As we move towards the close of the first half of the 2020/21 Rotary Year, Annual General Meeting (AGM) time is with us again.
The District 9820 AGM was held on Sunday 15 November and, as Club President, I attended this meeting.
Our Club Annual General Meeting will be held, via Zoom, next week on Tuesday 24 November.
A key part of the AGM agenda is the presentation of he audited accounts and I would like to thank our Honorary Auditor Ray Manchester for once again carrying out this important duty.
In other news, a Mt Eliza Farmers Market is planned for 27 December. Rotarians will be required to be on gate duty only. To date five members have volunteered. While COVID-19 concerns may cause some people to feel uncomfortable, if you are able to assist may I ask you to advise George-Ann Sullivan who does the rosters for our Club.
Finally, as I indicated at last evening's meeting our Christmas Party will definitely be held on Tuesday 15 December. Ideally we will hold the event at Rotary Park (where the Council have agreed to allow liquor) with catering by Tony Kafrouni at Vinnie's (as a fall back the event may be transferred to Mornington Golf Club).
Best wishes until next time
Yours in Rotary
Sue
District Governor Mark Humphries and Past President Linda Humphries
Greetings to all members of the Rotary Club of Mt Eliza and other readers of this Bulletin
While we have been in lockdown, one of the things that has kept everyone in District 982 in touch over the last few months has been our regular Fireside Chats.
Do you want to know what is happening around the district? Do you want to talk to other Rotarians?
Tell others what your club is up to?
Then come along to the next DG Fireside Chat on Tuesday 24th November.
The night is a chance for you to catch up with Rotarians from across District 9820.
It will also include a short presentation on the Rotary Myloma project "ROMP".
Rotarian John Horscroft gave this week's Three Minute Talk on the subject of Cricket.
Cricket began to be popular in London and SE England around 1726 – but actually goes much further back.
A legal case in Guildford, Surrey refers to ‘cricket’ in the court report dated 17 January 1597.
International matches started 1844, and Test Cricket in 1877 – perhaps rather earlier than you might have guessed.
The first recorded game in Australia was in Sydney in December 1803, and surprisingly the first club was formed in South Australia in 1839.
The first ever Australian cricket touring party sailed to England in 1868, the side consisted of 13 Aborigines.
The first recorded Test Match - England v Australia - took place in March 1877, at what would become the MCG - Australia won by 45 runs. The same margin as in the Centenary Test 100 years later.
I played cricket of course at school, both primary and secondary, and always enjoyed it, though I was never very good, and continued to play with friends until about 1968. I was fielding in a match, bent down to pick up the ball which was approaching fast along the ground. I stopped it, but could not then straighten my back to stand up. End of playing cricket. I have had back troubles on and off since then.
I saw my first Test Match, not at the Oval in Surrey, which was close to where I lived, but at the MCG in February 1958, when my ship was visiting Australia. Di is also a cricket fan, and since we have been married we have watched Test Matches in every state in Australia, except, as yet, in Sydney. Most frequently of course, at the MCG for the Boxing Day Tests.
Soon after we migrated here in 2000 my name was added to the waiting list for MCC membership, and year by year we have watched the slow climb towards the top of the list. In July this year, I was at last offered provisional membership, and after much discussion with Di – considering the various factors: our ages, the fact that walking is difficult for me, even with a stick; and that parking near the ground is almost impossible, especially for popular matches – and provisional membership doesn’t guarantee entry on those days - I decided with regret to turn the offer down.
We still enjoy the game on TV (although some commentating leaves a great deal to be desired), and particularly enjoy Sheffield Shield matches at either the MCG (in the crowd of about 150), or better at the Junction Oval, with perhaps 300 spectators in a much nicer, country-like ground.
20/20 games may be enjoyable for many, but they are not PROPER cricket, which requires strategy as well as tactics. Big Bash is a much more appropriate name for these games.
Cricket is a game for gentlemen and ladies – the old expression ‘it’s not cricket’ to describe poor behaviour including Booing is very apposite. It is appropriate to applaud good play by not only your team, but also the opposition. A good delivery, stroke or catch is worthy of notice, whoever plays it.
Finally, I conclude by saying that Di and I had supported England against all-comers for more than 60 years, and when we came to live here in 2000, we decided to support Australia in all Games – except cricket, when we still support England!
Is it true, I ask, that I have been the only one to pay attention to a remark by the Indefatigable Past President Jim Young? It seemed that way. For my part, if I were President and not just on the PHF Selection Panel, I would push for a sapphire [stolen from District Governor Mark Humphries’ and Linda Humphries cache] I have; based on the efforts Jim has invested in this here news and information publication.
For a Period exceeding 16 [count ‘em] months, we the Great Members of our Humble Mob and beyond!! have immersed ourselves in this Bulletin. It is is no Political bent, in spite of misguided understanding of the term ‘A - Political’ NOT ‘non - political’.
Our Word is read as far away as Richmond [no, not the lower - class footy team suburb] Richmond SURREY U.K. and also it is required reading by the Victorian Constabulary; if only for Jim’s humour.
So, last even - tide, or yestreen for the couth, PP Jim states that due to a failure in the ClubRunner link on his computer which he then fixed by a ‘work - around’ this Publication is being published a few hours late! Great Caesar’s Ghost Lois, what was the response from the meeting, I hear you ask?? YAWN.
It is so, that at the Dawn of my turn as Prez., we were facing a Bulletin written by a thumbnail dipped in tar, not this high - tech publication in Super Marionation with Jim in the role of Virgil.
Thanks to all those who have already submitted stories for the Remember When column.
A number of Rotarians who have been asked to contribute have promised to write their memories, however they have a lot on at present. The Editor looks forward to their contributions in due course.
All Members, Friends & Honorary Members are encouraged to put pen to paper and submit an article to the Editor at james.young03@bigpond.com
This week the Editor recounts his more recent memories of our Club.
When I retired towards the end of 2011, I started playing golf more regularly during the week at the Flinders Golf Club. A member at Flinders is Rotarian Frank Flowers. Over the years I became used to Frank recognising me when he was selling Rotary Raffle tickets in the Village.
In 2015, Frank drew my attention to the Rotary Golf Day being held at the Little Club. Following a most enjoyable day, Frank approached me and asked if I would like to know more about Rotary.
Towards the end of 2015 I attended several dinner meetings at Toorak College and with Frank's encouragement I joined the Club on 16 February 2016. Current President Sue Voss and I were inducted by then President Bernie Edwards on the same evening.
Since that time Rotary has become an important part of my life and I have enjoyed the friendship and fellowship of so many members.
During my first few years in the Club Tim Acton was Sergeant. A magnificent raconteur and diligent person Tim always made the Sergeant's session a joy. Trish Stamp has been Sergeant for the past couple of years and she should be thanked as Trish is still working full time in her travel business.
Many of the projects in which I have been involved require significant logistics and I have always been impressed with the organisational skills and hard work of Rowan Miller. Rowan is an absolute treasure and without his hard-work our Club would be significantly poorer.
The Huge Garage Sale (organised by Carolyn and Chris Such in particular), Annual Golf Day (thanks David & Grace Rew), Kids' Fun Run with K163 (well organised by Guenther Steinbrecher & Paul Harvey among many others), Bark in the Bark, the Raffle, Annual Book Sale (run so effectively by Merrilyn Hamilton-Smith) and the dismantling of a playground for transportation to Sri Lanka (thanks to many, especially Hardy Juraschek) were all wonderful activities.
I have been particularly impressed by Rotarians Linda Morris, Pauline McFarlane, Kerry Margalit and Rob Cracknell who seem to get in and organise things with a minimum of fuss.
The Farmers' Market and Bunnings BBQs have also been enjoyable activities and great fund-raisers.
Club Remembrance Day, Australia Day and Changeover celebrations were always successfully organised and conducted by Alex Anderson, Ross Schweitzer, Mike Weber and Linda Morris.
From a fellowship point of view Home Hosting and our Christmas & New Year functions have always provided great opportunities to enjoy the company and get to know better other Rotarians and their families.
The fact that we haven't been able to meet in person for the last nine months during COVID-19 restrictions has been a disappointment. I used to enjoy so much the fellowship of Rotarians prior to the commencement of our weekly meetings. People like Ray Manchester, John Welsh, Graham Reid, Rhonda Vincent, Karina Webb, Hanne Falkiner, Brendan Hoban, John Horscroft, the late Richard Robinson & Sander Vandeth and many others are such interesting people with wonderful life and other stories to tell.
Attendance at various District 9820 conferences and meetings has been educational and allowed me to meet other hard-working Rotarians from across the District and, at Multi-District Conference last year, across Victoria. The 2017 District Conference in Hobart was a terrific experience. With District Governor Mark Humphries and his partner Linda in our Club we have real opportunities to be more involved in the Rotary family.
The commitment of people such as Judy Coultas, Kay McCauley, Chris Angerer, Brynton Fennell and John Gilbert who do so much work behind the scenes is greatly admired.
For several years I served on the Trust Advisory Committee under the splendid leadership of Maurie Selth. The Trust presents a great opportunity for longer term funding of the Club.
We need new blood in the Club. Over the last eighteen months, it has been pleasing to see Tony Kafrouni, Caryl Coulthard and Janet Richards join. However we need to follow up with other new members as a matter of urgency. In this context President Sue's goal of setting up a Satellite Club has great merit.
There have been six Club Presidents during the time that I have been a member - Bernie Edwards, George-Ann Sullivan, David Rew, me, Ross Schweitzer and Sue Voss. Each one has been different and each has been committed to the custodianship of the Club during their time in office. Club Service Director Neil Heron will, in July next year, become the first recycled President. I look forward to Sue and Neil leading our Club over the next eighteen months as things start to return to normal.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge and thank Frank Flowers. He recruited me and has acted as my mentor throughout my time in the Club. Thank you Frank.
Aristophanes of Byzantium [3 Century B.C.] produced - introduced ‘the period’ a.k.a The Full Stop to denote the quantity of words a man could read aloud without drawing breath. Many decisions were read aloud because some of the masses were illiterate; the rest did know their parents anyway, so it didn’t matter! Since then, other punctuation has evolved; within Europe it is similar [save for the errant apostrophe in English about which I have previously written]. Arabic uses the period. Many Eastern and I include ‘sub - Continent’ languages, in their written form, do not.
If some wish to be politically correct [a moving target] forget about saying a plethora of words: ‘black’ - now African - American OR ‘a person of colour’ [what do the Egyptians, Moroccans, Libyans think of this ?] Mrs., waitress - wait person and so on. All these changes courtesy of the United States who go to tortuous lengths to avoid the ****** obvious. Not to mention [you’ll lurve this] ‘Would you prefer steak or fish for your ENTREE, sir?’. [Me, tongue in cheek, the UPPER right ...’well, Customer Service Executive Steward Person.... IT DEPENDS UPON WHAT THE MAIN COURSE IS]’.
ALL European Languages apart from American - Inflenced English still use GENDER. They assign a gender to all nouns. FRANCE is feminine don’t you know? La France. White rifles and all. Le fusil Blanc. The Germans have THREE genders, and always have. Not because of some unintended ‘progressive’ [read: leftist] agenda. Latin assigns gender. WATCH ‘Life of Brian’ Latin Lessons. Romani ite domum in. 💂♀️
And which lobby group decided [certainly not a Christian one] that BC - before Christ, should be BCE .... Before the Common Era. Come on!
This BCE idea has backfired on ‘them’. Theyhave effectively acknowledged that Christ existed, these ‘WOKE’ 🤪 people. Likewise they are sufficiently brain dead, that they don’t realise that we are Judeo - Christian as a society and ‘we’ appreciate that the Moose Limbs, Jews, Japanese et.al. also have their own calendars. ✝️🔯☪️🕉🛐🛐 Who’d a thunk it? Captain’s Log Stardate 1513. 🚀 Or.... the second reign of Ming the Merciless; 1949 - 1966..... AD.
This type of contorted correctness has itself created conundrums. Witness; a ‘first Australian’ must now be referred to by their tribe.... for instance ‘Ross, a Mount Eliza Man’. I asked one of my aboriginal friends [aboriginal is the adjective form of aborigine meaning literal ‘native’] Listen, Iluka [Luke] when your Mob get together at a conference or something, being from different tribes, what’s the collective term? He replied ‘Dunno, Ross. Nobody’s ever asked that before mate’. I suggested that if he finds out, to be certain to Corroborate it! [We thought that funny].
But I digress:
Did we really think [as did the person who painted the ceiling in the Prague Library c. 600 Years ago] that Australia would not be discovered? No ‘Country’ to be ‘welcomed’ to, a concept invented by whites; sorry: Caucasian types, although that term is a misnomer. The subject of a later column, perhaps.
Said WTC acolytes missed a major change creeping up, yet in plain sight: Remember Aristophanes of Byzantium? From Hellenic Alexandria. He was the librarian and it was the largest library in the known World. Of course you do. Well, he got upset
by the fact that the Hellenic - Greek non- African Americans ranalltheirwordstogetherlikethis. Visit the Parthenon and you’ll get the idea. Aristophanes’ idea was not widely embraced. Really. Ifyoucangetusedtoreadinglikethisitbecomeseasyyoudontknowanydifferentway. That said, the incorrect placement of a period sent hundreds of the Light Brigade to their doom at Balaclava not where you get bagels; in the Crimea;
Trong tiếng Việt, ngôn ngữ sử dụng 'dấu nhấn' và 'dấu thở' như bạn đã biết 😃 🇻🇳 🧸 🐀
So, I hear you ask ‘What is this pernicious major change evolving?’ [Ghosts appear and fade away .......] The current generation, say from 15 - 19 DO NOT USE PUNCTUATION when messaging. They regard a ‘full stop’ as an end of discussion, a slight. They communicate one line at a time, then move on. Said generation does not reply to an SMS that they feel requires none, even as a courtesy. Because they all understand this; it is we who are incorrect.
Maybe they saw, between texts, the ‘message’ ‘written’ on a log in the Federal Parliament.
So. What are we doing, saying and writing now that will be deemed thoughtless, coarse and otherwise ‘wrong’. For my part, I ask my grandchildren, after explaining the meaning of ‘Maaate, it was bigger than Ben - Hur’. ZOMBIE Grammar; you kill it, but it comes back.
Persons who order who are participating in the recycled container program will be asked to drop off their washed containers to Kristy Russell at Toorak on Monday 16 November.
