President Geoff with Bruce Duffy and Andrew Roberts from South Wagga Apex Club

 

 

Six members of Wollundry attended the Coolamon Rotary meeting this week to thank their Club and hand over a cheque for $2000 for their help with the Gears & Beers festival. They were very appreciative and astounded at the size of our donation. 

 

And today it was a pleasure to thank the South Wagga Rotary Club and provide Bruce Duffy with a $1100 cheque and Andrew Roberts of South Wagga Apex.  This festival is a true Community and event and we are grateful for the support of other service clubs. 

 

If you have a job or position on a committee and are not sure what to do you can firstly look up the Club Job Descriptions on our website or contact Paul Murray for help if you get lost. You could also contact the director who looks after your area - as nominated on the committee list recently distributed. 

 

Paul Murray is calling for members to nominate for next year's Meal Deal social function. This is an excellent initiative to get to know members and their partners in a relaxed social atmosphere. I would highly recommend you put your name down especially new members!

 

 

A big thankyou to Jo Carlisle for her great work with out two major committees. Her presentation was fantastic and we all appreciate her great work and unpaid help for our club!
 

 

 

 

Today's guest speaker was Jo Carlisle and she was introduced by Tim Barter, chairman of two of our major fund raising committees. Jo is a Human Resources Teacher and Adviser and her talk today was on Social Media Marketing. Tim informed us that Jo works at TAFE and CSU and helps enormously with our Food and Wine Festival and the Gears and Beers event.

 

Jo used a Power Point Presentation to support her talk which revealed that there are many platforms to engage with online. For example, YouTube, Instagram, Linked-In, Facebook, Twitter are some of the most recognised. Surprisingly, 70 Percent of all adults in Australia use Social Media to Publish, share information, to network and to discuss ideas.

 

With our Gears and Beers event the No 1 social media usage was via Facebook 93%. Linked In was the next most frequently used.

 

Facebook has 14 million users in Australia with a new person joining every 6 seconds.

 

The average time spent per person on Social Media each day in Australia is 2.1 hours. There are 25,000 Facebook users in Wagga.

 

The Food and Wine Festival used Facebook, Wollundry Rotary Website, Instagram and Mailchimp. The Gears and Beers Festival used Facebook, Instagram and the Website.

 

The benefits to our Club are that these media reach large numbers at low cost. The messages are targeted and they are traceable and measurable. The Club benefits from the excellent Community engagement.

 

Another feature of Facebook that was pointed out by Jo is the facility for people to make donations through Facebook. This tool could be useful at some future date.

 

The final point Jo made was that Sponsors benefited greatly by the exposure through Social Media. There were 1500 hits and 400 video viewings for our major Sponsor Riverina BMW.

 

Members questions reflected the keen interest of the audience. Jo was then thanked on behalf of the club by PP Phil McIntosh.

 

Phil said that Jo's presentation was so relevant for our Club and he thanked her for all the time and effort she has put into the Food and Wine Festival and the Gears and Beers event, turning up to all the meetings, understanding them so well and creating the media pages for us. Members enthusiastically supported his vote of thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

President Geoff opened the meeting with Rotary Grace and welcomed a number of visitor including PP John Flockton who now works in Goulburn, Josh Walsh  and a number of members of South Wagga Apex Club who have helped us in a number of our events, they were Bruce Duffy, Kim Crawford, Andrew Roberts, Joel Irlan and Tim Sheather. Our exchange student Kat Janzon was also welcomed. 

 

President Geoff informed the club that a number of members had attended the Coolamon Rotary Club meeting to hear Jonty Shuter's daughter address the club about her Exchange.

 

Geoff also reminded members about White Ribbon Day on Wed 22nd. A day to focus on Domestic Violence and ways of dealing with it. The Womens Health Centre at 22 Peter St will be open for members to call, reflect on the issue and share a cuppa.

 

Tent Hire. Rob Pearson and Mal Robertson will be responsible for this area and will run the committee. The rental fee for tents has been reduced to $50. There will be a minimum of 4 tents per hire. If ten or more tents are hired, our members will erect them. Money received for tent hire may or may not be donated back. This will be a decision for Projects Committee.

 

Jobs Manual. This is on the web site and if you are unsure about your responsibilities then check it out.

 

 

 

PP John Smith told us that life started for him at Robinson House, Wagga Base in 1955. He then went to the family farm at The Rock where he remained though school at The Rock and later Mt Austin High School. 

 

In 1972 he joined the PMG and trained in Sydney before returning to Wagga where his main job became installing automatic exchanges. He then moved to Canberra for 15 years and while there bought an irrigation farm in Wagga. He returned to our fair city in 1989 to manage the PABX systems and then became a project manager for Telstra Countrywide.

 

Taking a redundancy in 2008, John became actively involved in the Wagga Aero Club. He has held a pilot's licence for forty one years.

 

John took up bee keeping as a hobby and it has become a good sideline for him. He has given at least two very interesting talks to our club on Bee keeping. He was President of our club 2000/01 and was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship for his services to our Club and Rotary in 2009. John has been Wollundry's District Conference organiser for many years and been responsible for the smooth functioning of our changeovers for a number of years.

 

John has a daughter Danika who lives in Sydney and he lives with his partner of 20 years, Judy in their home in Kooringal.

 

 

 

Darren Wallace reported on a very successful Rypen gathering at Borambola last weekend. The weather was good and the 63 young attendees from 20 clubs enjoyed the good speakers and the activities provided by Borambola Staff. Guest Speakers included, the Miss (s) Wagga, Neil Harvey from Toastmasters, Christine Hillis from NRMA.

 

Darren thanked a number of members including Greg Conkey, Geoff Breust, John Hawkins, Neil Pinto , Peter Crozier, Graham Burmeister, Nick Leywood, Bob Willis, Geoff Hamilton, Dave Foster. Special thank you was made to Mark Hillis who gave a good speech in which he related well to the young people.

 

Darren reported a small surplus to add to the RYPEN budget.

 

 

 

Convenor Michael Knight announced to the Club the changes for next year's conference. There will be no Saturday Night Dinner next year but there will be a Concert instead.

Out of town Rotarians will be hosted by Wagga Rotarians for a meal before delivering them to the Concert. In response to Michael seeking a gauge of support by asking for a show of hands, about a dozen members indicated that they would be willing to host other Rotarians for the meal in the evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geoff Breust reminded members that the Christmas Party is on this Sunday at the Aero Club, Wagga Airport from 4 pm to 9 pm.

 

Those attending should let Peter Clucas know asap and directions to the event will be emailed to members.

 

You should bring your own nibbles and wine glasses. NO BYO.  Drinks will be sold on site. Beer will be $3 per stubby and wine $5 per glass.

 

The Menu will be Porter House Steak or Honey Chicken both with veg and salad. Desert will be Sticky Date Pudding.

 

 

 

 

Paul extracted money from everyone in the club by playing a game of heads and tails based on our Club knowledge. The prize of a bottle of Olive Grove Oil was won by editor who judiciously observed the voting intentions of a number of more knowledgeable members, especially James Hamilton

 

Cross fines were served by David Benn on Paul Murray. David used the opportunity for presenting an American Flag that was almost thrown out with the rubbish when Cherie was doing a Spring clean. John Flynn on Rob Nicholson for a luxury goods tax on his Oysters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Honeywell Engineering Summer School is run by the Institute of Engineers and provides students with a week-long practical engineering experience at Universities and engineering sites in Sydney. The Honeywell Engineering Summer School is held in December, with 100 Year 11 Students selected from NSW and ACT. Students gain a better understanding of engineering as a university and career option as well as broadening their horizons and experiencing the interaction with practicing engineers and their peers.

 

Throughout the week long program, students are introduced to five universities, including UNSW, University of Sydney, UnWS, Uni of Tech, and Wollongong Uni. The students are also taken behind the scenes of some major engineering companies and projects to see engineers at work.

 

 

 

Next week's meeting will be at Active Print premises of Dave Foster. The address is 170 Hammond Avenue Wagga.

 

 

44 members attended today's meeting with 28 eating and 5 purchasing buns, the rest just looked on hungrily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Benn and Doug Conkey with PP John Flockton

Andrew Roberts, Joel Irlan, Tim Sheather, Bruce Duffy and Kim Crawford from South Wagga Apex

Josh Walsh and Col Duff

 

 

 

 

 

 

LUCKY DRAW PRIZE was won by Rob Nicholson