Wollundry Rotary year of 2019-2020, President David Pyke
My year was a little unusual as I spent the first month studying new Rotary Innovations in Ireland. I attended a different pub every night looking for a Rotary Club but was unable to coincide the pub visits with Rotary.
Upon my return, Neil Pinto and I were summoned to a meeting with the District Youth officer to reconsider our decision to have a German Youth exchange lady for the first half of 2020, the latter of half of 2019 being in Orange. At our first meeting we were not aware that the District had already made the decision that the Exchange student would not be coming to Wollundry. Through Neil Pinto’s brilliance, instead we got Sofi Seneme, and how lucky that turned out to be.
With the assistance of Katie O’Neill, John Smith ramped up the Saturday markets to the extent where the monthly profits were healthy, that state of play is continuing. This is a great Club event where we get 12 to 14 of our members working together with a smattering of other members joining those rostered for a coffee on the day. We should not underestimate the importance of the Saturday market for fellowship and, of course, making good money.
We had a visit from Lori Steiner, and husband Steve. Lori had been an exchange student at Wollundry in the 80,s and remembered many of the current members including J Gray, Burmo, Michael Knight etc.
My committee for that year was
IPP James Hamilton
Sec and PE James Ross
Treasurer Adrian Whiting
Committee Peter Crozier, Paul Milde, Colin Duff, Frank Fuller, John Hawkins, John Ferguson and Neil Pinto.
There was so much Rotary experience in that mob , one could not go wrong….however I did seem to get up the nose of the District Governor Elect on matters of District finance. We had a good relationship with our District Governor John McKenzie but the Club stance on reduction of District fees saw our Club being suspended from RI for a few months. It is quite extraordinary that a year or two later this matter has now been taken by other Clubs with some resolution likely in the future.
The gears and beers was a fantastic success in October 2019. Under the guidance of Phil McIntosh and a very capable team, the event made over $150K resulting in a total distribution in that year of $144,536, the largest single distribution to Tumbarumba Rotary of $15000 for the bushfire appeal. The gears and beers also distributed $21000 to other Rotary and Service Clubs for their assistance in the event.
The Christmas party was another great success at the home of Adrian and Rachel Whiting
All was travelling well until March 16, 2020 when the Government shut down most of Australia to deal with Covid 19. That meant cancelling the Food & Wine Festival, only two weeks before the event, and our Tuesday meetings became Zooms. They went well and we managed to have our first face to face meeting as the Changeover in June.
A year full of variables for me as President of this great Club.