A busy week with lots of planning and sorting out of matters effecting the club. The commemoration of Tim Acton’s life was held on Wednesday this week at the Ranelagh Club and it was well supported by our Club. It was great to hear about Tim’s life, achievements and strengths from his family, friends, and work colleagues. However, it was reassuring to here that Tim’s vibrant and positive personality, his love of food and good times and his generosity of spirit was present in all facets of his life. It would appear that his stories of his adventures during his travels had at least a kernel of truth and likewise, his dalliances with the fairer sex. Quite the raconteur!  Jim Young was his usual masterful self as the MC and Bernie gave an excellent account of his times in Rotary and as a part of our community. He was a much loved and admired man who will be missed by us all.

The Board have made a couple of changes to the running of the meetings at Toorak College. The major one is that the “three minute speaker” will be moved up the agenda and will speak as the meal is served. We feel this will free up time for the guest speaker and take the pressure of the three minute speaker with respect to time. Ray Manchester also gave a timely reminder about how the Chair’s role in introducing the Guest Speaker and controlling the timing and questions. We finalised this topic with a short discussion on meeting etiquette. The Board and I felt that our meetings have slipped into some behaviours that detracted from the generally good ambience of our gatherings. Briefly, we need good manners! Turn your phones to silent, don’t speak whilst others have the floor, especially Guest Speakers, please don’t use negative comments or behaviours directed at others and be respectful of other peoples views. There are forums to bring up things you disagree with and do so via the Chair.

We continue to get more information about the Great Aussie Hike and we are reaching the point where we need to allocate people to places. We now have the where and when Marshalls are needed and for how long. We will be doing the BBQ at Ted Harris reserve in Hastings from 11.00am till 2.00pm and the cheese toasties at the Devil Bend Reserve from 1.00pm to 4.00. To those who have designated times etc, we will try to meet those requests and for the rest who are helping George-Ann will designate a slot for you over the coming week. Can I ask that the Friends and Satellite members also let George-Ann know if they can assist on Friday April 1 or Saturday April 2. Thanks to all who have volunteered.

Brynton has rescheduled the Vocational Awards night to March 8. This is a 2^nd Wednesday so we wont be at Toorak College so it will be held at President Neil’s house. It will be a Partners Night and  wood fired Pizza will be main course. More details will be sent later. Carolyn is organising the postponed “Duke” movie night to raise funds for Polio. It is later in March and tickets will be available through Humanitix. An email for this will follow shortly. Well that is it for this week. Take care, Neil