Rotary Club of Maleny Bulletin for 19th February 2020

"THE RANGE"  Vol. 61 No.15
WEDNESDAY 19TH FEBRUARY 2020

THIS WEEK'S MEETING
Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm for Business Meeting.

APOLOGIES AND MEALS
Apologies please to Bernice before noon on Tuesday.

DUTY ROSTERS              
                        19 Feb           4th Mar           11th Mar
Duty Officer     Roly N           Lionel T           Alan W          
Assist DO        Laurelle O     Jim A               Angela G   
Registration     Malcolm B     Bernice McL    John McL
Fellowship       Alan W          Phillip S           John W
   
SAUSAGE SIZZLE ROSTER
22nd February
Greg W (Leader)  Brian A  Chris R-S

7th March
Jim A (Leader)  Lionel T  Keith R

21st March
Chris B (Leader)  Paulette S  Andy S

PRESIDENT'S NOTES
With the past very wet week, for some of us who have lived in Maleny awhile, it seems like Maleny of the past: foggy mornings, the grass (and weeds) growing faster than we can mow, sleeping to the sound of steady rain on the roof, and ‘the mould’ invasion is just around the corner.

I have had the privilege to be President of the Club twice before this - each time almost ten years apart. I kept a scrapbook of those years, and recently I checked out the bulletins (paper copies only then) and “The Range News” headlines of those years and it makes interesting reading.

We had a rain deluge in February 1999 - 403.6mm of rain in 24 hours and the Obi rose up to the level of the bridge. Thankfully the rain of the past week cannot be compared to that! Rotary-wise we welcomed Gillian Baker back from her year on exchange in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We had a vocational visit to the new Erowal facilities led by Lloyd Larney. 44 members, partners and visitors attended that visit. We had our annual Vocational Awards night and recognised with Pride of Workmanship Awards the IGA, Maleny Butchery, and Maleny Hot Bread- all businesses who had significantly supported our fortnightly sausage sizzles and BBQs.

Then in February 2009, Range residents and businesses rallied around, and conducted a mass fundraising weekend for the Victorian Bushfire Disaster. The service clubs in town joined forces with a bucket brigade to collect donations- overall $7379.60 was collected over a few hours on one weekend. Thankfully the disastrous recent bushfire season in Australia didn’t result in such significant loss of life as in that single event in 2009, however losses in many areas - personal, in infrastructure, business, the environment, and wildlife have been enormous. The amazing job of the Volunteer Rural Fire Brigades around the country has been applauded. Maybe we could have a vocational visit to our local brigade to learn a bit more about their members, their facilities, and how we can prepare our properties for the next fire season.

Enough of reminiscing. We have a busy few months ahead, and it is important for all members to be involved as much as they can. With this in mind, this week at the business meeting, I will pass around the revised committee listing. It is important that all members are involved in one or more sub-committees. Being involved and active in club activities makes membership of Rotary so much more enjoyable and rewarding.

We are again being involved in the Clean up Australia Day on Sunday 1 March- 7.30-9.30 – that should be fun. Brouhaha Brewery have invited us to be part of their new initiative to run community raffles at their Brewery/Restaurant. This is just in the planning stage. We hope that when it gets up and running that club members will support this engagement to raise valuable funds for our projects. More current projects will be discussed at the Business meeting next week. See you all there.

 As a post script I attach an extract from the bulletin of RC of Surfers Paradise.

 

MINUTES OF MEETING OF 5TH FEBRUARY
President Sherryl opened the meeting by welcoming Peter Brown,RC of Caboolture, Jill Morris, members and partner Leon plus our Guest Speaker Lucy Haslam.

Peter Brown outlined plans for his Club to raise funds by entering a 30 year old Commodore in the Variety Bash using the theme of 100 years of Rotary. He hoped that RCs would pay for signage on the vehicle - at the end of the meeting the Club donated $300.

Upcoming activities:
7th Feb    Fund raising concert for bushfire victims at RSL.

8th Feb    Interact Conference at St Columban's.

1st Mar    Clean Up the Obi day.

13-15th Mar  District Conference.

The Sergeant had a ripper time with his unconventional take (in more than one sense) on members' activities - and their pockets.

After an introduction by PP Alan, President Sherryl presented a PHF to CL.  This was met with a standing ovation from those present.

Roly N introduced our Guest Speaker Lucy Haslam to talk about medical cannabis.  Lucy was a nurse whose husband had been a senior police officer.  They lived in NSW and had 3 sons.  In January 2010 their youngest son Dan was in his teens and diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer.

This involved multiple surgeries and fortnightly chemo sessions for 4 years. He suffered such a bad reaction from chemo that he had periods of violent vomiting both before and after treatment.

Lucy could find no way to lessen this trauma until an elderly business man, who had suffered from the same complaint, suggested the use of cannabis.  This was doubly problematic because of its illegality and her husband's occupation.  However the positive effects on her son were instantaneous.

This made her research the use of this plant.  They switched to using cannabis oil which her son distilled; this process removed the hallucinagenic component.  The positive effect on Dan was so great that Lucy started a campaign to get medicinal cannabis legalised at a time when all governments in Australia were opposed.

With assistance from Alan Jones and Mike Baird amongst others , slow progress was made but, despite some gains, Lucy's overall aim is still to be fulfilled.  She described a number of her frustrations with the body politic and her crusade continues.

Keith R thanked Lucy for her very moving story and hoped, on behalf of those present, that she will be ultimately successful.

The meeting closed at 9:00pm.

FUTURE MEETINGS & EVENTS
26th February
No meeting.

4th March
Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm for Guest Speakers Sue Krucker & Jo Rickards on Maleny Flexi School.

11th March
Board Meeting at the Masonic Lodge.

18th March
Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm for Business Meeting.

BIRTHDAYS FOR FEBRUARY
18th Jeff Cornfoot  28th Marlene Hankinson

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT

LET'S HEAR IT FOR OLD MEN

An elderly man in Queensland owned a large property for several years. He had a dam in one of the lower paddocks where he had planted mango and avocado trees.

The dam had been fixed up for swimming when it was built and he also had some picnic tables placed there in the shade of the fruit trees.

One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the dam to look it over, as he hadn't been there for a while.

He grabbed a 10 litre bucket to bring back some fruit. As he neared the dam, he heard voices shouting and laughing.

As he came closer he saw it was 4 young women skinny-dipping in his dam. He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end.

One of the women shouted to him, 'We're not coming out until you leave.'

The old man frowned, 'I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the dam naked.'

Holding the bucket up he said, 'I'm here to feed the crocodile.'

Moral : Old men may walk slowly, but they can still think fast.