Minutes
Attendance: Nooka was pleased to report an impressive 27 members present with four guests. Our four guests were Lexie Forbes, Suzie Alexander, Alison Bonjer and Truffie. Is it scraping the barrel for Nooka to be counting dogs in our official attendance figures?
Meal: Schnitzel with gravy, salad and chips.
Bono stepped up as sarg with and excellent joke before introducing President Matt. Matt thanked Ian for organsing last week’s Bocce and barbecue. He reminded members Lexi is heading off to France on Saturday and wished Lexi every success. Maria will be arriving soon, so we all need to get our Working With Children cards in order. Matt noted it was great to see Paul O’Brien looking well at bocce last week. He also welcomed back Shane from Germany and your correspondent from slacking off at home. Finally, Matt reminded members we have our meeting at Warrnambool East RC Hole-In-One next Wednesday, 12.30 at Pertobe Road instead of our normal meeting.
In reports;
· Surf reported the bocce and barbecue day was a success, with 23 members in attendance and no winners in the bocce. Robbe noted that ‘bocce was the winner’.
· Surf also reminded members our trivia night is coming up at the tennis club on Friday the 21st of February. We will be trying to fill eight tables of eight.
· Hutto announced the Myeloma Lunch will be on Tuesday 28th of April at the bowls club. Pencil it in your diary now.
· Hutto also announced ‘some bastard’ flogged two bins worth of cans from us. This is an ongoing problem we need to manage unfortunately.
· Lew advised that Rowan had a report.
· Rowan advised that he had nothing to report, and since last week had just been on a fairly typical boating trip. No need to make a big deal out of it. Sea water naturally contains minute quantities of aluminium, generally less than 5 parts per billion. This aluminium comes from the natural process of aluminium masts and boat hulls slowly dissolving in the ocean.
· Father Scott invited everyone to St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne on Saturday February 8th to witness Father Scott being consecrated as a Bishop. Congratulations Father Scott. See below for details.
· Bono advised that he had not received any volunteers for next year’s board. For the club to run we do need people who are willing to serve on the board. Please give it some thought and talk to Bono if you are considering supporting the club in this way.
Surf introduced our guest speakers, Suzie Alexander and Alison Bonjer from Story Dogs. Suzie was in a Rotary Club in Brisbane when a guest spoke about the Story Dogs project. Suzie established Story Dogs locally and is the local group coordinator. Her ambition is to have a dog team in each local primary school.
The project targets grade 2 students who are struggling with reading. Suzie noted that poor early literacy can lead to an ever-widening gap of academic failure and a loss of self-esteem. Story dogs provides support to these young students to help them bridge the gap in their reading proficiency.
Story Dogs in a national not-for-profit organization that helps 2930 children in Australia each week. Currently there are 586 dog teams, 82% of which are fully funded. The project receives no government funding.
Individuals and organisations can assist Story Dogs by sponsoring, donating, or volunteering. A $550 donation will sponsor the training and assessment, insurance, and purchase of books for of one dog team. Sponsors can have their logo placed on the dog’s vest. One dog team can assist five children each year.
Hutto and Shane suggested we could write a children’s book based on Rowan’s Fishing adventures. This is not a bad idea. See below.
Alison and Truffie have assisted children with significant reading challenges at St Patrick’s primary in Koroit. She noted the extraordinary progress in children she has assisted with the program.
Lexi then spoke about her impending journey to France and the RC of Templeuve-en-Pévèle. She thanked the club and Greg for all their assistance to make the exchange happen. Matt then presented Lexi with the traditional Rotary fleecy polo top and club banner, then wished her well for her exchange. We all do.
The barrel was drawn Pip walked away with the free meal voucher.
