We can certainly pack things into one hour. Thank you for your patience today. Welcome to Richard Baguley our newest member. Congratulations to Phil McIntosh and his team as it looks like another great Gears & Beer Festival. Many hours have been put in by Phil & his team. Thank you to the members who volunteered to help at the The Little Kids Big Day Out.

 

Hopefully we can get Dennis van Someren to come back and talk more on Shine For Kids. He certainly enjoyed our club meeting today.

Don't forget the Geoff Hamilton Challenge to give blood and send your photo to him.

Next week's meeting will be chaired by Geoff Breust in my absence. 

Gears & Beer Festival is not far away so please place your name on the roster.

 

Please keep Past President Geoff Hamilton in your thoughts and prayers.

 

Thank you for your support. Have a great week!

 

 

Richard Baguley was a member of Wollundry Rotary from 1991 until 1993, and resigned when he took up an appointment to staff of Junee Goal, as Medical Officer. 

Paul Murray has maintained a close friendship with Richard, nominated him as a prospective member, and presented him with regalia and apparel essential for his new role.

Richard will have the classification of Medical Practitioner, and will serve on the Sprout and About Market committee.

 

In comments acknowledging his induction, Richard told us that he had served a life sentence at Junee - 22 years.  Richard's wife, Anne Marie died recently while travelling overseas, and the club members look forward to providing support and fellowship to our newest member.

Our program this week was a briefing for club members on the Gears and Beers Ride and Festival.

The committee that runs the festival are active all year, thinking, planning, probing and networking.

Then the meetings start, and every detail is listed, allocated, delegated and eventually consummated.

 

This Bulletin is not a reference for information on the festival - The Marshals Handbook serves that purpose.

However, the highlights off Phil's presentation were:

 

Set up and layout, from Midday Saturday.

Saturdays Registration process. 

Transfer Ride Arrival.

AFL final coverage on big screen, if it transpires.

Baylis Street set up for starting rides including sponsors exposure. To commence at 5.30am, after adjustment for daylight saving.

Despatch of various Rides between 7.00am and 10.00am

Security of Cycles, each of which is valued up to $10 000.

Sunday Festival layout.

Entertainment, organised by Darren Wallace.

Festival Entry, security, wristbands, fences, toilets, parking for stalls.

Location of sponsor's vehicles, and our responsibilities for their care.

 

Then we moved on to details of the rides.

Our Bible for the rides is the Traffic Control Plan - and safety drives all the rules incorporated into this document.

Baylis Street will be closed all day.

Marshalls need to know intimately all details of the rides that they will encounter.

Keep riders on the correct side of the road. They are not racing, and we don't call it a race.

Safety, First Aid, Course Signage, Navigation and  rider welfare are all important considerations, and warrant a deep degree of planning.

We have a supply of cowbells, supplied by Rapha, and are keen for marshals and spectators to follow the French tradition, and ring bells as cyclists pedal by.

The course is rated "fast". The surface is smooth, unlike last years rutted conditions.

 

Phil completed his comments by acknowledging Paul Murray, who has written a software program to facilitate the registration process. Peddling to an event, and then waiting in line to pick up your ride number is frustrating, so Gears and Beers is ahead of the pack.

 

 

 

 

Dennis Vanscoven and Holly Chisholm represented the community group, Shine for Kids, providing support for the families of prisoners throughout Australia. We learned that there are sixty thousand children in that situation, and 20% of them, statistically, will end up in prison themselves. Among prison populations, there is a 70% recidivism rate - the extra 20% involving children is the target of Shine's activity.

Among the costs that Dennis quoted are the Capital cost of housing prisoners NSW, $1.5 billion per year, and $8 billion spent on indigenous housing. The annual budget of Shine, nationally is just $3 million.

 

Shine has been going for 30 years, and had a presence in Junee for 8 years. Holly runs the local operation, with volunteers.

One of the activities that is providing positive results is "colourful dreaming" where kids visit their father, and they paint together.

 

Dennis is a member of the Rotary club of Kenthurst, dressed in a smart jacket, spoke confidently and looked every bit the successful "business or professional Man." A few at our meeting would have been surprised when he told us that his father had been in goal, but that added some authority to his work within Shine.

David Byfield reported that, at last nights board meeting, two projects were approved. 

 

We have sponsored the Riverina Summer School for Strings to the tune of $500. This is part of the Wagga Wagga cultural heritage, and has been a feature for over thirty years. David mentioned that if members were interested, a season ticket for the series of concerts was available.

 

The second project exceeded $1000, and required Ratification at a club meeting.

We propose to purchase a defibrillator at cost of $2500, to be available at our Rotary events - The Food and Wine Festival and The Gears and Beers Festival.

 

It is proposed to mount the defibrillator in a secure box on the Trailer BBQ. 

 

There was no suggestion that an old phone box be purchased to house the equipment, although a precedent has been set in Ireland.

Geoff Breust was Sergeant for a day.

First comment - What is this flag doing here - is there any significance" Geoff ran an airline with around 40 Swedish built aeroplanes in his fleet, so that is a flag that deserves some respect.

 

Swans supporters were targeted, despite their despondence from the weekend. Hawthorn too was a source of fines - do they have supporters?

The story of Peter Clucas, his drone and the kangaroo has been doing the rounds, but it was fodder for the sergeant. The greatest disappointment - no video of the roo defending itself.

Michael Knight and John Gray were asked to stand, and accept comment on dress standards.  Did Geoff seriously think that Michael's coral pink pullover, and John Gray's red one have  anything in common?

Wal Paton needed to check what day it was, he used his phone. Sergeant Geoff pinged him for texting, and there's no excuses.

A wheel meal deal at Burmo's was analysed for fine potential. There was plenty. Graham had a bad back, but managed to bend his arm with a glass of red wine attached. Ken Taylor got lost on the way to Wantabadgery - Geoff was worried about how his drones perform with navigation!!!!

 

Richard Baguley was reminded that he had been here before. A new member may be exempt from fines, but only completely new, not recycled.

 

 

 

Paul Murray had been delegated to provide Rotary Information. His first initiative was to remind us that he needed about 10 laptops, to be used in the registration for Gears and Beers. It appears that he has 6 - needs 4 more.

 

The core message in Rotary Information was that District 9700 has arranged a seminar on Technology, called Distek 17. Unfortunately, the powerpoint presentation to "sell" the event failed to proceed, so we had to rely on Paul's memory. It will be held on 12 November, in Young. The seminar is free, and will have sessions on Clubrunner, Graphics, Photo Editing, and Zoom, a new Confrencing facility that the District has purchased.

Gerry Gerlach addressed the club, not with a "thought of the day," but to remind the members that the next District 9700 Conference will be staged in Leeton, on the weekend of May 4, 5, and 6, 2018. This will be five weeks after our Food and Wine Festival.

Accomodation has been booked at the Leeton Heritage Motor Inn, six rooms at this stage, but we can still get more as required!!!!!!

There are preliminary discussions to have Wollundry Rotary provide a presentation on staging major festivals on the scale of Food and Wine, or Gears and Beers. Do we want to give away secrets??

A Vocational visit to an insurance Brokers office is an unlikely event - not much to see, not much to get your hands on. We are unlikely to be invited to David Benn office, so here's what you are missing out on.

Peter Clucas provided an update on Geoff Hamilton.

 

Peter urged Wollundry Rotarians to keep up with Geoff's story, respond to his daily Blog entries and provide support for the great positive attitude that Geoff is exhibiting.

 

Blood donations are high on Geoff's priorities - and if you can help, get a photo of your blood bank session, and post it to Geoff's blog

 

You can share and support Geoff Hamilton at his Blog:

 

https://geoffbeatsleukemia.com

 

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