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Upcoming Events.
 
1st December - Jericho Cup.

Host Families Wanted. 

Dear Rotary Clubs of District 9780, 

The District 9780 Rotary Youth Exchange Committee urgently requires host clubs for three students arriving in our district in January 2025. 

The students will stay for 12 months before returning to their home countries in January 2026. Their arrival has already been postponed by six months due to a lack of clubs willing to host. 

We must host these students in order to maintain our relationship with partner districts overseas. Failure to do so will likely result in these districts not wanting to exchange with us anymore, limiting opportunities for Australian students in our district wishing to participate in the program. 

Host Clubs provide the student with a mentor who enrols the student in school and finds three or four host families for the student. These host families do NOT need to be Rotarians nor have other children in the house.  There are many ways to obtain host families including reaching out to schools, sporting clubs and, if Rotarians have adult children, having them ask around their circles. Families of past, current and prospective exchange students are also a great resource.  If a club is keen to be involved but is worried about finding host families I can create some resources for advertising and help with reaching out to some of the aforementioned groups in your local area. 

The Host Club also provides the student with a monthly allowance of AUD $180 and pays for their (discounted) attendance at the District Conference and any exchange briefings. 

Students can be co-hosted by more than one club if necessary. This can help lighten the administrative and financial load. 

More comprehensive information about the responsibilities of a Host Club is available.

If your Rotary Club can assist by hosting or co-hosting a student, please let me know ASAP. 

This is a great opportunity for Rotarians to showcase their local area, make international connections and make a massive difference in a student's life. As a previous exchange student, I still feel immense gratitude for my host club and have loved being able to keep in contact with and even return and visit the Rotarians who afforded me the 'opportunity of a lifetime.' 

We will also require clubs to host students for 12 months beginning in July 2025. If you are not able to host in January it would be appreciated if you could start having conversations within your club about potentially hosting in the next cycle. 

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. 

This email has been sent to Club Presidents, Secretaries and Youth Directors. 

Kind regards, 

Grace Scott

Placement Officer

Rotary Youth Exchange
District 9780

M: 0474 875 492

 

Further to Grace's letter, Greg adds;

Members are asked to consider hosting and to ask family and friends if the would be interested.  You don't necessarily have to have high school aged children at home.  Empty nesters sometimes enjoy the experience of having a young person in their home and apparently the students enjoy the experience too.

Talk to Greg if you think you may be able to help.

Club Information
Welcome to our Club!
Warrnambool Central
Imagine Rotary
Wednesdays at 1:00 PM
Warrnambool Bowls Club
75 Timor St
Warrnambool, VIC 3280
Australia
Phone:
0493 467 248
Please join us for lunch at the Warrnambool Bowls Club.
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Boré’s View.

Here at the Central Spoke we generally don’t discuss politics and we don’t take sides.  However, Brendan’s presidential campaign has piqued our interest.  Particularly his campaign slogan ‘don’t vote for me.’  It’s fresh, it’s innovative, it’s powerful.  It really taps into the anger that people feel over traditional politics and connects with people on an emotional level.  Yes, Brendan’s presidential campaign has become an unstoppable train that will surely take him all the way to the highest office in the club.

Boré has climbed abord the Bono ’25 team and has produced this excellent campaign poster to help swing undecided voters.

We thank Boré for another great cartoon.

Minutes

Attendance: Nooka counted 23 members in attendance with no guests and no visiting Rotarians.  Nooka hoped his count was correct at Rotary because ‘he was never right at home.’  We hear you, Anne. 

Meal: Navy ration corned beef with an extremely generous helping of mustard sauce. 

Jon raised the anchor and headed out of port with an interesting explanation of the difference between chick peas and kidney beans before introducing the Compass.  Matt informed us;

·       Bono and Matt had done some work at Lorraine’s place.  There might be a bigger effort coming up so stay tuned.

·       Matt’s Melbourne Cup pair of sweeps were run and won, with Gracey and Clive picking up the chocolates, Paul and Hutto second and Anne and Chris third.  Rowan and yours truly were compensated for coming last. 

The bowls club was torpedoed shortly after we got underway and had developed

a significant list to port by the time the captain addressed the crew.

 

In reports;

·       Greg announced that Lexi Forbes will have her final briefing in Swan Hill before she heads to France.  Greg is currently exploring the option of us hosting a male or female exchange student from Brazil, Denmark of Germany.  Greg would really like to hear from you if you would be interested in hosting a student for part of the year.

·       Robbo reported that he had contacted Rob, who is unwell and in the Epworth in Geelong.  Our thoughts are with Rob and we hope he is feeling better soon.

·       Paul did not mention that subs have been due for about three months.  If he has to mention it again people are going to get hurt. 

·       Bono attended the Warrnambool RC’s open gardens and reported that they were excellent. 

·       Lew has booked a tent at the Jericho Cup and invited club members who might be attending to recycle cans to drop in and say hello. 

·       Tony D advised members that our club may not appear on the TOMRA app for a few days after about the 12th of December as we renew our charity status with TOMRA.  This will be the first time either we or TOMRA have done this so please bear with us.  We will let you know as soon as we are up and running again.

Gracey then interviewed Jon Vertigan.  John was born in 1974 in Kew.  His father was a famous radio presenter who’s 53 years in the industry included many years sports coordinating for the races and the moon landing etc.  Jon attended the now defunct Sindal College and always had an interest in a career in radio.  During high school he nurtured this interest by making radio demo tapes with his friends and entering radio competitions to win prizes.  His best win was a trip to Miami to see U2 in concert.  We’ll let Bono from U2 take up the story of Jon’s trip to Florida from here;

Weather ‘round here choppin’ and changin’

Surgery in the air

Print shorts and southern accents

Cigars and big hair

Jon got the wheels and petrol is cheap

Only went there for a week

Got the sun got the sand

Got the batteries in the handy cam

Her eyes all swimming pool blue…

Sorry, it appears Bono was distracted by the receptionist at the radio station there.  Jon married the receptionist, ‘her eyes all swimming pool blue,’ after following her to Traralgon when she was unexpectedly transferred there by her employer.  Jon’s career in radio has taken him to Swan Hill, Horsham, Shepperton, Warrnambool, Traralgon, Melbourne and back to the ‘Bool.  He has hosted programs, been the music director and program director at a range of radio stations.  Jon spoke thoughtfully about the uncertain future of radio, as it is with other traditional media.  He spoke of human connection as the key to the success of radio.  We thank Gracey and Jon for sharing part of Jon’s life story with us.

Successful counter flooding had largely corrected

the list by the time Gracey interviewed Jon

Jericho Cup Pre-Race Dinner.
 
Talk to Adam Kent if you are interested.

Rotary Horse Racing Report

This week has been a smorgasbord of Warrnambool Central Racing horse racing. 

The festival of turf kicked off with Sirileo Miss running in the group 2 Matriarch Stakes at Flemington.  Shane and Louise Keogh have maintained the faith and were in the owner’s pavilion on course to witness the event.  After a string of poor runs, Sirileo quite rightly started at very long odds.  Your correspondent was not hopeful but, as mentioned previously, I would be happy to be proven wrong.

Declan Bates climbed aboard for the journey.  Declan got Sirileo out of the gates really nicely and went straight to the front.  Suddenly, it was like the Sirleo of old.  It was like she had been injected with the elixir of life again.  She got well out in front and opened up a big gap on the field.  She charged down Flemington’s long straight and was only just caught on the line by the winner. 

Your correspondent was ecstatic to have been proven wrong.  Sirileo appears to have recaptured her pre-drug ban form.  We will now wait nervously for the blood test results and then hopefully it is onwards and upwards for Sirileo.  Full credit to Declan Bates for a fantastic ride and full credit to the crew at Wilde Racing for getting the horse back to her best.

On Monday the festival of turf continued here in Warrnambool.  Matrooshi kicked us off in the first with John Allen on board.  Matrooshi got away nicely, had a nice sit behind the leader around the bend, and then kicked away down the straight to win comfortably.  I know club members would have all backed the horse after we tipped this win in these pages two weeks ago.  Congratulations again to Wilde Racing for their great work and patience with Matrooshi.

Overflow Miss then stepped out for us in the seventh.  The stables noting before the race that she trains well but races well below this level.  That in many ways summarises our racing experience.  We have owned plenty of excellent horses that just struggle a bit with the whole running fast in horse races caper. Overflow Miss' jockey once again sported the stylish pompom on top of his head despite the penalty of the aerodynamic drag it creates.  

Overflow got away very poorly and kept the ambulance company for most of the journey.  In a stroke of luck, at the start of the straight two jockeys took their rides to the outside rail hoping to find quicker ground, only to find quicksand.  With two horses out of the way Overflow Miss finally got the motor spooled up and made fairly good progress through the field to finish in an entirely respectable fourth place.  If she ever learned to run a horse race properly she would be a likely sort.

Overflow Miss finishing forth. 

Note the jockey crouching low to reduce the aerodynamic drag created by the pompom.

More exciting updates as they come to hand.

Ten Years Ago

Ten years ago, the playground which we contributed to at Swann Reserve was officially opened.  Francis and Hayesey represented the club in an official capacity.  

Our Club Fundraiser 2023 - every hand on deck!
Building on 2021-2023 - Supporting ROMP
Date TBC
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bulletin.warrnamboolcentral@gmail.com
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