CRC Bulletin July 14th. 2025

COOLAMON ROTARY CLUB MEETING July 14th 2025

President Mary Potts welcomed us all to the meeting and our guests were introduced and included our guest speaker Caleb Smith from the Salvation Army in Temora.  Lexi introduced Ivan and Helen and Michael Boland, Michael is Ivan’s cousin.  There were 18 members present tonight.

The meeting started with a report by our secretary Paul on the immediate board meeting and these included:

• Several nominations for prospective Friends of Rotary.
• Approval for payments to RDU, trailer signage and name board.
• CRC will sponsor a prize for the Up to Date Art Show.

Mary has some notes below which covered most items upcoming apart from reminding members:

• Saturday 2nd August Shakespeare night at Coolamon Cheese more in Mary’s notes.
• Rotaract Uranquinty Trivia Night.
• Saturday 14th September Marrar Madness.  Bear said that we are only able to do the parking as we needed many more to do the gates etc.
• Club Assembly Monday 4th August among many ideas is the invitation of corporate members.

After dinner our guest speaker was Caleb Smith from the Salvation Army in Temora.

Caleb started by saying that the Salvation Army and Rotary have many shared ideals of community service.

Caleb went on to outline some of the work that they do in Temora and district.   These included:

• Volunteers who help in their Opportunity shop on Temora.

• School Breakfasts in Temora every Wed, Thursday and Friday.  Here they provide breakfast for around 40 children.  Caleb said that they are great kids with no discrimination between the haves and the have nots.
• The Salvos run a drop in programme for people in a tight spot usually they supply a meal.  Food helps people to improve their thinking.
• They have a programme called Food in the Kitchens.  Here they teach children on how to plan their nutrition.  This gives these children some dignity and budgeting skills.
• The Salvos help people to get to their medical appointments mostly in Temora.
• Caleb concluded on describing the fun part which is a community family dinner.  This is held every month in Temora

Salvation Army Web Site

Several questions followed from our guests and members.  Mark Reardon gave a vote of thanks for Caleb and for the work that he does in Temora.

Caleb then drew the raffle which was won by our guest Michael Bolton.

A fines session then ensued with Sgt Dick at his very best again. Not many were spared well done Dick.

The meeting finished at 8.30 am with plenty of time for some good fellowship.

 

PRESIDENT MARY’S NOTES

President Mary’s Notes July 14^th.

A few items for the Bulletin

A reminder for the night at Coolamon Cheese all profits to Rotary Club of Coolamon should be a fun night, hopefully our members can support this and bring some friends along.

Tickets $40 per head from Civic theatre booking office, this includes show , glass wine and small cheese platter.

The following have volunteered to help out on the night to help seat people commencing at 5 pm, hopefully they will also purchase a ticket and stay for the show, please wear name badges.

Lexi, Grahame, Leslie, Paul, Howard, Vicki and Mary.

Hopefully members can start thinking about our club assembly on 4^th August. This will be a good Chance for everyone to put some ideas forward to keep our club going strong. We are a great ​and it can continue to be one. We can continue with the theme Unite for good

We have started a register of friends of Rotary for those that wish to help out with events but don’t want to commit to weekly meetings etc. these volunteers are very important to the club, so if anyone has any friends or contacts that would like to help out in this way let us know.

Another item to think about is the off the grid challenge , a fundraiser for ShelterBox. If we had enough support we could organise one for Coolamon when the weather is a little warmer, we may even get some Wagga clubs members to join in Garth joined in one last year in Boorowa (I think)

The Wagga Wagga Rotaract club are holding a trivia night in Uranquinty on 6 September. This is jungle themed and should be a fun night. Tickets available humanitix.

Mary.

OUT AND ABOUT WALKERS

You are invited to join a group of walkers who meet at 7.30am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays  Contact Mary for further details:

OUT AND ABOUT WITH LANDCARE

Friday 25 July @ 9.00am: Tree Planting, Seeding and WETLAND VISIT. Lindoris see Out & About.

Monday 28th July  Regular Meeting. Coolamon Sport Rec Club, 6.30 for 7.00 pm.

Saturday August 2nd – Shakespeare Night at the Coolamon Cheese Factory:  Volunteers needed.  Project of the Kooringal Rotary Club, with assistance from CRC. Proceeds to be donated to the CRC.

 

Monday 4th August – Club Assembly.  Coolamon Sport & Recreation Club, 6.30 for 7.00 pm.

Monday 11th August– Board Meeting. Coolamon Sport & Recreation Club, 5.00 pm

*Monday 11th August Guest Speaker Helen Moriarty on Research on Farmers and Chemicals.

*Guests welcome to bring their partners and friends.

JUST FOR LAUGHS

 

All of the above photos were obtained from Facebook.  Credit to the owners.

 

ROTARY NEWS

1.  ROTARY DOWN UNDER MAGAZINE

You do get the Rotary Down Under magazine in print form every moth.  However when you need to read back editions or the current edition on your laptop or mobile you can read it on line.  There are some excellent articles in this edition and well worth reading.

 

RDU ONE on Facebook.

The RDU website has been redesigned and has a great new look go to the link below and check it out:

ROTARY DOWN  UNDER WEBSITE

2.  MEMBERSHIP REFLECTION

Often among our selves we often say that we are not getting any younger and that we need more members.  As a club in D9705 previously D9700 we have performed so much better than the majority of clubs in D9705.  Easily proved when you look at the ratio of members to the population in our membership catchment area.  In this case it is the Coolamon Shire.

There was a time when we had dropped to 15 members of which 9 or 10 were active and attended weekly meetings.  Over the past years we have reached 29-30 members with 20-22 being active with only a few not so active.  When the vast majority of clubs are losing members and even clubs handing in their charters, why have we been able to increase our membership?

The answer is simple, several members have been responsible for this and what they have done is to ask a friend or neighbour to come to our club for a dinner meeting, usually with a good guest speaker.  I am sure that those who remember how they became interested, would agree that being asked to come along to one of our meetings, was the start of wanting to be part of our club.  The reasons they end up joining us would be varied but overall our club is a happy place to be and prospective members leave with a good feeling.

We are the exception within Western countries like Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and Ireland, to a certain extent Canada and the USA.  In these parts of the world membership is declining.  The % of female to male members is on the rise but ever so slowly now around 26%.   The average age of members is also rising which is the biggest problem that we face in the near future.

None of us have the answers but there are countries or continents that are increasing their membership and chartering new clubs.  One such part of the world is East Africa and D9212 which encompasses Kenya in the main with Ethiopia, Eritrea and South Sudan, all with clubs in D9212.  In fact D9212 had to cut the district into two new districts as they had too many clubs and too many members back in 2015.  They look like having to divide the district again in the near future.  Rotary in Africa has been going since the Rotary Club of Johannesburg was chartered in 1921, now 104 years ago.  Rotary started in Australia as well in 1921, in Melbourne and then in Sydney.

So why the difference?

There are many reasons as so much changed in Africa since 1921 with countries achieving independence from colonial rule followed by a population explosion.  An example is my home Kenya which has grown from 7 million in 1963 at Kenya’s Independence, to over 55 million today.  During this time the perception of being a Rotarian in Kenya, has changed from being an old white man’s organisation, to a young person’s organisation, with a mean age of 40-45 and with a 50-50 female to male ratio.

They still conduct local community service and they travel to International conventions and hold amazing district conferences.  In the main Rotary is seen in Africa as being an organisation that is an important part of their C.V. and useful  for business.  Here are some photos from the recent change over of the RC Of Nairobi, the oldest in Kenya, chartered in 1930.  Vibrant and colourful and young.

 

RC Nairobi Change Over Dinner Video

Below is a photo from 1974 of the RC of Nairobi 11 years after Kenya’s independence.  Dr. Greg Gregory a member in the photo, was the doctor who brought me into the world on 1944.  How times have changed in such a few years.

Also in the photo is our family lawyer, the Nairobi Club president in 1974, Stewart Thompson.  How times have changed in such a short while.  I don’t know the answers but keep asking friends and neighbours to have dinner with us.

 

JULY IS ROTARY NEW LEADERSHIP MONTH

 

ROTARY CLUB OF COOLAMON Inc. 2025-2026