Ken Taylor informed us that the Masters Marquee would be brought into the Saturday Markets area, and that it needs six people to erect it so as not to damage the structure.

The sign boards which tell the story of the Markets contribution to the city will also be on display. We have contributed more than $2 million to the Wagga Wagga area since our markets started.

 Rotary Information:

The New Directory. In an attempt to move us into the 21st century, and to save money, the District Directory is going to be on line. Currently you receive the District Governor’s Newsletter electronically. Paul Murray was at the leading edge of that decision, which made that newsletter available to everyone, not just a few. He has led the way with this as well. It has been a great deal of work, but the end result will be very very satisfying.

The District Directory will now be on D9700 ClubRunner website as a tab on the top menu bar. It will be “live”. That is to say as details of members etc are added to ClubRunner, the Directory will automatically update.

For those who prefer, there will be a “static” version sent out to all members by email on July 1

This will not be updated at any point, so the data we have as at June 30th will be what it contains.

For those who do not have a computer or prefer to have a book version, this static version can be printed out, either in its entirety, or just the sections that a member wants. That means that you can, for example, get a list of each member of the District, and his telephone number. Members who have no computer will be able to approach their secretary for a print out.

Our Guest Speaker today was John Kjeldson who gave us a very interesting overview of his life to date. He was born to reasonably impoverished parents, but lived happily enough just out of Morisset near Lake Macquarie, in the  village Martinsville. He is the youngest of five children and they lived on 40 acres of orchard and pullets

His highschool  education was at the SDA private school in Cooingbong.

After completing school he had wanted  to do vet science, even after being treated cruelly by Daisy in his youth. His marks didn’t allow him to do that and on the urging of a friend he ended up at wagga Wagga Teachers College. He was in heaven! The male to female ratio was 2/1.

On graduation he was posted to Euston and enjoyed his few years there.

More recently he taught in Wagga Wagga, lastly at Mt Erin.

As a retiree he bought a block of land at Eurongilly, but bad health caught up with life threatening clots. The farm had to go, and this triggered a severe bout of depression which threatened to swallow him.

He commenced writing as a form of therapy, but he had found that giving himself a goal, something to get up for of a morning, held that at bay. His wife was extremely supportive, as was his GP. But it still strikes from nowhere and often he totally loses confidence in himself, or he will be inexplicably very sad.

His books sell very well, and he has now released five volumes of prose and poetry.

John was thanked by Frank Fuller who was once a policeman in Euston and has some tales to tell. Maybe a book in there Frank?