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President David welcomed all to our 28th Meeting for the year and then following Rotary Grace he welcomed Guests Steve Anderson and Renae Elrington. He announced we would be having a surprise guest speaker due to the inability of Burmo to attend due to illness. Burma had a stint in Hospital but is now on the mend. LADIES' DAY Next week's meeting will be a ladies day. Guest speaker will be Barbara Ferguson speaking on her work in the Congo. Please let your spouse/partner know and invite her along to hear a wonderful story and a powerful message BUSHFIRES Ken Cook, resident of Talbingo, addressed the meeting about his recent attendance at the Batlow Rotary Club. With only twelve members, any support given to them would be a great way to assist with the Bushfire recovery which has devastated their area. Some members had lost homes, farm infrastructure and livestock. He encourage our members to get up to those areas and support them. He stressed that we shouldn't jump in prematurely and donate funds but rather wait and find out, through Batlow and Tumbarumba clubs, the best way for us to contribute funds to help those affected. David Post, supported Ken's comments and spoke of the large number of farmers who have contacted him who are feeling alone and confused about their situation. He stressed how important it is to support them but said we shouldn't rush in but wait till things settle down and the needs that we can meet become more apparent.
SERGEANT Peter McKinnon was today's sergeant. He posed the question who won World War 11? It turns out that as a percentage of population military personnel lost were as follows: Australia 0.5%; Britain 0.5%; France 1.4%; USA 0.5%. The Germans lost 7 million people and Russia 27 million. We all put in for this pieced of non-trivial trivia.
Reminder from Gerry Gerlach about the District Conference in Temora Don't forget to put in your diaries the District Conference in Temora on the weekend of March 20th through 22nd. A good showing from our Club would be great as it will be the last of our District prior to the amalgamation.
PROJECTS Peter Crozier announced that the Board had approved a number of projects which needed to be voted on by Club as they were above the $1,000 threshold. - Ronald McDonald House $4,000
- Badambay Ophthalmic Centre Cambodia $7,000
- Nangus Family Home repairs $1,500
All projects ere approved by a club motion without dissent. Peter also announced that the Board had approved after discussion by Projects Committee, a commitment of $5,000 at this stage to further an application for a Rotary Global Grant for Dr. Tony McMullen's Malaria project in West Papua. CITIZEN OF THE YEAR. Phil McIntosh, the initiator and driving force behind the very successful Gears and Beers Festival, was congratulated by the Club for his nomination for Wagga Citizen of the Year. We are all hoping you win the prestigious award on Australia Day Phil. You richly deserve the honour and we all appreciate what you have done for our Club and the Community of Wagga. GUEST SPEAKER Our mystery guest speaker today was none other that our loveable rogue, former Superintendent of Police Wagga, Frank Fuller. Frank gave an entertaining talk at short notice. He described his talk as an update of a few colourful characters. He said his war stories contained plenty of lies but were mostly true. He went on to talk about a number of corrupt former police and their relationship with organised crime. Frank's humour and vivid memory provided us with a smorgasbord of stories to rival anything you might see on Netflix true crime stories. John Gray thanked Frank for his talk at short notice and filling in for his good friend Burmo |
LUCKY DRAW PRIZE Wine bottle winner was Peter Crozier |
Paul briefed the members on recent upgrades in job emails, the Members Only menu and the latest version of the ClubRunner App. He noted that technology is harder to sell than most other subjects so he started his presention with sound and graphics and fireworks promoting the points he was going to talk about.
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