President Peter Smith's Column

The Police Officer of the Year Awards dinner, last Wednesday, was a great night – and my thanks to Doug Potter, Keith Byrn, Peter Manenti, Peter Foss and Terry Rohan for putting the evening together in such a professional manner.

The attendance of Commissioner Andrew Scipione and his wife Joy was evidence of the high esteem that the Awards hold throughout the Police Force. Our club – our community – can be proud of the 400+ police in our area who 24/7 help to maintain an orderly society while meeting the criteria of the awards by performing “outstanding acts of courage, kindness, understanding, compassion, courtesy and devotion to duty”.

Congratulations to Detective Senior Constable Denise Bozikis (Burwood) and Detective Senior Constable Michael Egan (Flemington) who were the worthy recipients of the Police Officer of The Year awards for 2010.

The night wouldn’t have been possibly without a lot of help on the night – my thanks to Rotarians Keith Stockall, Darrell Slater and Allan Teale who all worked the front desk. The Raffle King, David Martin, was successful in extracting $775 (which was later topped up to $1,000) as a donation for Police Legacy. Also, my thanks to Suzanne Freund - for kindly providing the table flowers and the after dinner gourmet nibbles.

The success of the evening would also not have been possible without our sponsors – all who were listed prominently in the program – 8 of whom contributed $250 each and 2 others who contributed (more) “in kind” - to the success of the evening.

oooOoo

Last weekend Marlene and I were fortunate to be able to attend the Australian Rotary Conference in Canberra. Titled “Towards a Stronger Australian Rotary” - the emphasis was naturally on membership retention and growth. The organisers had assembled a strong team of RI, NZ and Australian Rotary speakers, headed by Ray Klinginsmith Rotary International President and supported by:

Stuart Heal (R.I. Director)
John Thorne (Past R.I. Director)
Rob Crabtree (Rotary Coordinator)
Rob Wylie (Rotary Coordinator)
Richard Garner (Rotary Public Image Resource Group)
Peter Ochota (Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator)
Jenny Horton (Polio Eradication)
Chris Joscelyne (Rotary eClubs)
Alana Wilson (President, Rotaract Australia MDIO)

And they were informative, enthusiastic and passionate about the future of Rotary.

As bulletin space is limited it is my intention, over the next few newsletters, to summarise all the main points coming out of their individual presentations. There were some good and construction suggestions that will help every club.

I was alarmed to learn (among others things) that while we have 1.2 million members world wide – we have “lost” 1.6 million Rotarians over the last 6 years. Clearly retention is a major issue.

Cowboy Logic – RI President Ray used “cowboy logic” in much of his various presentations – much to the amusement of the audience – and particularly me! So much so that I will in future sign off each week with one the “cowboy’s gems. Here are 2 examples to kick off –

“Don’t squat with yer spurs on!”

And I know this won’t be the case at our Ryde TAFE dinner this week –

“Always take a good look at what you are about to eat. It’s not so important to know what it is, but it’s critical to know what it was”