President Neil provided a 10 min warning bell for members and successfully opened the meeting on time and welcomed all in attendance. Bob read the invocation, followed by two songs - Bob's determined to sing well "We Are Australian", and a bonus song "Edelwiess". Both sung with gusto and melody! Members then welcomed Gary Benton of the RSL Club; Janine Bylund and Alice Bellini.
Following last week's meeting at Salle Manger with the Leadership WA participants, President Neil had only positive & glowing comments from the group. They were blown away with our hospitality, generosity, the number of Rotarians & guests, impressed with members on the panel and extremely thankful and appreciative of the success of the night. Of course, true to Collie's high standard of hospitality & fellowship, the Leadership WA group would like to include Collie in their schedule for the 2016 program. So, well done Collie Rotarians.
John V (Director) explained that the orphanage in Vietnam is a worthy cause for consideration as a Club project. John B has been liaising with My Huong (pronounced Mee Hoong) and has arranged a skype session to enable members to "meet" her and ask any questions as they arise. John B also distributed printed material as background information prior to the skype session.
Next week's program will be held at PathWest located within the Collie Health Campus. Time to start is 6:30pm. A tour of the centre by Rory O'Connor will be followed by dinner at Collie Bus (Graeme Pilatti's), in the LIA.
A ladies day out has been arranged for Sunday 8th November to Bridgetown's Ford House Garden Fair. Car Pooling from Miners Institute car park; departing at 9:30am. For further information contact Robyn; robynyates@westnet.com.au or 0429 445 280. RSVP by 30th October.
John informed members that consideration is being given to a worthy participant for the Leeuwin Sail Training program. Associated costs and details are still being sourced.
Pleased to report that an application has been received for RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards). Applicant is an ex CSHS student. Successful applicant(s) would attend the 17-24 January 2016 camp.
Alice was the "star" at the CSHS Assembly this week. Did very well considering it was short notice.
Alice attended the Inbound student's briefing at Woodman Point at the weekend. She thoroughly enjoyed the venue and catching up with the other students. Also enjoyed listening to humorous stories of "miscommunications". There are 13 exchange students in our District.
A fantastic day was had by all who attended the bus trip to Shedley's Winery in Bridgetown. Rotarians and friends enjoyed an abundance of fellowship, experiencing first hand how the real wine makers bottle their wine and then relaxed under the trees enjoying a BBQ lunch. It was certainly a team effort to bottle in excess of 100 bottles and load the cartons into the trailer. White wine and Port was also purchased, fortunately, these were already bottled.
Huge thank you to Graeme for providing the transport AND bus driver; I'm not sure there was a sober driver left by the end of the day!
Epicure Training Restaurant
Our next fellowship event is hoped to be the Epicure Training Restaurant situated within the SW TAFE, Bunbury. The Restaurant is only open on Tuesday & Wednesday evenings and has a maximum booking of 40. Mike will continue to investigate the next available date to accommodate our numbers. If you haven't been to the Epicure before, it is highly recommended (oh, and it has full bar facilities if you have recovered from Shedley's).
An invitation has been received from Samantha Mack Johnston of the Leeuwin Ocean Adventure Foundation inviting Rotarians to experience sailing on the STS Leeuwin II on Saturday 7th November. Choice of times are 11:00 - 2:00 & 4:00 - 7:00pm. Special discounted price exclusively for Rotarians is $69 (normally $99). During the sail you are invited to get involved in some sailing activities such as hauling lines to raise sails, taking the helm or perhaps climbing the bowsprit; or simply sit back and enjoy the sail. Departure is Victoria Quay in Fremantle and includes light refreshments. For reservations phone 9430 4105.
Harry was pleased to advise members that after an extended work session on Sunday morning, all the lining in the canteen is finished! The canteen is starting to look great; despite some early morning bloopers, Harry was impressed with the workers and the achievement for the day. He is now ready to start the "flushing"; but this won't start until Harry's return from Cairns. In the meantime, regular workers were handed out "How to Gyprock" notes to ensure they are fully informed PRIOR to commencing the work.
In addition to the inner workings of the canteen, Harry advised that quotes have been sourced to replace the two canteen shutters/doors. The doors are very heavy and require 2-3 people to put up. It would be ideal to change the doors to roller doors. The quote received to replace the 2 doors is $1740. Directors will discuss this further in the near future. Peter Reuben offered 2 disused roller doors camping in his shed; Harry will follow up. Size may be an issue.
A contingent of Rotarians visited Pinnaroo on Monday 14th September. This was a worthwhile trip to see first hand a well-organised centre and to gather ideas, layout & design features to include in the planning of a Chapel for Collie. Thank you Peter Reuben for providing chauffeur services and to Lynley (Robyn's Mum) for providing lunch for all of us (at short notice). A Chapel meeting will be held following the Club meeting tonight.
Welcome back: Tony, Mark, John V, Martin & Alice; Birthdays: Gary, Eric, Emily, Geoff Blackford's Mum (fabulous 95!); Guests: Gary Benton, Alice, Janine (John B will be fined double for forgetting to introduce his lovely wife); In the press: Robyn, Donna & Harry; Pinnaroo delegates: 6 Rotarians attended: Donna, Peter, Robyn, Doug, Jim & Mark. I think the Sergeant fined Rotarians that did NOT attend; Bought the Box--Bob Greig: Jenny was in the press; Harry: Harry was kind enough not to name the offenders of the following bloopers during the BMX Club's renovations: first sheet of the day was put up upside down, hole was drilled in the wrong spot, sheet was cut (way) to short; Mike: Peter Reuben has joined the Collie Visitor Centre's Committee; Bob: Fined President Neil for promising to take care of his case of wine...only to forget to bring it to Rotary. (probably empty, that's why); Martin: Fined Bernie. Martin was keen to start reading his notes on gyprocking, only to find Bernie had absconded them. Terry: fined Robyn as Glyn was in the press, multiple times. Peter: lovely lunch at Robyn's Mum's place on the way home from Perth.
John B provided a background on the orphanage and the lead up of events that resulted in a skype session being planned. Members and guests held their breath while connection between Collie & Vietnam was established.
My Huong was born in Vietnam and adopted by an Australian family - her father was Australian, her mother Vietnamese. My Huong returned to Vietnam in search of her mother and has remained in Vietnam. My Huong has 2 adopted sons of her own.
Since our first contact with My Huong the original children's centre closed and relocated to a much larger centre 7km from town. The Government was generous enough to provide the building, however, that is all that has been provided. The centre is now in dire need of so much that My Huong is unsure where to start. Children are now feeling isolated and bored and has had cases of children running away. As the old centre was situated in town the children regularly went to the park, beach, outings to movies, supermarket, bowling etc. Now due to the distance there are far fewer visitors, less donations in general and less opportunities for children to be taken on outings/excursions. My Huong was able to take what she could from the old centre, however had to leave behind broken furniture. There are currently no beds set up as the old mattresses were falling apart. As the new centre is so big, there are now many rooms completely empty. My Huong is eager to establish training programs and activities to motivate the children and to occupy their day. As the sewing program has been successful in the past, My Huong is keen to commence the same program at the new centre; there is already a teacher at the centre, ready to start. Sewing machines and associated supplies (general sewing supplies, chairs, desk, cupboards) are not ready to start. A skills training program for boys is also on My Huong's agenda, however, again funding is the hurdle. Ideally, My Huong would like to establish a program for repairing motor bikes, but the cost of equipment is a substantial set back.
Overall, the skype session provided an abundance of information necessary for the Club to consider potential financial assistance. Well done to Technician John B and his assistant Janine. The session was very successful.
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