Almost halfway through our presidency and surviving. Thank you, Kevin for the storage capacity we now have in the room where we meet. It makes setting up so much easier and we only have to re-design the badge box to fit in the same space. Doug chaired a meeting with plenty of good fellowship.
Reports by Directors at the meeting included that of Cathie and Adrian attending at Victory Christian College awards night to present a District 9800 scholarship that was well received by the school and the student’s family. Ted brought us up to date on the Australia Day Art and Craft Market numbers, registrations are over 80 so far.
Toni reminded us about this Friday’s BBQ at Lighting Reef PS at 10am, and our roster for Food Share on Tuesday 17 December. There will be two Shifts 9.30 am till 12.30 pm and 12.30 pm to 3.30 pm. Ray and Barb have the first shift covered and Rob Rosaia, Graeme and Bruce will attend to the afternoon.
Guest Speakers
Judy Miatke and Tony Commodore
Our guest speaker for the meeting was Judy Miatke very ably supported by Tony. Judy and Toni recounted their travel experience of last May to Georgia,
Armenia and Turkey. Georgia is located between Russia and Turkey and borders Armenia to the south. It was the first Country to join the
Russian Federation and the first one to leave, the fact that Stalin is Georgian might have something to do with this. Judy and Tony were there
for the celebrations of Independence. The Soviet legacy has left some wide streets but a large number of buildings which are quickly falling into disrepair.
Georgia is beautiful country where the Caucasus Mountains provide a backdrop for a lush and very pleasant environment. The capital, Tbilisi,
is a densely populated city where families make the most of the beautiful parkland for recreation. The main thoroughfare is named after a
medieval poet, Rustaveli. It is a Christian country with many churches dating back as long as 1,800 years. Georgia and the friendly people
come with the highest recommendation from Judy and Tony.
The wrought iron sculptures are a highlight of Armenia. The capital, Yerevan, has a beautiful museum on the side of a hill, probably funded
by wealthy Americans such as the Kardashians who are of Armenian ancestry. Tensions with Turkey resulting form conflicts which saw the
death of 1.5 million Armenians around the time of the first world war still linger today. Transfers to Turkey can be difficult.
Judy and Tony's travels concluded with the traditional visits in Turkey to Istanbul, Gallipoli and Ephesus.They didn't come home empty handed
with a rug to show for their experiences and a delightful sample of Turkish Delight for members to top off a hearty breakfast. Some lively
questions and answers left us in doubt that we need to include these destinations on our travel bucket lists. Special thanks to Judy and Tony
for a very entertaining and informative presentation.
It was nice to see so many recognisably dressed at our club meeting to represent Rotary and our Club at George’s funeral. George’s family
was moved by great Rotary presence that included District and Cluster representation. We shared memories but also came together in
Rotary spirit. If anything it confirmed what we stand for.
Fellow club members, partners and friends, I have enclosed a very nice email sent to me from PDG Peter Frueh, who wanted to pass on his condolences to George’s family and friends.
Peter was our DG during George’s full year as President, 2017/18. In Peter’s email to me, he has included a wonderfully-written email George sent to Neville John, who was Governor during George’s first 6 months as our President, in 2016/17.
This email was also sent to all of us in January, 2017, and I remember it well, as it was to me a wonderful example of George’s wit, humour and literary gifts.
It’s yours to read again, to enjoy, and as a reminder of George ………..
An old station hand named Billy was overseeing his stock in a remote pasture in the outback when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust.
The driver, a young man in a Bryony suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the old man, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"
Billy looks at the young man, who obviously is a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing animals and calmly answers, "Sure, why not?"
The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.
The yuppie then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany .....
Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spread sheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.
Finally, he prints out a full-colour, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturised HP LaserJet printer, turns to Billy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves." a "That's right. Well, you'll be helpin' yourself to one of me animals, then, since you won it fair and square." says Billy.
He watches the smartly dressed yuppie select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the man gingerly picks it up & stuffs it into the boot of his car.
As the yuppie is carefully brushing the dust & hair off his suit, Billy says, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what work you do & where you come from, will you give me back my calf?"
The yuppie thinks about it for a second, wondering what this wrinkled up dirt encrusted uneducated old man could possibly know? He grins and then says, "Okay, old fella, why not? I'm a believer in fair play."
"You're a politician & you work in Canberra." says the old timer.
"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but, tell me how on earth did you guess that?"
"No guessing required." answered Billy "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of dollar’s worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep.
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