I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend now that restrictions have lifted for us in our region. I hope that you have been able to catchup with some loved ones, family & friends over the weekend.
With these restrictions lifted we should be able to return to our regular Wednesday lunch meetings at Roches commencing at 1pm. Unless we contact you please come along on Wednesday to enjoy some fellowship. It has been nice to be able to have our weekly Thursday night Zoom meetings even though we only had a relative small amount of members attend.
We will also be able to have a face to face Board meeting for October on Thursday night this week.
VP Lee & myself along with a number of other cluster clubs have just attended a Zoom seminar “Keys to Unlocking Membership” hosted by our district 9640 with the Chairperson being David Baguley. Presenters were our own DG Jeff Egan, Past DG Andy, RI Director Jesse Harman, Candice Olivier (Passport Club) DGN Dave Harmon, along with National & International attendees. The seminar was presented over 2 hours from 3pm today, and gave VP Lee & myself many ideas for our club on membership which we will share with the board & the club in the near future.
Last Thursday night we had a great meeting hosted by VP Lee as I was unwell due to my 2nd Covid shot. I wasn’t the only one as Camellia also was unwell after her shot as well. A huge thank you to Lee for standing in for me at late notice, however as always Lee stepped up & was able to host the meeting and ensure everyone was part of the meeting early with each member answering her question of “RUOK” for RUOK day which was on the same day. Thanks once again Lee for a great meeting at such short notice.
Keep on enjoying your weekend of freedom, and until Wednesday take care & stay safe.
Take a couple of minutes and seriously think about this month’s theme. What springs to mind? Do you have an image of children in “developing countries”?
But according to a report by the ABC, "Forty-seven percent of the Australian population are functionally illiterate," meaning that “they can't read the instructions on a medicine bottle, they can't read a map, they can't read a recipe." OK, the report is dated 2012, but it is unlikely that matters would have substantially improved. On a less critical view, the Australian Bureau of Statistics says that, as at 2020, about 4 out of 5 people have attained year 12 or Cert II. That still leaves about 20% of the adult population who are struggling.
Sounds like a task simply too enormous? Well, if 25 years ago Rotarians had thought it impossible to achieve the inoculation of more than one billion children some 2 million children today would not be walking. They would be sitting in a wheelchair (if they had one).
Whilst cleaning out a few boxes of items from my shed we found the following letter from a student from South Grafton High School you never know what you will find.
OK, for all of you that are out of wine currently and need to restock, apparently we are still on the list for the fundraising activity we started last year!
P.S. Stay away from the Port, as it's not as good as we thought it was going to be, however all of the other choices are fine.
Please remember: each case sold (12 Bottles) the Club receives $40.00 (or $20 per Half Dozen).
Bottoms Up!
Kind Regards Greg Butcher Secretary
ANOTHER GREAT WINE OFFER FROM TYRRELLS September 2021
My Friends and Supporters of ROMAC
The last 12 months have been a very challenging time for ROMAC with our inability to bring patients into Australia or New Zealand due to the rampant COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully, none of those on our waiting list - approximately 40 young patients - are in need of urgent surgery or procedures.
Your fundraising support in these difficult times has been outstanding and for this I sincerely thank you.
Following the success of our special wine offers last year we are delighted to, once again, be able to provide some great wines from Tyrrell's Wines especially for our ROMAC supporters and friends.
Tyrrell's Managing Director, my good friend, Bruce Tyrrell AM, has agreed to release some more of his popular Drink Now Vats wines and these are currently available to you at a very attractive price of just $110 per dozen. As in the past a generous percentage of sales will be donated to ROMAC.
The wines are only available for a short period, so now is an ideal time to replenish your cellar and at the same time help ROMAC change the lives of sick children from our neighbouring islands in the Oceania region To order, simply click on the 'Place your wine order here' button below.
Many thanks for your ongoing support.
PDG Harold Sharp OAM Chairman PS: Please feel free to invite your family, friends and Rotary colleagues (and those who are not yet Rotarians) to participate in this offer.
Please order your lunch on arrival with 
