Attendance: Nooka photogenically announced that we had a good turnout of about 20 at Hycel last week, with two guests; Maria and ‘Verto’s younger brother’, also named Jon Vertigan.*
Nooka was pleased to announce ‘about 25’ at the Cally this week, which Matt explained meant 23. Our guests were Moses and Maria.
*Your correspondent’s great grandfather William Davies grew up with an older brother, also named William Davies.
Meal: Ordered from the menu at the Cally. Excellent.
We gathered at the Cally Hotel and Jon introduced President Matt. Matt noted;
- The visit to Hycel last week was excellent.
- Happy birthday to Jon for last week.
- Thanks to Bono and Maria for attending the District Conference.
- Thanks to Greg, Maria, Tony D, Paul and Michelle Forbes for joining Matt at the National Youth Science Forum night hosted by the RC of Warrnambool.
- Lorraine Ludeman extends her thanks to all those members who participated in the myeloma walk last Sunday. It was the biggest walk so far.
- We wish Marg all the best and hopes she is feeling better soon.
- Past President Rob Harris has resigned from Rotary due to ill-health. We wish Rob all the best.
In reports;
- Tony D. advised that we will return to plant at the Bromfield Weir site on Saturday 9th August. We will be joined by the other three clubs and have a barbecue lunch with them afterwards. While we are there the GHCMA will take a water sample and send it off for environmental DNA analysis. The plan is then for the four clubs to join for a meal in the third week of September where the GHCMA will present the results of this eDNA analysis to discover what has changes since our planting and removal of the weir at the site.
- Brendan reported that he attended the District Conference. And, but attend he means he went for a few hours on the Friday night. For $50 Bono received an environmentally friendly hand sewn bag, some finger food, the right to buy his own drinks at bar prices, and a District Gold Environment Award. We thank Brendan for representing the club.
Matt raised a celebratory chip to mark the occasion.
- Greg advised that the District will be interviewing prospective outbound exchange students on the 13th of April. We have some decisions to make. Do we want to sponsor an outbound exchange student? If so, we a member to volunteer to be a mentor for an outbound student. Do we want to host an inbound student? Please speak to Greg if you would like to help.
- Hutto reported Bono and he met with Tomra. Tomra will supply us with 20 container recycling bins for the May races and will open for us at 7.00am on the relevant days to allow us to get our cans through. A working bee will be organised shortly to apply zip ties, fix plates to restrict the openings, and paint the lids yellow.
- Hutto also advised that there are only 8 seats left for the 220 seat Thoroughbred Club luncheon. Contact Hutto if you would like one of those tickets. John is also still looking for auction items to be donated. Please talk to Hutto if you can help.
- Paul noted that Will White will debut for Carlton this week. The game is a sell out at the MCG. Best of luck to Will.
Moses spoke to us about the next stage in his and our efforts to improve the life of people in and around Ingin Village in PNG. About 7,000 people have benefited so far from our completed water projects. We are now looking to build a midwifery hut for Poppy, the local midwife. With a projected cost of A$15,500, the hut will provide a far more appropriate facility for women to deliver their babies in the area. Poppy delivers about two babies a week. The RC of Mount Martha have already donated $3,000 and local have begun logging and milling timber for the proposed hut. We announced to Moses a donation of $3,000 to progress this project further.
Boré thanked Moses on behalf of the club and informed him that ‘we normally give guest speakers a gift but we don’t have a gift to give you.’ You don’t feel the loss of missing out on something unless you are made aware of what you didn’t get. Thank you Moses and good work Boré.
Back to the Bowlo next week.
