Dear Rotarians, welcome to the new Rotary Year, and together we will make it another great one! I would like to congratulate Catherine on her Presidential Year, the year that was frustrated by the COVID-19 Pandemic. When the virus struck mid-March, Catherine swung into action, cancelling all face-to-face Club meetings, to keep our members safe from contracting the serious illness. Our meetings were now to take place via Zoom, a platform I had never even heard of until then. Luckily for us, we had young Catherine as our President who could guide us through the transition to online meetings. And weren’t we fortunate again to have the vivacious, always cheery Catherine with the quick repartee and vocal changes to maintain our morale and positivity? We thank you sincerely, Catherine. Congratulations on a job well done, and now relax and take a breather!
Last Tuesday night’s meeting saw the usual hilarity from Sergeant David’s excellently-executed fine session. David will remain in this role this year, but his Co-conspirator will be none other than the formidable PP PHF Gayle Barrot. Get ready for more frequent trips to the ATM!
There was a serious and joyful note to the meeting too, as we were witness to the induction of a new member Day Gowland, who runs a local gardening business. We welcome you to our Club Day, and hope you will enjoy not only the camaraderie, but also the satisfaction of working to improve the lives of others. Day’s Dad Trevor, a long-time member of the Mulwala/Yarrawonga RC visited us to see Day’s induction. Congratulations to Catherine and the Membership team on their recruitment of a number of upstanding citizens this year. On the other side of the ledger, we farewelled Aneesh Bajaj, who has done a magnificent job with ClubRunner and our Website. Aneesh leaves to focus more on his work as a Storm trooper with Legion 501st. You will be missed Aneesh, but fortunately we shall still be seeing you around. Richard Gaunt and Michelle Wheeler have also resigned, and we would love to see them back as members sometime in the future. We would like to give Richard and Michelle a proper farewell when arrangements can be made.
Our guest speaker for the evening was John Parker, Surveyor General of Australia 1989-97, and a neighbour of Catherine’s at Cape Paterson. John spoke about how the metre measurement was determined during the French Revolution; as it was a time of tremendous social upheaval, the process took seven years. John’s talk was very engaging as it appealed to not only the lovers of maths and science, but also to those interested in social history.
Our meeting next Tuesday is Changeover when we formally thank Catherine and the outgoing Board for all their achievements, hard work and dedication, and welcome in the new Board. We will also present Paul Harris Fellows to some individuals for outstanding work throughout the year. I’m afraid the evening will lack the colour and movement of Catherine’s Changeover evening; who could forget the costumes and guillotining of outgoing President Ian Ash after all? The evening can still have a French flavour though; you are encouraged to “dress to impress”, wear the colours of “red, white and blue”, or for the more adventurous, dress as a famous French person, a cyclist in the Tour de France perhaps??
Yours in Rotary
Vicki
