Meeting at the Bowlo this week - you need to r.s.v.p.!
We are meeting at the Bowls club this week, 6.30pm. There are two important limits on this meeting;
1. Attendees are required to provide proof of Covid-19 vaccination (see explanation below). We will have a Covid marshal appointed to facilitate this.
2. The venue limit is 30 people. We have a large number of members expected to attend and some guests who have also asked to attend. Priority will be given to club members. However, to allow as many people as possible to attend, you must r.s.v.p. to Brendan by 6.00pm Monday night. Please do not turn up without responding to Brendan first as you may not be able to attend the meeting.
City Memorial Bowls Club.
Wednesday 20th October.
6.30 pm.
r.s.v.p. Brendan
bjandljoneill@outlook.com
0434600114
Tony's Tribulations.
Greetings fellow Rotarians.
I feel like the club is a bit like a duck on water at the moment. On the surface it appears as though very little is happening, but below the surface we are paddling like crazy.
The board met last Thursday. Bob is organising our return to weekly meetings as well as organising some social events. We should be back meeting weekly face-to-face from this week onwards. We are going to the Grampians next week end and the Jericho Cup in November. James is looking at ways for us to assist RSL active. Matt is teeing up some tree planting projects and looking at a project to thank front-line medical workers. Ronnie is looking after foundation and we hope to participate in an End Polio fundraiser in December. Robbo has a number of people who are interested in attending our meetings and may become membership prospects. Greg is looking to get the club involved in local youth projects through LLEN. Boré has got the PNG water project up and going and is now looking at some other projects. Garry is doing a mountain of work together with his committee to organise the Bool Wine and Music Festival for January. Hayesey has pulled some strings and put together all that is required to get a hearing loop installed in St Josephs for a hearing impaired student. All of that is just a sample of the irons we have in the fire.
Peter has also finally put to rest the debate about how to spell Hayessey/Hayesy/Hayesey. According to Peter, the later spelling is correct. He is a teacher, so I am not arguing.
I am very much looking forward to getting together with everyone on a weekly basis again. Hopefully we will once again start looking like a duck that has just noticed Pinky in an airboat.
Remember – you really do need to r.s.v.p. for club meetings at the moment.
Kind regards
Tony
Caravaning.
Brendan writes,
Last weekend a new pair of caravaners were inducted into life on the road!
David and Louise have been kicking the tyres of caravans for a while and recently took the leap and purchased a van and tow vehicle!
David and Louise were looking to christen the van and came to us for ideas. We offered to take them somewhere and work out the van together.
We could have gone to a lovely manicured park with all facilities or go free camping and put the relationship to the test! We choose the latter and David and Louise came through with flying colours.
We went to Budj Bim (Mt Eccles) National Park for the weekend.
No power no water and a very tight space to negotiate! What could go wrong! Absolutely nothing went wrong. David and Louise have graduated with Honours to the school of caravanning!
If you are looking for a great camping spot not far from home we thoroughly reccommend Budj Bim. Also we spent a couple of hours at Suffoir, just out of MacArthur, with a gin paddle, beer paddle and a cheese platter. A very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.
Vaccines and Rotary.
For those members who are interested, I will outline the current situation regarding Rotary organized events and the Covid vaccine. John Clue has been particularly helpful and our District Governor has provided us with some of the following advice.
The board have discussed this matter, but it turns out that what the board thinks has no bearing on events. We cannot allow unvaccinated members to attend meetings if the State Government prevents it or prevent unvaccinated members from attending meetings if the Government allows it. We must simply follow State Government health directives.
The current directions from the Acting Chief Health Officer require vaccines for all people participating in community not-for-profit organisations. I have included this section of the directive below. District have advised us that they are not completely certain that this applies to us, but they have advised us to assume it does until they can clarify the matter. District are meeting as the Central Spoke goes to print to try to resolve this issue.
However, this section of the directive won’t be as relevant in a few days anyway. By about Friday we are expected to reach the 70% state wide vaccination target. This will trigger the vaccination requirement at all venues that we could possibly meet at.
For the time being our meetings will almost certainly have to be for fully vaccinated people only.
So much of our experience of the pandemic has involved uncertainty. Even in normal times, some people argue that the evidence never justifies us being completely certain about anything. (Which does raise the question as to whether we could ever be certain that we can never be certain about anything, however we won’t go down that philosophical rabbit hole.) In these times there is a great deal of uncertainty about almost everything. We are not completely sure if the directive about not-for-profit organisations applies to us. We are not exactly sure when we will reach the 70% and 80% targets or sure about the details of rules once we reach those targets. We are not sure how long any vaccine mandate might last. Indeed, the future path of the pandemic remains almost impossible to predict, with variants of the virus likely to continue to evolve and our response evolve with it.
The Board and I will continue to stumble our way through the dark and let you know whenever we are able to shed any light on anything relevant.
Rotary Horse Racing update.
It has been a big week for the Warrnambool Central Stables. On Wednesday Sirileo started as favourite in the Catanach’s Ladies’ Day Vase at Caulfield. The following day Power of Song started as favourite in the Pontings Mitre 10 Maiden Plate here in Warrnambool. With both a vase and a plate on offer, we were clearing space on top of the buffet all week.
It is Spring; the horses are racing in Melbourne and the flowers are in full bloom. If you want to fully enjoy the flowers, then you are going to need a vase. With this in mind Sirileo was entered in the Catanach’s Jewellers Ladies’ Day Vase over 1600m at Caulfield. Unfortunately, Craig Williams was not available to ride the great horse on the day. Discreet inquiries were made to investigate the availability of renowned Queensland hoop Nozi Tomizawa, to no avail. Linda Meech was engaged to ride our horse on the day. She did a great job and, despite Sirileo actually running quite a bad race, horse and jockey were just too good. Sirileo and the vase were packed into the back of the float and headed back to Warrnambool. Linda’s summary after the race; ‘Just find another race and she will be winning again.’
If you want to enjoy the fruits of victory, you want to serve them on a nice plate. There is no better plate than the Pontings Mitre 10 Maiden Plate run over 1700 meters in Warrnambool last Thursday. Power of Song started as favourite despite have a career record of one run for a fifth place to her name. That probably didn’t say much for the quality of the field.
The gates sprung open at the start of the Mitre 10 Plate and all the horses jumped out well. Except for Power of Song, who decided to wait for a little bit before setting off. For seasoned Warrnambool Central Racing fans, the whole scene had just a touch of Vassa Blue about it. For a brief moment I thought that we had finally found Nozi Tomizawa. Despite the fact that all the punters had backed her and all the experts had tipped her, Power of Song was never in the race and finished mid-field. It only goes to prove two things. Firstly, when it comes to horse racing, most people including this correspondent have no idea what they are talking about. Secondly, we are very lucky to have Sirileo Miss.
Sirileo has now qualified for some of the richest races in the land, Power of Song for some of the poorest. With this in mind, Wilde Racing have put Power of Song back in the paddock until the Autumn. However, Sirileo is still up an about, so stay tuned racing fans.
Sirileo brings up her hat trick of wins from her last three starts.
You can't argue with the numbers.
Some people think life is about trying to get to heaven. Pip Ritchie has noticed most people put more effort into heading in a different direction.
Ten years ago.
Ten years ago, our Charter President took up a new hobby. Bruce was on a health kick, so he chose to only take the bare minimum of performance enhancing drugs. We thank Boré again for these cartoons.
Warrnambool Central Committees for 2021-22.
Community Service (Matt).
Brendan, Tickler, Gerard, Blainey, Hicko, Lindsay M, Ian S, Bill, Mick,
Club Service (Bob).
Macca, Quincey, Gracey, Hutto, Bullant, Bruce, Paul R., Trev,
Vocation (Hayessey).
Lynchie, Clive, Paul O’B, Nooka, Sam, Bomber, Reevesy, Brad.
Youth (Greg).
Lew, Pip, Ian B., Dillo, Shane, Rowan, Francis, Peter K.
