From the President's Desk

From the President's Desk

Good Morning Everyone,

Did you get to see anything about the Rotary International Convention if you were not there?  I can tell you it was huge, 18 000 plus Rotarians at the one event, the colours of the different countries, the 380 plus displays, the Bridge Climb, the Polio walk, the Opening Ceremony, the Entertainment, the organisation of this event, plus the free City Travel for Rotarians on Public Transport. Most of all the warm friendly greetings passed by everyone all combined to make a very good convention, something that will not be forgotten by all those local Rotarians who made it to the Convention for their first time.  We had six e-Club Members present plus their partners/parents/friends, a great turnout.

Our Clubs Celebrations event, to remember the year gone and move into the New Year took place yesterday; this was a great day with some very Special Members being present and also the induction of our two new Members, by DG Cookie from North Carolina.  We had Secretary Ray present, along with Jed and Sue, Julian and his parents, Kathy and Jeff and their young ones, Jane and Ralph, Ashleigh and Clare, plus the regulars making this a great day out.

The Gold Coast Suns game was the afternoon entertainment, some new faces on the ticket selling was quite impressive, Ray, Cookie, Jan and Robert tried their hand at removing the loose change from the visitor's pockets and this appears to have worked well.  Prior to this Cookie and Ray viewed the Gold Coast from the Q1 observation tower, after the game it was Dinner at the Thai Restaurant, then coffee and chocolate biscuits with Heather, Ian and Peta.

Tonight we have a Board Meeting, 6.30 pm in Southport for the locals and online for everyone else. Look out for our new locals and then we move to our Club Meeting with a Surprise Guest Speaker. We have a few leads on Guest speakers from the Convention and while we were on the e-Club stall we met so many people interested in the e-Club.

I met Jan, Anna and Alex Koenig from Sweden and we are meeting in Brisbane this Thursday for lunch.  It will be great to talk with Jan on his e-Club progress. We also now have an e- Club Banner to tell others what we are about when we are doing Community Service and very soon we will announce next year's Rotary International theme to everyone; we still have a few weeks of this Rotary year to go yet.

Heather has another Project going, knitting pull over vests for new born babies in Kenya, and anyone who can knit is encouraged to make a vest. This is a great way for our Community Members to contribute, Kathy is now promoting 'Buy A Bale' to help our Farmers in drought stricken Qld. We still need volunteers to sell Show Bags for the RFDS in August at the Exhibition, Birdsville Volunteers are currently being sought but the good news is the Red Centre Trip is fully booked and paid.

The Humanity in Motion Books have arrived and it is our intention every Club Member get one, so we may end up posting several of these to our long distance Members. This is a great production and a great promotion of Rotary Clubs Down Under Projects. These books should be in every library to promote Rotary.

Have a great week, enjoy your week and find some happy dollars,

Keep smiling,

Geoff