Mark's ReMarks 18
This is my first contribution to the Bulletin for this year so I would like to take the opportunity to wish all members and their families a very happy 2011.
I would also like to again thank Joy Ferguson for making her spectacular new home available for our Christmas break up function.
It seems that many of you have taken the opportunity to get away over the break and I hope you all had a wonderful holiday . Those of you who stayed around Melbourne will know that our proposed joint meeting with Rotary club of Eltham, at the BBQ facilities we helped build at Petrie park, had to be cancelled at the last minute due to inclement weather. Mike Englefield and I are still keen to have a joint meeting at some stage so I hope we can organize this in the next six months.
During the break we also learned of the sad passing of Graeme 'Dogger' Ryan. Dogger was heavily involved with our club approximately 20 years ago when our club embarked on a major undertaking known as the 'Hobact' expo. His exceptional organizational skills were instrumental in the successful running of the expo. Dogger subsequently became a key member of the team running RYLA for many years. Our club made him a Paul Harris fellow for his contribution to rotary. He was also heavily involved in scouting at a senior level and involved in many other community activities. St Gabriel's church in reservoir was full to capacity for his funeral two weeks ago. It was a fitting send off to a great man.
At our first formal meeting this year our guest speaker is Ian Hemming from foodshare. Michael Loy has put together a great program of speakers this quarter so I hope you can join me for as many meetings as possible for the rest of the year.
I can't believe how quickly this first six months have gone. I hope our plans for the next six months are well supported and successful.
Conference is just around the corner and I firmly believe that all members should attend conference to get a full appreciation of what Rotary is about and apart from that, its great fun so please try to attend this year's event.
Cheers for now
President Mark