Rotary Club of Bendigo Strathdale Inc 2006
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Rotary Club of Bendigo Strathdale Inc 38th Annual Report 2015-16 Rotary District 9800 Rotary Club No. 18308 Chartered 23rd October 1978 Sponsor Club: Rotary Club of Bendigo President: 2015-2016 Peter Kilpatrick Incoming President: 2016-2017 Lyn Comer ROTARY CLUB of BENDIGO STRATHDALE Inc. Annual Report 2015- 2016 President’s Report Peter Kilpatrick It has been a very rewarding experience being President of the Bendigo Strathdale Rotary Club for the past 12 months. When I joined the club in October 2014, It never occurred to me I would be president in the following July. Although I have had 12 years’ experience in the Yarrawonga Mulwala Club, I really appreciated the support this club has given me. The year started off with the launch of Violent Free Families which culminated in a concert with Colleen Hewitt at Ulumbarra Theatre in October. A number of members attended the launch in the Mall on a cool July Saturday morning. It was well publicised that VFF was a Rotary Initiative. The Concert in October was a great success with over $4,000 raised Members of the Club attended Bendigo Rotary Club’s 90th birthday that was held in the Capital theatre. A good night was had by all. Bendigo was the 8th club to be established in Australia and is our sponsor club. We held our club meeting in conjunction with Castlemaine in August where David Stratton spoke about accessibility and the Trail Rider Program. David was a finalist in the Shine on awards the previous year and won his section. Thank you to Helen Steele for organising this We held a membership Pie Night with Bendigo South in October. A considerable amount of money was raised for the MEC (a medical condition suffered by rural children in Cambodia) project, but didn’t attract many potential new members. Greg Penno has worked well with Bendigo South to raise money for this project. We also went to Bendigo South for the Foundation Dinner held in November. This dinner was attended by DG Julie Mason and PDG Murray Verso. The Club ran the Market at Mandurang Valley Winery in December for the first time. It was previously run by Red Geranium. Members did a great job promoting this market, however numbers were below expectations. Good ideas for next year have come up so it was a positive experience. The District Leadership team held a weekend meeting at Camp Getaway in February. A number of members went out and provided breakfast and lunch. The money earned has gone towards local and international projects. Once again the club was involved with Story Time at the Kennington Primary School. The club also organised the purchase of books and all the preps dressed up as book characters. The big event for first half of 2016 was the District Conference, held here in Bendigo. It was great to see so many members register for this event. I confess, in all my years in Apex and Rotary, it was the first district conference I have attended; and I thought it was a fantastic event. I’m sure district would have been impressed with the support they received from the Bendigo clubs and hopefully it won’t be too long before it comes back again. ROTARY CLUB of BENDIGO STRATHDALE Inc. Annual Report 2015- 2016 President’s Report (continued) We had a number of vocational visits this year. The first was to the Ulumbarra Theatre which I missed as I was away but I believe impressed the members who attended. We celebrated our 39th birthday with a visit to the Bendigo Tramways depot and a ride on the ANZAC Tram. We had Pizzas and birthday cake as we trundled down the streets of Bendigo. In February we visited B & B Basil – Micro Herb Farm and then went on to the Belmont Hotel for dinner and then in May we went to Bendigo Radiotherapy Centre followed by a meal at the Bridge Hotel. While others were involved, Pam Luxford played an important part in most of these evenings. We have also had dinner meetings away from our normal Nancy Long Dining Hall. We went to Lyn Comers house for the first meeting of the year. Thank you to all those who made that possible. We then went to the Queens Arms Hotel later in January and then in late March we went to the Mandurang Winery. The Christmas Trailer Raffle was once again a huge success and for the first time, a person associated with our club, Shirley Draffin, wife of member Neil, was the winner. A great deal of work goes on behind the scenes to organise this raffle and I would like to say thank you to everyone involved. It is our major fund raising event for the year so it is vital it keeps going. At our Christmas breakup we also thanked the staff at ‘Food for Thought’ who always provides us with great meals. I have been making some headway in having all our membership information put in one place. As our members know, this is Clubrunner. New technology always takes time to be accepted so this is an evolving process. It is important not to have information scattered over various places, as this makes updating very difficult. During the year the club made a commitment to support the Cambodia projects to the value of $5,000 per year for 3 years. This gives other supporters of the project confidence that we are in for the long haul. At the last board meeting it was reiterated that any local costs associated with the projects would not come out of this amount. This means that every cent of the $5,000 and money given by individuals and clubs will always go to Cambodia. Our membership did not change over the year. It has been a constant 25. Gaining members is a difficult task but we do have a couple of potential members in the pipeline. Lynne Cooper is also encouraging the club to look at corporate memberships. Being a reasonably new concept, we will need to spend some time understanding the concept. We have been active in publicising the club in a number of areas. Our Facebook page is updated on a regular basis. Several newspaper articles have been submitted and published, highlighting MUNA, NYSF, Swap Meet, Trailer Raffle, Mandurang Market and our District Conference. We are publicising the Mental Health First Aid program around the university and we have a fortnightly spot on Phoenix FM with radio stars Greg Penno, Lynne Cooper and Anne Peace from Bendigo South ROTARY CLUB of BENDIGO STRATHDALE Inc. Annual Report 2015- 2016 President’s Report (continued) I get very hesitant when I start thanking individuals because I know a lot of things are done by people behind the scenes that go unnoticed, like Peter Kennedy’s work at Camp Getaway. So I would like start off by thanking all members for making my job easier than I first thought it would be. Being so new to the club, I was uncertain how the club worked; however, the confidence all members extended towards me was very reassuring, so to all of you, thank you. I would particularly like to thank Pam Luxford, Kevin Gallagher and Mike Nihill for being my mentors. It was good to know that they were around whenever I needed advice. The Broadcaster has always impressed, thanks to Julie Vecht and when she is away Kevin Gallagher. Mary Preston has once again done an excellent job as secretary and Bryan Barras has always kept our finances under control with assistance from John Stewart when he is away. Bruce Elwood has done a great job as Sergeant and Brian Owens has taken care of apologies every week. I would like to thank the rest of the board. Ken Longford as Vocational Director was unable to do a great deal as he was in hospital and rehab for the vast majority of the time. His impact was still very evident with his and Liz’s very generous donation toward the provision of mental health first aid education and the organising of the raffle tickets from the Waverly Rotary Club. Thank you to Pam for taking over where needed. Lynne Cooper has done a great job with Youth and Publicity. Jan Walklate has been a powerhouse with Community, Greg Penno has never let international drop off the radar and Lyn Comer has been tireless in organising guest speakers with a good deal of help from other members. When I became President we had a President Elect and a President Nominee. We now have a President Elect but no Nominee. We need to rectify that situation very soon to give our club continuity. It has been a privilege to be President of our club and I wish Lyn all the best for the coming year. I know she will have the same support as I have had. Thank you Peter Kilpatrick ROTARY CLUB of BENDIGO STRATHDALE Inc. Annual Report 2015- 2016 International Report Director Greg Penno The most pleasing aspect of International Service this year was confirmation that the Rotary District Foundation Grant of $15,000.00 plus the $5,000.00 of community contributions was well spent by our Twin Club, the Rotary Club of Phnom Penh, on the MEC PROJECT. We were advised early in this Rotary year that this money has changed the lives of 23 young Cambodians. In recognizing the success of this Grant, the Rotary District 9800 Foundation Grants Chairman states; “That the Club has set the bar high in advising the finalization and success of this District Grant”, a great result.