Rotary Club of Maleny Bulletin for 1st February 2023

VALE PDG TONY HOLMES

It was with great sadness that members learnt of Tony's death in a farming accident. Tony was a member of our Club whilst serving as District Governor in 2003-04..  Our sincerest sympathy is extended to his widow and family at this tragic time.

THIS WEEK'S MEETING

Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm for a Dinner Meeting with Guest Speaker our own Renee Harris on "My Story."

APOLOGIES
Apologies please to Bernice before noon on Tuesday.

DUTY ROSTER
                       1st Feb         15th Feb         1st Mar
Duty Officer    Keith R         Michael G
Assist DO       Rick V          Sherryl G
Registration   John McL     James McC
Fellowship      John W        Bill H

WOOLWORTH SAUSAGE SIZZLE ROSTER
04Feb   0730 - 1030  Brian A   Sherryl G   Phillip S 

            1030 - 1330  Jeff C   Rick V   Andy S 

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Ric Townsend, Greg Williams and myself attended the Sunshine Coast Australia Day Awards last Friday January 20 to see our fellow Rotary member, the consummate gentleman, John Whan, receive his certificate for being nominated for the Senior Citizen of the Year.

Unfortunately, John didn’t win however it was a wonderful morning with his children, Peter, Helen and Janet there as well, and they all went off to lunch afterwards at one of the surf clubs on the coast. Photo with Andrew Powell who came up to congratulate John as well.

Just a short note to thank the members who attended the Australia Day activities at Ziza Field - more at the meeting. The ShelterBox tent was safely erected - and dismantled, our marquee was well laid out and the sausage sizzle was well patronised.

MINUTES OF MEETING OF 18TH JANUARY

Being the first business meeting for the year, it was a relatively short meeting as many activities are yet to crank up for the new year. Updates on the following issues were discussed.

• Price of meals: As of next meeting the dinner fee will be $22.00 following an increase in the cost from the Hotel. This is the first increase for many years.

• Australia Day Activities: The Club will have a spot an the MDSR Precinct to display a shelter box and provide a free BBQ. Still a lot of uncertainty about the event and Club members  will be kept informed by email.

• Rick Townsend reported that Judith Ross-Smith has a chair that needs to be repaired and asked for volunteers to help.

• Australia Zoo parking was very hectic over the Christmas and New Year period with the club doing some 20 shifts.

PDG Michael Gregory was invited to give an update on Rotary International business and the Rotary Foundation. He advised that Regionalisation in Zone 8 has been put on hold because of the failure of a vote last year. Other zones are now up and running with our zone being left out.

• Global water supply and health hygiene are hampering many global disease programs; water will become a major priority in many developing countries and will be a focus for the Rotary Foundation

• Polio Plus: Still a lot of work to do to reach the target of eradication. Global upheaval will hinder progress.

Despite successful funding activities by Rotary Clubs in 2022 raising $4.3M, it fell short of the target of $5.0M with the shortfall being made up by RI.

A Polio Plus Society Program has been formed under the Paul Harris Society Program which will allow easier donations and pledges to the program. Also a new vaccine has been developed to eliminate the vaccine derived outbreaks which are now occurring. The new vaccine is more stable and easier to transport.

• Rotary Builds Peace program has been given a priority by RI as the General Secretary of RI is a Ukrainian. The Club supported these activities last year; overall $15M was raised worldwide.

• Malaria programs could deserve our support in 2023 to raise funds for many countries to assist with control programs.

FUTURE MEETINGS AND EVENTS

08 Feb  Board Meeting

15 Feb  Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm for Business Meeting

01 Mar  Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm for Dinner Meeting with Guest Speaker TBA

BIRTHDAYS FOR FEBRUARY

18th Jeff Cornfoot  

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT
AN UNUSUAL TRAFFIC INCIDENT

Two Brisbane Patrol Officers were conducting speeding enforcement on the Cunningham H/way, just west of the Amberley Air force Base at Ipswich. 

The officers were using hand held radar devices to check speeding vehicles approaching the crest of a hill. The officers were suddenly surprised when their radar guns began reading 500 kms per hour. 

The officers attempted to reset the radar guns, but they would not reset and then turned off.  Just then a deafening roar over the treetops revealed that the radar had in fact locked on to an RAAF F/A-18 Hornet which was engaged in a low flying exercise near the location. 

 Back at the Queensland Traffic Control Headquarters the Patrol Sergeant fired off a complaint to the RAAF Base Commander.   

The reply came back in true RAAF style:

 Thank you for your letter. 

We can now complete the file on this incident. You may be interested to know that the tactical computer in the Hornet had detected the presence of, and subsequently locked on to your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a jamming signal back to it, which is why it shut down. 

Furthermore, an Air-to-Ground missile aboard the fully armed aircraft had also automatically locked on to your equipment location. Fortunately, the Senior Pilot flying the Hornet recognized the situation for what it was, quickly responded to the missile system alert status and was able to override the automated defence system before the missile was launched to destroy the hostile radar position.

 The pilot also suggests you cover your mouths when cursing at them, since the video systems on these jets are very high tech. Sergeant Johnson, the officer holding the left radar gun, should get his dentist to check his left rear molar. It appears the filling is loose. Also, the snap is broken on his holster 

 Thank you for your concern.

 Wing Commander Brown, SFO RAAF, Amberley, Ipswich, Queensland.

 

Rotary Club of Maleny Bulletin for 18th January 2023

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

APOLOGIES
Apologies please to Bernice before noon on Tuesday.

DUTY ROSTER
                       18th Jan         1st Feb         15th Feb
Duty Officer    Jim A               Keith R         Michael G
Assist DO       Roly N             Rick V          Sherryl G
Registration    Laurelle O       John McL    James McC
Fellowship      Neil A               John W        Bill H

WOOLWORTH SAUSAGE SIZZLE ROSTER
04Feb   0730 - 1030  Brian A   Sherryl G   Phillip S 

            1030 - 1330  Jeff C   Rick V   Andy S 

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

Our last two meetings have been successful social events.  Firstly the Club thanks Roly and Kerry for kindly organising and hosting the Christmas Party at their home. Unfortunately your Scribe was laid low with Covid and therefore missed this celebration.  On 4 January our thanks to our resident Platypus Whisperer for arranging a guided tour along a section of the Obi Obi creek for a number of intrepid members.  This was followed by a BBQ in the Light Horse Museum for participants and others.  There were no reports of Ornithorynchus sightings but date stamped photographs from earlier that day were available for inspection.

Thanks to Neal for his arrangements and to the BBQ crew.

FUTURE MEETINGS AND EVENTS
26 Jan  Possible Australia Day function at the Showground

01 Feb  Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm for Dinner Meeting with Guest Speaker TBA.

08 Feb  Board Meeting

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY FOR JANUARY
 1st Malcolm and Nancy Baker

BIRTHDAYS FOR JANUARY
1st Jan Cornfoot  21st  Michael Gregory  24th  Renee Harris

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT
A HEART WARMING STORY FOR THE NEW YEAR

Once a TTE (Train Ticket Examiner) who was on duty on a Bangalore bound train from Mumbai caught a girl who was hiding under a seat. She was around 13 or 14 years old.  The TTE asked the girl to produce her ticket. The girl hesitantly replied that she had no ticket. The TTE told the girl to get off the train immediately. 

Suddenly, a voice from behind said, "I will pay for her". That was the voice of Mrs Usha Bhattacharya, who was a college lecturer  by profession. Mrs. Bhattacharya paid for the girl's ticket and requested her to sit near her. She asked her what her name was.

"Chitra", the girl replied. "Where are you going?" "I have nowhere to go," the girl said. "Then come with me." Mrs. Bhattacharya told her. After reaching Bangalore, Mrs. Bhattacharya handed over the girl to an NGO, to be taken care of. Later Mrs. Bhattacharya shifted to Delhi and the two lost contact with each other.

After around 20 years Mrs. Bhattacharya was invited to San Francisco (USA) to deliver a lecture in a college there. She was in a restaurant, having a meal. After she finished she asked for the bill, but she was told that the bill had already been paid. When she turned back, she saw a woman with her husband smiling at her.

Mrs. Bhattacharya asked the couple, "Why did you pay my bill? " The young woman replied, "Ma'am, the bill I paid is extremely little, compared to the fare you paid for me for that train journey from Mumbai to Bangalore”.

Tears rolled down from the eyes of both women."Oh Chitra... It's you..!!!" Mrs.Bhattacharya said happily. While hugging each other, the young lady said, "Ma'am my name is not Chitra now. I am Sudha Murty. And this is my husband, Narayan Murty".

Don't be astonished. You are reading the true story of Mrs Sudha Murty, the Chair of Infosys Ltd, and Mr. Narayan Murty, the man who established the multi-million Infosys software company.

Yes, the little help you extend to others can change their whole lives!

As an aside, Akshata Murthy is the daughter of this couple and is married to RISHI SUNAK who has recently become the Prime Minister of UK.

Rotary Club of Maleny Bulletin for 21st December 2022

RIP  DAVID WILSON  1933 - 2022
Every one associated with our Club will be saddened by the news of David's passing last week.  David was the last surviving member  of the original Charter Members of the Club in 1959 and was President in 1996.  Our sincere condolences to Danni and the family.

THIS WEEK'S MEETING
Christmas Party at Roly and Kerry Neiper's home in Watson Lane at 6:00 for 6:30pm. Please note that there is limited parking inside the property. BYO drinks and glasses and possibly chairs.

APOLOGIES
Apologies please to Bernice before noon on Tuesday.

DUTY ROSTER
                       21st Dec          4th Jan        18th Jan
Duty Officer                            Greg W         Jim A    
Assist DO                               Ric T             Roly N      
Registration    Peter McQ      Craig S          Laurelle O
Fellowship                              Lionel T         Neil A

WOOLWORTH SAUSAGE SIZZLE ROSTER
07Jan  0730 - 1030  Peter McQ   Roly N   Fran T 

           1030 - 1330  Ric T   Chris B   Keith R

04Feb   0730 - 1030  Brian A   Sherryl G   Phillip S 

            1030 - 1330  Jeff C   Rick V   Andy S 

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Don’t forget!! Our last get together for the year is Christmas dinner next Wednesday 21st

at Roly and Kerry Neiper’s home in Reesville. It will start earlier than our normal dinners,

at 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start although dinner will commence at 7.00pm. So we get some

more time for chatting and drinking.

Then, our first social get together for 2023 will on Wednesday 4 January and that’s going

to be, although it’s yet to be fully confirmed, a platypus tour with our own Platypus

Whisperer, Neil Andison, followed by a BBQ and drinks at Beersheba Museum. So, it’ll

start at the showgrounds sometime in the afternooon and proceed along the Obi creek

and Maleny Trail through to the Maleny Precinct. Details will be sent out by email once

they’re confirmed. Sorry, Peter, no croquet just yet! Talk with Craig about having it as a

future vocational visit in 2023.

That’s it for me! I’m looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the Neiper’s

home next week and if I don’t I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a

sensational New Year kicking off into 2023!!

Lastly I am attaching some photos of last week's street party. 

Sherryl on Santa's knee with Mrs Santa and Craig

Santa kicking on post duties

MINUTES OF MEETING OF 7TH DECEMBER

President Pauline opened the meeting by welcoming 17 members, Honorary Member Jill Morris and our Guest Speaker Michael Hinds, Branch Manager of BOQ Maleny.  She reported on the interesting and well organised vocational visit to the new Emergency Services Centre on 30 November.

• Maleny Christmas Festival on 9 December. Arrangements in hand for story telling for children in a Rotary marquee and a BBQ at the Maleny Food Company premises.  The latter will be organised by Jim A who needs three helpers.

• Roll call for those attending the Christmas Party at Roly and Kerry's on 21st December.

• Maleny Neighbourhood Centre Christmas Breakfast on 25 December at MNC. All community members welcome. Volunteers needed to assist set-up, cooking & service of BBQ etc. See Greg if you can assist.

• Possible arrangements for Australia Day at the Showground are still being discussed.

Michael Hinds gave a well illustrated presentation on protection for individuals from on line and phone scamming.  This included an outline of the most commonly occurring scams which targeted the general public, particularly senior citizens.  The goal of the scammers is to obtain personal information from their victims that will allow access to their accounts/records. The main types of scams can be found at the following website: 

https://www.boq.com.au/help-and-support/fraud-and-scams/protect-yourself

Michael's advice was to never provide any personal information to anyone who calls or emails you - just hang up if that occurs!  Passwords should be upgraded and accounts checked regularly.  If anything does not sound "right", end the conversion. The watchwords are Pause/ Process/ Proceed - if in doubt, take no action.

There was a lively questions and answer session at the end of his talk and Renee gave the vote of thanks.

ROTARIANS FROM NEPAL

Recently two Nepalese visitors were staying in the Maleny Hotel where they noticed our sign giving details of our meetings.  Although no meetings coincided with their visit, they asked for details of our Club.  Fortunately Kim was on hand and took them across the road to meet PP Chris Brooker, shown with Rajendra Guatam.

Raj is the current Secretary of RC of Kathmandu. He joined Rotary after being in Rotaract from 2009 and was President of Kathmandu Rotaract 2014/15.  He is in Australia for a month with an award from RC of Melbourne.Raj's partner is Rumi Dhungel, shown below.Rumi, who has a Masters degree in Accounting and Business Administration, lives near New Farm in Brisbane and is working in aged care.

Chris gave them a copy of 50 years of Rotary in Maleny. Interestingly the Kathmandu Club was established in 1959, the same year as Maleny.

FUTURE MEETINGS AND EVENTS
04 Jan  Possible walk with the Platypus Whisperer - details to follow.

11 Jan  Board Meeting

18 Jan  Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm for a Business Meeting

26 Jan  Possible Australia Day function at the Showground

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY FOR JANUARY
 1st Malcolm and Nancy Baker

BIRTHDAYS FOR JANUARY
1st Jeff Cornfoot  21st  Michael Gregory  24th  Renee Harris

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT 
CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS

Rotary Club of Maleny Bulletin for 16th November 2022

 WEDNESDAY 16TH NOVEMBER 2022

THIS WEEK'S MEETING

Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm for the Annual General Meeting followed by a Business Meeting. 

APOLOGIES
Apologies please to Bernice before noon on Tuesday.

DUTY ROSTER
                       16th Nov        7th Dec            21st Dec
Duty Officer    Michael G       Lionel T           Neal A
Assist DO       Sherryl G        Renee H         Peter McQ
Registration    Bernice McL   James McC    Malcolm B
Fellowship      Des C             Jared A           Chris B

WOOLWORTH SAUSAGE SIZZLE ROSTER
26 Nov   0730 - 1030  Phillip S   Sherryl G   Des C 

               1030 - 1330  Roly N   Chris B   Ric T

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

1. Well, first off a massive congratulations to all those on the sub committee for organizing such an amazingly successful inaugural Charity Golf Day at the Maleny Golf Club. I can’t believe we had such a big turnout of players and what about the best day weather wise that we could have asked for!! Over $9,000 profit is phenomenal and that’s a great sum to give to both Orange Sky, so they can help so many more homeless people, and to RAWCS to help those in Ukraine who have lost so much this year.

2. It’s AGM time at our next meeting! This is when we seek nominations for the committee starting 1 July 2023, which is a bit odd, when with most AGMs the existing roles are relinquished then and the new committee starts immediately after the AGM.

If you haven’t seen a copy of the Nomination Form that Bernice sent out this week, get in touch with Bernice and she’ll send you out a copy again. If you are seriously thinking about joining the committee and interested in any of the roles listed and maybe have a couple of questions, feel free to call me or one of the other current committee members about what’s involved.

The difference this year is with the Secretary’s position. It’s split into two parts now which will make it easier to do. The Secretary role is fine for someone to do who is looking to travel as it can all be done online. So as long as you have a phone and a laptop and an internet connection occasionally, there’s no reason to stay in Maleny for this position. 

So there is a new position of ‘Minutes Recorder’. For this you will have to attend the board meetings held each month and take the minutes and also send out the agenda, which is an existing template that simply transfers from month to month.

We already have someone showing a strong interest in one of the Director’s roles, so have a think about it. You can transition into one of the roles slowly over the next 7 months. Oh and by the way, I am super keen for someone who thinks the President role looks interesting in a couple of years to take on the President Elect role, which of course doesn’t start until 1 July 2023.

3. We are hopefully going to be busy next year with the Woodies Expo, confirmed for 2023, and then a few weeks later the Maleny Show. Also, it’s likely that we might be called on for our parking prowess again in early August for a major music event at the Showgrounds, to be organised by the Queensland Music Festival. They are talking about 5,000 people attending a one day event. We’ve already been approached to see if we’re interested in parking vehicles.

4. Lastly, we’ve got a Vocational Night on this month, now scheduled for 23 November. We are going to be given a tour of the new SES facilities on Macadamia Drive at 5.30pm and then we’ll go for yummy pizza and drinks at Jen’s Pizza at Finbars. We’ll be taking numbers attending at next week’s meeting and I’m sure there will be an email doing the rounds as well. Anyway, let Craig know if you are planning on coming along.

MINUTES OF MEETING OF 2ND NOVEMBER

President Paulette welcomed 18 members and guest speaker Nathan Dodd to the meeting.

Greg W reported on the Festuri Multi Cultural Festival held at Beerwah on last Saturday, where our Club joined with the RC of Glasshouse Country in having a stall promoting Rotary. One positive from the event was that it looks like Glasshouse will gain a new member.

Craig S advised that there will be a vocational visit on November 23rd to the new SES and RFS headquarters in Maleny commencing at 5.30pm and afterwards having dinner at Jen’s Pizza. As Jen is not able to renew her lease at the Purple Palate complex, this will be the last opportunity for the Club to savour Jen’s Pizza’s.

Rick V advised that there will be an Australia Day event at the Showgrounds next year, although it will not be the same as previous years. At this stage there will be a Flag Raising ceremony at TS Centaur followed by a Citizenship Ceremony. It is not known at this stage if APEX will be putting on their traditional Breakfast. Rick will keep the Club updated as more information becomes available.

Jim A reported on the highly successful Golf Day held at the Maleny Golf Club on Friday 28th October. Fortunately the weather on the day was fine and warm and 73 golfers hit off at 9am. With the support of many sponsors and donations, the day was not only a success socially but financially. The golf competition raised $8,446 and, when the proceeds of the raffle are added, the total raised on the day was $9,283 which is an outstanding result. Jim thanked the organising committee of Roly, Lionel, Jeff, Craig and Greg for the smooth running of the day and particularly Roly, whose idea it was to have a Golf Day. Jim also thanked those members who helped on the day, particularly the breakfast BBQ cooks who were run off their feet cooking bacon and eggs for the hungry Golfers!!! It is hoped to run another Golf Day in 2023, probably in late September.

Greg advised that the “Lift the Lid” walk for mental health that was to be held in Maleny has been cancelled .

Paulette reminded members that the Maleny Christmas Festival will be held in Maple Street on 9 December. The Club will be running a BBQ outside the Maleny Food Co on the night, as well as storytelling.

Talking of storytelling, Sergeant Chris was back on deck again and was up to his old tricks of fining members for anything and everything - some true and some not so true!!

Phillip introduced the Guest Speaker  Nathan Dodd. Nathan, who lives in North Maleny, is a Level 3 cricket coach. Nathan who hails from Lismore (Go the Blues!!!) had a love of cricket since his early days of playing in his back yard. He eventually moved to Sydney to further his cricket career, playing Grade Cricket for the strong Manly Warringah Cricket Club. He soon realised that he had a talent for coaching, so successfully undertook a level 3 coaching course with Cricket Australia. His first coaching position was with the Sandgate-Redcliff Club, where he enjoyed considerable success. He was then appointed as coach of the Australian Men’s Disability Cricket team. The team consists of men who have an IQ of lower than 75 and with a permanent intellectual disability. He was with the team as they played competitions in many countries around the world. Nathan stressed that Cricket Australia gave the Australian Disability team the same level of support that they give to all Australian Teams, from having the same uniforms to having similar support staff. Nathan said that he really enjoyed seeing the members of the team grow both as cricketers and young men. His coaching career also took him to Nepal, where he was coach of one of the franchised teams in Nepal. He said it was very different coaching a franchise team than it was coaching the national team. As well as playing in front of crowds of 20,000 plus, the franchise owners expected results and didn’t take “no” for an answer. Nathan has also coached the Northern Territory women’s team, and is currently assisting ex Qld Bulls player Chris Wildermuth as he attempts to again play first class cricket.

Jim thanked Nathan for his interesting talk and expressed his delight that there was now another “Blues” supporter in Maleny!!!

. 

FUTURE MEETINGS AND EVENTS

23 Nov  Vocational visit to new RFS and SES complex, followed by Jen's Pizza.

7 Dec  Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm for a Dinner Meeting with Guest Speaker Michael Hinds of BOQ Maleny on Protection From Online Scamming.

9 Dec Maleny Christmas Festival in Maple Street.

14 Dec Board Meeting.

21 Dec Christmas Party at Roly and Kerry Neiper's home.

WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES FOR NOVEMBER

12th Ric and Jacinta Townsend  19th Michael and Sherryl Gregory

BIRTHDAYS FOR NOVEMBER
2nd Sherryl Gregory  11th Ric Townsend  25th Bill Hankinson  29th Brian Allen

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT

CHANGES TO ONE OF LONDON'S HISTORIC BUILDINGS