25th March Meeting - Maud Faulquier - France

Chair
Deborah

International Toast
With Norm's head still spinning from a trip to Tassie, Maud was able to quickly step in with a toast to RC La Roche sur Yon, who sponsored her exchange to Sweden.

Tasmania would have been easier for the spelling in the Blog,
and in my book, close enough to being international.

And remember, Le président du Rotary club a entre autres missions, de choisir le thème de l'expo et les associations bénéficiaires . J'ai donc choisi pour thème « Peintres et sculpteurs pour des enfants malades » . Les deux associations bénéficiaires sont Rêves et Capucine . Vous connaissez cette dernière, dont Béatrice Poirier-Coutansais est une cheville ouvrière.
(even I can copy and paste in French)

Visitors
Maud of course, but either no other visitors, or I wasn’t paying attention.

Deborah had met Maud at USC at the BBQs, just three days after she landed in Australia and maybe still a bit jet lagged, and cleverly tricked her into doing the guest speaker’s spot.

Apologies
Ron & Bernie, the Begley’s, Gerry & Jan, Neil, Anna
Ian apologises for the next three weeks as they will be cruising the Pacific
(well it’s all right for some)

Makeups
Board, Helen at Maleny, Mark at District

Presidents Report
As the auditors report made it around the tables,
Deborah was able to report that next year’s board was looking “not too bad”.
(didn't know Deb could work Photoshop)
We still need a President Elect.
Graham has valiantly stepped forward to direct the Youth portfolio.
RYDA is coming up next week - be there or be square.
Golf suggestions - let Gerry know
(I still think John made the Chilli Bin shot much too easy)

Speaker
Iain introduced Maud, but chickened out of trying to pronounce her second name.  Maud is 21yo student from France, on the Coast for a year doing a Bachelor of Business at USC.
In 2010/11 she did a Rotary Exchange to Sweden.

Maud noted her USC studies followed a two year degree course in France.

Mass emails to Rotary Clubs were required before RC La Roche sur Yon took up the challenge.

Why Sweden?  Firstly its not Mexico, where her sister did an exchange two years before, but then its not Australia either, where she really wanted to visit, & interestingly the country of choice for French students.

But Sweden does have some appealing features, such as four identifiable seasons.  Maud had spent three months there as a 14 year old.  A winter sauna (pronounced sonar) has to be experienced at least once, but maybe not twice.  The Swedish queen is from Germany, proof that people do visit Sweden from other countries when provided with sufficient inducement.

Maud’s host Club was Linköping-Västanstång (try texting that in a hurry) two hours south west of Stockholm |ˈstɒkhəʊm| (the capital of Sweden, a seaport on the east coast, situated on the mainland and on numerous adjacent islands; pop. 810,120 in 2008)

Her travels took her to 150 kms from the Arctic Circle (in April, which sounds better than mid winter)

that's Maud second from the left 

Daylight from 9:30 till 3:00, and -5º to -15º is a hard call in winter ☃ but fortunately there is plenty of work for architects as the ice hotel has to be redesigned and rebuilt each year.

Learning Swedish “took a while” as English is a sort of “middle language” between French and Swedish (Maud was able to explain this better than me)

Her first host mum had cancer, which made for a “tough” winter.

Currently she is working in a French restaurant - sounds logical, but maybe not, as they thought she was Russian.  Australia is “way bigger” than Sweden, but she would like to visit as many places as possible (even New Zealand) and hopes to pick up some aussie accent and slang along the way
(and you's thought culture was dead)

yes, you can fit all those countries into Australia, but would you really want to?

& it cuts out a few options for overseas holidays

Maud thanked us for inviting her to speak,
and the Club made it clear that we are here for her.

stay in touch Maud, you are always welcome here

AGM 
Deborah closed the meeting for a quick AGM.  Thanks to Mark for lubricating the auditors, and to Merv for his help with the books.  Thanks to Alan for being Treasurer.
Deborah then reopened the meeting.

Directors
Two things from Genta.
Komaki will reimburse the $462 truck hire for the DIK trip
District to support the $50k global grant to match $50k from Komaki

Alan reported that the Lighthouse Centre garage slab had been poured.  - Will talk to the Mens’ Shed people if he can find out where their shed actually is these days.

Avid SBS watcher Iain reported that the Indian government was happy to take the credit for wiping out polio in India.

Helen reported five going to the Conference this weekend and outlined the highlights.
Probably no point in going into the detail as I can’t read my notes, and its Sunday arvo and I’m still writing the Blog - Say hello to Bindi for me!

Sergeant Bruce did his worst.

 

 15th April will be in the bar

The Joint meeting of RUSCCF has been confirmed as Wednesday 21st MAY. Clubs,

if possible, please reserve this date as your club meeting for that week.

Meeting 18th March - Marcia Forbes - Literacy

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

"To say something is meaningful is to say that that is how we arrange it so; how we comprehend it to be, and what is comprehended by you or I may not be by a cat, for example. If a tree falls in a park and there is no-one to hand, it is silent and invisible and nameless. And if we were to vanish, there would be no tree at all; any meaning would vanish along with us. Other than what the cats make of it all, of course." 

yes, it was getting a bit esoteric, so thanks to Mark for stepping in with this photo

Golf Day

Well done everyone for a wonderful Golf Day!!!

An extra big thank you to Gerry who worked very hard and organised us all to create a very smoothly run day.  Of the golfers I spoke to they all had a great day.

The Caloundra City Real Estate Team were extremely happy about their win.

Carolyn Thompson from STEMM was extremely happy to receive such a generous cheque. 

Thanks again for a great day.

Deb

 

Well, what a great day we had on Sunday.

Everything went pretty much according to plan, the weather was fantastic and there were a lot of satisfied players both during the day and after the prizes presentations.

Firstly I have to say that I have received quite a few congratulations for my involvement in this great event.

I certainly am very happy with the way everything went and the end result- probably close to $7500 profit- however I have to point out that this was a CLUB event and everyone helped out in so many ways.

. I have been personally congratulated and was presented with a fantastic gift of a box of lovely ripe figs- a luxury that I would never have bought for myself. But I am very pleased to point out that I was merely part of a committee- with John , Graham, and Deb.

These are the ones who gave more than just assistance, they took the weight off me and let me play on my computer.

I am merely the noisy one who overshadowed the other members of our committee, who had the job of playing on my computer keeping my word processing , Excel and Publisher skills up to speed. The administrative duties to me are quite enjoyable so it is no big deal.

I feel humbled by the thanks proffered to me when John, Graham & Deb were so very instrumental in the success of the Charity Golf Day. (And I have to add that as a bonus, Pauline was attached to John at most times and was indispensable.)

So I ask the club to acknowledge the considerable efforts by these 3, Deb, Graham & John without whose expertise and really hard work, the Golf Day would not have happened.THEY deserve a big thank you and loud applause from members.

Now on behalf of the Committee I would like to thank all members of the Club for the effort and assistance given by everybody over the past 3 months.

Everybody who was able to, willingly assisted in the success by phoning prospects, seeking prizes, and working on the day.  We would not have obtained so many sponsors and prizes nor had such a smooth running day,  nor had as successful a presentation evening had we not had so much effort by our club's members. It really was a combined club effort.

I don't want to single out individual members for particular effort, everyone did what they could do. But I do have to extend out thanks to Bernie & Ron & Keith for their time slaving over a hot BBQ for 3 hours to feed the masses- Thanks very much a great effort which is appreciated by all, including the Golfers.

It is very difficult not to thank individuals,but I find that I can't escape  mentioning
Judy- for making and supplying and cooking all those sausage rolls
Darryl and Mark and Graham for extracting so many valuable prizes from so many people- It makes for a successful Golf Day NEXT year.
Iain for his prawns
All others worked for hours selling, registering, wagering, setting up prizes, working in the kitchen and distributing food, marshalling players, photographing.
and my lovely Jan for her patience with me when I forgot dinner.

A really fantastic team effort- made a wonderfully successful day.

Just talking to the "Energex" guys I gathered they will have 2 business associates fielding next year.  So NEXT year is already being talked about.

So I just want to say again thank you to everybody-

The players enjoyed the day, and the presentation of prizes.
I enjoyed the day- I feel sure that everyone involved enjoyed the day.

We raised around $8000

People are already talking about next year.

So all in all an unqualified success.

Thank you all and congratulations of a successful event.

Gerry Swan
One of the committee.


--
Graham Baker -John Hanley- Deb Taylor.Gerry Swan
Rotary Club of Caloundra.
Golf Day Committee
P O Box 205,
Caloundra Qld 4551
Phone
Graham 07 54924477 / 0403 138829
John      0408 298 685
Gerry     07 5492 8867 / 0409 480019
email: rotarycaloundragolfday@gmail.com

11th March Meeting - Melanie Ferguson - Disaster Management Planning

(and no, this is not a "Club" meeting)

Chair
Helen

Visitors
Brian Scott - Merv’s brother in law ex RC Toowoomba South
Roger’s daughter Summer Johnston
Jan from RC Darwin Sunrise and Sue Mϋller
Melanie Ferguson

Apologies
Alan, Noel, Neil, Stewart, Ron &Bernie, Darryl, Norm, Anna

Makeups
Trivia Night
Ian made up at RC Buderim’s 20th anniversary

Presidents Report
There was a little “too much” clapping as Deborah took the podium
Is there something we don’t know?

Apparently the Begleys and Bethunes stayed away from Rotary for too long and ended up in the penitentiary at Maria Island in Tasmania - fortunately they are on parole now.

Deborah welcomed the visitors and guests.

We didn’t win the Trivia Night, even though Deborah won us an extra point because it was her birthday.  Jeff won a quilt and resisted Win’s not too subtle attempts to auction it off for ROMAC (good on you Jeff)  Apparently he is still hanging on to it with great determination.

Three have enrolled for the Conference - please enroll in case you want to attend the odd session and “so it looks like we care”

RYDA starts 1st April (No this is not a joke!) - 8-10 volunteers needed
More sessions in July and October

A card from Libby was passed around.

Speaker

Helen introduced Melanie, Project Support & Community Resilience Officer | Disaster Management from Council.  She is also a Rotarian of 17 years, President of RC Woombye/Palmwoods and incoming ADG for next year
(not bad - wonder what she does in her spare time)
 
Melanie discussed Council’s processes for dealing with natural disasters.
They organize and coordinate the operations centre and the recovery process
Fire and flooding are the main risks on the Sunshine Coast


 
Melanie provided seven handouts - take them home and nail them down so they don’t blow away in a cyclone, but read them first.


 
             Damn - there goes my plan

The Weather Bureau says there is 50% chance of average rainfall.
(and you can bet your house on that)

 
Council website has flood maps
Click on the key map to download, open it, then click  on the detail maps to download
 
Melaine showed me the tricky wind up rechargeable torch/radio/phone charger complete with handy instructions

Directors
Summer Johnston talked about “Be brave and shave”
Link to her page
Please Sponsor Me!
I'm being brave and doing the World's Greatest Shave! Today, 31 Australians will get the news they have blood cancer. Your donation will help the Leukaemia Foundation to fund its important work – providing practical and emotional support to people with blood cancer, as well as investing millions in research.


                         All this will go!

Gerry re Golf Day this Sunday - 30% chance of rain!
A few brave souls volunteered to meet on Wed arvo for final preparations
Scroll down the blog for the famous roster.

Please have a look - as I did not get responses of availability from everyone and have included names on the assumption that members would be here anyway.If I have missed you and you want to do something- let me know!
If anything is not suitable in any way please let me know straight away.If you have an aversion to or preference for a job, let me know now and I'll change things.
Some tasks only last a short time, and we will need relievers so members can have refreshment (toilet) breaks etc so unallocated volunteers gratefully accepted.
The day is looking great 31 teams to date.
Cheers,
Graham Baker -John Hanley- Gerry Swan
Golf Day Committee.

Genta is back from Bali - welcome back
Trevor is processing the Global Grant
Komaki are doing the “heavy lifting”with a $50K donation

Ann spoke about the card and presentation pack with champagne to share with family given to Libby.  Helen expressed our thoughts “We are all with you Alf & Sue”

Sergeant Gerry did his worst,
including a fine for Roger and his deteriorating car

 
but Roger notices that he is not the only Rotarian with car trouble

From: Noel Begley <noel@begsy.net>
Subject: Hello from Begleys
Date: 10 March 2014 6:38:06 pm AEST

We have just farewelled the Bethunes , who are flying out on Tuesday, after enjoying their company for the last three weeks. We have had a great time together - drinking, eating , sightseeing, happy hours and national park camping with the initial one to excess. We mainly saw both sides of Tamar valley and down the east coast to Southport in the south. Our visit to Maria Island to sleep in the Penitentiary for two nights was a highlight with the very basic accommodation and wonderful walks on this beautiful island. The weather has been extremely kind to us with just a couple of unpleasant days. Prior to Carolyn and Alan arriving Olive and I visited the North West and Cradle Mountain. From the information Alan and I have been receiving our Rotary Club is being run very well thanks to the leadership and members. Helen, we visited your home town of  Scottsdale. But was unable to attend Rotary due to our timing. I must add the timber sculptures in the park were magnificent. We camped down in the Scottsdale North East off road park. Tonight we are at MtField National Park and heading out to Lake Pedder tomorrow. Please pass on our regards to club members.

Regards Olive & Noel

Golf Day Roster for this Sunday

revised Thursday 13th