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President's Message 16 November 2024
Bruce Turner
President’s Message
Greetings and welcome. Thank you for joining our online news and updates.
An excellent turnout of members and guests attended another enjoyable club meeting on Monday night.
Following a number of Director’s reports and the presentation of prizes to those lucky enough to have drawn winners in the Melbourne Cup sweep, we were treated to a very informative and interesting presentation from our guest speaker, Andrew Brown, Surf Coast Secondary College Assistant Principal.
Andrew firstly provided us with some background to the school and followed this with a reflection on both the difficulties and successes the school has experienced and is currently working through. Of particular interest was Andrew’s reflection on the difficulties that the current cohort of students are facing and how the school is endeavouring to help them through this. It is certainly a challenging time for all involved in the education sector at the moment.
Reminder of next week’s AGM. The AGM should be quite a short meeting and will be just a small part of our evening. If you are unable to attend the AGM (in person or on line) please complete a Delegate Nomination Form. This is important to ensure that we have a quorum for the AGM. All documents have been emailed to members. If you have not received these or need another copy please contact either myself or Neil Henderson.
Updates for members:
A reminder to book in for the District Conference, there is already over 1/3 of the tickets sold so make sure you get your booking in ASAP.
As you would be well aware, the situation with Malaria in PNG is still quite disastrous. Our club has been very proactive in providing funds for the supply of netting and sent through another $2500 through RAWCS. Thank you to John Oswald for assisting in following up contacts and expediting the supply of the nets.
As reported earlier, the opening of the new toilet block in Lese Oalia has taken place. Through our updates on the project you would be familiar with the involvement of Lucy Loco. The following is a note received from Lucy:
"Update from my niece today who is visiting from Sydney: "Auntie Lucy, I used the toilets and OMG no smell, looks awesome. No flies. Love it. Love it"
Walk with us at 09.45 Sunday 24th November, from Barwon Water Building in Ryrie Street to Johnstone Park to attend the Event Launch of our 16 days of activism.
Make sure you wear orange to show your support.
This event is supported by Zonta Club of Geelong (which aims to build a better world for women and girls www.zontageelong.org.au); the City of Greater Geelong and Respect Australia
The Lost Petition is an ongoing textile artwork that lists women and children who have lost their lives to male violence in Australia since 2008. This work is 30 metres long and proceeds to grow in length as women's and children’s lives continue to be lost to male violence.
GAZA Report: UNICEF and WHO are reporting that the second round of the polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip was completed last week, with an overall 556,774 children under the age of 10 being vaccinated with a second dose of polio vaccine and 448,425 children between 2 to 10-years-old receiving vitamin A, following the three phases conducted in the last weeks.
Join us for the Rotary Club of Bayside Annual Trivia Challenge - A fund raiser for mental health. Let's get a Torquay Rotary team together and challenge RC Geelong East. President Bruce is organising our team(s).
When - Friday 22 November 2024 at 7:00pm (doors open at 6:30pm)
Where - The Christ Church Hall corner of Little Myers & Moorabool Street Geelong
An Awareness Walk in Torquay will be held on Tuesday 26th November at 0930.
We would like as many people as possible to attend this, hopefully for an hour, and we can follow that up with coffee if you would like.
If you do not have a purple T-shirt, please wear purple or orange. Orange is the colour Zonta wears on their walks to raise awareness of this dreadful gender abuse.
I will have posters to place in the coffee shop/café toilets prior to the 16 days of Activision to increase awareness.
This is a serious issue within our communities, and we need to increase awareness.
The Surf Coast Shire is planning activities prior to Christmas this year and has asked if we may have anyone interested in taking on the role of Santa.
The role will entail photos out in the community on Saturday, December 7, 10.00 am to 1.00 pm.
Santa will require a current Working With Children (WWC) certificate.
