From the President's Desk

Good morning all,

Good luck to Jan with the James Jacobs Christmas Lunch. Congratulations to all of the volunteers who have helped in the organization of this and to all of those volunteers who will help on the day.

If you have the time, please take a minute to share our Drought Appeal Western Queensland GoFundMe (DAWQ) campaign on Facebook and other social media. We have decided to continue our DAWQ campaign into the New Year to try and reach our fundraising target. Thank you to everyone who has supported the campaign so far either by donating or promoting it, and please consider taking the time to re-share the link (with a Holiday message).

At the meeting last Tuesday, I told all members that the RYLA dinner was on the incorrect date. The actual date for the RYLA dinner is Tuesday 26 January, so please change this in your calendars if you plan on trying to attend. Please note, the cost of this dinner is $25/head.

Although it has been going a while, members may not know that the sale of used stamps continues to fund some of the transport costs incurred by Donation In Kind in sending their various containers into the Pacific. Could all members please remember to collect used stamps where possible (leaving a minimum 1cm margin around the stamp itself) and in due course forward these to Rotarian Russell Thompson from the Rotary Club of Burleigh Heads (or we can collect as a Club and send through together). This has been an ongoing project for many years and has been a worthwhile contribution to provide transport and container costs for Donations In Kind. I urge all Rotarians to continue to collect the stamps although in the current world it is in an ever diminishing supply.

I also wanted to include a very special note from DG Anne that was sent around to all Clubs last week:

Last week I reported that Jeff and I would be undertaking our official District Governor’s visit to the E-Club next January.  Although the E-Club meets online, on this occasion we were privileged to be able to meet with many of the Members face to face, as well as meeting online with those who could not be physically present due to distance and other considerations.  It is a measure of the flexibility and innovation of Rotary Clubs that their meeting format can still be a surprise.  Our meetings don’t always have to be conducted the same way.  Accordingly, on this occasion we had a Christmas get together at the home of one of the members of the E-Club with several members present.  I had the honour of presenting Paul Harris Awards to two of the members who had achieved their Paul Harris recognition through their own personal contributions in a very short period of time.  In addition, I was privileged to have the President of the E-Club, Tara Little, present at the Christmas celebration.  Why is that unusual?  Well Tara lives in Griffith in the Riverina District.  She is the President of District 9640’s Rotary E-Club but she herself does not live within the geographical confines of our District.  Tara also happens to be our youngest Rotary President in District 9640 in 2015-2016.  Tara’s personal application to her role as President and her enthusiasm and motivation for Rotary resulted in Tara travelling to our District to attend PETS training in March 2015 and now to attend the District Governor’s visit this month.  She promises me also that she is going to be attending our District Conference in Murwillumbah in May 2016.  Tara’s youth, enthusiasm and dedication are an inspiration to all of us. Well done Tara! Well done e-club!

Which seems like a great way to end. As this will be my last report for the year, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We are sending everyone the best of wishes for the holiday season. 

Hope everyone can make it online tonight for our last meeting of the year, to be followed by a short Board meeting.

Kind regards,

Tara

President, 2015-16