October is Vocation
month and an ideal time to get to know each of our members’
vocation in more detail. If there is someone in the club you
don’t know well, why not take the time to find out more about
their vocation.
This Tuesday we will
also be going behind the scenes at the Crown on a guided tour
through their maze of kitchens. This promises to be a fascinating
evening and a unique look at the Crown’s world-class chefs at work
– not to mention an opportunity to sample some of the cooking and
learn more about this vocation!
It is now the time
that President Elect Bettina will put her team together for next
year. If you want to take up a leadership or project champion
role in line with your skill set or passion, I’m sure Bettina
would love to hear from you.
Past President Rhys
Maggs and I visited the Yarra Glen Bushfire Recovery Centre to
ascertain first hand just how we can help them with the two
projects for which we have been successful in getting grants: the
first project being to provide cargo containers for families who
are rebuilding to store tools and building materials; and the
second one being for the indoor playground for kids. Rhys will be
the Project Champion for these two initiatives and will be seeking
support from club members and the Family of Rotary to build the
playground, which is being designed by Tony Barber, the creator of
the Lost Forests retail concept. We are hoping to have the
playground project completed and handed over at a Christmas
barbeque celebration on Sunday 13th at the Yarra Glen Community
Centre.
Have a sensational
week.
Philip Archer
Club President 2009-2010
Meeting 502 Scribe Notes
This week was the first
meeting for the year with the daylight savings time kicking in. This
meant there were no fires being lit along the walkway by Crown at
7pm to light up the room. Maybe we should make and light our
own bonfire at 7pm during the meeting in the coming months!!
Anyway, back to the meeting notes, we had Charles (the tall one)
start the meeting with the normal toasts.
We had a special presentation from Lisa who is an inspector from the
Victoria police force (Port Phillip) sharing her experience about
taking part as a mentoree in the Victorian Police mentorship program
with Tracey Browne as her mentor. Lisa is in charge of 170
staff and helps manage the various Melbourne events such as the
Grand Prix, New Years Eve celebrations and also coaches a women's
football team.
President Philip then thanked Bobbi for her organisation for last
weeks Salvador Dali exhibition fellowship night. Philip also
advised that we should be getting a refund for the members who did
not end up going to the exhibition.
We then had a brief presentation by two
YAA members from 'McRobs' school who talked about running and
setting up a business. They also proudly donated and presented
a cheque of 10% of their profit to the STEPS foundation. What was
interesting was that their business was creating environmental
notebooks that contained seeds that helps offset the paper usage of
the notebook. Next, we had a members moment from Dianne who
talked about a competition she was interested in entering after
hearing it from a talkback radio station.
Our chairperson P.P. Rhys talked about how when he was president he
was introduced to the STEPS program and how that link has
strengthened over time with the club. Rhys then introduced Anne from
STEPS. Anne explained how the STEPS was founded in 1985 and is
part of a Christian organisation, Concern Australia. The
various programs they now run include Inside Out, Values 4 life and
the hand-brake turn.
Anne
explained how volunteers of STEPS who work on the steps of Flinders
street station provides young homeless people with any type of
support they require such as providing blankets etc. One of
their main goals is providing long term relational support and
trying to help kids (8-18 yrs old) break out of the cycle of issues
such as drugs and poverty. Anne also shared an experience of
how they helped 'break the cycle' for a young 8 yr old who came from
a violent and broken home. STEPS have been able to provide him
a male mentor and helped him join a football team. Through
this support they have seen this boy's self esteem improve.
Anne also thanked Dianne for providing fruits for their Christmas
functions.
Next was Dean from Concern Australia who presented his goal and
challenge to us as a club to whether we are able to help them
organise a fundraising event for their 25th anniversary next year.
This would raise their profile and hopefully inject some much needed
funds to the foundation as they do not accept government funding.
Rhys then chaired the questions from the club to Anne and Dean.
Finally, Rhys handed the meeting back to President Philip who
thanked everyone and ended the meeting for this week.
(Thanks to President Elect
Bettina for the photos)
