We are meeting this week at the Timor Street Bowls Club. Wednesday 9th of March, 12.30 for 1.00pm as usual. Parking on the city side of the club off Timor Street. It is very important that you rsvp by texting Brendan before mid-day next Tuesday.
Please rsvp to Brendan 0434 600 114
Club Calendar.
Tuesday 4th April - Board Meeting, Serendipity Drive.
Thursday 7th April - A Stitch in Time Inner Wheel Fundraiser.
Wednesday 20th April - DG John Clue visits club.
Monday 2nd May - Thoroughbred Club Dinner, City Memorial Bowls Club.
Friday 24th June - Changeover Dinner, Proudfoots.
Tony’s tribulations.
Greetings fellow Rotarians.
It was a full house at the Capitol Cinema last Thursday as the Rotary clubs of Warrnambool watched ‘The Duke and raised money for End Polio. A big thanks to Boré, Peter Smidt and all those who helped organise the event. No confirmed figures, but unofficially we appear to have raised at least $2,000, which will be matched two for one by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Front line health care workers have received or are receiving their coffee voucher thank you from Rotary. This both thanks those people for looking after us during the pandemic and also supports local cafes that have been doing it tough. Congratulations to Matt for this wonderful project.
Bob McMillan tells me he should be out of hospital this week. We continue to wish Bob well and hope to see him back at meetings perhaps as soon as next week.
The board meet this Tuesday. Don't be afraid to let board members know of any issues prior to the meeting.
I hope to see you on Wednesday.
Kind regards
Tony
Roster.
Please keep an eye out for your name in the weeks ahead. If you are not able to be at a meeting please organise someone else to stand in for you.
Minutes.
Sergeant Paul Riley assumed control in the absence of President Tony D.
The meeting was good fun, so please excuse the writer’s not so diligent note taking. Nooka Taylor reported 22 members and one guest of Greg Alison, Christian Fiedler. It was great having Christian along…importantly Greg told us,…as Christian,..not “Jan’s dad”!
A very pleasant meal was enjoyed by all in our excellent new venue. New members were in abundance, with Rob Harris, Amrica Hall, Gerald Irvine and Ron McLeod all present….not to mention Tony Grace. As membership Director I’ve pursued quite a few members who haven’t yet got into the resumption of meetings, especially at our new venue. I urge you all to encourage attendance from any members you run into. Let them know the Warrnambool Bowls Club venue is a winner.
One of our hard-working stalwarts wasn’t present…Bob McMillan. Bob has been taken ill, and after a stint in hospital in Warrnambool has gone to Geelong for scans. We understand it’s not a recurrence of myeloma, which is good news. But whatever it is, he isn’t having much fun at all. The whole Club is thinking of you Bob.
Peter Hayes reported that the Brauer College automotive industry visits planned for 31 March had to be adjourned because of a few Covid infections among the students. So the dates are now 7 & 28 April. Please contact Peter on 0437 944 703 if you are able to assist by accompanying students to one of the venues. Hayesey says any of us able to help out will find it a real eye opener ourselves.
John Hutson let us know the Inner Wheel have arranged a fundraising movie night “A Stitch in Time” for 6.30pm next Thursday 7 April. Margaret “Pomeranz” Hutson says it’s not coming to the Capital apart from this showing, and that it’s a fabulous feel-good film which she rates 5 Stars. Contact Hutto for tickets.
Footy Tipping got of to a chaotic start reminiscent of Nooka’s finest olden times performances. To be fair he claimed to have had the tipping cards left on his front doorstep that morning in a plain brown paper bag, with no instructions at all. This arrangement, and the resulting confusion, was indistinguishable from Nooka’s usual running of the show.
We were then treated to a lucrative fines session by Bore. How cruel to expect our members to know any of the Rotary acronyms…although Brian Dillon ought get an honourable mention for his attempt at RAWCS….”er…Rotarians Against Water Conservation?”…. Bore also fined a couple of insensitive members who routinely bag his excellent English and claim not to understand him. Anticipating support he turned confidently to our guest Christian, born in Berlin, asking whether he encountered similar problems? The response?...”No…I don’t understand you either”. Christian fits in well…
Finally, Tony Grace got our new member Amrica up to the microphone for one of his Michael Parkinsons. Not his finest moment when he started with “When were you born?”….or at least that’s what this correspondent heard,…and so too Amrica apparently, who replied “1992”….oops…”No, no…where were you born”... “Oh,…Colac”. Good to find out even a small part of Amrica’s history. With a background in studying accounting and financial planning (with a year of primary teaching thrown in for good measure), her interests/hobbies include gardening and cleaning…collective intake of breath. Tony noted that with our last excellent woman member Anne Ellis moving away for work, Amrica has big shoes to fill. Unfortunately she had to declare she only has small feet.
We must have more of these interviews, even of long-standing members. See you all next Wednsday.
Robbo.
Rotten returns.
Did I mention that I taught English in Malaysia? I’ll let you be the judge whether I was successful or not.
Why would anyone want a room for an hour? You can’t get much sleep in that amount of time!
History of Rotary.
Rotary had intended to set up a club in Sydney and then Melbourne. The two special commissioners from Canada arrived in Sydney in March 1921 only to find the whole city closed down. It was show week and in 1921 show week involved at least a week of public holidays and business closures.
Frustrated to find everything closed in Sydney, the two Canadians travelled to Melbourne to establish the first Rotary club in Australia. They recruited Walter Drummond as the first prospective Australian Rotarian. Walter then recruited William ‘Ossie’ Osborne as the second prospective Rotarian. Ossie Osborne was described as ‘a man of letters, a brilliant scholar, poet, public lecturer and…noted wit’. It was said that once Ossie Osborne was on board ‘it was not difficult to enlist other community leaders to Rotary ranks’.
Ossie Osborne; Australia’s second Rotarian.
Rotary Horse Racing Report.
For the benefit of newer members, we will give you a brief history of Sirileo Miss.
Three years ago, twenty members and friends got together and purchased a share in a horse for a bit of social fun. That horse, Sirileo Miss, ran her first race in Bendigo in November 2020. She won the race, narrowly edging out another unknown horse named Foxy Freda. Since then, Sirileo Miss and Foxy Freda have had a fantastic rivalry, with both horses winning many races and often racing against each other. Sirileo edged out Foxy to win the Catanach’s Jewellers Ladies Day Vase at Flemington while Foxy turned the tables to win the Inglis Bracelet at Flemington during the same spring carnival.
On Saturday Foxy and Sirileo again lined up in Bendigo to contest the Catanach’s Jewellers Gold Bracelet. There were some other horses in the race competing for third place. Billy Egan climbed aboard Foxy and we had Damien Oliver on top of Sirileo as our heroic pre-industrial modes of transport prepared to continue their epic rivalry.
Sirileo got out of the gates well and led for virtually the entire race. However, just as they approached the line Foxy Frida made a strong run and lurched her nose forward as they crossed the line. It was a dead heat.
Your correspondent, who has plenty of professional experience cutting precious metal alloys, offered to get out the angle grinder and cut the gold bracelet in half. However Potholes, who likes horses because you don’t need to build and maintain roads for horse-drawn transport, informed us that two gold bracelets will be cast in response to the dead heat. Hopefully our gold bracelet will make an appearance at a Rotary meeting soon.
Ten Years Ago.
Ten years ago, Matt kindly provided us with both a photo and a caption to accompany it.
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.
