OUR ROTARY YEAR IS ALMOST OVER, BUT THE CONTINUING MISSION OF THE ROTARY FOUNDATION NEVER ENDS. FOR YOU SEE, THE PROGRAMS OF THE ROTARY FOUNDATION ARE FOR PRESENT AND FUTURE NEEDS – EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, MEDICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS, COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS, AND VARIOUS SELF-HELP PROGRAMS - ALL TO IMPROVE THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF THE ROTARY FOUNDATION PROGRAMS AND ALLOWING “THE GOOD WORK” OF ROTARY TO GO FORWARD!
2018 - 19 Board
President
Janette Etherington
President Elect
Gabby Knaepple
Secretary
Wendy Oliver
Treasurer
Roger Wilson
Past President
Philip Maxwell
Community Service
Ian Armstrong
International Service
Len Brear /
Bruce Simcox
Vocational Service
John Lynch
Youth Service
Judith Eadon
Membership
Peter Schoner
Rotary Foundation
Sue Cross
Fundraising
Bob Davis
President Phil's Message
For Whom the Bell Tolls
You may have read the epic Spanish Civil War novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” written by Ernest Hemmingway. The “hero” of the story is Robert Jordan, an American who has enlisted with the Republicans. His assignment is to blow up a bridge to stop fascist Nationalist reinforcements reaching the front lines. Along the way he falls in love with Maria. The novel ends when he blows the bridge but breaks his leg under a fallen horse and is unable to retreat. He remains, machine gun poised and loaded, ready to lose his life so that his comrades and lover can escape.
We have had a slightly less dramatic version of the above tale. There was no civil war, fascists, horses or bridge. That is unless you count the nearby Bridge Hotel or the Horse Beach just down the road. Our problem was the unexpected and inconvenient tolling of our doorbell. But by whom? It happened at all hours and prompted a rapid response, but no visitors. We proposed several theories for our delinquent donger;
A faulty doorbell, over twelve years old and malfunctioning at the end of its life.
A neighbour with the same sort of doorbell that happened to be tuned to the same frequency.
The daughter of another neighbour wanting to see Brody our dog, but unwilling to wait for us to get to the door.
A neighbourhood mugger, burglar, delinquent or bozo. This conjecture draws on my theory that all societies have a statistical allocation of bozos, drongos and Darwin nominees.
We decided to start at the top and work our way down the list. So out went the doorbell and in came a new model. All was well for several months and then we started to get more bells tolling in the night. We knew that the little girl next door was not out at night so that took out item 3. The neighbourhood is very quiet and there has been no serious disturbances and no “criminal acts”. So item 4 looked unlikely.
The breakthrough came one night when the doorbell tolled three times. Each time when I went to the door there was no one there. However, being after dark, I could see that our neighbour across the road had visitors. So the next day we rang their doorbell and sure enough our bell also rang. Our doorbell also rang when it was at the back of our house. However pushing our button did not ring the neighbours doorbell. Q.E.D. as they say in science. We had found the root cause of the problem.
The solution was easy. We now have a twist to ring doorbell. No batteries, Wi-Fi, interweb and no chance of electronic interference. It can only make a noise if it is turned.
So the bell tolled for our neighbours, but now it only tolls for us.
This is my last Bulletin article as President and I would like to thank all the readers who have encouraged me during the year. Many of my offerings have not been strictly Rotary. I felt that the best way to alienate readers was to exclusively push the Rotary message. A bit of humor, fun and irrelevance was my way of lightening the message and enjoying the task.
Thanks John for being the editor of the Bulletin during this year. The Bulletin has been of high quality, informative and was always there to inform members. It takes many contributors to make a Club work and you have certainly made my job a lot easier this year.
Local Real Estate Agent John Hoskins (son of Bob and Bev) told us about his very recent trek to the Everest Base Camp.
John was accompanied by Warwick Duncan, a liver transplant recipient of 30 years who had spoken to our Club in the past. Every year, Warwick tries to celebrate every year by doing something special.John prepared hard at Mount Dandenong for this trek and had previously climbed Mt Kilimanjaro.
The trekkers flew from Kathmandu into Lukla where they found the "roads" were extremely narrow and there was no mechanised transport. All their supplies had to be carried by yaks, mules or porters. There were some very precarious suspension bridges to cross and they learned that you did not get in the way of a fully-laden yak or mule. In Namche, they visited the Sherpa Tensing Museum and then went on to Dughla. Unfortunately, one of their party had to be airlifted by helicopter with altitude sickness just before arriving at Base Camp.
Charter Member and Past President John Sharwood was awarded a Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in The General Division in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours list. The award was for "service to the community through a range of roles".
As well as over 50 years service in Rotary at Club and District level, John has had management roles with the Yarck Rural Fire Brigade, Kellock Lodge (aged care facility) and Cathkin Cemetery Trust.
John was also awarded a Premier’s Volunteer Champion Medal at a ceremony held at Government House on 11 September 2017. Below is a picture of John and Pam with Craig Lapsley, Victoria's Emergency Management Commissioner.
On Thursday night I attended the draw of the GWS Community Raffle run by the Rotary club of Waverley. The Kia Picanto was won by a lady whose dad had brought her a ticket. She generously repaid the $2 purchase price and picked up the keys to the $19,516 car.
I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, the explosive Essendon forward player.
Our Club raised $1000 from the raffle with several other clubs raising in excess of $5,000. The most raised by one club was $8,000. This raffle is an easy way to raise funds as every dollar goes to the Club. Many thanks to Rotary Club of Waverley for doing such a great job in organising the raffle and to Kia for supporting this event.
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This is my last Bulletin article as President and I would like to thank all the readers who have encouraged me during the year. Many of my offerings have not been strictly Rotary. I felt that the best way to alienate readers was to exclusively push the Rotary message. A bit of humor, fun and irrelevance was my way of lightening the message and enjoying the task..jpg)
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On Thursday night I attended the draw of the GWS Community Raffle run by the Rotary club of Waverley. The Kia Picanto was won by a lady whose dad had brought her a ticket. She generously repaid the $2 purchase price and picked up the keys to the $19,516 car..jpg)