Sunday 24 July 2011

Vol 53 No 4 Bulletin for 27 July 2011


"THE RANGE" The Rotary Club of Maleny Inc
Bulletin Vol. 53 No. 4       

Wednesday 27 July 2011
       
THIS WEEK’S MEETING
This will be a general meeting at the Maleny Hotel at 6:30pm for 7:00pm.
Apologies
Please tender meal apologies to Geoff Coughlan by noon Tuesday

PRESIDENT MIKE'S MESSAGE
This coming week we have a great opportunity, albeit a challenge, in our
support of the Splendour in the Grass event.  Considerable planning by Rick,
and the Team, has ensured that we are off to a good start.  There will inevitably
be the unexpected as it is the first time we have ventured to commit to an event
of this scale, however, if we give it our full support we have the opportunity to
bolster our finances in this year, and possibly years to come.  As a reminder for
those who will be handling food could you complete the “food handling course” on
http://www.mortonbay.imalert.com.au/.  If you have any questions please contact Rick.
On Monday we will have a mini Board meeting to discuss the following items:-
1. Make up of Directors Teams.
2. Discussion on venue, content, frequency and nature of Club Meetings. 
 (If you wish to raise any points on this subject before the meeting,
 please contact Brian King.)
3. Content and Terms of Reference for Vocational Service.
4. PR.  

DUTY ROSTERS
                           27th July            3rd Aug         10th Aug
Duty Officer        Ric T                  Debra L        Jeff C
Registration        John W               Geoff C        Sherry W
ADO & Scribe    John McL            Bill H            Tony H
Fellowship          Geoff C              Roly N          Lynda R

SAUSAGE SIZZLE ROSTER

6th August
Lionel Tilley   Angela Griffin   Lynda Radcliffe     Ric Townsend

20th August
Jeff Cornfoot John Whan  Tony Holmes      Roly Neiper   

LAST WEEK’S MEETING
President Mike opened the meeting and welcomed the 22 members present.
Directors’ and other Reports from the floor included Sherry W, who thanked all
those who helped out with the Maleny Show. President Mike also mentioned that
there would be a brief weekly quiz on the previous week’s Bulletin information.

IPP Rick V. also acknowledged all those who helped with the ‘Up the Tiber’
presentation, as well as Greg S. and all those planning and coordinating our
‘Splendour in the Grass’assistance. Rick then provided additional information
regarding the rosters and parking arrangements for SITG – the organisers of
which are expecting about 30,000 people per day to attend. Rosters are due
out this week so please advise Rick or Sherry if there are any last minute
changes.
Entrance is at Gate 3 (the Suppliers entrance) and we will be issued with an
identity wrist band for our shift.

International report from Lynda R. included an update on Friends of Ebeneezer
School – assistance through RAWCS.

Angela G. gave an update on PR efforts and Range News initiatives now that
Sasha is on board as a journalist.

President Mike then presented IPP Rick with the 2010-11 theme banner and
acknowledged the great year we all had.

Brian D. advised the format for Rotary Information this year and how he will be
sharing tasks around the Club members each week. He then gave an informative
overview of how RI operates and Club and District relationships within the
organisation. Astutely recognising that members had reached a critical point
of information overload, Brian then suggested there would be more exciting
instalments to come in future weeks, and concluded to a round of applause.

Chris B. spoke briefly about Youth on behalf of Deb L.: we have two
participants for RYPEN; Bike Ed will be at Maleny from 8-12 August and
we need several volunteers to assist; Interact Club is still very active.

Treasurer Jeff C. rose to speak but was silenced by President Mike – in favour
of a coffee break. On resumption he advised details of the final Show accounts 
– a reasonably healthy return on the Club’s investment.

Greg S. advised he has several future Guest Speakers lined up.

Brian K. indicated that the DG visit scheduled for 31/8 might change to 17/8.
Advice to follow in duecourse.  Membership initiatives in train. Club archives
being considered for electronic storage.  Meal cost has been resolved.

President Mike advised the next Board meeting is on 25/7. Mike stressed the
need to attract more business leaders to our Club and we must begin to engaging
them.

Sergeant Bill H. then extracted some dubious fines from largely innocent members
and told a reasonably clever joke to which most of the older  members could relate.

President Mike then closed the meeting with a reminder that duties for next week’s
meeting would be in the bulletin (hopefully).

FUTURE MEETINGS & EVENTS

3rd August Meeting at the Maleny Hotel.  Details to be announced.

6th August A Club Progressive Dinner will be held commencing at 6.30 pm.
  The volunteer hosts are Jim and Elaine Atkinson, Mike and Judy
  Keane, and Roly and Kerry Nieper.
  Please confirm your attendance with Brian Doyle.

10th August Meeting at the Maleny Hotel.  Details to be announced.

17th August Possibly visit from DG - watch this space.

BIRTHDAYS FOR AUGUST

7th   Peter Wright                20th  Jocelyn Brooker
12th  Tony Loughnan          24th  Dick Andrew
17th  Malcolm Baker          28th  Lionel Tilley

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY FOR AUGUST

29th  Angela and Mike

A LESSON IN ECONOMICS
THE TAX SYSTEM EXPLAINED IN BEER

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to
$100.  If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like
this...
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the
arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball. "Since you are
all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily
beer by $20".
Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first
four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the
other six men? The paying customers?
How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair
 share?
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that
from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each
end up being paid to drink his beer.
So the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill
by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax
system they had been using. He then proceeded to work out the amounts
he suggested that each should now pay.
And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to
drink for free.
But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving," declared the sixth man. He pointed
to the tenth man, "but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's
unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!"
"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back, when
I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all.
This new tax system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and
had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered
something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for
even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax
system works.
The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit
from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they
just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where
the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics.

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

24th July 2011

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