President’s Report

7 March 2018

Last Week – RYLArians

We again experienced some of the reasons the Youth Program is so important to Rotary, our Club, and the young people that are lucky enough to experience its events. This week it was our January 2018 RYLArians that came to our club and (once again) told of how this experience has literally changed their lives. Elain, Shival and Vincent recounted their great experiences from RYLA in such an enthusiastic and uplifting way. You could feel their sense of marvel at how this camp impacted them and set the foundations for how they will ‘attack’ life from now on; very inspirational for all that witnessed this transformation. They were accompanied by proud group leaders, Rain and Alex.

On the night we also had a visit from Burwood Rotaractor – Alex Malubag – who told us about an initiative of their Rotaract club to promote new ideas for (all) clubs to potentially implement, a Shark Tank Pitch Competition, as an inter-club event. Let’s stay tuned into this; I’d like us to participate if our schedule allows.

District Conference Report – Cultivate Rotary

The District Conference in Mudgee was another great Rotary District event, with high quality and inspirational speakers once again the highlight for me. Our Club was represented by the Croft’s, Manenti’s, Smith’s, Pitt’s and Vosila’s. Mudgee is wine country and so none of us can remember much of the Conference itself, although other (sober) participants tell us is was really good!

The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Cultivate Rotary’ (wine growing inspired), and it was held in the Parklands Resort and Conference Centre (where DG Stephen Britten and his wife Jane had their wedding reception 29 years ago!). As I mentioned, we had another assembly of great speakers, including Past Rotary International President John Germ (who I met and gave some sage advice to ), Ken Sutcliffe (much loved journo and polio survivor), Jacob Stein (local wine maker), Gemma Sisia (founder of the School of St Jude in Tanzania), Mike Brady (iconic jingle writer), Stephanie Woollard (social entrepreneur and founder of the Seven Women project), Professor Ron Rapee (member of the ARH Research Committee), Dominic Teakle (CEO of PCYC), Judith Mogi (District Rotaract Representative), and the lock note speaker (always saving the best for last) was Dr Gill Hicks (London Tube bombing 2005 survivor, and founder of MAD – Making a Difference for Peace) – with an incredible story of survival and rebirth. Too much excellent content to recount to you all. You’ll just have to come along next year and experience it for yourselves!

And speaking of next year’s conference, DGE Sue Hayward announced the venue as… Bankstown Sports Club, with the conference set to run from 15-17 March 2019. There you go! Easy for all of us to attend; no need to worry about travel (it’s close), accommodation (sleep at home) or parking (free at the venue). Let’s all plan to attend. These events really are good value; even Christine enjoyed her first conference with me (and the wine!).

Upcoming Events – Busy!

We have a busy calendar of events coming up. Let’s get these into our diaries:

14 March 2018, the Great Debate – Santa Sabina vs. Meriden. We have a new adjudicator this year, our very own Nick Hamilton-Kane!
17 March 2018, the International Peace Conference in Sydney Town Hall. There will be an array of fantastic guest speakers; not to be missed
21 March 2018, last meeting at our current venue ☹. It’s a partner’s night and a celebration of our time in the (old) Strathfield Golf Clubhouse
24 March 2018, RWHESCA event at Massey Park Golf Club. Let’s support Paolo and the other participating clubs to help make this a successful inaugural event
28 March 2018, our first official Club meeting at our new (at least interim) venue – Massey Park Golf Club
6 April 2018, the Catherine Sullivan Centre Gala Ball at Le Montage. We are supporting CSC in this event, as they seek to raise $50,000 for their Phonemic learning program that we’ve all heard so much about

This Week – Don’t go breaking my heart

We have a very important topic this week – Avoiding your heart attack. Why would you miss it? Heart attacks and related heart conditions (stroke, hypertension, etc.) are Australia’s number 1 killer. Let’s learn how we can avoid our own one and sleep easy tonight.
 
 
Rick