The Raven
Number 48 Volume 49 – 8 June 2016
The Weekly Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Woden Inc.
Meetings: 6.00 for 6.15 p.m. Wednesdays, Canberra Irish Club 6 Parkinson St Weston ACT.
June - the month of Rotary Fellowship
The Raven – Page 1 The Raven – Page 4
ROTARY CLUB OF WODEN INC.
Board of Directors
President: Deborah Whitfield
Secretary: Ed Klim
Immediate Past President: Lyn Svanosio President Elect: John Burns
Treasurer: Lyn Svanosio
Club Service & Administration: John Widdup
Community: Shukry Sahhar
International & Foundation: Bish Mukerjee New Generations: Bruce Wyatt Membership & PR: Viola Kalokerinos
Contact Information PO Box 637 Woden ACT 2606 Secretary:[email protected]
Other officers Attendance: Val Burns
Program: Gary Scott & Mike Rodd Sergeants: Neale Emanuel, Shukry Sahhar Public Officer: Mike Rodd
Member Data: Ken Goard
Bulletins: John Gray, Bruce Wyatt, John Widdup
Facebook: Lyn Svanosio & Bruce Wyatt Webmaster: John Widdup
Previous Issues of the Raven Web: <www.wodenrotary.org.au/>
The Club’s crest & bulletin name reflect ‘Odin’ (Anglo-Saxon ‘Woden’), the ancient Nordic God of Wisdom. Odin had two ravens called Hugin and Munin (Thought and Memory) who flew forth every day and returned at night to tell him what they had seen, so contributing to his wisdom.
ATTENDANCE ADVICE Guestsif attending, and Members if attendance or absence is different to previous advice, then:
please advise the
Attendance Officer(to help us with catering
arrangements)
Val Burns 0412 720 956 [email protected] or you will be charged for the meal provided for you.
Attendance at last week’s meeting:
Members: 12 Visitors: 1
DINNER ROSTER
THIS WEEK - 8 June NEXT WEEK - 15 June Program: Prof. Elizabeth Minchin John Widdup
See page 1 Race Night trial run
Greeting: George Pratt Stephan Pratt
Introduction: Jeff Ibbotson not required Appreciation: Deborah Shultz not required
Raven Recorder: John Gray John Burns
Birthdays: Phil Ibbotson 9 June Anniversaries: None this fortnight
Tonight 8 June 2016 Elizabeth Minchin
Professor of ClassicsANU College of Arts and Social Sciences The Australian Archaeological Institute
at Athens Changeover
Wednesday 29 June is our
‘change over’ meeting. Come with your spouse and friends to celebrate our year’s successes with President Debbie and welcome in John Burns as our president for the next year.
RYPEN sponsorship
Woden Rotary sponsored Michael Beavan, a 16 years old from Worrigee (a suburb of Nowra), to attend the Rotary Youth Program of ENrichment (RYPEN) from 13 to 15 May, 2016 at the Old Mogo Town in Mogo (10 km south of Batemans Bay).
RYPEN is a Rotary sponsored District New
Generations program for year ten and eleven students from schools across the District. They attend a three-day camp designed to develop their potential through a mixture of
lecture style sessions and adventure-based learning. Its aim is to communicate to young people a series of ideas, problems and social experiences which will assist them in forming their own values and moral standards.
RYPEN is not for those students who are already high achievers (nor is it for students with behavioural issues). A Rotary club acts as the host club for the camp and provides the catering for the weekend while enjoying an excellent fellowship opportunity for its members.
After the camp, Michael wrote to us (via Bruce our New Generations Director) saying that: ‘I am extremely grateful that you sponsored me on this camp. It was a wonderful experience that I would love to do again. It made me meet new people (some whom I should be catching up with in the holidays) and new friends. The camp taught me many things – how to communicate well with others, working as a team – and
made me value some of the little things in life, like eyesight! Thanks to the talks, it also taught me how to deal with certain situations (e.g., depression) and overall it was a lot of fun. The food was eh (normal camp food in my opinion), the activities we did were fun, but in my opinion there should've been more outside time as we sat inside a lot. I also got a good black t-shirt out of it.’
Donation to My Home In Canberra Woden Rotary has donated $8,000 to My Home this year (2015-16) made up of the proceeds of the two concerts organised by us on Saturday 28 August 2015 and Saturday 30 April 2016 supplemented from Club funds.
MyHome in Canberra is an Incorporated not- for-profit organisation with a vision to provide a safe, supportive and caring home for people with enduring mental illness who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, or who are living in unsuitable accommodation and/or unable to live independently.
The Raven – Page 2 The Raven – Page 3
Last week 1 June Raven recorder: Stephen J Pratt Photographer: John Widdup Things you should know and do – dates for your diary
Production by John Widdup
Opening
The Raven recorder, Stephen, was pressed into service as impromptu Sergeant and opened the meeting by noting that the winter season had begun (it was 1 June) with a fitting amount of light rain and an early dusk. He then asked members to toast their favourite season, to which some replied ‘Spring!’.
Business
President Debbie provided several items of news including an update on our exchange student Fabian Golla (see last week’s Raven), who has enrolled at Canberra College and is expected to arrive on 21 July. Our Club will host him for 2016 and share his hosting with the Woden Daybreak Club, who will take responsibility for him from January to June 2017.
● Renewals of Working With Vulnerable People registrations are due soon and can be completed online. Members were reminded that renewal becomes more difficult if the previous certification is allowed to lapse.
● Memberships fees of $240 fall due on 1 July. Please pay promptly.
● We were sad to hear the Ed Klim has resigned and we wish him well in his future endeavours. We are now looking for a replacement Secretary.
● Viola has obtained another sponsor for the Race Night. Well done!
● The district conference in Goulburn is coming up in October so put it in your diary if you are planning to attend. It should be worth attending.
As reported in the last Raven, John Gray won the bidding for the bottle of port. He reported that he plans to take it on a cruise (any port in a storm) and re-auction the empty bottle.
After our meal of Chicken Kiev and extra-dark chocolate sponge, the Sergeant led the members on a dangerous game of historical trivial pursuit based on events that occurred on 1 June in past years. Fines were apportioned to those that knew, for
example, that in 1495, John Cor distilled the first whisky, Anne Boleyn’s daughter was Elizabeth I, New Zealanders sat down to watch telly for the first time in 1960. In 1974 the Heimlich manoeuvre was published. Lyn provided some amusing demonstrations of how to perform the manoeuvre and other cures for choking. Those that looked as though they had never heard of the Beatles or Charles de Gaulle were fined as well.
Bruce won the two-up, by choosing tails/tails on the second throw, even though one of the pennies was by then covered with sticky chocolate sauce from the Sergeant’s dessert, and won a bottle of Hardies McLaren Vale shiraz with an unnecessarily long-winded name ‘The Chronicle Butchers Gold’ vintage 2014 with a longer description on the label.
Perhaps our buyer (who does not drink wine) can get some shorter named varieties in future.
Our Rotary guest
Jim Grainger, an ex member of Woden Rotary Club attended the meeting. He joined our club in 1971 after moving to Canberra to practice dentistry at Corinna Chambers in Woden and held all board offices except treasurer. He became president in 1976/77. After their children grew up, he and his wife moved to Corrumbin on the Gold Coast in 2001. Jim was visiting Canberra to celebrate his 80th birthday as much of his extended family lives here. The party was held at Pialligo and they travelled there in a stretch Hummer that was great fun and meant that no-one had to take care over their second glass of champagne.
Jim still practices two days a week in Kingscliffe and teaches at Griffith University one day a week. He loves his work but he is starting to wonder whether and when he should retire.
His contributions to the field of ‘proper care and sedation of anxious patients’ led to him being awarded the highest award in that field at a conference in Berlin in October last year. He was pleased to receive such recognition for having improved patient care but is concerned over the increasing levels of regulation that seem to make the work more cumbersome without necessarily improving safety.
We were pleased to have Jim’s company for the evening, especially John Gray who spent some time reminiscing with Jim.
Presentation
Jeff Ibbotson entertained us with a slide show entitled ‘Some random North American Rotary (and other) moments’. We followed a trip that he and Gerda made on their fold-up cycles from Nova Scotia through New Hampsire and Maine in the Northern summer and ‘fall’ of 2014.
Their membership of Rotary’s International Travel and Hosting Fellowship allowed them to meet and stay with Rotarians in a variety of places along the way.
The mission of the Rotary International Travel and Hosting Fellowship (ITHF) is to stimulate and facilitate connections and cultural sharing throughout the Rotary world by contact, hosting, visiting and travel. More information available atwww.ithf.org.
Part of their trip was along the Cabot Trail (www.cabottrail.travel) where they teamed up with about 500 other cyclists to travel (and feast) the coastline of the Northeast Atlantic states.
On one occasion they came across a door bearing the signage of the ‘Acme Detective Agency’
only to find it was a front for a photographic business, whose proprietor was only too pleased to pose as a private investigator. There were many Autumn leaves, steamed lobsters and Halloween pumpkins to be seen on what was evidently a thoroughly enjoyable trip.
Closure
President Debbie closed the meeting, bidding to be a gift to the world and to travel safely in the wet conditions and ‘be a gift to the world’.
Former member Frank Macklin, who still lives in Deakin, was a long time member and Paul Harris Fellow (1992) and has been receiving The Raven since he left the Club. We remember Frank as our very disciplined attendance officer when the percentage attendance at weekly meetings had to be reported to the District every week. Frank, a former bank manager, managed to come up with a way of reporting meeting attendance at over 100% thoroughly confusing the District attendance officer! Only a bank manager could do that!
Unfortunately he advised that he has an incurable kidney problem and a cracked vertebrae in the spine and asked to be removed from The Raven mailing list.
We wish Frank well and thank him for his many years of valuable Rotary Service and interest in our Club. If you would like to contact Frank please advise the secretary [email protected] and he will give you Frank’s email address.
Gary Scott has been granted six months leave of absence for personal reasons but will still arrange and manage out Melbourne Cup race course parking event.
♦ Wednesday 29 June – Club changeover meeting bring partners and guests
♦ Saturday 20 August – Charity Virtual Race Night
♦ Weekend 28 to 30 October 2016 – District 9710 Conference to be held in Goulburn
♦ Sunday 30 April 2017 – Six Peaks Challengebike ride
♦ 10-14 June 2017 – Rotary International Convention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
