Thanks go to Stan Hendy for chairing the meeting last Wednesday, 9th June. We had two guests log on to join us - DG Grant Hocking, and our guest speaker Kevin Sheehan.
Kevin, who is Pat Sheehan’s brother, joined us from his home in Templestowe, and gave us an inspiring presentation on his role as Youth Ambassador at the Geelong football club, as well as his work with the AFL. Kevin also enlightened us on the 5 attributes that he believes lead to a successful career, whether that be in football or any other profession.
DG Grant Hocking gave us a short summary of District 9800 news.
The district still has 300 Key cups to sell, and can be purchased from the district website. Any further sales will offset the losses from the cancellation of the District conference.
Throughout the district, 64 of the 65 Rotary clubs and meeting via Zoom.
Despite the restrictions due to COVID19, district 9800 had an increase of 29 members for the year.
Grant reminded members to adapt to change, stay connected and look at different ways of fund raising.
He also reminded us to try to listen to a Guest Speaker, Gerrie Carr, who was to be doing a presentation on Crowdfunding at his Grant’s Morning Tea meeting on Saturday morning @ 11am.
The guest speaker for next Saturday’s session, 20th June, will be the Rotary International President, Mark Maloney.
Board Meeting
Last Tuesday, the Board met for the last time this Rotary year. Points for discussion and action were: -
The adoption of the new club Constitution and By Laws
Geoff Michell has offered to start to review our policy and procedure manual. Many thanks, Geoff, for offering to do this time-consuming task.
The Board moved that US $5,100 payment be made to Foundation before the end of the Rotary year, the total amount includes $100 contributed by one of our members.
Afghani support: individual Rotarians have contributed over $2000 already; so far, $1750 has been passed onto Kaye Graves, of Bendigo Community Health, for distribution to families in the form of food vouchers. Further member funds will be transferred to Kaye next week. Thanks to all donor members for their generosity. Graeme Lynas presented a board paper requesting additional funds, in the amount of $2000, be donated by the club to support local Afghani families – this was approved by the board. These funds will be held in our account until a specific need is identified by Kaye Graves.
Club News
International
Knitting Project: this remains on hold, as all Bendigo Maubisse Friendship Committee shipping containers to Timor Leste have been cancelled for the present. Realistically, it would seem unlikely there will be a shipment at all this year.
Scholarships for students in Timor Leste
We have received an update regarding the scholarships provided to students in Timor Leste. Given the difficulties with communication, the scholarship team at Fundasaun Alola in Dili is keeping in contact with as many university students as possible via a WhatsApp group. Some have been able to continue their studies to varying degrees, despite challenges experienced as a result of the pandemic, and additional challenges to do with living in Timor Leste. Universities have not yet returned from closure and High Schools are to reopen shortly. Although problematic, students have been involved in remote learning where possible. Most students have now returned from Maubisse and they are attending online classes. Unfortunately the difficulties are the network connection not working well and it is expensive - usually students pay $1 for accessing internet during 24 hours only.
Nuni and Sr. Henrietta have reported that due to travel restrictions and the closure of schools in Maubisse, scholarship payments had to be delayed for High School students, most of whom had returned to their families villages in some very remote locations. Sr. Henrietta and Nuni have been in regular contact with each other, and have informed me that as soon as travel restrictions are relaxed, the team from Fundasaun Alola will travel to Maubisse to meet with students and provide scholarship funds to each of them. All UNTL Dili students were able to receive their first semester payment in March prior to restrictions coming into place.
Swap Meet
The Bendigo Veteran & Vintage Car Club organises and run the Swap Meet each year in November. They have made the difficult decision to CANCEL the event for this year. It’s probably not a surprise for us, but they made an early decision so all involved were made aware as soon as possible.
Saturday Coffee Mornings
Walk around Lake Weeroona; 5 members met on Saturday morning at 10am for a walk around the Lake, although Glen didn’t quite walk!!! It was great to catch up with Glen who has been working hard, and unable to tune in to our ZOOM meetings.
PRIP Sir Clem Renouf
The DG informed us that PRIP Sir Clem Renouf passed away this week. As a founding member and charter secretary of RC Nambour, Sir Clem became his District Governor in 1965-66, and went on to serve as President of Rotary International in 1978-79.
Sir Clem was a giant in Rotary history as the instigator of the 3-H program that led to the polio eradication effort. We know him as the person who started the goal of Polio Eradication. What a fantastic life that impacted and bettered the lives of those around him and around the world. Sir Clem made a difference and changed lives now and into the future. Everyone in the Rotary world and more broadly will be saddened by this news, but also thankful that we were connected through Rotary.
You can learn more via this wonderful link to a 2010 ABC 7.30 report, which we encourage watching; it provides a good insight into how the End Polio campaign came about through the involvement of Sir Clem Renouf (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scTIoeepZFg).
The guest speaker for the meeting was Kevin Sheehan, the AFL Talent Ambassador. Kevin has had a distinguished career in football spanning over forty four years both as a player and administrator. He grew up in Bendigo where he played as a junior with Marist Brothers progressing to eventually be the vice-captain of a Sandhurst premiership team. He played over one hundred VFL games with Geelong, finishing his time there as the Assistant Coach. He has worked in a variety of roles with the AFL and currently oversees the transition of young players form school and other walks of life to life through the draft to the AFL.
Kevin outlined his five key factors in becoming successful. These were discerned from his experiences working with highly motivated people. He highlighted the importance of the resilence of people like Greg Williams and Gary Ablett who had been overlooked before eventually getting breaks and performing at the highest standard. Both always maintained a personal belief in their own ability even when this wasn't reciprocated by others. The energy and vitality of someone like Ted Whitten is an important factor in motivating and positively influencing others.
Kevin is very proud of the photograph of him with Ted Whitten and Gary Ablett when he was Team Manager of Victoria as he is of his life membership of Geelong. It says a lot to him about the importance of building on your strengths and persisting on a daily basis to improve yourself and keep up to date. Football needs this kind of leadership and inspiration if it is to nurture and fulfil the one and a half million people who play the game. Kevin highlighted the Selwood family from Bendigo who have contributed so much to the betterment of football.
One of the great benefits of the circumstances in which we find ourselves is having the opportunity to reconnect with people like Kevin who has done and continues to do Bendigo proud.We thank him for his entertaining and thought provoking presentation and we wish him well in the coming weeks as the community is again able to enjoy the AFL.
Crowd funding PDF is available in club documemts
Bulletin Links in Club Documents https://portal.clubrunner.ca/9389/Documents/en-au/4a117555-d1ce-471c-bac2-380b01ca2e7d/1/
This week is Refugee week, Karen refugees practising choral singing at St Paul's Cathedral Hall.
