16 Oct - Ride to Work Day - 7am Breakfast BBQ at Bendigo Town Hall
19 Oct - RCoBS Rotary Ramble!
See flyer below.RSVP to John Cannon jcannon50@gmail.com
14th Nov - Foundation Dinner $45 two-course meal. 6:30pm for 7:00pm at Chasers Function Centre, Lords Raceway, Junortoun. RSVP no later than 7th November 2024 but earlier advice to Wayne Smith, RC of Bendigo at chartall@bigpond.com
16 & 17 Nov - Swap Meet BBQ
23 Nov - Rochester RC 60th Anniversary. 6.30pm The Shire Hall
29 Nov - RCoBS & Trike and Bike Toy Run. See flyer below.
8 Dec Christmas Lunch - venue to be confirmed
1 - 5 May 2025 Barham Weekend
Phone 5453 2553 to book a site/cabin and say you are from Rotary.
Industry Visit October 23rd to the Vintage Letterpress
Steve Bright, the founder of Bart N Print, will take members on a tour of the Vintage
Letterpress on Wednesday October 23rd at 7.30AM. The Vintage Letterpress is part of the BP Service Station in Thistle Street near the corner of Abel Street. Entry is through the roller door on the left as you look at the building. As yet, our breakfast venue has not been decided, but Peppergreen Farm is looking good. Watch this space!
Co-President's report
Co-presidents report for 10 October, 2024
Our guest speaker this week was Lauren Smith, Partner Engagement and Community Educator for Gather My Crew, a very well-meaning and effective not-for-profit organisation. Lauren spoke of the difficulties many of us face when we experience a crisis in our lives, are in need of help but don’t know where to go or who to turn to. Her organisation has set out to address this society-wide problem, by, among other things, providing an online rostering
tool for friends, family, neighbours, colleagues, etc, to deliver practical help for those in need. This is a relatively simple, wonderful idea for coordinating essential support that is greatly appreciated by those doing it hard. A fuller
summation of Lauren’s organisation and its success follows further in our bulletin.
Last Saturday morning, 11 of our members attended a strategic planning workshop at the Mechanics Hall, Cal Gully, as organised by our club’s Futures Committee. District’s facilitator was Warwick Cavell, a warm, engaging and
experienced facilitator of such gatherings. He is a member of the Central Melbourne Rotary Club, and generously gave us his time on the day, in his role as a facilitator of club visioning and strategic planning. A number of ideas and suggestions came forward from our members on where we believe we are now, and where we would like to be in the medium term. We identified areas we thought we were doing well in, and others we thought could be improved. The good news is that it seems we stand up pretty well – nothing is irrevocably brokenby any means – but gradual, staged steps could be taken to grow our club, increase our impact, particularly locally, and to enhance members’ experience and satisfaction. From here, Warwick has compiled a summary of our ideas, and has submitted that to the Futures Committee for
discussion before presenting this to the board for discussion and possible action, and presenting the final position to the club.
A busy and interesting 2 weeks are coming up, starting with next Wednesday, 16 th . From around 7.30am, we will be cooking and serving food on behalf of the City, as our contribution to Ride To Work Day. The event will take place as
usual, in the Civic Gardens, between the library and the Town Hall. It is always a pleasant event, and our efforts seem to be appreciated by both the CoGB and the riders. This year, we will be handing out a brochure to as many people as we can, asking them to consider joining Rotary, and our club in particular. We haven’t done this before, so it will be interesting to see the reaction we get on the day and afterwards. As such, there will be no club meeting this coming Wednesday 16 th Oct, except at the gardens. The following Saturday, 19 th October, is our 3 rd Rotary Ramble. This stellar club activity commences at 9.45am, at the Hot & Crusty Bakery, 180 Barker St, Castlemaine, and promises to be the usual very enjoyable day. Please RSVP to John Cannon, jcannon50@gmail.com asap for catering purposes for our luncheon.
On Wednesday, 23 rd October, with a 7.30am start, Jim Rolfe has arranged an industry visit to the vintage letterpress owned by Steve Bright, owner of Bart N Print. Full details are included further on in this bulletin. There is no meeting on Wednesday, 30 th October, as it is Bendigo Cup Day. The year is flying by it seems – Melbourne Cup Day is not far away, then Christmas …
On a very sad note, the funeral of Stephen Guley will be held next Wednesday, 16 th October. Stephen was the son of Rob and Carol Guley, and had been battling cancer over the past few years, until his very recent death. Rob is a
Past President of our club, and Paul Harris Fellow. Both he and Carol made very significant contributions to our club and its programs during the years Rob was a member. Stephen’s funeral will take place at the Bendigo Funeral Centre chapel, 29 Miller St, Flora Hill, at 1.00pm on the day, 16 th October. Our thoughts are with Rob and Carol at this very sad time for them and their loved ones.
Co-presidents Ray Carrington and Adrian Schoo
Guest speaker - Lauren Smith Gather My Crew
Guest Speaker Report for October 9 th 2024
Lauren Smith, Community educator for “Gather my Crew”
Gather my Crew is a not-for-profit organization whose motto is “Helping
People Help People”. This is achieved through coordinating friends,
family, neighbours, in fact the community, to turn offers of help into real
action.
Lauren’s program deals with the effects and aftermath on people of
illness, aging, post-partum trauma, loss of partner and many other
circumstances where people need help. This is done using a free
downloadable app which takes you through a step-by-step guide to
setting up a support group.
Why is this needed?
Lauren’s knowledge shows that people are basically good, but bad at
asking for help, that well meaning intentions don’t always translate to
help, and that having to organise help is often very difficult while you are
undergoing difficulties. Her figures show that 93% of necessary aid and
support goes unmet as people don’t reach out. Reasons include shame,
embarrassment, and inability to perceive who is genuine. People feel
overwhelmed with how to address the practicalities of recovery.
Very often, possible helpers are concerned about offending the dignity of
the person, or “They’ll ask me if they want me” or “I offered at the start,
and he said he was OK”
Enter “Gather My Crew”. The app and website take you step by step
through building a support crew (friends, neighbours, club members,
family etc) identifying the help needed (driving, shopping, cleaning, dog
walking etc) coordinating who, when, where, for each task, and giving
both helpers and receivers support and connection with each other.
As a rule, the active Crew operates for 4 months, consists of 15 people
who perform 1 task per fortnight lasting 2 hours. This adds up to 60
hours of on-the-ground help for those in need.
Lauren’s address was inspirational, and we commend her and Gather
My Crew for their excellent work. I would recommend that interested
parties go to their website for a fuller insight into their program.
-Chris
RCoBS Rotary Ramble
We'd like a few more to attend. RSVPs extended to Thursday 17 Oct. Please contact John Cannon by - jcannon50@gmail.com
