Gidday Surfers Sunrise, Associate members and friends of Rotary.
We had one of the best formal meetings for a long time last Wednesday. Our Guest Speaker was our own Franz Huber. His subject - Swiss hiking song, NO. How to yodel, NO. It was in fact Australians Bush Poetry. I would suggest that not many people are more knowledgeable or for that matter as passionate as our FranzI If you have a look on our web site you will find out more.
As most of you will know we had our District Conference last weekend. It started on Friday with a delegates visit our Project Shed in Arundel. A big thank you to Geoff Croad our Director of Service Projects and some of our Associates for hosting the visit. I was unable to attend but by all reports it was well received.
Saturday morning all of us who were attending had to be at Southport Sharks Event Centre. After a day of listening to an array of excellent speakers half a dozen of us, with partners, indulged in a well organised and entertaining Dinner.
Sunday was a continuation of interesting speakers however we were all in for an absolute treat. The last speaker of the day was Nat Cook. Nat represented Australia in Beach Volleyball at an outstanding 5 Olympic Games, winning gold in Sydney in 2000 after a bronze in 1996 in Atlanta USA. Nat was brilliant and had everyone totally engaged finishing the Conference on an absolute high. Huge thank you, to DG Lisa Hunt and your team for an excellent event.
Two bits of bad news caused me angst over the weekend - both Carlton and the Storm lost. Ah well, early days.
Remember, nothing changes if nothing changes and do as you fear most.
As is usual every second Wednesday, this week we have a social meeting at the Surfers Paradise Surf Life Saving Club. Starting at 07:00 am, come along for a cuppa, perhaps some breakfast, and help to solve all the world's problems (and some of our own). And often, there is as much serious club business discussed as on a "formal" meeting. You can also brag about your achievements (or your AFL Club's thumping one of its arch rivals by 83 points... ☺)and lament your failures, aches and pains (we mightn't listen though... ☺). As usual in a social meeting week, some of our members and friends converge on Thursday afternoon at the Benowa Tavern for a beer or a glass of wine, from 4:30 pm onwards.
Despite the inclement weather we had on Friday and Saturday, the District Conference at the Sharks Football Club went without a hitch. But how can I, in a few sentences, summarise an event that featured around a dozen speakers? Many were specifically on Rotary related projects, such as the Malaria Vaccine project of Griffith University, the Youth Services programs our district runs. Some subjects were covered by panel discussions, rather than the one speaker.
Perhaps, if I select just a few of the most impressive ones:
On Saturday morning, PDG Jennifer Scott AM, who represented the Rotary International President, opened with an energetic address. Energetic? “High Octane Pocket Rocket” would be an adequate description (and I’m sure she wouldn’t mind). “Peace is not the absence of war. Peace is the absence of need” she thundered.
“Plastic Soup” – the words don’t make you feel comfortable, and that is just what that young woman Melanie Lewis intended. The enormous accumulation of plastic waste in the oceans, some in microscopic form, causes ecological damage all the way to seabirds being diagnosed with a “Parkinson’s Disease” like illness. They lose their memory. Click on the link.
Before her, the Managing Director of Lady Elliott Eco Resort, Peter Gosh OAM outlined how, in the mid-2000’s, he and his family took on the lease of that island in the Great Barrier Reef and built it to a major international tourist resort. So what? You may ask. Well, they are almost self-sustaining. A massive array of solar panels and batteries produce the energy to even run their own water desalination plant. And, meter by meter, the imported pest plants are replaced by natives. Even Prince (now King) Charles was impressed.
OK, one more: a young Canadian bloke, Cole Suter, talked about his project to bring sports, specifically, sports equipment, to children in disadvantaged countries, Kicks for Kids. So far, they have despatched some 40,000 basketballs to 27 countries. Yes, even just a football or a basketball will make a difference.
But ‘La pièce de resistance’ would have been the final speaker, Nat Cook, the five-times Olympian who represented Australia in Beach Volleyball and won Gold in Sydney. I recall having read, some time ago, one of my favourite authors, Bryce Courtenay’s description of being in a cyclone. Well, my writing skills are inadequate to describe Nat’s session. But like being in a whirlwind, you couldn’t help being totally engaged. Except that this was all fun, real fun! Sorry peeps. You missed out on an event that, just by itself, was well worth the investment of the registration fee.
A big Thank You! must go to DG Lisa Hunt and her organising team. If you have ever even organised a chook raffle, you would have an inkling of the gigantic amount of work that goes into planning and executing an event of this magnitude. I’m in awe. Congratulations. Well done!
(Photo taken Saturday morning before it all started. From left: Angus Miller, Catherine Huber, PDG Darrell Brown, Geoff Croad, Franz Huber, President Andy Bell, Ross Augustine, President Elect Paul Seymour.)
What is the collective noun for a group of top level Rotary leaders? Whatever it is, we were honoured today by the visit of District 9640 and Rotary International leader personalities, taking time out from this weekend's District Conference to visit our Project Shed.
Wheelchair Trust Chairman Geoff Croad (centre at back) welcomed District Governor Lisa Hunt (3rd from right at back), District Governor Elect John Oomen (4th from right) and his partner Narelle (front left), as well as PDG Jennifer Scott (front right) and her husband Ian, who are representing RI President Stephanie Urchick.
It's not easy to edit a guest speaker's report, if said speaker was... me. There's a high risk that it sounds boastful, so I best don't say anything at all! But I think the mob enjoyed my presentation at the club yesterday, on one of my passions: Australian Bush Poetry.
So, how come that an immigrant with a bad Swiss accent and a speech impediment that makes it almost impossible for him to pronounce a 'th' (as in this) would be interested in Australian bush poetry? Well, I've been fortunate to be raised in a family where the equivalent to bush poetry (as in Swiss folklore poetry) was popular. There is an annual event 'Fasnacht' (Carnival), where in the olden days a special Carnival newspaper was published. Folks were encouraged to submit stories, preferably in rhyming format. Never mind if the truth didn't get in the way. The stories would often be quite sarcastic (but funny), and the general rule was that, as long as nobody was identified by name (but could easily be identified otherwise), the paper nor the author could be sued for libel. To this day, one of the major regions where this happens annually is in the city of Basel with their Schnitzelbank. I own several books with Swiss (as well as Australian) poetry myself.
In the early nineties, in an advertisement for Clean Up Australia Day, the famous actor Jack Thompson recited the beginning of the last stanza of Banjo Paterson’s ‘The Man from Snowy River’: And down by Kosciusko, where the pineclad ridges raise their torn and rugged battlements on high... awoke my interest. And, as they say, the rest is history.
These days, it is dead easy to immerse yourself in the best of Australian bush poetry. Not just the traditional ones (Banjo, Henry Lawson, CJ Dennis etc) but also modern era authors such as Graeme Watt, Bob Magor, Col Wilson. Visit the website of the Australian Bush Poetry Association www.abpa.org.au where you find dozens of current era, award winning works. Many of them serious, some of them hilariously funny.
Duty Roster - note: subject to change - please check every week. Note: Fellowship duty also is expected to be at the Project Shed on the Saturday following the meeting
<-- Just a follow up on the recent weather events last week...
The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude to the problem.
Permanence is the illusion of every age, but only in our time do we choose consciously not to believe our lyin’ eyes.Mark Steyn, American author and journalist
Honestly, I'm not happy. This morning, I reset my phone's password, using the latest: Voice instead of text. Just then, a dog ran in front of me and barked and then ran away.
Now, I'm looking for that blessed dog, so I can unlock my phone.
As is usual every second Wednesday, this week we have a social meeting at the Surfers Paradise Surf Life Saving Club. Starting at 07:00 am, come along for a cuppa, perhaps some breakfast, and help to solve all the world's problems (and some of our own). And often, there is as much serious club business discussed as on a "formal" meeting. You can also brag about your achievements 
It's not easy to edit a guest speaker's report, if said speaker was... me. There's a high risk that it sounds boastful, so I best don't say anything at all! But I think the mob enjoyed my presentation at the club yesterday, on one of my passions: Australian Bush Poetry.
<-- Just a follow up on the recent weather events last week...
