Thursday, November 27, 2008

Junior Mayor City of Kingston - Mon 24 Nov 2008







On Monday 24 November, Rotary Club Moorleigh Moorabbin had their youngest guest speaker. Tahryn Mant, 11, a Year 6 student from the Dingley Village School gave us her presentation on 'The Journey so Far as the Junior Mayor of the City of Kingston'.

Tahryn talked about the process of the Junior Mayor competition and how she was selected out of 24 other local primary school students for a two minute speech she gave on saving water, saving the environment and the need of an active sports program for schools to combat child obesity.






Saturday, November 22, 2008

Aust medical team conducting diabetes awareness in B’ville

SMALL medical team from Australia, headed by a doctor from Royal Melbourne Hospital Dr Janine Rowse and medical nurse Becky Houghton, are in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville campaigning and educating people on the dangers of diabetes.

Dr Rowse said diabetes was an illness that could pose a severe threat to the people of Bougainville if nothing was done to prevent it. She was in Bougainville early this year and saw many diabetes patients having their legs amputated at the Buka hospital and decided to do something about it.When she returned to Australia, Dr Rowse decided to make a trip to Bougainville to carry out awareness campaigns on how best people could improve their health.

“Before we came to Bougainville, we did a small survey and found out that one out of every 10 adults is suffering from diabetes and that is alarming,” she said.

She added 97% of the population did not know much about the illness.

She said their purpose was to educate and inform the people about the disease.

Dr Rowse said the major contributing factor to diabetes was unhealthy diet such as eating and drinking too much processed food like sweet biscuits and carbonated drinks that contained a high level of sugar.

The team has been in the region for two weeks now and is mainly conducting awareness among school children, public servants and those in the private sector.

Ms Houghton, who is a registered nurse with a masters degree at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, said people living in urban areas and cities had a high risk of contracting diabetes.

She said there were other complications that diabetes could cause by affecting other organs.Ms Houghton added the only way to prevent it was to have a balanced diet and regular physical exercise.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Monday, November 10, 2008

Spellathon


Congratulations to Yvonne Beadle who was the inspiration and the co-ordinator behind the Spellathon for the Bentleigh West Primary School.



Wednesday, October 22, 2008

PP BOB BURY:23rd February 1942 – 6th October 2008


It is with great sadness that we bid farewell to our friend and fellow Rotarian, Bob Bury. In February, Bob was diagnosed with having malignant brain tumours, which resulted in him losing his fight for life a few months later and he will be greatly missed by us all.

It was an eclectic group of about 300-400 people who gathered together with the Bury family at St Paul’s Church in Jasper Road, Bentleigh, at 11.30 am on Monday 13th October to remember and celebrate the life of our friend Bob. Friends and colleagues were there from all walks of life and representing the many organizations in which Bob was involved, including Rotary, Inner Wheel, Marriott Support Services, the Banking and Golfing Fraternity and the Freemasonry. The flag was flying at half mast at the Glen Eira City Town Hall and we’d like to think that was in recognition of Bob’s service to the community in his role of Mayor in 2003-2004.

Father Michael Sierajowski officiated and what a lovely, caring and friendly man of the church he was. He was able to get the Bury family to rise above their grief and laugh together prior to the commencement of the Mass and he stood beside Marney with a smile and words of support as she bravely welcomed everybody. Father Michael then led us all through the happy and sad moments of the service in a warm, personal and compassionate manner.

The five grandchildren each lit a memorial candle and friends and family placed symbols on Bob’s coffin representing aspects of his life, including a photo of him looking resplendent in his Mayoral robes, his Essendon footy scarf, and I was honoured to place Bob’s well worn Rotary cap and his Paul Harris ‘gong’, together with some chocolate to take with him to the pearly gates. Fellow RCMM Rotarian Sven Johansen was one of the stalwart and stoic pallbearers.

Bob’s eldest Granddaugher, Jacinta, read aloud a letter she had written to her Pop and there wasn’t a dry eye in the church when she had finished. Eulogies were given by Bob’s daughter Caroline, Barry Roberts, Ken Dowling, and Peter Lewis and a letter that his son Michel had composed was read on his behalf. Prayers for the Faithful were said by other family members and then a photo presentation was made which reflected on the life and times of Bob, especially with his soul mate Marney and his beloved family.

Bob had been a Rotarian for 24 years which began in June 1984, when he was a Charter Member of the original Rotary Club of Moorleigh and was President in 1989-1990. He was again elected to this office for the Rotary year of 2007-2008 but due to his ill health, was unable to continue actively in this role in the second six months. A Paul Harris Fellow was awarded to Bob in the Rotary year of 1993-1994 and at Change Over this year, the Club presented Bob with a PHF sapphire.

Bob’s membership in the world-wide fellowship of Rotary was one that he cherished and was committed to serving for and with. He was an active Club member and over the years took on many Committee responsibilities and participated in a great number of the events and happenings. Bob’s Rotary Identification number will always be 892240.

Bobs final resting place is now in the Cheltenham Cemetery and before we said our final goodbye, red and black balloons were released by the children to the cheer of Go Bombers! Bob would have liked that. Marney had about 100 people back at her house later and it made a happy closing to a very emotional day for us all.

Rest in peace, dear friend.


PP Sheila Ward

Philip in Denmark


A photo of Philip with former exchange student Anne, her sister Louise andparents Jørgen & Annette.


The Petersen family have changed their name back to Løvendahl which is an old family name.


Philip spent a most enjoyable weekend with them in September.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Return of the Ardissone Family




The Ardissone family returned home on Monday night after spending a few days with the Hedleys.

On Saturday night, we had dinner here for Bastien's host parents.(RC MBE hosted Bastien from France in 1999-2000).
We had a most enjoyable evening, and Michel, Colette, Bastien and MathieuArdissone were thrilled to meet up with Graeme & Margaret Amoore, Vic &Lorraine Cocks, Drew & Joan Kitson - and the Hedleys of course!

It was a great night and we sang along with Michel until the early hours and had a great time!

From Carol Hedley.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Albin Experience the Gold Rush


We received the attached photo from Ned and Julia who are currently hosting Albin. What a great photo.


As you can see they also took Aiko from RC Noble Park and the photo was taken at Sovereign Hill.


We hope that they found some gold in 'dem dar hills!'


Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Albin visits Mount Buller






Albin took some time out from his heavy school workload to sample the ski fields in our own Mt Buller. Not exactly the Swedish alps but close enough.


The question we ask is: "are there signs in Sweden that advertise black ski runs as "Blooody Hell?"


We don't think so.


Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Give a Kid a Hand Charity Auction Monday 18 August 2008

Last night, over 60 Rotarians, guests, families and friends gathered at Cafe Arco in Heatherton for the annual Give a Kid a Hand Charity Auction.

The Charity Auction has been running for twelve years thanks to organiser Laurie Cincotta.

It's a great night where our Club Members get together with members of Bayside Inner Wheel, other local Rotary Clubs, friends and family to raise money for the Myoelectric Limb Bank of the Royal Childrens Hospital.

The myoelectric limbs which look and feel lifelike operate by having the child place the prosthesis like a glove the stump and manipulate it with electrical impulses triggered by muscle contractions.

A small electrical field is generated by the child's arm muscle, which triggers a signal and turns on a motor in the prosthetic hand, which causes it to open or close.

Thanks to the people who bought items and supported this worthy cause!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Gary is a Pearler...


That's PRLS... Potential Rotary Leaders Seminar. Gary is now one of the 17 Presidents in our District who has completed this leadership development course.

So how about you? Are you one of the 93 Rotarians who have completed this course?

If you answered ‘no’ AND you don’t know what this is about then you simply, “must be part of the team” – that’s the Potential Rotary Leaders Seminar team or PRLS for short.

Gary was one of the twenty eight participants undertook the challenge to learn leadership and communication skills and undertook the Basic Potential Rotary Leaders Seminar on Sunday 10th August 2008 at the Mulgrave Country Club in Wheelers Hill.

Twelve Rotary Clubs from the District were represented along with two members from Inner Wheel, two husband and wife teams, seven President Elects and one Assistant Governor.
.
Participants learned communication and leadership skills that they could apply as future leaders in their workplace, community or Rotary Club. Lessons learned included how to speak effectively in public, how to lead with vision, effective communication and how to conduct a meeting.

Feedback was positive and many commented that they found the course was engaging, informative but most importantly, fun. Many were looking forward to their club or district leadership roles with the new knowledge, hints, tips and techniques they learned on the day.

Greg Caughey from RC Chelsea said, ‘I had a brilliant day. My wife and daughter will be in the next group if I had my way! I’ll definitely promote PRLS at our next meeting.”

Helene Browne from RC Chelsea attended with her husband Peter and said, “I really enjoyed this training day and I’ll be able to use the information in different business areas and not just Rotary.”

Megan Glenwright from RC Beaumaris also attended PRLS with her husband James. She found the “seminar excellent and extremely useful.”

The next step for all Basic PRLS graduates is to continue their studies and undertake the Masters level program commencing with Master PRLS1 Impromptu Speaking.

So eager were participants to continue with their studies that Master PRLS1 is now fully booked.

If you want more information about PRLS and how to get yourself on the next Basic PRLS on Sunday 15 February 2008 and Saturday 14 March 2009, see Helen and she'll give you a registration form.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Club Changeover Night Monday 14 July 2008














Here are the photos of our recent Club Changeover Night to welcome in our new Club President for the Rotary Year 2008-2009 'Make Dreams Real': Gary!























Thursday, June 19, 2008

Wednesday 18 June - Last Day of the Convention

Well it's finally over and I'm exhausted!

The opening session for today introduced John Kenny from the RC Grangemouth in Scotland as RI President Nominee 2009-2010. He said that there is a connection with Scotland as the founder of Rotary, Paul Harris had a wife who came from the same area where he's from.

While he was speaking, President Wilf took a call from a Premier in the Canadian Government and he later announced that the phone call was made to alert Wilf that they will provide an exra $60million to eradicate polio. The crowd went wild!

Then we had a video hookup to see Dolly Parton who is currently in Europe on tour to tell us of her Imagination Library. The aim was to put a book into the hands of a child 0-5 years of age every month. To date, they have sent out 6 million books to 3 countries.

President Wilf then talked about his support of the Computer Assisted Literacy System [CALS] an online literacy program that was the brainchild of PDG Sylvia Byers from WA. She got up on stage with Wilf and a 10 year old boy who can now read thanks to the program.

By far the most moving and compelling speaker that had the room in tears was Stephen Lewis,Director of AIDS free World. He talked about his horrific observations and experiences in Africa in his line of work. He mtalked about the sexual violence against women, the scourge of death which is prevalent and the futility of the people in the face of death and disease.

"I'm 70 years old and I thought I knew the world. I don't. I don't understand how this world works. We send so much money, $36billion to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and yet we cankt find the money to stop an epidemic that has taken 25 million lives. There is something very wrong with the world's moral compass."

There wasn't a dry eye in the house and while he was talking, he was choking up.

He was followed by the Director of Public Affairs for Coca Cola in Africa. People were still sniffling from the previous speaker but William Asiton spoke how Rotarians can use partner with public and private organiations to get into regions they have difficulty.

Then some light hearted entertainment frm our Birminghamers - Brummies. They put on a funny show where we were taken back through history with historical figures telling us about the city of birmingham as it was in 1647, 1846, 1984 and of course 2009.
The place can't be bad as the Cadbury Dairy Factory orignated there! They promised that Birmingham will be lots of fun for all with exciting activties planned such as medieval nights at Warwick Castle. Also, I overheard one English guy say to a friend, "bloody hope they 'ave a pub in the 'House of Friendship next year!" Mmm...wouldn't be surprised with that.

Queen's Guards put on a bit of a show with their marching on the stage with the Yeoman of the Guards yelling out in time with their paces, "DK...UK...OK!"

[DK - the initials of the incoming RI president]

Then President Wilf talked about the importance of the youth programs and had 103 Youth Xchange students with their multi pinned blazers come on stage and sing and stir up the crowd.

From there I attended a breakout session on CALS which was packed out. Its mention in the main plenary session generated interest. Sylvia was one of the panel members and the online learning company Autoskills was giving the presentation.

The Closing Ceremony was spectacular. We were entertained by the Pasadena Pops Orchestra and maestra Rachel Warby. The singer was Davis Grains [?] who played Phantom for 6 years in the USA. His effortless voice stunned us to silence. You can hear a pin drop. He sng songs from musicals, Phantom [Music of the Night], Jekyll and Hyde and Porgy and Bess and als did Old Man River. The soprano lady who came out to sing later on was also so stunning that her voice made the hairs on my arm stand on end. She did some opera songs that we all know. Her name escaped me but we were told to "wait out for her!" probably meaning that she is being groomed for stardom. Davis said that singing for us was extra special as his father, uncles and grandfather were Rotarians and when he called his father to say that he was invited to sing at the convention, his father was more happy with that than any other world class musical or performance he conducted.

Last of all was DK who told us his vision for the new Rotary year and it's to decrease child mortality. His main themes will be to make dreams come true for the world's children. He also mentioned increasing membership by 10% and 2 new clubs in districts in the year.

I have to let you know that RI is now in the Guiness Book of Records.

The convemtion collected the most childrens books donated in 7 days with the total of 242 624 books of all languages!

It's been a wonderful time here at the convention and certainly glad I had an opportunity to attend ad meet so many people from all parts of the world all helping out with common causes. The speakers were inspiring, compelling and at times, confronting but it just made you relaise the internationality of this organisation who is doing good in the world. It was hard not to be moved. I go away rom this experience with a better knowledge of our programs and a connection to people from all over the world. It was well worth the trip and we should consider funding the cost of attending an international convention for all incoming club presidents at least once in their time with the club - if their circumstances permit. But that's just my thoughts...

That's all the news on the 99th Rotary International Covention. I'll board a plane tomorrow for a one night stopover in Hawaii then fly back home on Friday. Six weeks of travels and fun have come to an end but I'm looking forward to coming home. I can't wait to get back to the comfort of our house and to my husband and family!

Tuesday 17 June - Rotary Convention

Today's plenary session opened with a keynote address from Robert Scott who urged us to reconnect with Rotary Alumni which has over 100 000 people who would be excellent as Rotarians. He also talked about contributing to the TRF and also encouraged clubs to give to match the $100million by the Gates Foundation.

Dr Young Woo Kang then spoke about his life where he was blinded in a childhood accident and the adversity and discrimination he faced. His work with the US Government to get recognition given to people with disabilities earned him many awards, distinguished service awards and presidential citations. His work also had a postive effect on his family where his son is now a leading eye surgeon in Washington DC and he was an example that persistance and determination will get you far in this wrld.

It was a historic occasion yesterday where the 4 Directors of the Rotary partnerships were on stage together for the first time. All women and all executives of Unicef, WHO, Global Health Organisation and the CDC.

Dr Margaret Chan Director of the World Health Organisation jokingly said, "this is a historic occasion. It is the first time that all 4 partner organisations are here and it's good to see that we got the gender balance right!"

She announced that polio eradication will be her organisation's top priority over other programs of public health as their reputation is at stake. How can they claim to be the WHO if they quit now - if they can't get to the 80-90% of the population in 4 countries where Type 1 virus is spreading?

From there I went to a breakout session on Developing Club Leaders and you'd be happy to know that our District was mentioned along with Districts 9600 & 9800 as active ones in Australia regarding active leadership development programs. PRLS was mentioned along with a couple of othr Rotary leadership programs but we had a bit of tension during question time when a DGN of a French District got up and adamantly and aggressively stated in front of everyone that he "says NO! to Rotary leadership programs!" He thought them a waste of time and effort and must have had a bad experience. The manner in which it was said got everyone's backs up but let's not forget that it may have come across as aggressive given the limited English so he may not have verbalised his argument more effectively. However, there were strong words, and lots of finger pointing directed to one individual on the panel. I had never seen anything like it but as per normal, he was asked to ask his question or!
come and see the panel on completion to voice his concerns. I was flabbergasted that thi guy was a nominee District Governor and he managed to get all nationalities offside in the room.

For a bit of calmness, I decided to go to the Literacy Resources breakout session where I assumed the proceedings would be more civilised with teachers. It was. More sedate, literacy projects were discussed and ideas for clubs and districts to use to increase the literacy and numeracy of people and communities. They talked about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library [unfortunately she could not attend the convention], and other projects that countries had done. Two examples were Australia's Concentrated Learning Encounter [CLE] ad the Computer Assisted Learning progam [CALS]. I've been speaking to the CALS people and checking out their software programs as this is my line of work and I will attend another breakout session on Wednesday specifically on this project to find out more.

Overall, the plenary sessions and breakouts were informative - in particulary the controversial leadership one but at least our district got a mention for the work we are doing on PRLS.

Tuesday 17 June - Magical Night at the Hollywood Bowl

I'll start with the fun stuff first.

Yesterday afternoon after all sessions had completed, people queued for the buses that would take them out to that night's entertainment. There was an air of excitement and anticipation and the queue snaked its way in coils in the atrium just to fit everybody. We were carrying our bags of picnic food and wine and with the excitement, there were a few crashes where bottles of red were smashed on the ground accidentally, "No! Not the wine!!"

While in the queue I started a conversation with Anna. In 2003, she was an Ambassadorial Scholar to ANU in Canberra and studied law. She's from a small town of 500 people in South Dakota so going from there to Australia, when she hadnt travelled before was an unforgettable experience ad she said she loved it. She was sponsored by the RC Queanbeyan and we had a lot to share given that I had also spent 4 years of my working life there. She is currently and immigration lawyer and has submitted to work in a remote part of Alaska with the Innuits; but also going for jobs in Anchorage and San Francisco as she is trying to find more of a challenging role and wlling to move from South Dakota. We got on quite well and I filled her in with all the Australian political news [she also studied politics and worked in Washington] as well as about Kevin Rudd, his apology to the Aboriginals, his leadership summit inviting Australians and overall the election results. She was fascinated !
and commented on the differences between our countries. She mentioned that John Howard and Alexander Downer had lectured to her group at ANU one day and this would have never happended in the USA. She then took out a bottle of Rawson's Retreat from her bag and we sat outside the Hollywood Bowl enjoying our red wine and chips. We finished off the wine while debating the pros and cons of mandatory voting. I was glad I met her so we exchanged our details and promised to email each other and then went our separate ways to our allocated seating.

The Hollywood Bowl is an outdoor concert hall under the Hollywood sign, surrounded by the hills that makes it a cozy enclosed area where you watch and hear the performances. I was up in the cheap section but with the big screens, you had a view of the composer and the orchestra so you didn't miss anything.

Last night's entertainment was a tribute to 70 years of Warner Brothers entertainment. Our MC was Shirley Jones and for the first half Burt Bacharach played his musical soundtracks while the images of those movies were projected on the big screen. It was a surreal experience to be part of something you usualy se on television. As darkness fell, the massive spotlights on each side of the bowl created a cross in the sky and the image was that of what we had seen on tv. The second half of the performance was by far the best. David Newman [father Alfred who was also a composer of many movie musical scores] conducted an orchestra wile snippets of movies were being played. The musical score of Casablanca while Humphrey Bogart was trying to convince Bergman that she should be on that plane with Victor; the quidditch scene of the first Harry Potter movie; the score where Batman fights his enemy played by Liam Neeson in Batman Begins; atribute to western movies where they played !
How the West was Won while we viewed scenes from all western movies in the last 70 years. The finale of course was Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow". It was a truly spctacular night that ended with a fireworks display with the Rotary symbol and the words END POLIO. The night got everone in a great mood and the thousands then slowly moved to the many tour buses in the car park all marked to take us back to our relevant hotels. The whole night was superbly organised and certainly left a lasting impression on me. in fact, the whole convention has left me with a positive perception to the good that Rotary does as an international organisation.

While in the bus queue I struck up a conversation with Jeffry and Pierrette from the Netherlands. I told them aout my GSE experiences in their country and all the places I had been to. The live very close to the Belgium border so they were south to District 1150 who sponsored me. They invited me to have a drink with them at the hotel bar aterwards and we sat talking close to midnight. Of course, we exchanged details once again as we shared some common connections.

In the bus I sat next to Salwar. She was a doctor in Egypt and told me that she belonged to the only Rotary District that had 3 continents represented - Africa, Europe and Asia. In her district, the countries covered are Egypt, Lebanon, Arabia, Cyprus so her District Conferences are always interesting with the different nationalities although their common language is English.
Tuesday was a long day but every moment was worthwhile!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Rotary Convention Observations

The convention has been immensely interesting as an observer. I've met so many people with shared interests from all over the world.

Yesterday during the plenary session, I sat next to a man named George who works in the IT industry in a family business. However, his background is in arts and he majored in drama. He told me of his love of classical music and he plays the paino at a high level. He said that he would love to put out a CD of his music as he composes too. He had a gadget that I see most people using - an iPhone. It's fantastic. A sleek telephone,camera, MP3 player and scheduler that puts my Blackberry to shame.

He showed me his house in Seattle by the lake using wifi technology, from his seat, he google mapped earth and from above, drilled down to show me his house opposite a lake. Then I had to do the same for mine. Unfortunately, Bentleigh was much dense than the area he lived in but I found the house and pointed it out. As it was real time, it fascinated me to think that from a satellite camera, I was looking down at my house where Andrew, at the time was sleeping! You wanted to tap the screen and say, 'hey, wake up! I'm here, up here...I can see you!"

Then I had the serious misfortune to sit down near this very loud woman with a thick accent. She made everyone on the table move places to accomodate her friends who never showed up. One of the older Texan women asked her, "where yer from dear?", the lady replied, "from here, LA."

"Yeah but where yer from originally?"

"Iran."

You could hear a pin drop. The Texans went back to their food while I broke the ice and asked if she came out here to escape the regime there. I also told her that i've met many educated Iranians in Australia. Regardless she didn't want to talk about that but flipped when she heard the Australian accent.

She asked me so many rapid fire questions but I don't think she was listening. She's the type who was an extrovert, her attention easily diverted but easly excited. She asked if 3 days in Sydney and 1 day in Melbourne is good for a trip to Australia..."you won't be seeing much" I said to her.

Then she saw the banners in my bag and excitedly asked for one. I took one out of my bag and she then started WRITING on it. I couldn't believe it.

"They are meant to be exchanged and displayed at your club!" I said.

"No no, you tell me where the cities are and how long they take to travel."

She then wrote out all the cities and with arrows between them wrote flight durations. She insisted on exchanging business cards and asked me if I knew anyone n Sydney who was willing to show her around. She was quite pushy but I think it was all innocent on her part. I thought about the same Russian lady who gripped my arm and momentarily thought that these two women should NOT meet or else Australians will be chased throughout the convention.

I made some excuse and left the table so the Texans would have to make conversation. Before I left though she managed to spill the oily juices of her lunch on our banner destroying it in the process. Alas.

I have been exchaning banners from some interesting clubs and have a small collection of ones from Califorinia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Japan.
I've had my photos taken with many people from different countries and even given a tee-shirt by one of them. Meanwhile I've been leaving little kangaroo pins and koala key rings about the convention and people are finding them unexpectantly and are surprised and stick them on with their other pins. Australians here by stealth....

Today is another full day of plenary sessions and breakouts with a finale concert with Burt Bacaharach at the Hollywood Bowl. More about that later...

You can find specific information about the sessions at the Rotary Club blog site:

http://moorleighmoorabbin@blogspot.com

Monday 16 June at Convention

I have to apologise for my last post. It wasn't Peter Wilkinson I met but his twin - someone that looked exactly like him. I was mistaken but luckily, I wasn't the only one..there were others who did the same as I did.

This morning I watched the live recording of a spanish speaking show called Tele Mundo. It's a morning show that is televised in California and they taped kids at the base of the reading pyramid of books at the atrium of the centre. Rotary press has been doing a stirling job publicising projects and the convention so I did a card swap with the guy running the show whose job title is Media Specialist North America for Rotary. He wanted my contact details as they keep a database of people with PR skills that they can draw upon anywhere around the world.

The first plenary session was Wilf talking about how out of 33094 clubs around the world, there are 3319 clubs represented this year. He also said that the annual report is online if anyone is interested in reading it.

Dr Yamata from the Global Health Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation talked about the importance of polio eradication from Nigeria, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan and that when he was growing up, there was a constant fear of the polio virus but thanks to the efforts of Rotarians, 99% of the disease has been eradicated and that "your work has inspired us!"

David C. Forward then asked us if we would help others to survive, learn, love and leave a legacy - important things in life.

Wilf then recognised the first 16 Rotary clbs and their representatives were congratulated. This was followed by Past DGs coming onto the stage and being applauded for their efforts and contributions.

The President of Inner Wheel Kamala Ramakrishnan talked about the work her organisation is doing; the differences to Rotary and how Rotary is an inspiration but they remain a more personalised community service rather than focussing on large scale projects. It was interesting to find out that their organisation has over 100, 000 members in 102 countries.

Michael Josephson gave an inspiring spech on Ethics - A Core Value. He said that the 4 Way Test that Rotary applies is an excellent standard that should be applied to all facets of our personal and business lives. "Do the right thing as a way to live. Live an ethical life. As role models, don't focus on intelligence as a measure, focus on conscience - on the moral compass. Give the gift of attention and example to be true citizens of the world. Understand the diference between success and significance. If we develop character, we make more of an impact as a meaningful life is our choice." He also gave a website: www.charactercounts.org

Clifford Dochterman talked about Rotary's transition into worldwide service and the major projects that have impacted people's lives: polio eradication; Gift of Life; Hunger Plus; Jaidphur Feet and the Shelterbox projects.

Philip Lader a former US Ambassador to the Court of St James in UK talked about how he came from a hardworking poor family of immigrant parents and Rotary gave him the opportunity to study for a year as a Peace Scholar at Oxford University - something he never thought possible. He represented the 39 000 people who had previously participated in these programs and said, "none of us have a monopoly in truth. We had much to study but there was stil more to learn. We walked outside our skins. We met contemproraries who didn't think like us, we argued but we saw different points of view. Careers alone are not the measure of life. Rotary has commissioned us to be the stewards of the vison of what the world can be."

The session was a success and al the speakers were professional and inspiring. I dashed off to attend a smaller workshop on attraction of younger people and women into clubs and met a small group of 8 discussing ad debating the topic. It was disappointing to seethat I was only one of two women and the youngest member there! I thought that this breakout session would have generated much more interest however, they held 3 more at different times so they would have got more information.

In the afternoon I attended another breakout sesion on How to Use Rotary's Resources to Improve Club ad District Communications and you'd be happy to note that we have had interest in our blogsite and how othr clubs can follow. While there, I sat next to a lady from Queensland who happened to be the wife of the guy who introduced PRLS to Queensland; who happened to be a good friend of my ex-GSE Team Leader when I went to the Netherlands and who happened to be a long time member of the same Rotary Club my husband's father was a member of....and who were friends with his parents. "So you married innto the Blunden family?" and so it went. It is a very small world - wht do they say of seven degrees of separation? Naturally we excanged details and I caled up Andrew to tel him the news.He hadn't heard from them in years and was just as surprised.

Late afternoon we piled into the buses for the Home Hosting Event which was SUPERB. They took us to the beautiful Simi Valley to the Reagan Museum and Library. The place is serene and his memorial overlooks the hilly valley. You can spend an entire day there and I took my time going through the exhibits of his life, the display of Nancy's dresses, Air Force One and outside the grounds. If anyone is considering a trip to LA, this place is worth the visit. District 5240 hosted the buffet dinner there and had entertainment. I sat next to Chuck from RC Calabria who was one of the first teams to bring PRLS to the distict and I told him about what we are doing in our district. He had heard that Australia was rolling it out so he called his other mates to introduce me s now they want me to say something at the breakout session tomorrow on Developing Club Leaders.

Again, it's been a wonderful day but I did feel bad at one point when I mistakenly misunderstood what a woman was telling me due to background noise and and ased her, "when are you expecting?" She now thinks that I think her fat and I am mortified that I made this mistake.

Rotarians may be interested to knowthat wile talking to the lovely ladies at the BIrmingham 2009 booth, they tell me that they have cracked the most registrations for the event. Yesterday they had 683 registrations for the event; but today they think it will be over 1000. They have already booked out the hotels closest to the Birmingham Convention Centre and are expecting 40 000 to the event so my advice is to book and register early!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Day 2 - Part B

Our entertainment included a quintet Canadian brass band called, The Canadian Brass. They've played around the world and in front of the Queen for a command performance. She asked them whether they knew the diference between a Command Performane and a Concert.

"A Command Performance is one which we don't pay you."

I don't think their concert today was a command performance...but it was a good story and they were exceptional musicians playing jazz and ragtime songs.

But my favourite was by far the All American Boys Chorus. These boys from California, of all race and religions have beautiful voices and have sung around the world. Some boys were awkward in their movements typical of boys their age but there was one young blonde kid who was a character. He was obviously enjoying himself. He flicked his hair, he raised his eyebrow, he smiled and winked into the camera at the right time. Hehad rhymth, he moved, he grooved and he couldn't have been more than 12. He reminded me of a young version of my husband and imagined that this is what Andrew must have been like in his younger years...

The camera seemed to dwell on this young man a little longer than the others. He was having a ball but don't think he knew that Rotarians were actually watching him on the big screens. If anything, there was a murmur in the audience and we chuckled. We liked this kid. He was an instant hit with us all.

Overall, the entertainment has been top notch and I'm quite impressed of the many skills that so many Rotarians have.

Other than that, I have spoken to many people and was impressed with the Shelterbox stand. I hadnt seen what was in these boxes and the size of the tent that is given to people when disaster strikes. That box has evertyhing in it for a family to survive and live with dignity in harsh environments when they have lost everything. It's a worty project and has generated immense interest from everyone here.

I also saw a stand on the Potential Rotary Leaders Seminar [PRLS] and introduced myself as one member of the team rolling out the same program into our district. They told me that they were going to put the training in a online format which makes sense to me as this is my usual line of work anyway. The time committment to run these courses, plan and organise them was immense and this was a means of doing it efficiently and effectively to target a greater number of people.

For a little gift to Andrew, I have bought him a Rotary Partner pin so he doesn't feel out of place when he comes to our various events....

Day 2 Rotary Convention - Part A

I'm now back in my hotel room after yet another full day. Just in the nick of time too. As I was leaving the LACC, many LA locals dressed in their purple and yellow were going to the Staples Centre to watch the LA Lakers play the Celtics. Police were out in force at every street corner, ESPN and the media have set up, people are getting into the spirit of the game and it's an upbeat atmosphere. Then you have the thousands of Rotarians that need to be bussed back to the hotels before the roads are closed because of the spectators of the basketball game. It makes for some interesting planning but it all comes together. Rotarians are more interested in catching up with friends for drinks back at their hotels so it's a quick exit for everyone.

If I thought yesterday was 'full on' with people then I didn't think aout today when even more people rocked up on the doorstop of the LACC for the official opening of the convention.

The Nigerians were out in force and could be spotted from afar with their colourful gowns and headwear.

This morning I decided to attend the Interfaith Service mainly because I was curious how they wer going to cater for all the religions that are here. To their credit, it started with an African processional and then they had readings from Rotarians of those religions. They started with Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism and in between the Rotary Choir sang a Korean folk song, a Mexican folk song and the usual Ave Maria by soloist Heather McInally whose voice sent shivers up my spine. It was beautiful and everyone was stunned into silence just listening to her.
From there I followed the screams of Aya ya ya yaii, guitars and trumpets. Mexicans were nearby! They had gathered a crowd around them and were singing to their hearts content. One young boy in their group around 12 years old was singing Mexican songs and getting the crowd dancing. I watched them entertain the crowds for half an hour and the crowd loved them. Japanese and Koreans clickingtheir cameras and all jumping in while the Mexicans were still singing to get their photos taken. Trust the Mexicans to have boppy music to get everyone in a happy mood. The funny thing was that all the Spanish speaking people in the crowd were also singing along having a grand time.

From there I bounded up the stairs back to the Fellowship of Rotary Editors and Publishers to do my duty at the stand for a couple of hours. While there, I met Robert Stewart, a real character who had attended 37 conventions with over 50 years in Rotary. His home club was Chicago [or "Number 1 Club" as they call it here as the founding club]. He told me that he brought the idea of fellowships to the US many years ago and now he sees that the idea just took off with so many of them!

After a quick bite, the official opening began. They did the opening in two phases to cater for the large crowd. Luckily, I was in the first one. The quartet King N Trio warmed up the audience with their guitar, banjo, cello and mandolin playing. They played Waltzing Matilda - even though they aren't Australians. They too are Rotarians who have raised over $160 000 through their music for chairty.

We were told that back in 1962, when LA was host again, the MC back then was none other than Ronald Reagan. It now seems fitting that I will be going to the Reagan Library tomorrow night for the home hosting activity.

The opening included the symbolic flag ceremony where 200 countries were represented. Based on the cheers, whoops, and whistles, my rough estimate of numbers attending from those countries in order of whooping are:

Taiwan [they just went NUTS!]
United Kingdom [as expected]
USA [Obviously...]

Followed by:

Italians [they were LOUD - in the cafeteria even MORE SO! Let's just say I know how to say French Fries in Italian - their wives even louder]
Brazilians [big contingent here]
Japanese [they were polite - they clapped loudly]
Koreans [obviously as new incoming RI President is Korean]
Ghana [can't keep these people down]
Indians
Costa Ricans
Lebanon [as loud as the Italians]
Denmark [they went wild]
France [you couldn't hear yourself think with their hollering]
Canada [you could spot them as ALL Canadians got dressed in EXACTLY the same red vest with CANADA emblazoned in large letters on the back]
Mexico [extremely large contingent]
New Zealand
Nigeria [of course, we love them!]
Phillipines [huge applause and cheers from them]
Romania [what?yes, I thought that was a mistake but there was a lot of cheering coming from them].
South Africa
Spain [I was deafened at this point]
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Switzerland
Uganda
Ukraine [yes, I think there is a large contingent in particularly when one lady accosted me this afternoon..."you Australian yes? You live in Sydney no? I vant to go Sydney. I vant to see Australia. You tell me vere to go yes?" Ummm...my first thoughts were "please lady don't grip my arm to hard!" but let's get back to business...there was also
Venezuelans who cheered and by now you are thinking, what about the Australians?

Well we had some polite claps but no over exhuberant cheers even though there's heaps of us here. Alas - at least some American band played Waltzing Matilda on our behalf!

Last night before the Natalie Cole concert I hung around a Canadian family from Edmonton. The guy's name was Peter and he was telling me of the work he did to set up afterschool areas for 'latch key' kids whose parents neglect them. It's a safe haven for them to be with othes their own age and off the streets. He told me that he was the incoming District Governor of his District and looking forward to his new role. His family were genuinely nice and approachable so I chatted with them until the show started and we split up to our relevant seats.

This afternoon I saw him up on stage when RI President Wilf Wilkinson invited his family on the stage with him. So indeed, he was one of his sons. Obviously the son followed the father's footsteps into Rotary.

Wilf talked about the need for Rotary and community service is growing meanwhile member numbers are decreasing and this is a challenge for everyone. He also talked about how Bill and Melinda Gates had provided $100 million as a challenge grant for Polio eradication and just by thi act - a simple electronic bank transfer showed that they believed in Rotary.

"I've never seen $100million turn up in my bank account as I'm sure you haven't too!" he said.

When the speeches ended, we were entertained for an hour.

To be continued...

Day 1 Rotary Convention



Morning

It's a sunny smoggy morning in Los Angeles. I draw the curtains open to enjoy the view while I breakfast and then promptly close them again. I can do without looking at a hazy brown smog covered town.

I take the glass elevator down from the lofty heights of the 30th floor and the lobby is filled with Rotarians. I hear my first Australian accents for a while but there's also English, French and Indians here.

It's worthy to note that the elevator I have been using was the same one that was used by Arnold Schwarzenneger in the movie True Lies. In fact the hotel I'm staying at was where bits of it was filmed. have to see the movie again to recall it but I must admit, when I saw its set up yesterday afternoon when I checked in, it was a case of deja vu. I have been having lots of deja vu on this trip mainly because we see the sights in the movies!

The Rotarian at the stand tells me of the shuttle services to and from the hotels to the LA Convention Centre [LACC]so I board a bus filled with chatty people talking their language. Everyone is so friendly and excited with the anticipation.

Later...

When I got to the LACC, we were escorted to the registration area downstairs the size of the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. It was vast that you needed a bike or a segway to go from one stall to the next. I got my registration pack, blouse, tickets to shows and the program in the standard bag. Later on in the day i asked how many people had registered - 22 000 herealthough they would have preferred 40 000. That's a lot of people.

There are lots of Americans, there are the loud English [more about them later], Indians, Asians, Mexicans, French, Germans but I particularly love the Nigerians with their colourful dress. The men and women look fantastic in their traditional dress.

I spent the morning and early afternoon wandering the House of Friendship which had hundreds of stalls. The stalls displayed Rotary projects, community service projects, felowship groups and also sme vendors selling their products. Pins? Never seen so much glitter in my life so I bought a pin badge or two as mementos of being here.

I visited the Fellowship Stand for Rotary Editors and Publishers, an online group I'm a member of and met the people I email for the first time face to face. Mark Zober from RC Jerusalem heads up the group and boy, can he talk! "I'm a tour guide, whaddya expect?" he jokingly says to me while handing me his business card and tells me to get on one of his Christian Pilgrims Tour. "Yeah, one day in the very distant future..."

Regardless, I put my name down to help put at the booth tomorrow for a couple of hours but while doing so, I overheard a Greek couple where the wife was yelling out to her husband in Greek, "Oh! I've forgotten the word - how do I say it in English?" Naturally I piped up and said the word and they looked at me with alarm then we started talking. I think they are the only two Greeks here from Athens but I'm still looking for more. They both were hilarious. The lady reminded me of my aunt in Greece who's a riot and not afraid to speak to anyone whether she knows English or not!

I helped out Ricardo from Mehico [don't say the 'x'] on what to do with their website and showed him our club blog and how to create one. He was most impressed. It was his first convention too and what he was surprised about [like me] was how friendly everyone was. Rosita from RC Loyola Heights of the Phillipines also learned about our blog but she was quick to add that her club got the best newsletter of the district this year. Mark was just telling her to get on his pilgrimage tour real quick. Overall, our fellowship booth with these characters was quite loud. They seemed like exhuberant folks.

I attended the 'Meet the Stars' Recepton for drinks and nibblies. This was in a large auditorium and e were entertained by various groups. The Langley Ensemble was by far the best. A group of youths 14-18 year olds played the ukeleles and balaikas [spelling?] and also sang. You haven't lived until you've heard Tiko Tiko on the ukeleles...reminded me of Hawaii for a moment. We're surrounded by that instrument of late!

While there, they had representatives from all over the world and I stopped to chat to our District Rep Ian Riseley and his wife. I told him that we have more people floating around frm our district in amongst the throng of the 22 000. From there, I had the obligatory photo taken with the outgoing and incoming Rotary International Presidents. I also ran into Monty Audenart and his wife Liz. Monty remembered me as his panel sidekick at the District Conference in Albury. He tells me that he had the greatest time in our District and loved Australia.

The English are just having a ball. Wearing their Union Jack vests and large colourful hats, they are strongly promotng the Birmingham RI Conventon in 2009. People madly registered for this and lots of little trinkets were given away. I'm a sucker for freebies so now I have to figure out how to get it all back to home.

The Concert at Nokia Theatre was stunning. Steve Tyrell and Natalie Cole sang the timeless classics with the big bands behind them. Natalie sang the songs like Unforgettable and oters that were originally her father's. The show ended at 10pm but the thousands that streamed out of the concert hall into awaiting shuttle buses to take us back safely to the hotel was astounding. It was orderly and wel organised and even observing the immense scale of this convention is great. To move that volume of peple, to organise, to feed them, to sate their thirst, to entertain them...it's all huge. I've never seen the scale of something like this back home.

Luckily, people make it worthwile and they are in good spirits. I met many Canadians and now feel confident to ask questons about their country because I know where some of their cities are. However, this convention also shows to methat I need to brush up on my geography as many places I have no idea where they are in the scheme of things. There are many Californians here too and had the pleasure to meet a really nice man who I helped escort and direct to a welcoming session. He had a limp and semed to be in some pain. He told me he was retired from the motion picture industry and I had images that he was some famous director. He wasn't showy, wore jeans, jacket and a baseball cap but he had a 'presence' about him - a quiet knowingness that I figured he must have been good at what he did.

Day 1B Rotary Convention...cont.

This blog post continues from previous blog post titled Day 1A Rotary Convention
......................................
Bernard, the motion picture man took pleasure in telling me that he won't partake in the evening event tonight as he was going to treat his wife to a special dinner he had planned to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.

He also helped in the organisation of the Home Hosting event for Monday night where he organised the group to be taken to Universal Studios. Doh! I wanted to go there too but I'm going instead to the Reagan Library for a tour of Air Force One. Oh well, my tour also sounds great but I'm not going to risk being a pain to everyone and change my tour!

We said our goodbyes "Good bye Australia - gee I love that country and its people," and tottled off to his special date.

Just some facts about the convention:

Its organisation involved 7 districts including LA, Nevada, San Francisco and Nevada. LA had previous 2 conventions in 1922 and 1962. It has aout 140 cultures, 135 languages and 92 consulates in LA.

Here are 374 Rotary clubs in these 7 districts representing 18 200 Rotarians and the LACC has 1500 volunteers to assist in all its operations over the few days.

The Literacy Project where all Rotarians were asked to bring a childrens book with them to be given to the poor has resulted in a new entry into the Guiness Book of Records. The books are boxed up and you can see the boxes stacked into abig pyramid in the foyer of the centre. It's a great effort on everyone's part.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

RCMM Donates $220 to the Leukaemia Foundation



Thanks to Rotarians who donated $220 to Andrew (Tex) Blunden for the World's Greatest Shave.


He arrived at the Melbourne State Library on Thursday 13 March, registered and promptly sat down in the chair to have his hair shaved.


Earlier that morning, he had shaved off his facial hair as a response to a dare by some Rotarians (note: Graeme, Bill and Yvonne!)


Andrew wishes to thank everyone for their kind support to this worthy cause.


See his comments and more photos on his website: http://www.worldsgreatestshave.com/profile.php?id=388806

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Rotary District Conference 8-10 March 2008












Albury didn't know what hit them.




Over 600 Rotarians across District 9810 gathered in the hot, dusty town to listen to guest speakers talk about "Pushing Boundaries", network and socialise with their fellow Rotarians and of course, play a little golf.




The Program commenced with a barbeque lunch on the lawns of the Albury Convention Centre and the Parade of Flags, the District Governor's Welcome and Theme Address and a wonderful introduction of our RI President Representative, Monty Audenart from Canada.




Guest presenters spoke about how they pushed their own boundaries in life such as Nic Feteris, a BASE jumper and whose passionate presentation made us all want to jump over hoops in our lives...but not necessarily large cliffs or buildings. Khoa Do also told us his heart wrenching personal story about how he beat the odds to become a successful film maker and mentor to some disadvantaged people. Professor Hugh Bradlow of Telstra stunned Rotarians into truly being scared of the future by the amount of technology that will be prevalent in our lives in just a few years time. Rod Quantock held a comical hypothetical with a panel of Rotarians looking at how to increase membership.




Socially, Rotarians pushed the boundaries on Sunday night at the "Camelot" Dinner. Dressed in the Camelot theme, they dined on good food and wine and watched the knights fight for a ladies honour.