Meeting June 23rd
18 Members attended the Zoom Meeting, with Colin sitting in the “Director’s chair”, pushing all the right buttons.
Business
Holden Car Show meeting scheduled for 6.30pm Thursday
- Changeover – 20 physically present at Kotakaya Restaurant, with the rest Zooming in.
- Alan Roberts to lodge merger forms with Consumer Affairs tomorrow. Moved: Con, Seconded: Phil, Passed unanimously, that Alan Roberts be authorised to sign all documents on behalf of the Club.
Graeme Peters then gave us a synopsis of his life so far.
Martin Pater was unanimously elected to the new post of Vice President, on the recommendation of Con.
Pres Anthony, in his last meeting before Changeover issued reminders:
- Car Show planned for 28 March 2021
- Meeting at Disaster Aid on 6 August at 6.30pm (clearly will not happen now).
I am sure we all would like to thank Anthony for leading the Club through a year full of challenges, capped off by the merger of two Clubs with proud histories, to make an even stronger Club. Thanks also to Lisa for support to Anthony throughout a particularly busy year on the personal front.
I am also sure everyone has been energised by the merger and is looking forward to even greater achievements together in the future. The first physical Meeting is guaranteed to be a cracker, whenever that may be!
As the person responsible for the RI registration side of the merger, I would like to thank Trudy from RI Parramatta for her valuable assistance in preparing and processing the paperwork in such a short time.
Historic Changeover Meeting 7 July 2020
Kotakaya Restaurant in Croydon South was the venue for the 2020-2021 Changeover Meeting, the first for the newly-merged Club. Because of Covid 19 restrictions, only 20 Members and Guests, including DG Mark Humphries, could be physically present, with the rest of the participants attending via Zoom.
MC Phil introduced Anthony and Martin, who presented their years in review, calling to our minds all of our collective achievements over that period.
DG Mark inducted Kam Pow as President and Kam presented his Board with their pins. Pres Kam, clearly proud and excited, then outlined his plans and objectives for the year to come. It is going to be a very full one!
The Zoom part of the Meeting closed and the 20 physically present enjoyed the beautiful food and fellowship.
I am sure everyone wishes Kam and Christine a successful and enjoyable transformational year! Congratulations to the out-going Officers on their highly successful years. Wow… What will we achieve together?!!!
Our new Board
President: Kam Pow
Vice President: Martin Pater
Immediate Past Presidents: Anthony Brown and Martin Pater
Secretary: Phil Thurgood
Treasurer: Joe Iellamo
Foundation: Con Meehan
Service Projects/Vocational: Peter Buck
Membership: John Peck
Public image/International: Colin Byron
Community: Leanne Byron
Youth Services: Alan Collier
Club Administration: Cherie Ramsay
President Elect: Peter Buck
Rotary Foundation
As the new Club Foundation Director, I want to raise the profile and awareness in the Club of this mighty organisation.
Foundation is Rotary’s world charity fund. It is controlled by a group of Trustees and overseen by RI. It is the major source of funding for major projects, through Global Grants, District Grants and direct funding. It is best known (although still not well enough) for its funding of the Polio Plus program to rid the world of polio, in which it receives major support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and not enough world-wide recognition. It has been highly successful, with only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, currently still recording cases.
A few salient points on Foundation:
- Net assets - $US 146m
- 2019 revenue - $US 113m
- 2019 expenditure - $US 107m
- 2019 investment return - $US38m
- 2019 admin expenditure - $US 14.8m
- 92% of all funds received is spent on projects
- It has a coveted four star rating from the world rating body
- A total of over$US4bn has been spent on projects and grants
- In 2018, $US86.6m was paid out in Grants and $US 385m to Polio Plus
Each year, $US 64 is paid is paid to Foundation by each Member, of which $US 14m funds IT and administration, the rest being added to the investment funds. Clubs earn points for all donations and, when the total points are sufficient, these points:
- Qualify the Club for the awarding of Paul Harris Fellowships
- Qualify the Club for Global and District Grants.
Foundation is often described as the “lifeblood” of Rotary (I actually think that the Club Members are the lifeblood of Rotary! Ed.), but there is no denying it is a major re source for doing good in the World. We should be proud of it and support it.
Contributions
Contributions from Members are always welcome, especially if you want to promote an activity. I will not always be involved in every activity, so I would be appreciative of reports from those in attendance. Any good, clean jokes would be very welcome also.