Coolamon Rotary News Bulletin #35
ANZAC DAY 2013
APRIL IS ROTARY MAGAZINE MONTH.
Belgian Rotary Magazine
MONDAY MEETING
This Monday we had our monthly board meeting as well as our business meeting.
We decided on several resolutions and arranged a planning meeting for our incoming President Dick Jennings.
Next week we have the pleasure of the company of Alex Thompson who will be talking about is week on the RYLA course in Wagga Wagga. Please bring a guest along next Monday night:
Alex Thompson can be seen in the back row 4th from the left of the photo. The RYLA team is seen here with our Federal Member of parliament the Hon. Michael McCormack member for the Riverina.
DISTRICT CONFERENCE LEETON 2013
This year our Rotary International District 9700 held our annual conference in Leeton. It was a huge success and in attendance form Coolamon were Dick and Marie Jennings and John Glassford who has now attended 10 D9700 conferences. Great organisation led by Ruth Wade from Leeton with some excellent and inspiring speakers. Here are some photos from what was a most enjoyable weekend.
The Art Deco Roxy Theatre in Leeton was the venue for the conference, well worth a visit. Click on the thumbnail photos below.
DIARY REMINDERS
*Monday April 29th RYLA Student Alex Thompson and the RC of Wagga Wagga Murrumbidgee. Gilbert Catering.
*Monday May 6th. Member’s Social Night Craig Corrigan on his life: “Nuts and Bolts”. Club Catering.
Thursday May 9th BINGO Rostered on: Dick Jennings, Mark Reardon, Ian Durham, Rodney Jarrett.
Monday May 13th Business and Board Meeting all members welcome to attend.
Sunday May 19th District 9700 Assembly and Directors Training at Grenfell. 9.00am Sharp.
Saturday June 8th Coolamon Rotary Street Raffle.
June 23-26 2013 Rotary International Convention in Lisbon. RI Convention Lisbon.
*Tuesday 25th June Wagga Wagga Sunrise Annual Change Over Dinner Country Club Wagga 6.30pm.
*Wednesday June 26th Henty RC Annual Change Over Dinner. Community Club 6.30pm.
*Thursday 27th June Wagga Wagga Rotary Change over Dinner.
Saturday June 29th District 9700 Annual Change Over Dinner.
*Monday July 1st COOLAMON 42nd Change Over Night.
*Monday July 1st Temora RC Annual Change Over Dinner. Temora Bowling Club 6.30pm.
*Sunday July 7th Junee RC Annual Change Over LUNCH, noon for 12.30.
*Partners and Guests Night.
ROTARY INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT SAKUJI TANAKA
The Council on Legislation is being held in Chicago on 21-26 April 2013. The Council meets every three years and has the authority to amend RI constitutional documents. The clubs in each district select a Rotarian to represent them at the Council, and these representatives are the voting members. The Council gives clubs a say in the governance of our association. I look forward to a productive meeting.
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
Sometimes it does take a rocket scientist!
Scientists at NASA built a gun specifically to launch standard 4 pound dead chickens at the windshields of airliners, military jets and the space shuttle, all traveling at maximum velocity. The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.
British engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on the windshields of their new high speed trains. Arrangements were made, and a gun was sent to the British engineers.
When the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as the chicken hurled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield, smashed it to smithereens, blasted through the control console, snapped the engineer’s back-rest in two, and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin, like an arrow shot from a bow.
The horrified Brits sent NASA the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield and begged the U.S. scientists for suggestions.
NASA responded with a one-line memo —
“Defrost the chicken.”
Cojones
An American tourist went into a restaurant in a Spanish provincial city for dinner, and asked to be served the specialty of the house. When the dish arrived, he asked what kind of meat it contained.”Senor, these are the cojones,” the waiter replied.
“The what, you say? ” exclaimed the tourist.”They are the testicles of the bull killed in the ring today,” explained the waiter. The tourist gulped but tasted the dish anyway, and found it delicious.
Returning the following evening, he asked for the same dish. After he finished the meal, the tourist commented to the waiter: “Today’s cojones are much saltier and smaller than the ones I had yesterday.
“True, senor,” agreed the waiter. “You see the bull, he does not always lose. ”
Another Blonde Joke
A blonde goes into work one morning crying her eyes out.
Her boss, concerned about his employee’s well being, asks sympathetically, “What’s the matter? ”
The blonde replies, “Early this morning I got a phone call saying that my mother had passed away. ” “I’m terribly sorry to hear that. Why don’t you go home for the day… we aren’t terribly busy. Just take the day off to relax and rest. ”
The blonde very calmly explains, “No, I’d be better off here. I need to keep my mind off it and I have the best chance of doing that here. ”
The boss agrees and allows the blonde to work as usual. “If you need anything, just let me know,” he says.
A few hours pass and the boss decides to check on the blonde. He looks out over his office and sees the blonde crying hysterically. He rushes out to her, and asks, “Are you going to be okay? Is there anything I can do to help? ” “No,” replies the blonde, “I just got a call from my sister, and she said that HER mom died too! ”
ROTARY INFORMATION
COUNCIL ON LEGISLATION 2013
John Hewko RI Secretary with Council on Legislation delegates Rupert Ross to his left and Vladimir Donskoy of Russia and David Edwards of Barbados to his right
Our Rotary parliament stared deliberations on our constitution and by-laws this week and here is a brief summary of the first day of debate and discussions:
Today we started the official process of discussing and voting on the enactments which have been submitted by Clubs and Districts over the past several months. The Council of Legislation (COL) meets every three years with a representative selected to attend from each District. The purpose is to consider submitted proposals for revisions or additions to our RI Constitution and Bylaws, standard Club By-laws as well as items contained in the Manual of Procedure (MOP). Below I will recap some of the more interesting decisions made today that will have an impact on our clubs.
Many of the proposed enactments this morning were about changes to the standard club by-laws regarding the appointment of officers and directors. While some regions of the world wanted to include Secretaries and/or Treasurers on the board, others wanted to leave this to each club to determine as the current by-laws state. After much discussion the vote was 285 to 211 in favour of including the Club Secretary as a member of the board. This will become effective July 1, 2013.
There was an lot of discussion on a variety of attendance recording criteria with many of them having an affect of relaxing or watering down the attendance requirements. Many felt that the downgrading of attendance expectations would potentially make a club weaker and was almost like admitting defeat, rather than selling Rotary benefits and conducting engaging meetings and activities that members would look forward to attending.
An interesting proposal was to include the words “engaging in a club’s service project” as an additional option to earn credit for attendance. An amendment to add “and activities” to this clause was passed and then the main motion passed 340 in favour to 165 against. Previously a similar option was only available if each club passed a motion stating such activity was acceptable.
It was proposed that a member who is ill or physically unable to maintain regular attendance, be allowed to participate via electronic audio-visual means and thus receive attendance credit. Some felt this would be too costly, would limit fellowship or was not necessary with the leave of absence provisions. Others felt that if we have accepted eClubs with this same use of technology, then there is no reason we should not support this submission. Surprisingly it failed 204 to 309. This is the first example of where I think we lost our common sense.
There was a lot of debate on proposals to allow Clubs to meet a minimum of twice per month or every other week, compared to the present policy of weekly. This would be up to each club to decide and many felt that inconsistency would be very confusing, especially for those wanting to do make-ups. It was felt that this would weaken the fellowship and weekly bond we share and go against what Rotary was founded on. Others suggested we need to keep pace with the changes in our society if we wish to attract younger professionals, many of whom seem to be too busy for a weekly commitment.
Comments were shared regarding the uniqueness of Rotary with weekly meetings and other service clubs like Lions and Kiwanis who meet twice a month. Results show that their approach does not attract membership and in fact, based on statistics, they are likely worse off than we are. Others felt that those who cannot make weekly meetings can still maintain their attendance requirement and accomplish the “every other week” concept through the 50% provision.
In the end, there was an emotional plea from one representative who motivated us to “not admit defeat” by lowering the attendance bar with the resultant weakening and eroding of clubs and member commitment. He got a resounding round of applause. In our own District we have evidence from a pilot club which indicates moving away from weekly meetings does not improve membership commitment or numbers. It seems to have a reverse affect.
More details will become available through the ROTI or Rotarians On The Internet Fellowship. ROTI but you need to sign up: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Rotarians/
OR go here for the results of the resolutions: COL 2013
Thanks to PDG Doug Vincent from Canada for the news out of Evanston today.
PDG Doug Vincent
D7080 COL Representative
RC Woodstock-Oxford, ON Canada
www.DougVincent.com
BUCKET LIST
Chicago Frank Lloyd Wright
The Rookery
209 South LaSalle Street
Chicago, Il 60604
Rotary Club of Chicago or Rotary One.
CAUSES WORTH SUPPORTING
LEGACY AUSTRALIA
Rotary International President Sakuji Tanaka
Governor of District 9700 Greg Brown
Coolamon Club President Paul Weston
Coolamon Club Secretary John Glassford
Club Treasurer Henk Hulsman
Coolamon Rotary Club Inc. P.O. Box 23 COOLAMON N.S.W. 2701
Websites of Interest
Coolamon Rotary Club: http://coolamonrotary.com
Road MAPS to Africa a Coolamon Rotary Project: http://www.mountainsofthemoon.org/
Rotary Down Under on line: http://flipflashpages.uniflip.com/2/26587/49598/pub
The Orphan Rescue Kit a Coolamon RC Project: http://theork.com/
Our Rotary Centennial Twin Club Hout Bay, Cape Town, South Africa: http://www.rotaryhoutbay.org
Don’t forget to regularly check our club web site for current information such as bingo rosters and various newsletters from the District Governor, the School of St. Jude’s, the monthly membership on the move newsletter as well as several other club bulletins.