3 December 2003
Hello fellows,
Last Friday night I attended the District Governor’s monthly President’s meeting at Penrith Panthers together with Lillian. This was the last President’s meeting for this year and last one (hopefully) to be held at Panthers. The next meeting will be 20 February 2004 and will be held at the new buildings of the Northcott Society.
Terry Davies from the Rotary Foundation gave another excellent presentation on the work of the Foundation. He also provided information of how we can get involved with some matching grant projects in the Philippines, such as anti- tuberculosis vaccinations for new born babies, computers for I elementary school, hepatitis “B” vaccinations and development of a water system.
A team of members for the GSE team to travel to Houston Texas has been selected. As the team to travel consists of only 3 members, a meeting this weekend, just past, was to decide on who will be the final team members and who will be a reserve member. The candidates are from the following clubs, Hawkesbury, Padstow, Parramatta City, Springwood and Prospect.
The incoming GSE team from Houston arrives in Sydney on 4 March 2004 and will attend the District Conference at Gosford.
While talking about the District Conference there are now 2 members of our club of 60 who have registered for the Conference, Kevin Beltrame and myself. To assist the Rotary Club of Holroyd, the organising club, with their planning and budgeting, I would urge members to register early.
There was also a presentation about the Rotarians Against Malaria (RAM) program and are willing and able to attend our club to tell us more about the program. A startling statistic from the presentation was that someone in the world dies every 20 seconds as a result of malaria.
Duncan Berriman from the Springwood Club spoke about the benefits of the Student Exchange program. He also reminded us that the exchange students in the district are generally available to attend as guest speakers at any time to provide an insight into experiences of living attending school in a foreign country.
John Heels the District Child Protection Officer provided more details of pending child protection Legislation intended to cover volunteers working with children. As advised previously, District 9690 along with 3 other volunteer organisations have agreed to trial the program conducted by the Commission for Children and Young People. This means that as from 28 November 2003 all Rotarians and people associated with Rotary working with young people under the age of 18 MUST complete the new documentation. This program is not retrospective. The Children’s Commission does not require the participating organisations to submit the new documentation prior to 28 November 2003.
I will be passing the new child protection guidelines to our President Elect Keith Byrn and also to Youth Services Director Kevin Beltrame for implementation.
Last Saturday we had another attempt to raise funds for charity by holding a sausage sizzle at Dan Murphy’s, Enfield. Whilst the day was financially positive this time it could have been better. I wish to thank Shirley once again for coordinating the event, Brian Johnson, Grahame True and Steve for giving up their time for “service above self”. Many thanks to George Helou for positioning the trailer to Enfield and also to Grahame for allowing me to use his van to tow the trailer back to Mrs. Macs.
Reminder, Christmas Carols this Saturday 6 December.
Have a good week
Keith