We marched down memory lane today, with Geoff Breust calling the shots at meeting 13, and Paul Milde away in Broken Hill helping his mother.
Grace, Toast and guests were dealt with perfunctorily, and in recognition of a very full program, we moved rapidly to our agenda items.
Geoff lamented that Rick Priest was not at the meeting, but that was to change. Rick had been recognised for "long service" at Henty, and had a full page story about him in the Henty MFD booklet. A full report later in the Bulletin.
David Byfield advised the club that the board had approved the purchase of a Filtration Pump costing $650 for use in the Congo. This brings us into line with three other Wagga Rotary clubs.
Then David moved onto Golf, and he called for six Rotarians to make up two teams for the Twomey golf tournament. Peter Clucas was not encouraged to apply.
Please check this weeks updated roster and advise your availability or otherwise in good time and confirm with me and your OIC David Hodge.
The Rotaract Ten Pin Bowling Challenge was held last Saturday.
Organiser of the event, Clare was going to email a report with results of the evening for the nine participating teams in the allocated three lanes but at time of writing it has not arrived so it may have to wait till next week.
The Wollundry A Team managed to get the winning score after the two rounds in our lane against our three worthy Rotoract opponents. Our combined scores are in Michael's report above.
Fellows if you cannot make our meeting try to do a makeup at one of the five Clubs in WW plus an e-Club. Please try to register a makeup whenever you can after attending to committee meetings or some other activity when representing Wollundry. Our District Club attendance for July was only 62.24% which is below average. Please just advise James or myself and I will pass it on to him. I am sure many of you do work for the Club that would count as a make up that you do not report so please make the effort to do so as it will help not only your attendance record but also the Club's average. There should be plenty of make ups on offer after this weekend's Gears and Beers event for those that need one.
A whole program of briefing last week, was followed by a short and intense follow up before we headed out from todays meeting.
Phil stressed to each of the volunteers that they must be aware of their task, timings, and role in the larger picture of the rides. The Booklet has been issued to all members and volunteers - you are urged to read it, and understand what you should do. The time to ask questions is not on the phone from your designated corner on the road.
Phil acknowledged the assistance and the enthusiasm provided by Coolamon Rotary Club, who were briefed last Monday night. The DG was at that meeting, and Phil reported that he appeared to be getting the message of cooperation and involvement that exists between several clubs.
Frank Fuller was next up to report on the plans for the day. He called for more motorbikes, drivers for course surveillance, and volunteers for various logistical demands.
Sergeant for a Day, David collected the easy targets - latecomers.
Then he switched his attention to football club fans - Richmond, because he knew who they were. GWS, to see if there were any.
Peter Clucas has achieved notoriety at the golf club. Fetching your wayward ball two fairways from the tee to green line, disrupting the concentration of Lady golfers was never going to remain off the radar for too long.
Any story involving Courts, Judges and interrogation was always going to be sheeted home to Burmo, , but we don't think that Feb 20th any year is really the date he was born.
Double glazed windows that pay for themselves - I can't paraphrase that for the bulletin!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sue has previously spoken to Wollundry Rotary, addressing the "Ten most Misunderstood Road Rules." On the last occasion, we started on Roundabouts, and that took up the entire meeting.
Todays program was to finish the assignment, so nine more topics were on the agenda.
Giving way to pedestrians dealt with turning into a sidestreet. Not surprisingly, you cannot run pedestrians over, but we were told that this rule does not apply at roundabouts. Go figure!!!!
Mobile Phone road rules are evolving, but you need bluetooth, and even that is verboten if you are on P plates.
Merging traffic, mainly from passing lanes all depends on the paint markings on the road. Too complex for our bulletin.
Keeping Left on multi lane roads is compulsory above 80kph marked speed limit, and only courtesy on Lake Albert Road.
Legally, High Beam is illegal within 200 metres approaching and following another car. Methinks that this should be much longer, especially on the Hay plain.
U Turns are prohibited unless its safe, or unless your GPS tells you to.
Safe Following Distances are open to interpretation. 100 metres will seldom get you into trouble.
School Zones - it's hard to work out why these are misunderstood. Keep your car dashboard clock accurate and look for flashing lights.
Amber Lights, are a rule that doesn't apply to Taxi Drivers who know which intersections have the cameras.
John Smith is passionate about his interests in life, and has a heavy involvement in Rotary, and in Flying and the Aero Club. This dedication has been recognised by the pilots by conferring Life Membership of the Aero Club.
Congratulations go to John for this award, and his work to involve all Rotarians in the aviation world.
Today marks the centenary of the battle of Polygon Wood, near Ypres, Belgium in which 5,770 young Australian soldiers made the ultimate Service Above Self
In the local town of Zonnebeke lives Vandewalle, a farmer and publican who has dedicated his adult life to Service Above Self in finding and identifying the many unknown soldiers who still lie beneath the surrounding fields
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Vandewalle at his pub and being taken to the Polygon Wood cemetery, where many of our brave soldiers have been laid to rest, thanks to his dedication of Service Above Self
As Rotarians, what can we do to fulfil Rotary’s motto
Rick Priest has provided Public Address and music systems to the Henty Field Days for 25 years, and was recognised for this achievement at the event in 2017.
Before 1992, Rick took PA equipment to the Henty Show, so his capabilities and experience were known in the district.
The equipment in use has developed dramatically over the years, with a studio setup in as caravan. Early days saw powered speakers in use with underground cables, but the limitations of cable connected speakers gave way to radio sets, with solar powered receivers relaying a signal from a transmitter in the caravan. This was effectively a FM radio station, transmitting on FM107.3, and having a range of 10 kilometres.
Spending three days each year at the Field Days has given Rick a great opportunity to watch developments and new inventions at the HMFD. He uses crop sprayers as a guideline to development of farm equipment, and is staggered at the exponential growth of the length of booms on spraying units.
The Story in the HMFD booklet goes on to tell of Rick's more recent exploits, especially relating to the Mens Shed In Wagga Wagga. This is great recognition of his energy, his enthusiasm and adaptability. Congratulations, Rick.
Gerry Gerlach addressed the club, not with a "thought of the day," but to remind the members that the next District 9700 Conference will be staged in Leeton, on the weekend of May 4, 5, and 6, 2018. This will be five weeks after our Food and Wine Festival.
Accomodation has been booked at the Leeton Heritage Motor Inn, six rooms at this stage, but we can still get more as required!!!!!!
There are preliminary discussions to have Wollundry Rotary provide a presentation on staging major festivals on the scale of Food and Wine, or Gears and Beers. Do we want to give away secrets??
David Hodge arrived back from a football trip to Melbourne all excited - he had seen Geoff Hamilton, and Richmond won.
The good news is that Geoff has been allowed to go home, to his Docklands address, after 25 days treatment in hospital. There is no commentary that could get near to Geoff's blog in detailing his treatment, his feelings, his attitude and his family's support.
You can share and support Geoff Hamilton at his Blog:
Three tortoises, Troy, Andy and Wayne, decide to go on a picnic. Troy packs the picnic basket with beer and sandwiches. The trouble is that the picnic site is ten miles away so it takes them ten days to get there. When they get there, Troy unpacks the food and beer. "OK, Wayne, give me the bottle opener." "I didn't bring it," says Wayne. "I thought you packed it!" Troy gets worried, He turns to Andy, "Did you bring the bottle opener?"
Naturally Andy didn't bring it. So they're stuck ten miles from home without a bottle opener. Troy and Andy beg Wayne to go back for it. But he refuses as he says they will eat all the sandwiches. After two hours, and after they have sworn on their tortoise lives that they will not eat the sandwiches, he finally agrees.
So Wayne sets off down the road at a steady pace. 20 days pass and he still isn't back and Troy and Andy are starving, but a promise is a promise. Another 5 days and he still isn't back, but a promise is a promise. Finally they can't take it any longer so they take out a sandwich each, and just as they are about to eat them, Wayne pops up from behind a rock and shouts, "I knew it! ... I'm not going!"
Sergeant for a Day, David collected the easy targets - latecomers.
We shall see - How long will the smiles last?
Three tortoises, Troy, Andy and Wayne, decide to go on a picnic.