Central Spoke 08.12.2020 (Dec 07, 2020)

President

Gerard Barker

President Elect

Anthony Davies

Secretary

Mark McFadden

Treasurer

Sam Baulch

Community Service

Brendan O'Neill

Vocational Service

Peter Hayes

Club Service

Bob McMillan

International Service

James Mepham

Rotary Foundation

Tim Goodall

Membership

North Northeast

Public Relations

James Mepham

Youth Service

Garry Askew

Ronnie’s Wrap.

Rotarians

Great see 27 turn up to the AGM last week. Congratulations to TD - Tony Davies who will be Rotary Warrnambool Central President for the 21/22 year. Congratulations also to Bono - Brendan O’Neill who shall take up the role of Secretary, and OWAF – Garry Askew who shall be our Treasurer. Tony is keen to appoint a President Elect so please give some consideration to putting your hand up for this role.

I invite you to congregate for another meeting at the Central Court this Wednesday 9th December, 12.30 for 1pm. Please contact Mark McFadden on 0407 052 758 or email Mark.McFadden@roads.vic.gov.au to confirm your attendance by 6pm Tuesday. Good news, face masks will only need to be worn in the foyer or if you need to go to the rest room, and we are free to stand and move around. You will need to register your details at the door and payment by card is preferred. In a Warrnambool Central Rotary first, we will have a zoom guest speaker (Adrian Campbell from Rotary Camberwell) to give a presentation on ‘ROMP’ – Rotary Outreach Myeloma Program, a Centenary of Rotary in Australia Project.

The Christmas party will be held in the Carmichael Room at the City Memorial Bowls Club (50- 58 Cramer St Warrnambool) on Thursday 10^th December at 6.30pm. Cost is $30 per person for a two course dinner with drinks at bar prices. If you have not already RSVP’ d please do so by 12pm Tuesday 8^th December via email to Gerard.Barker@warbus.com.au or Ph 0411584910 and ask for yours truly.

Stay safe

Cheers

Ronnie

Upcoming events.

Wednesday 9^th December – Weekly Meeting – confirm attendance to mark.mcfadden@roads.vic.gov.au

Thursday 10^th December – Christmas Party – confirm attendance to gerard.barker@warbus.com.au

Friday 11^th December – Santas Elves for Sinclair Wilson Wishing Tree 2pm – volunteers advise gerard.barker@warbus.com.au

Monday 14^th December – Christmas Handbag Project – contact fmel@sinclairwilson.com.au

Wednesday 16^th December – Christmas Lunch and District Governor visit

Friday 18^th December - Santas Elves for Sinclair Wilson Wishing Tree 2pm

Boré’s view.

We are back, although some members are still struggling to get back into the routine. Francis was dead keen to return to Rotary, he just couldn’t remember which motel we met in. If you walk into enough motels in Warrnambool you will eventually find yourself in a Rotary meeting. It works for Francis.

Our President is back too, looking a picture of health. He even has the pandemic mask tan lines to prove he has been wearing his mask while catching a few rays.

It is great to have Boré back as well. Thanks for another great cartoon Boré.

Minutes.

Attendance: 27 members in total after Lindsay B. wandered into the Central Court in casual dress and with a casual attitude to punctuality.

Meal: Chunks in gravy with a good mix of veg, garnished with a couple of packaging noodles, and a side of toasty bread. The maestro is back.

Penno returned as Sarg and was not taking any rubbish. He determined that there were no guests and no visiting Rotarians before inviting our President to speak.

The Pres. announced:

· Our Christmas Party will be on the 10^th of December and City Memorial Bowls Club.

· Sinclair Wilson are looking for elves to assist with their Christmas Tree project on Fri 11^th and Fri 18^th, 2-3pm. Let Gerard know if you are able to help.

· Felicity is organising another Emma House fundraising/social night. Details to be emailed.

In other reports:

· Bob brought us the news that the Jericho Cup viewing at City Memorial had been a big success.

· Les informed us he has organised a special meeting for the 23^rd, with everyone asked to bring along their best Covid 19 jokes. Anne informed us the Central Court will be closed on the 23^rd and we won’t be able to meet then.

· Malcolm gave us the great news that the Auction is scheduled for the 17^th of April 2021. Talk to Malcolm if you are able to help.

· Hayessey reported that the primary school awards have been organised and the Trade Expo is being planned for 2021.

· Penno is about to send three boxes of books and soft toys to the Phillipines. Well done Penno!

Knuckles conducted an excellent AGM (see below) before Macca rounded out the day with very good fines session. Macca attempted to fine Bruce, who pointed out he didn’t need to pay a dollar because he had bought the exemption from fines for $165, which he had not paid for yet. Sam was quick to type $165 into the EFTPOS machine and offer it to Bruce. Next week we will have Adrian Campbell from the Rotary Outreach Myeloma Program as our guest speaker.

Ronnie closed the meeting and we were done for another week. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meeting. When asked if he would be back next week, our Charter President replied, ‘Once a month is enough for me to come to this #%&hole.’ Well, nearly everyone enjoyed the meeting.

Annual General Meeting.

Last Wednesday Paul O’Brien once again conducted our club’s Annual General Meeting. His time of 2:08.76 was world class. Paul is the Roger Bannister of Rotary administrative procedures. Rotarians were once again left wondering whether the elusive sub-two-minute AGM might be possible. All we can say for sure is that Paul will continue to train and compete, and Rotarians everywhere will continue to dream.

In other news, the annual financial statement was accepted, Tony Davies was elected 2021-22 President, Brendan O’Neill Secretary and Garry Askew Treasurer. The position of President-elect remains open. Sinclair-Wilson were selected as our auditors after a lodging a very competitive bid.

Rotary Horse Racing update.

There is probably only one member of our club still interested in our old horse Vassa Blue. It is your great misfortune that this member happens to be the Central Spoke editor. Vassa Blue raced again in Ipswich recently. You already know what happened.

Vassa is entered into another race in Toowoomba on Saturday. You have to hand it to his owner/trainer: he is nothing if not stoically persistent.

In other racing news, congratulations to Maddi Raymond on her big win in the Werribee Cup. No doubt Bombers work swimming the horse down at the beach was the secret ingredient for success.

More than Ten Years Ago.

Pip Ritchie brings us the reminder of our youth.

As an aside, the picture above does not show a normal syringe and needle for injecting a vaccine. I am reasonably sure it is a quite different device. Many years ago someone came up with the brilliant idea that you could fire a spray of liquid at incredibly high pressure straight through someone's skin. It was a way of injecting something without using a needle. It was all the rage at one point, the Blood Bank even used them to inject local anaesthetic prior to placing the blood collection needle. Never mind that the high pressure spray actually hurt more than a needle and arguably looked much more intimidating, it was meant to be less scary for people.

There was one small problem however. When the spray hit your skin at incredibly high speed it exploded some of your skin tissue back into the gun, ready to be injected into the next patient. The AIDS/HIV crisis of the 1980's quickly put an end to the high pressure injector gun.

Vaccine trials begin.

Lew Officer has suggested the following protocol for trialing new vaccines.

Here's something we can all agree on.

1. The vaccine should be tested on politicians first.

2. If they survive, the vaccine is safe.

3. If they don't, the country is safe.

Thank you to all those who contributed this week.

Please send contributions to;

bulletin.warrnamboolcentral@gmail.com