Week of 26th April

President Howard welcomed 18 members and one guest to our weekly meeting, which featured talks by PDG John G and guest Mick O’Brien.  John provided a brief history of the involvement of Australia and New Zealand in the early stages of WWI at Gallipoli, and his father’s involvement in same.  John has been doing a bit of family genealogy lately, and was keen to share his findings with the club.  Feel free to ask John for the details, but it was a most engaging and enlightening talk.  Mick O’Brien followed with a tutorial on Two-Up, the gambling game popular among Aussie servicemen and allowed to played legally around Australia on ANZAC Day.  Mick had previously conducted Two-Up “schools” (the term used for gambling sessions featuring Two-Up) for many years, but has recently retired.  Mick did a great job explaining how the game is played; although the game is simple in concept, the wagering can get a bit complicated and tricky to follow after consumption of alcohol, which is a universal complement to Two-Up.  Those in attendance were very appreciative of the interesting talks by John and Mick. As usual, the evening concluded with an amusing fine session led by Sergeant-At-Arms Albert and raffle, which was won by Garth.

ANZAC  DAY 2021

DIARY

* Monday 3rd May – Speaker meeting. Grahame Miles and Paul Weston will talk on cryptocurrency (e.g. BITCOIN); learn how it works and how it will become part of our lives.  Coolamon Sport & Rec Club, 6:30 for 7 pm.

Saturday 15th May – D9705 Assembly. Young Services Club, Young.  9.00 am  – 5.00 pm.  Hennessey College Young.

* Monday July 5th:  CRC Change Over Dinner at the Coolamon Sports Club, 6.30 for 7 pm

* denotes partner and guest night

GANMAIN HALL

23 April – This was such an amazing night of music.  Sometimes we don’t realise what’s available to us in our own backyard. Thanks to everyone who supports our beautiful hall because it really is a town treasure.

JUST FOR LAUGHS

THE PUZZLER

Answer to last week’s puzzler: Eyelashes.

This week’s puzzler:

Bruce needed to go to the store to buy some ingredients to cook with. He started writing them down:
Butter
Milk
Eggs
Baking Soda
Cashews
Oranges
Vinegar
Lemon Juice

What was Bruce making?

ROTARY NEWS

1)  DISTRICT 9705 ASSEMBLY

2) DISTEC 21

Click on the image below for a close encounter with DISTEC 21 thanks to Paul Murray for this bit of clever editing.

Welcome to the DisTec21 website.  This page is the main resource for all information relating to the District 9705 Technology Training Seminar in Young on May 30th 2021.  The day starts at 10 am and goes till  4 pm.  The address is Young Shire Council, 189 Boorowa Street, Young.   Morning tea and lunch are included.

The training is targeted at club Presidents and Secretaries, however all Rotarians are welcomed. There is a very limited number of places available.   50 Rotarians is the maximum we can train.   So if you wish to participate in the training you must register first.  We are attempting to encourage clubs in the former district 9710 to attend the training since they have had less experience in the normal use of ClubRunner.  We are planning on providing a LIVE streaming of the day on the district’s Youtube Channel and providing video recordings of speakers.

You are advised to register as soon as possible.  This training is a valuable opportunity that would commercially be very expensive to attend.  The day is funded by district 9705, and included with the training is morning tea and lunch and considerable resource materials.

We will provide training in beginning, intermediate and advanced ClubRunner.  In addition to this and perhaps more important, we will be training in the creation and development of news and stories…the basic building blocks of a newsletter, booklet, bulletin, web page, web story and directories.  The Rotarians from DisTec19’s produced the stories for the DisTec Dispatch which is avaliable for your review.  We will be refining and building upon this publication.   The use of ClubRunner to communicate our message to ourselves, our families, friends, communities and the general public is the core of the training day.

In addition to ClubRunner training, we will be using valuable software tools that will advance your I.T. skills.  A sample of the sessions include:

• Photo, graphics, video and audio editing
• Video Conferencing and video streaming using Zoom
• Taking photos with your smartphone and uploading to ClubRunner and Facebook in minutes

April is  Maternal & Child Care Month

Graphics by Debbie Vance McKay from Canada.

ANZAC DAY SUNDAY 25th APRIL

One of the most poignant photos of WWI:

George William Ladd Thomson, a sergeant in the Main Body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, is farewelled by his mother. He served in the New Zealand Medical Corps and left Wellington along with the 1st Reinforcements aboard 10 troopships on 16 October 1914. My father George Glassford was in the same convoy that day that left Wellington for Albany and then Egypt.

Week of 19th April

President Howard welcomed 19 members and one guest to our weekly meeting, which was largely a bit of a catch-up and fellowship.  A range of topics were discussed, including the upcoming District 9705 Rotary Club Development Seminars (previously called District Assembly), to be held in Young on 15th May.  President-Elect Albert encouraged all incoming board members (as well as any members in general) to attend.  Attendance is free of charge, but attendees need to register for catering purposes (and also to ensure that we do not exceed the limit of 200 imposed because of COVID restrictions).  So, if interested, please register at your earliest convenience (click here to be taken to the registration page).  Carpooling with other members will be an option.

As usual, the evening closed with an entertaining fine session led by Sergeant-at-Arms Albert and our weekly raffle.  Chez once again won the raffle, aided no doubt by the extra raffle ticket awarded for being the first to correctly answer the Puzzler from last week.

DIARY

Sunday 25th April ANZAC Day

Monday 26th April – Regular meeting. Coolamon Sport & Rec Club, 6:30 for 7:00 pm.

Saturday 15th May – D9705 Assembly. Young Services Club, Young.  9.00 am  – 5.00 pm.  Hennessey College Young.

* denotes partner and guest night

JUST FOR LAUGHS

Two Queensland Police Officers were conducting speeding enforcement on the Cunningham Highway, just west of the Amberley Air force Base at Ipswich.

The officers were using hand held radar devices to check speeding vehicles approaching the crest of a hill. The officers were suddenly surprised when their radar guns began reading 500 kms per hour.

The officer attempted to reset the radar guns, but they would not reset and then turned off. Just then a deafening roar over the treetops revealed that the radar had in fact locked on to an RAAF F/A-18F Super Hornet which was engaged in a low flying exercise near the location.

Back at the QLD Police Headquarters the Patrol Sergeant fired off a complaint to the RAAF Base Commander.

The reply came back in true RAAF style:

Thank you for your letter. We can now complete the file on this incident.

You may be interested to know that the tactical computer in the Hornet had detected the presence of, and subsequently locked on to your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a jamming signal back to it, which is why it shut down. Furthermore, an Air-to-Ground missile aboard the fully armed aircraft had also automatically locked on to your equipment location. Fortunately, the Senior Pilot flying the Hornet recognized the situation for what it was, quickly responded to the missile system alert status and was able to override the automated defence system before the missile was launched to destroy the hostile radar position.

The pilot also suggests you cover your mouths when cursing at them, since the video systems on these jets are very high tech.

Sergeant Johnson, the officer holding the left radar gun, should get his dentist to check his left rear molar. It appears the filling is loose. Also, the snap is broken on his holster.

Thank you for your concern.
Wing Commander Brown, SFO
RAAF. Amberley. Ipswich, Qld.

THE PUZZLER

Answer to last week’s puzzler: The song was ‘Happy Birthday’.

This week’s puzzler: I am used to bat with, yet I never get a hit. I am near a ball, yet I am never thrown. What am I?

ROTARY NEWS

1. THE ENVIRONMENT

2/.  DISTRICT 9705 ASSEMBLY

April is  Maternal & Child Care Month

Graphics by Debbie Vance McKay from Canada.

Week of 12th April

President Howard Atkinson welcomed 13 members and 5 guests to our weekly meeting.  The members in attendance were treated to a most interesting talk by Wayne McPherson on the topic of freshwater fish of Australia, with an emphasis on species at risk of extinction. Wayne’s passion for the topic and his impressive knowledge were evident throughout the talk, and were overshadowed only by some of the depressing statistics regarding the number of species of freshwater fish that have gone extinct over the past 50 years (the number is substantial) and the number that are presently endangered or threatened with extinction.  Sadly, most of those extinctions have been the result of mismanagement of rivers by governmental agencies and water management groups. Removal of favourable habitats in rivers (e.g. “desnagging”) and the introduction of problematic species such as European carp have made the situation worse.  Despite all the bad news, there’s hope for the freshwater fish of Australia, especially with the passion of people like Wayne and their inclusion on various boards responsible for making decisions that impact water management in the rivers of Australia.  Ian thanked Wayne for a most interesting talk and presented him with a memento of the Rotary Club of Coolamon.

The evening concluded, as usual, with an entertaining fine session led by Sergeant-at-Arms Albert and our weekly raffle, which was won by someone.

DIARY

Monday 19th April – Regular meeting. Coolamon Sport & Rec Club, 6:30 for 7:00 pm.

Wednesday April 21st CRC Board Meeting  Starting @ 7.00pm at the Sports Club NB Time.  Confirmed.

Saturday 15th May – D9705 Assembly. Young Services Club, Young.  9.00 am  – 5.00 pm.  Hennessey College Young.

* denotes partner and guest night

JUST FOR LAUGHS

THE PUZZLER

Answer to last week’s puzzler: Albert: red – 1st; John G: yellow – 2nd; Howard: blue – 3rd; Henk: green – 4th

This week’s puzzler:

A man is sitting in a pub feeling rather poor. He sees the man next to him pull a wad of $50 notes out of his wallet. He turns to the rich man and says to him, “I have an amazing talent; I know almost every song that has ever existed.”

The rich man laughs, but the poor man says, “I’m willing to bet you all the money you have in your wallet that I can sing a real song with a lady’s name of your choice in it.”

The rich man laughs again and says, “OK, how about my daughter’s name, Joanna Armstrong-Miller?”

The poor man goes home with all the rich man’s money. What song did he sing?

Hint: It’s a genuine song that nearly everyone knows.

ROTARY NEWS

Holger Knaack

President 2020-21

April 2021

This year, we celebrate Earth Day on 22 April with a new sense of purpose. The environment is now an area of focus for Rotary. Solutions for all great tasks always start with you and me, and there is much we as individuals can do simply by changing our behavior: Cutting down on our use of plastic and using energy wisely are just two examples. But now we have the opportunity to do more together.

Supporting the environment is not new to Rotary; clubs have long worked on environmental issues based on local needs. Now climate change — a problem that affects us all, rich and poor — requires us to work together more closely than ever. Alberto Palombo, a Venezuelan engineer living in Brazil and a member of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers, shares his view.

For 30 years, my work has been to connect with communities and policy officials to take care of the environment. Today, I am excited about Rotary’s opportunities to help reduce environmental degradation and make communities more environmentally sustainable.

In every community where we have a Rotary, Rotaract, or Interact club or a Rotary Community Corps, there are environmental challenges. As Rotary members, we can become stewards of environmental sustainability and adopt the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in our daily lives at home and in our clubs. Then we can incorporate them into our Rotary projects.

My club has been involved with water and environment projects since day one. We seek opportunities to empower Rotarians and foster partnerships in our region and beyond, working with groups such as the Inter-American Water Resources Network and the World Water Council. Local clubs worked with the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Rotary Action Group (wasrag.org) to help Rotary get a seat at the table during the 2018 World Water Forum in Brasilia, where we discussed how communities can recover from environmental disasters like the one caused by the failure of a mining dam on Brazil’s Rio Doce in 2015.

Taking care of the earth is an effort that never stops. To make an impact, we must align our knowledge, abilities, and enthusiasm — and Rotary is already great at doing this. As a volunteer with the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group (esrag.org), I have seen how our work for the environment dovetails with much of what we are already doing in water and in our other areas of focus. Rotary members are not passive spectators; we take action. Let’s work together and make a positive impact.

Support from The Rotary Foundation will define this new chapter in our service. Through district and global grant projects, we will build upon our previous projects that help the environment. We will look for ways to collaborate more closely and make a greater impact on global environmental issues. And we will incorporate environmental concerns into all of our programs, projects, and events.

Rotaractors and participants in our youth programs expect Rotary to take a clear position and provide leadership with vision. We will work with them, seeking intelligent solutions to the problems they will inherit. Our incredible members, networks, and Foundation give us the capacity to make an important and lasting contribution. Now, we will discover together how Rotary Opens Opportunities to help us expand our service to preserve the home we all share.

April is  Maternal & Child Care Month

Graphics by Debbie Vance McKay from Canada.

Week of 29th March 2021

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL OF OUR READERS!

Meeting of Monday, March 29th

President Howard welcomed 19 members and guests Maureen Hulsman and Tony Williams (Chez Thompson’s grandfather) to our weekly meeting.  After a few routine business items, the members and guests were entertained by two of our own, Paul and John G, who described their recent adventures in exploration of their family genealogies.  The approaches taken by the two speakers was markedly different, but both were able to uncover rich veins of family history and even solve some family mysteries!

Part One – Paul Weston

Paul described how he used online tools to help unravel his family’s genealogy.  Paul’s challenge to unearth his ancestry was complicated by the fact that prior to his grandparents’ generation, all of his ancestors lived in Poland.  Paul described how he was able to learn a lot about his ancestors with the aid of Ancestry.com and other online tools.  The results of a DNA test provided by Ancestry.com confirmed what Paul understood about the origin of his ancestors (Eastern Europe, mostly Poland), and provided some names of distant cousins who might be able to fill in genealogical gaps.  Paul stumbled upon a Polish website which provided access to a rich database of genealogical records maintained in churches in Poland, which allowed him to trace his ancestry back to the early 1800s.  However, going back much further than that will be difficult because many older records were lost or destroyed as the result of repeated invasions of Poland by neighbouring countries and bombing of churches during WWII.  Paul discovered that not one, but two, of his grandmothers were victims of the Spanish Flu when it swept through New York City, where his ancestors settled when they emigrated to the US in the late 1800s.  In case you’re wondering, Paul’s father changed the family name at the time he married, which was quite common in the US at that time; if he hadn’t, Paul would be Paul Wisniewski, not Weston!  Paul’s family tree is chockers with dozens and dozens of “skis” and other Polish surnames.

Part Two – John Glassford

John spoke on his research into his family mainly on the Glassford side going back to 1632 mostly Scottish with many Glassfords migrating to New Zealand in the early 1800s from England and Scotland.

One of John’s early ancestors, William Glassford, in 1838 created a family tree for the clan going back to 1632.  John’s mother engaged Somerset House in Edinburgh in the 1950s to trace this side of his family.  Since then a cousin of the family travelled the world especially New Zealand from Devon to bring the family tree up to date.  With the help of a box of photos from his late mother, John is continuing to get the stories behind his immediate ancestors.

One photo opens up answers and at the same time more questions to be answered.  In point is this photo of John’s Grand Aunt, Cis Heron, with her nephew and John’s Father George James Glassford taken in 1892 in Napier.  It is an original photo and unique.  This photo has enabled John to find his Grandfather on his Grandmother’s side.

Another is of George Glassford born in 1821 in Scotland and died in 1903 in Cheshire, a farmer and JG’s Great Grandfather.  JG’s  Great Great Grandfather’s obituary is on the right, just click on the thumb nails for a larger version.  This was a tribute to James Glassford at a clan gathering in Glasgow in 1860.

DIARY

Monday 5th April – NO Meeting (Easter Monday).

*Monday 12th April – Speaker meeting. Wayne McPherson on “Impact of the 2019-20 Bushfires on Freshwater Fish”.  This promises to be a very interesting talk and you are all invited to bring your partners along. Coolamon Sport & Rec Club, 6:30 for 7:00 pm.

Monday 19th April – Regular meeting. Coolamon Sport & Rec Club, 6:30 for 7:00 pm.

Wednesday April 21st CRC Board Meeting  Starting @ 7.00pm at the Sports Club NB Time.  Confirmed.

Saturday 15th May – D9705 Assembly. Young Services Club, Young.  9.00 am  – 5.00 pm.  Hennessey College Young.

* denotes partner and guest night

JUST FOR LAUGHS

THE SUEZ CANAL

Yorkshire holds its breath as main shipping route of flat caps, whippets and ale is blocked. Ernie Slatherswaite, Master of the vessel told us ‘One minute we were fine then a small gust of wind took us.  Yorkshire is set to lose upwards of £3.67 a day until the carnage is cleared, which according to Our Uncle Eric in the pub, could take weeks.

THE PUZZLER

Answer to last week’s puzzler: Friday

This week’s puzzler: It was Easter in Coolamon and all the Rotarians were happy. The annual Easter egg hunt was just finished. The Easter egg hunt requires four Rotarians to search for one of four coloured eggs and then race to the finish line. Can you figure out which Rotarian found which egg and in which place they finished?

Rotarians – Henk, John G, Albert, and Howard

Easter eggs – blue, red, green, and yellow

Clues:

• Albert did not finish in 2^nd place.
• John G did not finish in 1^st.
• Albert found the red Easter egg.
• The Rotarian that finished in 2^nd did not find the green egg.
• Henk did not find the blue egg.
• Howard did not finish in 2^nd.
• The Rotarian that found the blue egg did not finish in 1^st or 2^nd.
• Henk finished in 4^th.

ROTARY NEWS

The Rotary International Convention, scheduled for 12-16 June 2021, in Taipei, Taiwan, will now be a virtual event in response to the ongoing threat of COVID-19.

This decision, made by the Rotary Board of Directors, is necessary to protect the health of everyone involved. Rotary will share more details about the 2021 Rotary International Virtual Convention soon.

Virtual Convention Registration

The Virtual Convention will be open to all Rotary members and participants. Event registration will open in mid-April and will include a promotional fee of $49 for 21 days, with an increase afterward to $65. The cost of each preconvention event is $20. Both the convention and preconvention events include access to the House of Friendship.

March is Rotary Water and Sanitation Month