It was a very busy meeting last week, with members and guests enjoying Senior Detective Sgt Andrea Turner’s informed talk on new police strategies to handle Family Violence. Thank you Andrea.
We thank the Bendigo Bank representatives for their interesting presentation also.
It was a pleasure to induct our new member, Heather Blackman too . Welcome to Maryborough Rotary Heather. We look forward to working and sharing with you.
We also welcomed Brian and Robyn Reed, honorary members of Bundoora Rotary, who have recently moved to Bet Bet. We hope you enjoyed our meeting and come again.
We now look forward to our vocational visit to the CFA next Thursday and please remember we are cooking pancakes for the free community breakfast on Australia Day.
February reminder notices should be out next week. Another busy month ahead! Stay tuned.
Keep selling the raffle tickets. They must be returned the first week in a February.
Stay inspired! We need you all as countdown continues to the District Conference.
A large attendance of members and guests was enthralled by Detective Sergeant Andrea Turner last Thursday as she spoke about the challenge of Family Violence in our area. She shared the disturbing news that despite progress being made on this front in every other area of the country, Family Violence cases are rising in the Central Goldfields area.
Two members from the Avoca Community Bank (Maryborough Branch) and St Arnaud Agency of the Bendigo Bank, Manager Peta Dodson and Zoe spoke to our club members last Thursday about the community work being done by the Bank in our area and shared their enthusiasm for continued co-operation with our club - our club currently banks with the Bendigo, has recently raised money for the Queeensland Drought with the group and they will be a Bronze sponsor at our District Conference.
President Meryl inducted new member, Rev. Heather Blackman into our club last Thursday. Heather comes to us from the Rotary Club of St. Arnaud and we wish her well as she shares her skills here in Maryborough.
Rotary International President-elect Mark Daniel Maloney explained his vision for building a stronger Rotary, calling on leaders to expand connections to their communities and to embrace innovative membership models. A member of the Rotary Club of Decatur, Alabama, USA, Maloney unveiled the 2019-20 presidential theme, Rotary Connects the World, to incoming district governors at Rotary’s annual training event, the International Assembly, in San Diego, California, USA.
As some members will know, someone has stolen many of our Family Violence signs from around the town - including this one at the Hub and the signs at the entrance to the town. The Shire Council will soon make a statement to the Addy about being very disappointed (as we are) by this costly act of vandalism, and the fact that the Police are looking into the issue
We have now just about finalized our Bulletin Subscribers list i.e. the list of non-members who receive our Rotary Club Bulletin each week. This current bulletin (January 14th) is going out to those 30 or so people as well as to active members who automatically receive it as part of being a member. If you are NOT a current, active member of Maryborough Rotary, and you DO NOT want to keep receiving this bulletin each week, there is obviously still something amiss with our subscriber list - so my apologies! Please contact PDG Geoff at merylandgeoff@bigpond.com and I'll ensure you don't receive any more - no questions asked. If anyone receiving this bulletin knows of someone who WANTS to receive our bulletin and is not currently receiving it, again, please let me know.
Members and friends enjoyed a great night at the Maryborough Croquet Club last Thursday. Thank you to AG Martin for arranging the night, and to Croquet player Graham for assisting. More pictures by clicking "Read more"
Around 120 Rotarians, friends and followers converged on the Town Hall on new Year's Eve to rock in 2019. We expect to raise over $1500 from the event for our Youth Projects. Thank you to President Meryl for doing most of the organization, to Rotarians who helped set up and clean up the hall, and to the non-Rotarian members of the band who played for a reduced rate on the night.
A dozen or so members and spouses enjoyed a relaxed start to 2019 at the home of PP Garry and Julie Higgins last Thursday.
Around 20 Rotarians met in the Highland Society members lounge for Christmas drinks before heading over to the Chinese Restaurant for a shared meal last Thursday. It was great to welcome back Rotarian Marion Walters and husband, Daryl for the event.
Almost 40 Rotarians, spouses and guests attended last Saturday's Rotary Christmas party at Peppa's Restaurant and it seems a good time was had by all. It was great to touch base with Rotarian Frances Clarke and Trevor again, and also have PDG Jessie Harman and Andrew in attendance. Apart from the great food provided by Peppa's, Rotarians discovered how difficult it is to hum a Christmas carol on a kazoo whilst everyone is laughing at you..jpg)
The Conference committee has been hard at work fine tuning our District Conference. We've now finalized costs, the program, the speakers and catering. The Conference web site should go live in the next week or so, and we can then start processing attendees. Our current focus is finding some more sponsors, and we now have our available sponsorship packages (as pictured). If you know anyone or any business that might like to sponsor our District Conference - or some item at the conference, please contact PP Terry.
PDG Jessie Harman enthralled members with her entertaining account of her recent 800km walk along the Camino Trail in Spain. She might have completed the "Chardonnay" version, but it was still a fantastic effort!
PP Terry proposed a toast to the Rotary Club of Elmira in the United States. Terry and Thea had visited the club during their recent travels.
On Thursday, PP Garry Higgins presented President Meryl with the Australian Government Volunteer Award recently achieved for the club's Family Violence program.
President Meryl presents the Rotary Award for the best Large Industrial or Commercial Garden to the Cemetery Trust at this year's Garden Club Awards .
Congratulations to all of our Breakthrough Volunteers - those who worked on the Corner and those on the Barby. A special "thank you" to Thea for handling all of the organization - a huge task in itself. Pictured are Saturday's "Lunch time" team with great asset, Joe ( a friend of PE Leigh's) and then the afternoon team. Tracey was on deck from 7am until 5pm on Saturday - and still smiling!
PP Garry, PP Thea, PP Graeme, PN Bob, and Chair Chris attended a presentation at Ararat on Thursday where the club received an "Australian Government Volunteer Award" for its Family Violence Program from MP Dan Tehan. Congratulations FV Team!
Rotarians donned their Winter woolies and braved the elements to attend last week's meeting where we fine tuned the setup for the Energy Breakthrough. In the absence of President Meryl, PP Thea gave the notices and thanked all those who had volunteered to go on the barbeque or work on a "Corner" for the big race.
