District Governor Harry Bolton and his committee have advised that this year's District Conference in Tenterfield had to be cancelled. In his message to all members, DG Harry explained the principal reasons for making this difficult decision. Here are the most important ones:
- Tenterfield is a reasonably small town with a population of less than 4000 people, with a high % of people in the High-risk category (70 years plus)
- The town is only equipped with an 18-bed hospital with minimal services and facilities
- The Tenterfield Rotary Club have 3 members who are integral staff members (nursing staff) of these facilities
- Rotary is an advocate for disease control and eradication and must take the high moral ground on this issue
- Most importantly – Tenterfield may be able to contain or deal with this virus if it doesn’t hit us hard, in other words - moves through the community slowly. By introducing the possibility of accelerating the spread of this virus throughout our community would have a disastrous effect on the community
- Finally, and most importantly, I have a duty of care to my fellow Rotarians (many who are in the high-risk category) attending this conference and to the community of Tenterfield.
The committee is currently working on organising to refund monies pre-paid to registrants. As an alternative, a donation to Shauna Bolton's "DG Partner's Project", the Malaria Vaccination Project of Griffith University, of which Rotary is a major partner. Stay tuned!