Dear Fellow Club Members,

On the 21 and 22 August, IPP Dot Hennessy, Bob, Ann and myself attending the Rotary conference in Canberra and we were very fortunate to meet the R.I. President, Ray Klinginsmith

There were about 350 to 400 Rotarians from around the country attended and there was a good variety of great speakers and the Illawarra clubs were very well represented

The meeting on the 24 August saw us host the full Chinese Delegation together with a number of business people from the local community. In all we had 68 in attendance and the guest speaker, Greg Fisher from the Illawarra Business Chamber gave us a great insight into the Illawarra and it is hoped that our Chinese friends will go back home with a better understanding of our country, the Illawarra and what Rotary is about

 Last night we had 32 members and partners attend Branched Restaurant and we had a great social night. It was great to see Geoff Hazel and Allan Dibden and their wives attend

Michael, the chef at this restaurant, was a member of the World Skills team from the Illawarra that went to Brisbane and he won “Gold” in this classification and was also the Illawarra apprentice of the year. Michael prepared his “signature” dishes for us and the food was great

On Saturday night, Sue Reid and myself attended a function at the “Diggers” club hosted by Troy Everett for the Illawarra World Skills candidates and our club presented these young apprentices with a “Certificate” from the Rotary Club of Wollongong acknowledging their efforts on behalf of the region

Congratulations must go to Troy has he had worked extremely hard in organising this event and thanks to his hard work, the results of the team were fantastic with a number of  gold, several bronze and all candidates placed high in their categories 

On Friday night, I attended the District President’s meeting and it is great to see the new District team working well to assist the clubs in this district

Our District is well placed going forward as our DGE Phil and DGN Bill are both extremely capable men and are working well with DG David to ensure a strong district going forward

Well it has been a very busy couple of weeks so that is all from me until next Tuesday.

Have a great week

President Norm

Dear Fellow Club Members,

President Norm

Dear Fellow Club Members,

I believe that there are two great moments for any President, that is when you present an award to a person or club member for “Service Above Self” and when you induct a new member into your club and into the family of Rotary

It was a great privilege for me to induct Andrew Miller (no relation) into our club last night and I believe that Andrew will make a great Rotarian and club member and I wish him many happy years in Rotary service

It was great to see Andrew’s family, his sister, his protégé and a fellow colleague Aditya who is a member of West Wollongong Rotary Club

We also had two more Chinese students with us, Emily and Andy and I look forward to our club hosting the whole group next week. We also had Adelle with us and she is improving with each week with a regular weekly updates
 
Last week I attend the RYDA (Rotary Youth Driver Aware Program) National conference in Sydney representing District 9750 from Wednesday through to Friday and we were shown the new program in action with Baulkham Hills High School at the Sydney Tennis Centre at Homebush Olympic complex

Many matters were discussed and this program has now seen over 150,000 year eleven students undertake this course. Some 38,000 students went through this year and it is expected that 47,000 will attend next year. This course is now operating through Australia thanks to local Rotary Clubs

This month is “Membership” month and it was great to have Ken Patteson (District Membership Chair) with us to talk on retention and membership

I said last week that we need to ask ourselves, how or why did we join Rotary and the usual answer is that someone asked me to come along to a meeting

I was speaking to Andrew’s sister last night and when Tony G asked her why she was not in Rotary, her reply was, “No one has every asked me”. Needless to say both Tony and myself asked her would she like to join and made a standing invitation for her to visit our club any time

IPP Dot, Sue Reid and myself are off to Canberra this week-end to attend the conference hosted by the R.I. President and I will report back next week on this event

Next week is a partners night for the meeting whereby we will be hosting the whole Chinese delegation so I would request that all members try and attend and don’t forget to ask your partner to come along. Please let Wal Jenkins if you will be attending

Finally, don’t forget the social night at Michael’s Restaurant on Tuesday 31 August 2010 as this should be a great social evening. This is also a partner’s night so please let Wal know if you will be attending

That’s all from me until next Tuesday.  Have a great week.

President Norm

Dear Fellow Club Members

On Monday night, I had the pleasure to attend the Rotary Club of Campbelltown to witness my brother Garry inducted into Rotary

I have been trying to get Garry to join Rotary for a number of years now but the time was not right for him until a few months ago when he changed jobs, and he decided that he now had the some time to give to the community

Garry was in APEX for many years but when he reached 40, he and a number of his fellow APEXIANS had to retire from APEX but no one approached them to join Rotary and or any other service organisation and so these committed and dedicated people were lost to service organisations simple because they were not asked to join

We need to ask ourselves, how or why did we join Rotary and the usual answer is that someone asked me to come along to a meeting

The moral here is that we often ignore or do not think to ask the questions of our friends, family or work colleagues, would you like to come to a meeting and consider becoming a Rotarian

In many cases, people have been asked, however like Garry, the time may not have been right for them, but this does not mean that if their circumstances change that they may choose to revisit this option

August is “Membership Month” so my challenge to all members is to ask someone along to a club meeting to see what Rotary is about

Our exchange student Adelle was with us again and it is great to see her settling into her new surroundings and we will organise a night for her to tell the club about herself

Next week we will be inducting Andrew Miller (no relation) into the Rotary family as a member of our club which is a very special occasion for Andrew and for myself as President so I look forward to a good attendance to welcome Andrew into our Club

That’s all from me until next Tuesday. Have a great week

President Norm