Presidential Musings for the Week

Posted by Mark Ellis AM
President's Message

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” So says Jimmy Dean country singer, actor and businessman. Our club has been enduring the “direction of the wind”, but we certainly have set our sails to be able to continue our projects, as well as continuing the Farmer’s Market and the Salvation Bread Run. How ironic when the Rotary Theme for October is “Economic and Community Development”.

We also had the pleasure of welcoming Amelia Anderson into our club as my first zoom inductee. An interesting experience for me as well. We wish Amelia well in her new family – The Rotary Club of Glenferrie. Paul Shekleton will be inducted hopefully in November.

We were treated to a fascinating “Family” – Member behind the badge. Geoff and Kay Widmer are our first family membership. I say repeatedly that the best talks we have are often given by in house. The Widmers had a wealth of past experiences to share with us. Must get to sit with them on a Farmer’s Market duty since I would love to hear more.

BTW sitting with other members at the Farmer’s Market was for me a great way of getting to know various members over the years of my service. Since the member was stuck with me for a couple of hours collecting entry fees we spent time chatting. I highly recommend this strategy as I recommend avoiding sitting at the same table when we are in face to face meetings.

I cannot envisage being back at Kooyong till November, so fingers crossed that we can provide variation to our meetings. Our member Carol Benson, I credit with a great opinion that, Victoria had a 5 year issue during WW2 and we survived as a society. We will come out of this eventually. This lockdown experience will keep psychologists, historians and epidemiologists with a wealth of research to keep them busy for decades. Also lawyers will be busy when hearing of recent writs to the Health Department.
 
Issues current – 
 
The Board will meet on the 4th Oct via zoom with quite a bit to discuss. After Susie Cole’s presentation, it would be helpful to find out what the club feels about joining the RIMERN Rotary Inner Melbourne Emergency Relief Network. This venture could provide hands on work for our volunteering as well as financial assistance. Please let Alex Marshall, our Community Director, your feelings.
 
100 year Project - Note that the Grand Official Opening of the Yarra Bank reserve playground is on Nov 21st.  Hopefully all playgrounds will be open, so we can celebrate the tremendous amount of work this project has generated. Please watch the Bulletin announcements.

“Lift the Lid Golf Day” is going to be May 24th. Poor Elizabeth Dumonic has put a lot of effort into this and, hopefully we can be in a situation to get behind her effort to raise money for LTL next year.
 
AGM Please note that the AGM is coming up in late November and the Board is getting ready to proceed with its commitments.
 
The Parkinson’s walk has again been cancelled. During the pre-pandemic years the funds raised by the Rotary Club of Glenferrie BBQ in the City Square were donated to Parkinson’s Victoria. As spring is upon us we now have the opportunity be active with the goal of raising funds for Parkinson’s Victoria. We therefore invite you to join the Glenferrie Rotary Harriers, a rather optimistically named group with the aim of being active in some form for the first 27 days of October. Being active may include cycling, running, walking or merely reducing one's consumption of alcohol! So please click on the link to join the group and encourage friends, family and others to be part of the action.
You have a choice to join the team or donate (or both).
 
I note that other clubs are still paying for attending the weekly meeting.  We have chosen not to do this since we are doing well under the Farmer’s Market, so please be involved.  
 
Christmas Party - Dec 21st  Please mark it down for a joint effort from Hawthorn/Kew/Glenferrie for a night of nostalgia and fellowship hopefully at Kooyong TC.
 
District Conference - 30/4 to 1/5.  Mark it down.  Somewhere in regional Victoria.
 
Annual Paul Harris Breakfast.  Look out for details, Tuesday 23rd November. 
 
Youth Project - to share with Kew Rotary. Details to come soon.
 
So for this week - Keep your sails set for the right tack and no jibes!!.
 
President Mark