Our Activities: 25th March Meeting - Maud Faulquier

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.