From the President's Desk

From the President's Desk

Hi Everyone, 

My apologies for the spasmodic reporting of late but by night I have truly run out of energy. The days are so busy now with my new role and the opportunities that we are taking with growing the business and increasing our apprentice numbers really means 12 hour days every day.

Birdsville Races: 
We went to Birdsville, we cooked a few snags and we came home.   Ok, that describes the time lapse between the 28th August and the 9th September. 

I really cannot thank Tara enough, Tara was the face of Rotary selling our wares from the front of the marquee.  Tara gave everything, she did such a great job and Team NextGen should be so lucky to have her on board.  Tara filled in everywhere, as many others did but Tara just kept on going.  Well Done Tara, we all love you so much.

To all our 20 helpers in total, thank you very much.  To our Non Rotarians on the team we cannot express our thanks in words for your efforts.  To my long-time friend Bernie and Joan driving the second truck, what a great 10 days you gave to the RFDS.  To the 'Adventurers' who went all the long way around, some 6500kms to get to the Birdsville races, what an Adventure.  To our friends who came from Bundaberg, Sydney, Mt Isa, New Zealand and the Northern Rivers Clubs thank you very much and to the team from the RFDS, well done!

We were privileged on both occasions passing through to view the RFDS Charleville Base new Headquarters, Information Centre and accommodation units where another Team of our "local" Rotarians were busy at work.  This group did a magnificent job on that project, I am sure we will have reports on both the Tag Along Tour and the Charleville Project when Ian and Heather get the chance to do this.

Currently, Team Yarker have sped off to the Mossman Gorge to complete the second phase of the Mt Isa and e-Club Literacy Programme.  The Tenant Creek Phase One effort was a huge success and many thousands of $$$ was donated to various RFDS groups from the Tag Along Team.  I think Ian and Heather will be away for 10 days or so.

One thing we forget is after all these great marathons there is so much to do finalising the projects financially, cleaning all the equipment, returning borrowed items and writing reports.  I will have a full Birdsville report this coming weekend.

I also wish to acknowledge Ella and Elliot who spent time at the Brisbane Exhibition on the RFDS stand selling show bags and Ice-cream & Strawberries, great work guys, thanks very much.  This offer will be open again next year, so if any members like this for a steady  volunteer role sampling Ice Cream then please let me know (just joking).

We will be having a Board meeting very soon and we do have many projects rolling on so please keep logging in and checking our progress.

I would like to just re-enforce to the team who keep the club going on Tuesday nights and who keep the correspondence flowing that I really appreciate the job you do.  We have three new members who need to be supported initially and we need a few more to keep our club motoring along.  Very soon like now, I will be calling for nominations to fill positions in the 2015/2016 year and we need a Treasurer and a YOUNG President.   

Need I remind you that my goal is to have the next President at least half my age, to show the younger team we have faith that they can RUN this e-Club.

We will probably be having another Tag Along Tour and we will be going back to Birdsville next September, so we need members to look at helping out on these events too.  A big thank you to all who knitted woolly jumpers for the Fish 'n' Chips kids and Team Umoja is looking for volunteers for their next tour to Kenya.  Well done Team Umoja, you are amazing.

In closing, I must say it was so good to be a Rotarian when the locals from Birdsville came individually to our marquee and thanked us for doing so much for their Community.  The BUSH is in drought and this is no more evident than Birdsville, 3 years on one property and not one drop of rain.  We have now contact with a Local Council Run Childcare Centre manager who tells of the difficulties and hardships just keeping her centre going when the families are down to their last $10 and cannot afford to come into town from the outlying stations.  One trip to Birdsville is all that it takes to show just how soft, spoilt and well off we are here in our comfort zones and pure indulgence.

Have a great week, I intend to.

Cheers
President Geoff