President’s Message 25 May
The Club welcomed a face-to-face visit from the District Governor Bill Degnan last meeting. Bill is keen to get to all the clubs before his term ends, as his official visit early in the Rotary year was a Zoom meeting. It was great to see Bill and Judy and hear Bill reiterate his message from earlier in the year. I hope all of you managed to have a chat with Bill and /or Judy as they circulated the room before and after the meeting as we don’t get many opportunities to catch up with them and they are very approachable people. Thank you for joining us Bill and Judy.
Due to scheduling issues, we also were lucky to have two guest speakers and, by shortening Directors Reports and the Sergeant Session, we were treated to two excellent presentations. Chris Daffy, the President of the Mornington Peninsula Bee Keepers Association(MPBKA) spoke first and gave us a quick rundown on the life cycle and behaviour of bees, stressing the key role they play in the environment. In particular, he reinforced their critical importance to agriculture and crop production. Chris also gave us a potted (pun intended) summary of the properties of honey and the opportunity to purchase some local honey. In a response to question from the floor he explained the role we can play in bee health by planting gardens that have flowering species throughout the year to feed the bees in lean periods. In a moment of madness, the President Neil said “we can google that” and the club decided he could and then share it!
The next Speaker was Kathleen Francis, one of our “Forgotten Australians”, speaking about her first book “Echidna In a Suitcase”, a memoire of her life as an orphan and ward of the state. She discussed the not so good impact the Institutions that cared for orphans and wards of the state in the last century until they were abolished in the late 1980’s. The term “Forgotten Australians” comes from the fact so little was known and so little focus and care from society was given to these children as they grew up. It was a captivating presentation and many of us lined up to purchase a copy from her. There were so many discussion points that evolved from her experiences. We hope that both of our speakers will be able to return to our Club at a later date to expand on their topics as both of them left us with a feeling that we had only just touched the surface of their topics.
Many thanks to all who participated in the tasks at the Farmers’ Market. The weather was outstanding and we had a good crowd going through. The BBQ was busy and we raised a good sum. The use of the 1st Ranelagh Scouts/Venturers was very successful and took the load off the Club in setting up and dismantling the market infrastructure. A venture we will continue to use (oh, another dodgy pun). The cost outweighs the pressure of doing these tasks by far.
Upcoming we have two events that require you to book via Humanitix, the Changeover on June 7 and the Italian Night on June 14 at Tony’s restaurant, “Vinnies”, in Mt Eliza. Please try to do both asap to help us firm up numbers.
On the welfare front, unfortunately Rhonda has caught COVID and will be out of action for a week or so but on the more positive side, Maurie is recovering from his procedure and hopes to be back with us shortly and Ross is getting over his bronchial issues. I have spoken with Rowan and he is continuing to improve and his great news is he got an all clear from the surgeon. They appear to have removed all the cancer. A number of partners are struggling at the minute so our best wishes also go out to them as well. For the rest of us, keep healthy and I will see you at the next meeting, cheers, Neil
