Dear Rotarians and friends of Rotary,


This week we were delighted to welcome our District Governor Tonia Barnes, who spoke to us about the District priorities for this year, and who I would like to thank, together with Bharathi Rengarajan our Assistant Governor for the Western Harbour Clubs, for taking the time to visit us. These priorities reflect President Gordon McInally's Rotary International theme of: 'Create Hope in the World'. Tonia emphasised, in particular, the ambitions of promoting Peace and Mental Health, as well as the need to support the ongoing challenge of Polio Eradication. We will be looking to see how, through our local projects, we can join in contributing to these aims.

The visit was not only an opportunity for us to listen to the voice of Rotary International. It was also an occasion for our Club to communicate our own messages to our District representatives. I was particularly keen to emphasise the concept of the wider Rotary family in our local area. Rotary is more than just our current Club membership - we have our associated clubs, Interact for young people at school and Probus for active seniors; we have our youth project alumni; we have our project partners, whose important work we support; we have our life partners who support us; and we have our prospective new members. All these were represented at the meeting, and I think this helped to reflect the depth of our Club. Anyway, by the number of Rotarians and guests who stayed behind after the meeting, it looked like everyone had a good time - I hope you all had an opportunity to speak to Tonia and Bhararthi.

I was particularly pleased to bring together at the meeting three inspirational women who are doing wonderful work in local schools: Michelle Davies Principal of Chalmers Road School; Georgia Anton, Interact Coordinator at Homebush Boys High School, and Mechel Pikoulas, Principal of Strathfield Girls High School. As I have mentioned previously, Ying and I recently met with Mechel to introduce our various Rotary youth programmes and I am delighted that we were able to introduce her to Georgia with a view to possibly establishing an Interact Club at Strathfield Girls.

 

We are also keen to develop the Club's engagement in Community initiatives and, with this in mind, foster good relations with the Council. You will recall a couple of weeks ago we were addressed by Mayor of Strathfield Karen Pensabene and Strathfield Council General Manager Michael Mamo. This morning Nella, Thaya and myself met with Karen to look at ways in which Strathfield Rotary might cooperate with the Council on community projects. Our focus is on identifying community needs and finding areas in which we might usefully complement the Council's work or support Council initiatives whilst not covering areas already within the Council's own responsibility. The meeting was constructive, and I believe was useful in helping us identify some interesting ideas which we will develop over the next few weeks.

By the way, whilst we were at the Council, Fina Nainoca, the Protocol Officer, showed us, proudly and prominently displayed on the wall of her office, the Ray Sherry Shield with which she was presented at the Rotary Vocational Awards earlier this year. In the short time I have been President, I have myself come to appreciate Fina's enthusiasm as one of the Council's key entry points for community organisations, and to realise just how deserving she was of the award.

 

Talking of developments, next week our meeting will be a 'hybrid' meeting. This means it will as usual be held in person at the Golf Club but, for those who cannot make the meeting in person, there will be a facility to join remotely by Zoom. Appropriately, in my absence on holiday next week, the meeting will be organised and led by Alexey. Ying will be the guest speaker and, apart from telling the Club a bit about her background, she has agreed to play a short piece on the piano - if you have heard Ying play previously, you will know how much a treat this will be and I hope you will show her your strong support

 

Best wishes,

Nick Hamilton-Kane
President
8 September 2023