President Peter Smith's Column

Last week we were host the 2010 GSE outbound team, which went to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland – and what a wonderful it was!

Team Leader David Ross and team members Cate Robinson, Colin Wilkes and Suzanne Wright all spoke with great enthusiasm and humour about their trip. Unfortunately, due to work commitments, Shannon Tonkin   was unable to attend.

We were joined on the night by 32 Rotarians and their partners from the Breakfast Point, Burwood and Concord clubs.

Cate Robinson – who was sponsored by Strathfield Rotary – presented the club with 6 Rotary banners that she had exchanged (for our banners) at the following clubs:

·         Humber, Corner Brook NL Canada

·         Stephenville, Newfoundland Labrador

·         Prince Edward Island, Canada

·         Clarenville, Newfoundland

·         Halifax, Nova Scotia

·         St. John’s East, Newfoundland

On a slightly disappointing note – only 29 Strathfield Rotarians were at the GSE meeting -out of a total of 78 in attendance. What do we need to do to break our current 50% weekly (weakly) attendance record?

This week we welcome PP Terry Davies who is the Corporate Manager with Australian Rotary Health. Terry has had a wealth of experience in education and the business world and of course has been active on a District level for many years. Terry will talk to us about how we can support the goals of Rotary Health. Terry will be introduced by PP Peter Manenti.

Family of Rotary

As proud grandparents it is always great for both Marlene and I to be able to spend some quality time with our grandchildren Ben and Emily at every opportunity.

In Rotary, we also celebrate family - the Family of Rotary. And, while we may not always see each other regularly, the common bond of Rotary service continues to keep us connected. Like all families many of us of us travel, juggle work and personal commitments. However, as I see so often at our meetings, there is always a real pleasure in catching up with each other on a regular basis. We often speak of the friendships that we have made through Rotary and I am sometimes surprised by how quickly those friendships seem to develop. However, I suppose that we have all joined Rotary with a desire to be of service to our community and we work together to be effective in making a difference to the lives of others. So, in that light, it should not be a surprise that we are able to form such strong bonds in a relatively short period of time.

With that thought in mind, I would ask that you take some time at our next meeting to get to know someone in the club who you may not have yet spent a lot of time with. Chances are you will make yet another great friend in Rotary.

Cowboy logic: “Don’t get mad at somebody who knows more’n you do. It ain’t their fault.”

President Pete