Me) preferred no later than Tuesday night prior a meeting.
In response to the recent fires our club has so far responded in the following ways;
Two truckloads of hay have been delivered from the Warrnambool Field and Game Club to bushfire affected farmers: one near Corryong and one in Gippsland. Fodder to allow farmers to maintain their stock has been identified as a key need. We have helped pay for the transport of this fodder.
We have also donated $2,000 to the Rotary Club of Corryong to allow them to provide people with free coffee at a local business. This has been identified as a strategy to assist with mental health and community. Lew has kindly provided us with the following message from Sally McLean of the Corryong Rotary Club.
Thanks for your support the shop owners were overwhelmed by your donation and look forward to getting the community in there doors to sit, chat and relax.
Thank you
Sally McLean
The board thanks members for their ongoing ideas and feedback. We will continue to actively discuss the situation and look for opportunities to help.
Exchange students join us.
Exchange students from across District 9780 joined us last week as part of their mini-safari.
Nine students from all over the world are currently enjoying the 9780 mini-safari. They are travelling again this year along the coast from Mount Gambier to Geelong. They joined us for lunch yesterday in what is a January tradition for us. It was great to meet all the students. Thanks to Joe and Marle for a great fines session. (I am still struggling to come to terms with how much beer Germans drink per year.) Thanks to Paul O'Reilly for helping organise the whole event. Thanks also to all those who helped by hosting students or contributing time and boats to take the students water skiing on the Hopkins after our meeting.
Fortunately everything went to plan and nothing went wrong. There were no accidents, no mix-ups, and no one got lost. Possibly.
Roster.
Once again, we printed a roster last week, and once again it all fell apart. Last week this was because we had our exchange students in attendance and running the meeting and fines session. Congratulations to Marle and Joe on a great fines session. Accordingly, we have rostered everyone who was on last week back on again this week.
The only saving grace with this whole roster debacle is that Penno has not been around to give your correspondent a hard time about it. Penno may be considering how he will respond to the implementation of our new roster. Fortunately, James has provided this flow chart to help Penno with his decision making.
Boards and Committees.
Members are always active behind the scenes, quietly getting things done. This week we bring you a few snaps of this work.
Carlton tomato sauce; it is thick, runs slowly over most surfaces, and when it comes to sausage rolls it is best to look elsewhere.
Philosophy 101.
Lew kindly sent us this snap;
11foot8.com
In 2008 a man in Durham, North Carolina noticed trucks occasionally hit a rail overpass near his office. He set up a webcam hoping to eventually obtain footage of an accident. Since then he has filmed 153 trucks, caravans and other high vehicles hitting the bridge. He has set up a website called 11foot8.com (the original clearance of the now famous bridge), where he provides footage of every new accident. He has even set up microphones to capture the sound of each accident. His YouTube channel has 87,000 subscribers. There is something oddly therapeutic about watching truck after truck smash into the bridge. A local company, Penske truck hire, rents its trucks out to locals. The locals manage to punch Penske rental trucks into the bridge with particular frequency.
Despite the website and the widespread media coverage it has received, and a flashing warning light mounted on the bridge by local authorities, truck drivers continue driving into the bridge at the rate of about one per month. Fourteen hapless drivers hit the bridge last year and, to the delight of subscribers, a man slammed a Penske truck into the bridge on the fifth of January this year.
Perhaps Prince Harry could get a job as a truck driver in North Carolina.
