WEDNESDAY 1ST OCTOBER 2014
THIS WEEK'S MEETING
Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm with Guest Speaker Professor Nita Nestor on Botanical Art.
APOLOGIES
Please tender apologies to Bernice by noon Tuesday.
DUTY ROSTERS
1 Oct 15 Oct
Duty Officer Bill H Lionel T
Registration Donna C Sherryl G
ADO & Scribe Ric T Malcolm B
Fellowship John McL
SAUSAGE SIZZLE ROSTER
11th October
Malcolm Baker (Leader) Ric Townsend Donna Cervantes
25th October
Bernice & John McL (Leader) Robin Thorne
MINUTES OF MEETING OF LAST MEETING
The usual suspects were welcomed by President Ric and, after the usual formalities, he sought two teams of 4 volunteers to help out at the Maleny Historical Society events on 27/28 Sept – 100 lunches (burgers) on 27th and 200 breakfasts (bacon and egg) on 28th. Bernice offered to be leader on both days. Other volunteers to contact Bernice.
Rotary’s enviable catering skills were also in demand for Sunday 5th October when President Ric would lead a sausage sizzle team for Pioneer Day.
Chris B offered to vault his back fence to help out. Ouch!
President Ric then surprised Bernice with a Rotary Award for introducing a new member and encouraged other members to do the same. As nothing’s for free, President Ric then passed the invoice for the award onto the Treasurer!
The other Rick then reminded the Club about the Mary Cairncross Building Renovations Information Day from 10 till 4 on 27th Sept when SSCC would be seeking feedback on plans. More information on Council website.
Treasurer Jim advised that the collection from the car parking for the Real Food Festival had been good, though not quite to the level of last year. Nevertheless, Chris B confirmed that this event was the third highest annual income earner for the Club and great for publicity for Rotary and socializing.
Treasurer Jim also confirmed that he had attended a Christmas Carnival organizing meeting (attended only by him and one other) and that the Carnival Day would be 13 December. He confirmed that the Club’s feedback last year about the need to curb the number of private trader stalls had been acknowledged.
Secretary Bernice asked for ideas on what the Club should do this year to celebrate Xmas.
After a meal of curries or roast pork or calamari, Jeff Cornfoot introduced Leo Phelan who talked to us silly old goats about his new “rent - a - goat” service for eradicating weeds in overgrown landholdings. With the help of photographs and video, Leo shared with us how his new approach, which is widely used in USA particularly in bush fire prone areas in California, is an eco friendly way to assist governments and private landowners to responsibly manage their land and eradicate noxious weed invasion such as the Japanese Sunflower.
Leo had bought 50 goats of the type used in the US, who were then corralled into 10 acre electro fenced cells (roughly 3 cells cover 30 acres) and allowed to roam protected from predators by two loyal white Maremma sheepdogs.
The goats did a mighty fine job of eating everything. They can eat 5- 15% of their body weight in one day ruminating 24/7 with no complaints. In one week a group of 50 can clear 40 tons, with the added bonus of enriching the land from the other end leaving it in prime condition for revegetation by native, non noxious plants or productive plantings. The cost worked out at an average of $1000 per acre.
Leo was working hard to try and persuade governments to use his eco friendly goats for managing and revegetating national and state land holdings and he had pilots operating in the Hunchy area.
Leo was thanked by Angela for his extremely interesting talk that demonstrated how it is possible to use more natural means of land care offering a welcome alternative to risky herbicides and pesticides. So much more sensible to use the eco friendly, goat friendly approach – just like our forbears.
At the end of the meeting members were reminded of the vocational meeting the following week at the IGA, followed by dinner.
FUTURE MEETINGS & EVENTS
8th October
Masonic Hall for Board Meeting.
15th October
Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm for Official DG's Visit with Partners welcome.
22nd October
Masonic Hall at 6:30 for 7:00pm for Project Meeting - $10 meal.
29th October
Vocational visit to The Falls Rainforest Spa Cottages - Partners'Night.
WEDDING ANNIVERSARY FOR OCTOBER
26th Rick and Cilla
BIRTHDAYS FOR OCTOBER
12th Gloria Rogers 14th Keith Rogers 28th Bernice McLennan 30th Andy Schouteten
NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT
WITH TELECOMMUNICATIONS CURRENTLY BEING A HOT TOPIC LOCALLY, A STORY OF PROGRESS FROM INTERSTATE
THE IRISH CONTRACTING FOR TELSTRA!
TELSTRA needed to hire a team of telephone pole installers for the Stuart Highway and McMurray and the boss had to choose between a team of two guys from Port Pirie and a team of two Irish guys.
So the boss met both teams and said "Here's what we'll do. Each team will be installing poles out on the new road for a day. The team that installs the most poles gets the job."
Both teams headed right out. At end of the shift, Bud and Buddy, the two Port Pirie guys came back and the boss asked them how many they had installed.
They said that it was tough going, but they'd put in twelve.
Forty-five minutes later, Paddy and Mick, the Irish guys came back in and they were totally exhausted. The boss asked, "Well, how many poles did you guys install?"
Mick, the team leader, wiped his brow and sighed, "Paddy and me, we got three in".
The boss gasped, "Three? Those two Port Pirie guys put in twelve!"
"Yeah," said Mick, "but you should see how much they left sticking out of the ground! "
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