Steve’s Snippets
19 March 2003
All I can say initially is…. CONGRATULATIONS…. EVERYONE !!!!!
On the night of the Club’s 32nd birthday you all delivered in spades with a wonderful event that subject to final confirmation raised around $60,000. Yes, you’re right, that is indeed a H-u-u-u-g-e amount.
My sincere thanks to event Chair Euan Watson for delivering (with the member’s help of course) everything that could be asked for. Euan’s continual promotion and your willingness to be involved resulted in some 470 tickets being sold, when we really only had room for 450. Amazingly the car raffle, which caused some consternation right up to the night itself, I believe, ended up FULLY sold, hat is nearly 400 tickets, and the raffle sold out the initial 200 $20 balloons and then Jenny Hennell and her helpers sold another 100 tickets.
Further big thank you’s must also go to the WORLD’S BEST auctioneer (and nice guy to boot) John Leftwich, who willingly extracted excellent amounts from those attending (including yours truly) for the many quality auction items. And on that topic a grateful thank you to all the members who were able to organise all those excellent silent and main auction items and lucky door and raffle prizes.
Special thank you’s also to Kevin Freund for the organisation of the silent auction, George Helou in the main auction and Treasurer Peter Douglas who was a busy but happy guy, collecting substantial sums on the night.
And of course Community Service Director Angelo Franco and Sal Tosto who started the planning for this night early in the year and negotiated such excellent terms and arrangements with Le Montage.
With your agreement I propose making presentations to the three charities and a donation to the Polio Plus campaign, at the next Partner’s night, where we might also properly thank John Leftwich for his valuable assistance, and also acknowledge the assistance of our partners who also contributed significantly to the success of the evening.
I can assure you after some difficult times during the year; it is very pleasing to have the difficult decision of deciding how much, not how little we can distribute to our charities.
At the beginning of my year you may remember I challenged the club to raise $100,000 for the year.
I copped a bit of flack from some members over that, but by my calculations we are around $90,000 net already, with three months to go, including two more fundraising functions (the bike ride and fun run)
Your support and encouragement of the many activities and functions held to date has been fantastic.
For those of you who couldn’t make the combined clubs GSE presentation from the Scottish team last Monday, you missed a truly great evening. The Scots are warm and friendly people, a wee bit difficult to understand, however their presentation was probably the BEST in the last 10 or 12 years, no argument. I hope you may consider making up at a club they are speaking at in the next four weeks, because they are worth it!!
And by the way the three girls in the team wear the pants literally, while the two men wear kilts, one in the traditional fashion (so I was informed by one of the girls). I wonder if Euan Watson (Scottish heritage) or Rod McDougall have kilts in their wardrobes…….. Perish the thought………..
On a lesser note I did a ring around last week, and I can now disappointingly confirm that only THREE (3) Strathfield Rotarians are attending this week’s conference. I know we have been busy, I know the venue is too close to home and its not the traditional weekend away, but guys, its just not good enough and its not Strathfield not to support the district conference.
Please reconsider, will some of you consider joining Denise and I for the ball on Saturday night, will some of you consider attending the Saturday or Sunday parts only ( at a reduced cost of $75) will you ???. And this is not a threat but if we don’t collectively support the conference in some way, I’m afraid it will be reflected in greatly increased district dues next year, as the losses will have to be passed on somehow.
You may remember early in my year we received some unpleasant correspondence from Sydney Olympic Park in respect of last years Fun run. This matter was satisfactorily resolved (but with the very unfortunate loss of Shane Smallwood in the process) and negotiations have been continuing with SOPA in respect of this years fun run and our INAUGURAL bike ride. Last Thursday our committee (myself, Keith Stockall, Rod Mc Dougall and Rick Collins) met with a "cast of thousands" of beauracrats, all dedicated to protecting their (literally) part of the park (including the requirement for a "frog induction" for some marshal’s in sensitive areas.) From that meeting it seems we have lot of work to do and forms to fill in to make these functions work and you may be assured we are on the job.
On that basis we can reflect for a little while on our achievements, but the we have to acknowledge the Gala night is over, on with the bike ride and fun run.
On a final note I was called in to tennis last Thursday (on my week off) to make up a spot, and lo and behold I was confronted with Graham True and his partner again. Yes, I was given a tennis lesson again, and yep ! I got hit again (by Graham). Obviously it was my fault for not getting out of the way quickly enough.
That’s enough from me, please give yourselves a big slap on the back, you deserve it, its been a great week, and again THANK YOU…..
Steve