Good evening to all my fellow Mornington Rotarians and Partners, I hope all is going along OK. Its been two weeks since our last Bulletin issue and there been lots happening. A late Burst of Summer Weather, just in time for the Long Weekend, a new Members Inducted into our Club, two great Guest Speakers and more to come, the finalisation of the last of the Admin /Paperwork for The Shelter Over The Long Table, a number of Members Birthdays and also quite a few members away chasing the sun and spending time with family, all in all a busy time.
New Member Induction
On Wednesday last fortnight it was with great pleasure that our Club President enacted a time honoured Rotary Ceremony with the Induction of Mr Chris Reynolds into The Rotary Club of Mornington, Chris has been attending quite a few Club Meetings and Events over the past six weeks at it was great to formally welcome Chris into the Club. Chris brings a wealth of past underpinning knowledge in the sphere of Youth Education and will be a very valuable member to assist and work with our current Youth Chair, Judy Seager.
Our new Club Member, Chris Reynolds (L) with his Host, our Club Secretary, Ian Horton
Club Meeting - Last Fortnight
At our Club Meeting last Wednesday fortnight we heard for our Guest Speaker, Ben Smith the current CEO of the Mornington Community Support Centre. Before Ben commenced his presentation we had a special announcement to make, which caught Ben a bit "off guard", whereby we welcomed Ben into the Rotary Club of Mornington as our newest Honorary Member, a well earned honour. Since we last heard from Ben the Centre has rebranded/renamed itself with the sole focus on providing support to members of our community in need of help both asset wise and financially. Their motto is: "We Walk with People along this Pathway". As most of us know the Centre was very badly affected by the floods, late year, and is still working remotely in a number of locations to provide the amazing ongoing support that they do so well. Not only has the Centre been adversely affected by the Floods but was and still is reeling from the budget cuts from State Govt funding's cutbacks during COVID, to the sum of being "down on budget" to date by some $90k. The array of Support Services that they provide to the community is staggering, and also what is an amazing stat is the amount, in the range of some 110, volunteers that help out those in need, It just goes to show you the dedication, resilience and focus thru some very difficult recent operation constraints that has not waivered the task at hand. Our Community can be extremely grateful to Ben and his team.
As we are all aware the upcoming Moondah Project will be very, very shortly upon us and we really need " as many Club Members to pitch in, as possible", knowing all proceeds for the Auction will go directly the the Community Support Centre.
Club Meeting - Wed 08th March 23, A Special Presentation !!
At our Club Meeting last Wednesday fortnight we had "another one out of the bag" WOW what an enthralling and moving presentation. Our Guest Speaker's invitation was at very, very late notice (after our planned GS could not present) and our intrepid PTE Leigh Power invited Mr David Howell, the current Secretary of our local RSL. The subject matter was that of The Kokoda Trail and myself and a fair few members envisaged a presentation on the actual Trail from a Trekking/ Tourist prospective. This was so far from what we expected. David's presentation was absolutely amazing. I can say that everyone present was totally fixated. David spoke with an amazing recall of the history of Papua from its independence back in 1908, the territory held by Germany at the onset of World War I, and with this our fledgling Nations first action of the Great War, right at our northern doorstep. We all know of France and the Battlefields of The Somme, etc, but its was very informative to hear of the conflict in Papua. One aspect that was information was that during WW I our soon to be adversaries Japan were in fact part of our Allied Forces. David's knowledge and unbelievable account of accuracy was astounding. He then turned to main topic of the evening The World War II conflict on the Kokoda Trail. The information he presented was truly amazing and extremely informative, he spoke of the Japanese advances and the retreat and then the forward action of our troops, this was interlaced with some moving and at times humorous stories, the unbelievable hardships and acts of selfishness bravery in the face of extreme adversary, the mateship and the loss of life, on both sides was very moving, that our boys faced every day just for survival !! . It is far to hard to be able to convey all the information and accounts of this WWII period in our history in this Bulletin, so should you get a chance to hear David present this topic, for which he does around our Mornington Peninsula, do your self a favour an attend !! Well done to our Leigh Power for sourcing out David as our GS, well done Leigh, and as a result you have been promoted to the rank of CPL, don't let it go to your head lad !!!
.Mr David Howell from the Mornington RSL and his host for the evening Club Member Leigh Power
The Memorial in PNG to our troops to honour all the fallen and amazing mateship that the local PNG tribes provided in those dark days of WW II to our very near north.
Weekly Club Meeting - Welcome Desk
A very big thanks to all those members who were able to " fill in the blanks " and help out/ volunteer to be on the Welcome/ Sign in / Dinner Registration desk over the coming weeks, well done, very much appreciated
a. Wed 15th March - Club Meeting - John Parkinson
b. Wed 22nd March - Board Meeting - Nil Required
c. Wed 29th March - Social Night Out - Nil Required
d. Wed 05th April - Club Meeting - Judy Seager
e. Wed 12th April - Club Meeting - David Lancashire
f. Wed 19th April - Club Meeting - Judy Benholz
g. Wed 26th April - Club Meeting - Ken Bilham
h. Wed 03rd May - Club Meeting - Eileen Prudden
i. Wed 10th May - Club Meeting - Pam Hall
j. Wed 17th May - Board Meeting - Nil Required
k. Wed 24th May - Club Meeting - Jo Davie
Club Position Available !
As announced last fortnight, by our Club President, the position of the Club's Bulletin Editor will be becoming vacant for a few months from early July until mid September 2023. So if you have had or would like to chance your hand, mind and vocabulary skills as our new Clark Kent, from The Daily Planet and compile and dist the Club Bulletin please give our Club President a call to discuss.
Presidents Report - 14th March 2023
Club Business
This weeks Club Meeting will see our Youth Chair Judy Seager Chair the Meeting,as a result of my absence away on family business, thanks Judy and as has been the case in the past I know you will do a great job
It is always a very special occasion to welcome and induct a new Member into a Rotary Club and it was my privilege to do just that some two weeks ago when I inducted Mr Chris Reynolds into the Rotary Club of Mornington.
Our Club Guest Speaker team, currently under the leadership of Joe Siragusa has produced some amazing GS thus far and looking at the upcoming list from now to Change over and beyond looks pretty impressive, have a look at the updated left hand pane on our Club Homepage Website to view all our upcoming GS’s, well done Joe great work.
Following on from the very professional presentation that Ross Kilborn showcased at our recent 9820 District Conference pertaining to the Peninsula Trail, the opening highlight of the arrangement was a great Video that was quite striking, please take time to open the link below and download the Video and have a look at it. The content, quality is very, very well done, and certainly goes a long way to promote this major Rotary Project in our own backyard, well done Ross and all his team for another great effort
At last week’s meeting a proposal was presented to provide funds, which was also accompanied by a District grant from the Rotary Clubs of Mt Eliza, Mornington and Dromana to fund computers for Connecting2Australia, to enable them to build Computer skills and confidence to perform a range of basic tasks for clients with a disability within C2A hubs of in Frankston and Mornington. Increase Arts and Craft programs and participate in social media, learn about cyber security. To provide a bit more information to this proposal I invited our Guest Speaker, Ben Smith, who has had contact with C2A to provide a brief overview of their work in the community.
It was very pleasing to see all Members voting in the affirmative to support the funding and from this we are now compiling the District Grant to instigate the funding delivery to C2A
International Women’s Daywas celebrated last week on Wednesday 08th March, and as has been the case over the past year’s The Rotary Clubs within our Peninsula Cluster came together along with many other invitees from the Private, Local and State Government Representees and Business sectors to acknowledge this special day at The Mornington Racecourse for a Breakfast which was accompanied by some very very impressive Guest Speakers. Our Club was represented by Eileen and Pam, well done ladies
For more information, and upcoming events please see our website,
www.rotaryclubofmornington.org.au or follow us on facebook
.jpg)
