President’s Report
8 November 2017
Previous Week’s Speaker
What an interesting and highly interactive night we had with special guest – Ben
Newsome – from Fizzics Education back on 25 October 2017. Ben reminded us how
much fun you can have and how you can truly learn science by ‘doing’ rather than
just by ‘reading’. As you’ll see from the photos taken on the night, we all got
into the action and had a ball, especially learning about the interaction
between milk fat and a surfactant (liquid soap) using food dyes to show the
effects (was I listening or did I just copy this from PP Raymond’s Facebook
post?). It was a lot of fun, and very informative.
Last Couple of Weeks’ Service Activities
It’s been a hectic couple of weeks out and about for many Strathfield
Rotarians. Rather than me writing pages and pages about all the great things
that have happened, come along and listen to the updates provided by the
Directors and others that have been involved. What I will say however is:
Thanks to RTN Andrew and PP Grahame for organising and executing the Muscle Car
Masters program selling activity again this year. As always, it was a lot of
fun; great to see (and hear!) so many classic cars, and meet some interesting
characters. We raised $2,000.00 for the Club again this year, thanks to the
generosity of Alex Fairweather (Grahame’s daughter) – rounding up the total to
that number for us. Thanks to all who came along to help out.
Thanks to PP Pete for once again masterfully coordinating this latest Graffiti
Removal Day effort. I didn’t participate this year, however I’ve seen some
photos and it looked like a lot of young folk were having a great (and
productive) time. The Muscle Car Masters and the Graffiti Removal clashed on
the Sunday, but once again, with the generosity of Strathfield Rotarians, and
reeling in some younger folk (Pete) we were able to fully staff both events.
Thanks to the Rotarians that joined me at the Burwood Rotary initiated Speech
Craft Night last Monday evening, coordinated at our end by PDG David. It was a
great event for the youth in our local schools, with some excellent speaking
talent on display. Congratulations to Bella Merlino from Santa Sabina College,
for taking out the competition. Bella – one of the youngest competitors on the
night – gave an excellent prepared speech on ‘making the world a better place’ –
no notes, great eye contact, very expressive, lots of excellent speech craft
exhibited – a joy to behold!
Lastly, thanks to the Strathfield Rotarians (and their friends) who came along
to a fun-filled WHG Carnival of Cultures last Friday night. Organised (with
much passion) by our AG – Renga Rajan – and his wife, Granville Rotary President
– Bharathi Rengarajan – there was a lot of fellowship, food and fancy-dancing!
Thanks to RTN Prabhat for organising the Strathfield contingent, and especially
for our contribution to the ‘talent show’ – a wonderful Bollywood-style dancer –
Palak Gupta – putting on a very energetic Bollywood fusion performance.
Pride of Workmanship Awards Coming
Our next BIG awards night is coming up on 22 November 2017 – the annual Pride of
Workmanship. RTN Usha has been working very hard coordinating this evening. I
understand there are lots of excellent submissions that have been made so far.
Please make plans to attend the night, and bring some friends and colleagues
along too. This is another great opportunity to showcase the wonderful work of
our Club, in particularly identifying the wonderful work of the unsung heroes in
our community.
AGM Coming Up Too
Our AGM is fast approaching too – scheduled for 6 December 2017 – just a month
away. Please plan to attend this important evening as we seek to confirm
appointments for the upcoming Rotary year.
This Week’s Speaker
This week we will have as a special guest in our Club – George Ayoub – who will
be discussing Refereeing in Rugby Union. George is an Australian professional
Rugby Union referee. He is currently a member of the Super Rugby panel for
Television Match Officials (known as TMO), and is a former Test Match referee.
Bring your friends, colleague and acquaintances along to this not-to-be-missed
opportunity to hear from George.
Rick
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