Rotary Club of Maleny Bulletin for 15th February 2017

"THE RANGE"  Vol. 58 No.15
WEDNESDAY 15TH FEBRUARY 2017

THIS WEEK'S MEETING
Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm with Guest Speaker Helen Walker on Cocos Island Nursing.

APOLOGIES
Apologies to Bernice before noon on Tuesday.

DUTY ROSTERS                       
                                15th Feb           1st Mar           15th Mar              
Duty Officer             Rick V               Roly N            CL                     
Assist DO                Phillip S            Angela G         Angela G                      
Registration             Bernice McL     John McL        Lionel T
Fellowship               David F             Bill H               John W

SAUSAGE SIZZLE ROSTER
25th February
Malcolm Baker (Leader)  Lionel Tilley  Andy Shouteten

11th March
Jeff Cornfoot  (Leader)  Roly Neiper  Keith Rogers

MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
PP Sherryl stepped into the breech & chaired the meeting in her usual efficient style – although interruptions from some noisy persons were frequent.
Chris reported that the Interact Club held their first meeting with 14 members & enthusiasm was expressed to attend the forthcoming Interact Conference.
In March a combined Clubs’ meeting to welcome Gemma Sisia from School of St.Jude will be held at Rosemount with our members invited to attend.
Rick V. reported on a successful Australia Day event at the showgrounds where, although numbers may have been a bit down, those exhibiting were very pleased with the day. Phillip S. received 27 responses to the Club survey at the event. A DVD of the event taken from a drone will soon be available for viewing.
Those members wishing to attend the District Assembly to be held at Caboolture were advised to let Bernice know asap.
Chris demonstrated once again his amazing ability to create fact from fiction & extracted $$ from his unfortunate victims.

 Our guest speaker Max Lindegger proved to be the most entertaining for quite some time. He gave us a chronological timeline of his activities since leaving his homeland Switzerland at the age of 22 up to the present time. A mechanical engineer wishing to expand his horizons he sought something more than yodelling, cows and mountains & arrived in Australia without a word of English. His initiative in seeking employment saw him work in industry in Sydney for a few years then move to the Sunshine Coast to work with a civil engineering group which had a strong environmental bias.

 His leaning towards environmental matters over time saw him move to Crystal Waters where he established his own business which became involved in over 60 third world countries and employed 5 staff. His strong enthusiasm for providing the means for people in the third world to become self sufficient in food, shelter and education has seen him constantly travelling to sub-Saharan Africa and south east Asia, particularly Cambodia where he was able to tell us of the general deplorable state of living following Pol Pot’s ravages. His approach to improving the ecological environment through teaching the local population rather than relying on foreign aid handouts has a much more lasting & long term benefit.

A most interesting talk from an extremely enthusiastic philanthropist (I’m not talking $$ but physical effort) who could have continued to enthral us for another hour but for our time contraints.

Max was awarded the Australian Prime Minister's Centenary Medal for distinguished achievement in the field of developing sustainable communities in 2002.  Max and his wife Trudi received the Sunshine Coast Environmental Council Award in 2004 for Sustainable Agriculture.

FUTURE MEETINGS & EVENTS
22nd February
Club Assembly at the Masonic Centre - no meal.

1st March
Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm with Guest Speaker Julia Peddie (CHASM) on Housing Affordability.

4th March
DIK loading

8th March
Board Meeting at the Masonic Hall.

15th March
Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm with Guest Speaker Ken Wishaw on Light Pollution.
    
BIRTHDAYS FOR FEBRUARY
18th Jeff Cornfoot  28th Marlene Hankinson

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT
A TALE OF AN OPTIMIST

Frank always looked on the bright side. He would constantly irritate his friends with his eternal optimism.

No matter how horrible the circumstance, he would always reply, "It could have been worse."

To cure him of his annoying habit, his friends decided to invent a situation so completely bad, so terrible, that even Frank could find no hope in it.

On the golf course one day, one of them said, "Frank, did you hear about Tom? He came home last night, found his wife in bed with another man,
shot them both and then turned the gun on himself!"

"That`s awful," said Frank, "But it could have been worse."

"How in the hell," asked his angry friend, "Could it have been worse?"

"Well," replied Frank, "If it had happened the night before, I`d be dead now!"