Presidents Notes

President Usha's Notes

5 May 2021

Dear fellows,

"Remember, engaged members stay with Rotary, and through Rotary they can accomplish great things"

John Hewko, General Secretary, Rotary International and Rotary Foundation

"We need to look beyond ourselves and our year, at the long-term health of our clubs, communities and our organisation. That is how we get closer to achieving our vision. It's never the role - it's always the goal. It is about helping those doing poorly, to do well, and those doing well, to do even better."

(Extracted from an inspiring speech [click] by RI PP Kalyan Banerjee at the International Assembly).

Rotary Foundation Scholarship links with COVID19 vaccine!

"The Rotary Foundation's Scholarship bolstered my ambitions and allowed me to pursue my MS from the University of Hawaii, and subsequently a PhD, at the University of Wisconsin- Madison." says Krishna Ella (click).

Ella, a farmer's son has given India its first successful indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, COVAXIN (click), developed and produced at Bharat Biotech, with an interim efficacy of 81%. Ella's entrepreneurial journey has seen him develop and supply 1.5 billion different vaccine doses to more than 65 countries. His mission is to provide the 5.8 billion people of developing nations with this safe, affordable vaccines. While many countries of the world, particularly India and Brazil face endless suffering and loss of lives through the COVID 19 and its mutants, Ella brings help and hope.

District Assembly / Rotary Service Summit

One of highlights of this week was ten members of our club attending the Rotary Service Summit (District Assembly) on Saturday, the 1st of May. Great opportunity to hear a message from the incoming RI president Shekhar Mehta, our incoming district leaders and from Jessie Harman, first Australian women on the RI Board. It was a well planned informative program for the day and a great opportunity to network with other club members and district representatives. Please catch up with board members (click) for more details.

Club News and Events Coming up:

President elect Thaya Ponniah has dived into the deep end with a great pre-planning session over breakfast with his team (click) on Saturday, the 17th of April. Hopefully we are closer to the end of the pandemic and with a safer world we can open out to many more fund raising activities.
This week we formally welcome our newest member Steven Argyris and I take this opportunity to thank Rtn. Bradley Ayres for introducing such a worthy member to our club.
The 50th Anniversary preparations are in full swing and Chair Roger Vince would appreciate receiving all bookings as soon as possible. Please note that the deadline for purchase of tickets is this week, 7 May 2021. It is a once-in-50-years event!
The Youth Awards are now set for 18th June by the Awards Committee in consultation with Strathfield Council. Rtn Ed Dunlop and his team have kicked off the planning for this important event in our Rotary Calendar.
RYPEN camp is coming up and we have sponsored two students from HBHS.
Last but not the least, the Changeover will be held on Saturday 26th June. Please reserve the date, more details will follow later.
This week, we will hear about Malcolm Brown's professional experiences as a long time journalist for SMH reporting on major disasters.
The following weeks also bring interesting speakers (click) and I recommend not to miss any evening

Look forward to our meeting.

Usha Garg