We welcomed guest speaker the Venerable Archdeacon Dr Grant Bell who has finally landed in Wagga on a permanent basis after a varied and interesting career.  He must have so much more to tell.

 

Welcome back Paul Murray and thankyou for helping sought out technical issues with the meeting.

 

This weekend is our next Saturday Market at the Civic Theatre precinct.  We members who are not rostered on are encouraged again to gather at 10:00am for coffee and Fellowship.

 

The Presidents of the Combined Rotary Clubs of Wagga are exploring a new way to promote Rotary in Wagga given that the traditional Peace Ceremony is now problematic and the current Centenary celebrations of Rotary in Australia are of course transient.  Who knew we are celebrating 100 years of Rotary in Australia?  We need to embrace change and do things more effectively and collaboratively. CSU students of Media Production may also be involved. Down the track there may be a need for someone with a good voice for radio.  In the meantime if you feel you could represent the Club on a small Group Working Party to help get things rolling then please let me know.  From little things big things grow.  There will be more on this enterprise as it develops. 

 

Stay well Fellows.

 

President James

Hi all, 

 

Another well attended meeting at the Riverine club. We are still experimenting with the Zoom set up, getting better I think. Thank you to Paul Murray for his input yesterday.

 

Members who attend on Zoom can be recorded via the Zoom web portal. This will be done in future at the end of each meeting, and the details given to Treasurer Ken Taylor, for addition to his list of meeting attendants.

 

Congratulations to Pykie for his first time effort as Bulletin editor, he has done a great job.

 

Saturday Markets are on again this Saturday. Members who are not rostered on can attend to join in fellowship on the day.

 

Cheers Phil Burgess

The meeting had a small change of format with the Zoom attendees showing on the screen to those 37 at the meeting. A great roll up.

 

The room was reconfigured to allow easy access and all attending to have a good view of the proceedings.

 

Paul Murray was welcomed back and set up the new camera and zoom system.

 

James commenced the meeting but, alas, this week we had no visitors other than our guest speaker. More about that later.

We said the Rotary Grace which is far better than the dreadful singing we have encountered over the yea

 

:James reminded us that we will have 

 

 

Sofi took the mic and gave a short update on her week. She met with some friends visiting Wagga who spoke Portuguese but Sofi realised that she is now an English speaking teenager and found it a little strange. Sofi climbed The Rock and was asked if she made it. The answer was , of course. Only an aged Rotarian incapable of climbing The Rock would ask that question. Cannot remember who it was. David Benn congratulated Sofi on her excellent command of English

 

Pykie filled in for Mark Hillis who was filling in for Peter Clucas.  The gist of the session was a test of concentration...like "Many years ago I had a physic girlfriend but she left me before we met" and sticking with physics. The big question is " when you meet a physic for the first time , why do they ask your name"?  it went on a bit longer and got no better so we can leave it at that, except to finish it was

The message for 2019 was "stay away from Negative people"....and in 2020 it is "stay away from Positive people"

 

 

 

 

Rick Priest let us know that  his year 1994/95. He was initially advised that he had five minutes. Rick know that means 10 or 15. 

 

They had 52 members and 18 of those members remain in the Club. They had attendance of 80% and raised $100K for the year.

 

The only fund raising was The Sunday markets but during that year they bought a golf cart and had constructed on that cart "penny the pig" that was an amazing fund raiser.

 

The Wollundry Club had a battle with Woolworths about the use of the car park, claiming that Woolies owned the car park but is was owned by the Wagga City Council. They caved in and Wollundry continued the market.

 

Rick mentioned that the bed pan was made by himself, he organised the table legs and had the table tops made at Her Majesty's workshop in Junee.

 

Rick also remembers the remarkable feat of a member winning the weekly draw three weeks in succession, until it was discovered that all the pegs had the same number. Neil Pinto was the lucky winner!

 

Today we had  Dr Grant Bell as our guest speaker. Pykie introduced him and forgot his name so that was a bad start.

 

It did not seem to effect Grant as he gave us a journey of his working life, from a young Police officer in Sydney through his current position as a Minister of the Anglican Church at St Johns Wagga.

 

In the Police Force he had a short time on the beat and moved to the role of a detective and then as an agent working with Interpol, from there to the Firearms and dangerous weapons unit which was instrumental is setting up the current system of registering firearms.

 

Through this period Grant was also studying law with a view to becoming a Barrister.

 

During this period it was in the mid 70's, underbelly was alive and well. It was a time with a lot of adrenalin. There was, however, a turning point in his career when he experienced the death of a young male who overdosed. It was disturbing in that the young man was revived from near death, only to have another fatal overdose the same night.

 

At that time Grant decided that he would change his path to Moore Theological College and completed that course and decided that Sydney was not for Grant and his wife so they took up a posting at Collarenebri in the Armidale diocese.

 

The introduction to this country town was gripped by drought so it was a very sad looking landscape.  At this time Grant and his wife were having their second child and that was in Tamworth.

 

Well the next story is almost a book in itself,  so much to , that on the journey home they got hopelessly bogged in the middle of the night. One thing that did transcend from that night is that the Bell family became well known in the district.

 

Following was an induction into the military after the normal training at Canungra in Queensland, he was appointed a military Chaplin.

 

This was followed by a return to the Armidale diocese at Glen Innes. The journey led Grant and family to the Kings School in Parramatta as Chaplin for 5 years working with young people which Grant had always had a passion for.

 

This venture was followed by being appointed the Rector at St Michaels church in Vaucluse in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, including being given the task of an Investigator for the Anglican Church assessing complaints against clergy, church workers and teachers, completing investigations, preparing briefs of evidence for the lawyers for a number of years.

 

They then went to Dubbo to set up a new school under the banner of the Anglican Church. Having successfully completed that task Grant and family headed back to The Kings School as a boarding house Master and Director of leadership. This stretched to 13 years before finishing in Wagga at St Martins College at CSU and is now the rector at St Johns in Wagga.

 

James Hamilton proposed a vote of thanks to Grant who has a career full of changes. James did mention that Grant did not have time to allude to his experiences with Roger Rogerson, meaning that it looks like we will have to get him back to learn about the exploits of that well known Detective.

 

 

The Australian Taxation Office suspected a fishing boat owner wasn't paying proper wages to his deckhand and sent an agent to  investigate him

ATO AUDITOR: "I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them".
Boat Owner: "Well, there's  Clarence, my deckhand, he's been with me for 3 years. I pay him $1,000 a week plus free room and board.  Then there's the mentally challenged guy. He works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of the work around here. He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of Bundaberg rum and a dozen Crown Lagers every Saturday night so he can cope with life. He also gets to sleep with my wife occasionally"
ATO AUDITOR: "That's the guy I want to talk to - the mentally challenged one".
Boat Owner: "That'll be me. What'd you want to know"?