After our Board meeting last week, we had our first presentations of Directors’ reports on the projects each Avenue of Service will be undertaking this year.  It was also fantastic to hear from Project Champions, who will ensure we gain real traction.  Ideally, the role of Project Champion is to manage and run his/her nominated project in concert with the Director responsible, as well as talk to community partners, promote the project and bring a greater understanding back to the Club on each project.  It would also be opportune if each Project Champion would liaise with our Bulletin Editor, Gabe Hau, and our Web Master, Stuart McArthur, providing each with a photograph and brief outline on his/her project.  The more projects are promoted internally and externally, the greater the support will be, and therefore success of our projects.  If anyone is interested in becoming a Project Champion, I encourage you to talk to the Special Project Directors or the relevant Avenue of Service Director.

Our Foundation Chair, Steven Aquilina, has done a lot of work very quickly to help submit our first Ambassadorial Scholar application.  I am delighted to advise that Roland Dillon has won the District nomination!  Thank you Steven for helping to ensure Roland was successful.  We had great feedback from Chris Don, our District Foundation Chair, and David Gorman, Ambassadorial Scholars Coordinator for our District Foundation, about how well Roland was prepared.  As our Club’s first ambassadorial scholarship, this is very exciting news.

Our first fellowship activity is on 11^th August, which is a bowling and skirmish night organised by Gordon Hastie, our Club Service Director.  Please mark this as a “must” in your calendars and be sure to bring friends and family to share in the fun.

Philip Archer
Club President 2009-2010

President Philip's Quote of the Week

“Everyone on the face of the earth has a treasure that lies waiting for them.”  

       - Paulo Coelho

Last Week's Meeting

(Thank you to Steven for these great scribe notes)

Meeting 492 Scribe Notes

We welcomed guests including Rotarian Ashok Bhatti from the Rotary Club of Rajkot, District 3060 in Gujarat, India.

A special toast was made to acknowledge the Rotary Club of Murrumbidgee District 9700.

Club Announcements included:

PP Richard distributed new club polo shirts and advised that the caps will be arriving in a few weeks time.

PP Gabe told the meeting about his visit to South Bank, Brisbane last Sunday for the 2009 Street Soccer National Championships, won by the Victorian Metro team.

Charles reported that over 40 Rotarians and guests attended the first Southbank Speakers Series Business breakfast last Thursday, with Julian Riekert delivering an informative presentation on the new Industrial Relations Workplace reforms.  The business breakfasts provide an excellent business networking opportunity.  The next breakfast is schedule for 17th September 2009, with Peter Court, the Founder and CEO of Streetscope as guest speaker on Corporate and Business Social Responsibility.

Several club members attended the Ryder-Cheshire Foundation fund raising dinner last Friday.  A special culinary experience prepared by two of Melbourne's top chefs was enjoyed complemented with an inspiring speech by Kevin Bailey, Honorary Consul General for East Timor in Victoria and a Paul Harris Fellow.  Rotary Club of Southbank continues a long association supporting Klibur Domin in East Timor.

Chris ran a very entertaining Sergeant's session prior to the club reports.

This week each of the Club leaders presented a summary of activities and up coming events within their area of service.  The purpose of this is to engage the whole club with the myriad of events, projects and programmes that the board has been planning during the past month.

PP Gordon gave us an update on Club Service activities, reminding us of a an upcoming fellowship night on the 11th August for some friendly competition with 10 Pin Bowling and Laser Skirmish at Crown.

Our club will continue to support the Rotary Leadership Institute, with Clinton, one of or newest members attending the Part 1 training course this weekend.

Members will have an opportunity to support the Rotary Environmental Planting Scheme (REPS) at a tree Planing day on 9th August at Glenaroua (via Broadford) in the Goulburn Valley.

The RVFR 4WD Club is organising a convoy from Melbourne to drive to the District 9800 Conference in Perth in March 2010, and is seeking additional drivers.

The Role of the meeting chairman is being changed to streamline the running of our meetings.  A new meeting running sheet will be written to reflect changes in the way we will run club meetings in the future.

Troy provided us with an update of club membership, confirming that the club is progressing with the application of two new members.  He also described a new class of membership, known as “Friends of Rotary”, allowing interested persons to be associated with our club with the opportunity to contribute to club activities without the commitment of full membership.  The club is also exploring the use of club business cards as a way of introducing the club to new prospective members in our day-to-day social and business interactions.

Gaby delivered the Community and International reports on behalf of Bettina, explaining the use of the register of projects that has been compiled for all members to review.

PP Rhys described the valuable work of the STEPS programme for homeless kids, encouraging us all to donate unwanted household items to the organisation.

PP Wendy, spoke about the upcoming Camp in Anglesea hosted by the KIDS Foundation between 23rd and 26th August, calling for volunteers to assist as “buddies” for the children.  Our club will also be assisting the KIDS foundation at the camp to run a Trivia night on Monday 24th August, to be MC'ed by our talented quiz master PP Richard.

An overview of our work with the Rotary Club of Bali Taman was provided by Wendy, describing our work on water projects and a women's medical clinic for the villagers in North West Bali.  The club currently has a Rotary Foundation matching grant application in progress, and is investigating partnering with another Rotary club in Japan.  Our club is currently in the early stages of planning a visit to Bali to see the results of the completed project and to participate in the celebrations.

PP Gabe informed the club of Alex Buchanan's 2008‐09 Global Alumni Service to Humanity Award he received at the RI Conference in Birmingham last month for his humanitarian work to provide nutritional biscuits to third world countries.  The club is currently investigating the feasibility of building a biscuit manufacturing plant in Dili, East Timor.

Michael F reported that the club is currently seeking applicants for the RYLA and RYPEN youth leadership camps to be held later this year.  Applications close in October.  He also gave us an update of the club's Vocation projects including Customer Service and Corporate Excellence awards, promoting Corporate Social Responsibility in the community.  Related to this is our club's partnership with the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation to promote philanthropy amongst corporate organizations.  Several club vocational visits to local business will be planned.

PP Gordon provided us with an update of the Young Achievers Australia (YAA) programme, confirming that he will be championing the programme again in 2010.

Steven provided us with a summary of the Rotary Foundation activities, including our club's support for Ambassadorial Scholar candidate Roland Dillon as well as our current activities in finding candidates for the GSE Programme to Spain in 2010 as well as our District's involvement in the Rotary Foundation Future Vision Pilot.  Both Steven and later President Philip promoted the importance of supporting the work of the Rotary Foundation by contributing to the Every Rotarian Every Year donation programme (formerly called the Centurion program).

Concluding proceedings for the evening, Gaby reminded the club of the upcoming Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWS) International forum to be held on 16th August at International House, University of Melbourne.

Our International guest, Ashok invited all members of our club to visit RC of Rajkot in Gujarat, India.

President Philip closed the meeting with his thought of the week: “When we postpone the harvest, the fruit rots, but when we postpone our problems, they keep on growing”.