Co-presidents Report for 15 February, 2024
Our club meeting this week saw a great discussion amongst the membership during the Club Forum that follows a board meeting. Issues discussed and voted on included the Swap Meet and club badges.
- Ian Johnson and Glenn Maloney attended the Swap Meet Committee meeting. The issues clubs are facing include lower profits over the last few years and significant workloads that more difficult to share due to lack of volunteers. There was unanimous agreement to cease our involvement and to look for alternative fundraising activities.
- A survey was held amongst members to vote on the designs that were submitted to bring future club badges in line with current branding requirements. Two designs received most of the votes, with the membership at the forum ultimately supporting a change to a new rectangular version. Thank you Cathie Miller for your work on this.
- The Easter market has been sold out and 19 stallholders have been placed on the waiting list. The question was raised whether there is a possibility for the market expand.
- Rotary Foundation. The dinner function, held in November last year, despite the committed efforts of the Bendigo Rotary Club, ultimately raised only a modest amount for a donation to Foundation. Also, some mentioned at the most recent cluster meeting that the timing is not ideal. The presidents decided, when reporting this news to their clubs, that they would try to find an alternative date and activity to support Foundation.
Bendigo has been named as the
Wotif.com Aussie Town of the Year for 2024.
This is big news for any town or city that is fortunate to win this accolade. The announcement was made on Tuesday morning in prime time (approx 7.30am and 8.30am) on Channel 9’s “Today” show, in a telecast from the Rosalind Park plaza.
Thank you to all our members who were able to assist with the early BBQ we conducted there to support and celebrate this news with the CoGB. The direct broadcast of the breakfast show was invaluable in putting up Rotary as a can-do, great service organization to be involved in. The total fire ban day posed a last-minute challenge, but this hurdle was overcome by cooking indoors and then transporting the food safely to the plaza in the insulated unit we use on some other occasions.
Michelle Murphy, the CEO of Bendigo Foodshare, has sent a letter to our club thanking us for the support we give to her organisation. She noted that, since the pandemic, many people across Central Victoria have endured difficult times with both the sharp rise in the cost of living and flooding taking its toll on many people, some of whom have never had to seek help previously. Last year marked 10 years since Bendigo Foodshare commenced operations. In that time, eight million kgs of food has been distributed to people in need across Central Victoria, due to the efforts of many, many volunteers. Our contribution, particularly around the Christmas period when give some relief to other volunteers, is greatly appreciated by Foodshare.
Co-presidents Ray and Adrian.
