30 March 2005
Greetings Fellows,
Wow, what a busy fortnight!
The conference last week in Canberra was fantastic. We started with a visit to Parliament House on Thursday and sat in on “question time” and saw PM John Howard and Kim Beasley go toe to toe on the Senator Lightfoot incident. We then had a short break and attended a lively St. Patrick’s night dinner at the Canberra Club. On Friday, Sue & I visited the War Memorial, something that we had not done for many years.
On Friday evening the opening dinner of the conference was held at the Conference Centre which culminated in a presentation by the outgoing GSE Team from Indiana.
Saturday morning started with a flag ceremony by the Australian Federation Guard – outstanding.
The guest speakers were exceptionally interesting, especially Dr. Alan Gale, a most remarkable humanitarian.
The Saturday session of the conference intelligently closed at 1.30pm. to allow everyone to catch their breath before the Black Tie Ball in the evening which was held in the Great Hall at Parliament House. There was a full house of 640 attendees and considering the number of people there the evening went off extremely well.
Sunday morning began with an Ecumenical service conducted by the Rev. Keith Sanders and a “Reflections” session to remember those Rotarians who have recently passed away.
The morning once again presented us with some wonderful guest speakers.
The Conference was MC’d by an equally talented man in the name of Wayne Erickson. Wayne kept the conference rolling and entertained us with some comical stories from his experiences as a 1st grade Rugby union referee.
Congratulations go to the Burwood Club for hosting a wonderful conference and to our own Ted Ingall for acting as Conference Chairman. Ted did a fantastic job and continued to make sure that all went well for our attendees right throughout the conference. Thanks again, Ted.
After a moving talk at the conference from PP Paul Sarks regarding the Polio Plus campaign we have made a donation of $1000 to this wonderful program. As you may be aware the Federal government matches dollar for dollar so we have effectively created a $2000 dollar donation to the program which will go a long way to eradicating this disease in the not too distant future.
On Monday night I attended the farewell dinner for the incoming GSE Team. An emotional but great night. Thanks go to the Rotarians and their families who hosted the team for the last two days in Australia, Eric & Pauline Khu, Penny & Graham True, Peter & Marley Harries and Bradley & Cheryl Ayres. A special thank you to Bradley Ayres who did an outstanding job making sure that our guests were well catered for.
Our guest, Team Leader, Hugh Baker III was a wonderful man, full of enthusiasm and a great ambassador for his country and for Rotary.
Last weeks meeting saw us visit the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and visit the Rotary Wing. We were told what a huge part this has played in the recovery of children who are being treated there. I will be talking more to you about how our Club can assist more in the coming weeks.
That’s all for now,
“LET’S CELEBRATE ROTARY”
President Keith