Canterbury Rotary Walking Group
Meet (complete with dogs) at 7 am at Lynden Park on Highfield Rd – All welcome meet every Tuesday and Thursday morning
Canterbury Rotary Bike Riders
every Tuesday morning – if you would like to join in call Tony Simpson for details - ride to distant places (on bike tracks)
Canterbury Ladies Coffee
the last Friday of the month, 10.15am at Elle’s Café on Canterbury Rd
Sunday evening Film nights
commence soon -- watch this space. The difficulty has been the lack of quality movies. My current thinking is to choose the movie and the night and say lets meet at the Balwyn or the Rivoli for the show and we each buy our own tickets.
President's Message
Last Week - Rotarians at Work.
Last week I talked about membership and how our recruiting is so dependent upon each of us being up front with our friends and family and people we meet and inviting potential members or friends of Rotary along to meetings and functions. As well as individually doing this we need to raise our public image as an Organisation, as a District and most importantly as a Club.
In April 2013, District 9800 is embarking upon a program of putting Rotary in the public eye by a campaign to showcase "Rotarians at Work" and in particular on April 21, a Sunday. There are various suggestions being made and one is for each Cluster of Clubs, such as our Eastside group of five to get together and do something where there are larger tasks which a number of people can do and make an impact and gain favourable publicity for Rotary and encourage people to join us and get involved. Hence we need ideas and suggestions of things which we can plan and do both before and on the day of April 21.
A suggestion which has been put forward is to mount a campaign to remove graffiti and reduce the impact and the public vandalism that this causes. This would be a cluster initiative and could be done with local and state government involvement. Also some effort could be mounted to showcase a range of Rotary projects at the Camberwell market. We need some collateral brain power to work on this so I would be delighted to have feedback from all members of the club on ideas to do good in the community and to promote the public image of Rotary.
I look forward to hearing from each and every one of you. Remember that we both give and get Peace through Service.
Have a great week and enjoy the Restaurant night next Monday.
Gerry
The Progress of Our Plans
We have reached the end of the first month of our new Rotary Year and it is worth reviewing the progress of our Plans.
Our social committee is up and active and there is the Partner’s Night at Simon’s Peiking Duck Restaurant, Middleborough Road, Box Hill. Register your bookings and payments with Russell Hoath. This is a great opportunity to invite friends and potential new members along. Thanks Rob Simpson.
Vocational is now into planning for the hosting of the UK GSE team in Feb/ March 2013 and there are still two hosts needed to complete these preparations. Vocational visits will be planned when we see the CV’s of the incoming team. Thanks David Robinson and John McCaskill.
New Generations has welcomed our Exchange Student, Lars Spies from Daun in Germany and Lars starts at Camberwell High on Aug 3. Peter May and his team have great plans for other Youth activities and will be seeking member input to these activities.
Club Services is really boiling up and Rob has other future social activities planned. Kyle has really got the Speaker Program off to a great start and we have a team of tree planters off out to Broadford on Sunday August 19.
International activities are up and doing with the Philippines well under way again with another large team. David Chudasko has plans for activities and I understand that New Generations are looking to do something with an International Flavour.
Fund raising continues with the Market and Aussie Pride Badges thanks to Tony Simpson and Graham Bishop.
Membership is really a key area where we all need to make things happen this year.
Our programs are all up and running. We have interesting speakers, lively social activities and hands on, challenging projects in Community Service. So ask your friends and people you meet in every day activities to come enjoy and join with us.
If you do not make the invitation then they will not come.
I know Helen Hartnett has plans to talk to her friends about our activities and so let’s see if we can all do the same and so lift our membership numbers by 25% this year. That is a net 10 members.
Membership - the lifeblood of a club
Members are the life blood of a club and sadly members have to be renewed as individuals lives change and they move to other regions and grow into the next phase of life. Recently we have had a number of members reach this stage and they have retired from our regular affairs to coming to those parts of our club life which now remain more relevant to their situation. We have to accept this and celebrate the fact that they still participate at the new level.
Richard Pope is the most recent member to retire to a new life stage and we thank him for all his contributions over the previous 24 years and look forward to seeing him at lunches and bike rides. Richard was active as Program chair in 1988, Pres elect in 89 and President in 1990/91. He was Membership Director in 1992/93, Program Chair in 1998, International Director in 2004 and 2005 and Foundation Chair in 2005 as well. There were a number of 5 years after in a period where Canterbury found Peace Scholars every year after this opportunity was commenced largely due to Richard’s efforts. Richard was awarded a Paul Harris Fellow Recognition in 1997 for his contributions to Club affairs.
Richard not only contributed to the formal life of the club but he was also an initiator of informal social life in the club and encouraged extra curricular lunches and social activities. Richard will be missed as a club member but we look forward to seeing him at lunches and bike rides in the future. We wish Richard and Margaret a long and happy retirement and we look forward to hearing about the forthcoming trip to Corfu and Spain when you return.
Warm regards
Gerry
Committee Membership
I wish to remind members that this year the responsibility to join a committee lies with the individual member. This initiative has come from district, but as yet only around half of our members have put themselves forward to join a specific area of service, mainly due I think to being unaware of the changes.
I urge those of you who do not yet have a designated committee to speak to President Gerry or one of our directors, John Richards (Club Service), Helen Hartnett (Membership), Val Cuniffe (Community), John McCaskill (Vocational), Peter May (New Generations), David Chudasko (International) and Graham Bishop (Fundraising) as soon as possible. There are many things to
do and a total involvement makes being a member much more enjoyable.
Remember Peace through Service.
David Robinson
Acting President
Past President Peter Evans
Past President Peter Evans has resigned after 25 years with the Rotary Club of Canterbury. Peter has been actively involved in many of our programs and was often the driving force. A member of many Philippines Eye medical missions, on his last trip Peter saw the need for installing a toilet block at a school in the Philippines and made it happen. He was organizer of our Camberwell Market Roster for several years. In 2011 he was our Rotarian of the Year and last month was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship for the second time. Good company and always a proactive and energetic member, Peter will be greatly missed by club members. We do hope and expect to see Peter and Kathy at future meetings.
Welcome Lars Spies
A huge welcome to Lars, who has been sponsored by our club for his youth exchange year in Australia. Lars is 16, from Daun-Boverath in Germany, loves sport and is considering a university course for a career in education. Lars has been a mentor to the younger children at his school, has an older brother (Eric), a younger sister (Karoline), three cats and an Irish Wolfhound (Brenda). His father is a medical doctor and president-elect of his Rotary Club.
Lars is being hosted by President Gerry and Kate until November, when his new hosts will become Peter and Judy May. Thanks to Kate, Lars will be attending Camberwell High in Year 10 for 2012, then complete Unit 1 of his VCE before returning home mid-2013. David Chudasko will be Counsellor for Lars during his time with our club.
All club members are encouraged to help make this year a memorable experience for our youth exchange student.
Presentation from RC Daun-Eifel, Germany
At our final club meeting for July 2012, our new Youth Exchange student, Lars, made a presentation to President Gerry from the Rotary Club in Germany who have sponsored his year in Australia. Lars speaks very good English, given this is his first day in Australia and he has never been away from home on his own for more that a week before this year away. He will speak to the club again as part of our New Generations program night in September. By then he will have been to an Australian school and learned to speak some 'Strine. Perhaps he will even start to understand some of our Aussie Rotary humour.
New Generation Director, Peter May, presented Lars with the Club's Aussie Pride badge. Peter welcomed Lars to Australia and our club, saying how lucky we are to have such a fine ambassador for his country and an outstanding representative of his Rotary Club back home in Daun.
Community Service Projects
Project 1 : Belmore Special School
We have undertaken to provide labour to assist with the installation of a new garden at the school. Followed by a bbq. at the Cunniffe’s
Saturday, 29th October : 10.00 am - approx. 2.00 pm.
On Saturday, 29 We spent the morning setting out a new garden in the front of the school, and also tidying up various areas within the main playground.
Our work with the new garden was made much easier by supervision from the landscape gardener with his very detailed plan. The night before the heavens had opened and we all wondered what weather would be like in the morning, but fortunately the sun shone and the soil was easy to work with.
Thanks to Alan Stevens (who didn’t even stop for a tea break!), Graham Bishop, Gerry Cross, Ian Coopes, John McCaskill, Mal Short and Marty Tynan (our Police Mentoree). Also a BIG THANKS to Nora Ley, who arrived with a batch of delicious savoury scones for morning tea.
A great result. Thanks Team! Val Cunniffeth October a group of members, plus staff from Belmore School
Project 2 : BBQ at Servants Community House, 14 Balwyn Road
We have spoken with Matt Maudlin CEO of Servants and come up with the idea of establishing
a vegetable garden and doing a bit of gardening the day after the Grand Final.
This will be done in conjunction with residents and followed by a simple bbq.
Sunday, 2nd October 2011. 11.00 am- 3.00 pm approx
Project 3 : Belmore Special School
We have also undertaken to pay costs and provide assistance with cooking, cleaning etc. on a school camp for about 8 students at
Camp Getaway, just out of Bendigo. For more details of the camp : http://www.campgetaway.com.au/ We can have as many volunteers as we like for this project, as we could also do gardening, painting etc. at Camp Getaway.All we need is you. No personal costs involved, other than feeding ourselves at the camp. Accommodation provided.Wednesday 9 -Friday 11 November
Club Members donate their faces to Movember
Club members Brian Bloomer and David Chudasco are donating their faces to the Movember.
Each year Movember (formerly known as November) sees the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces in Australia and around the world, with the sole aim of raising vital funds and awareness for men’s health. Now we're asking you to make a small donation to support our moustache and research into the cure for prostate cancer which will kill an estimated 3,300 men in 2010 in Australia alone and support the one in eight men who will experience depression in their lifetime. Friends join us, Brian Bloomer and David Chudasco by donating or guys, by growing your own mo, and visiting au.movember.com or
Donate to our cause or just check our our Mo growth and donation progress at:
Brian Bloomer http://mobro.co/brianbloomer
David Chudasco http://au.movember.com/mospace/336452/
Men sporting Movember moustaches, known as Mo Bros, become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November and through their actions and words raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.
Wattle Day in Wattle Park - Supporting "On The Right Track"
The Rotary Club of Canterbury members joined the “Friends of Wattle Park”, Parks Victoria and many other local community groups to celebrate National Wattle Day in our local Wattle Park on Sunday 12 September. Wattle was designated the Australian National Floral emblem in 1988 and Wattle Day is a celebration of Spring and Wattle.
The Rotary members sold their “Aussie Pride” badges on the day to raise funds for the local “On The Right Track” Kokoda Challenge program. Sales on the day came to more than $300 which is in addition to $4000 previously given by the Club to the “On The Right Track” program. The Aussie Pride Badge is a unique combination of a sprig of Wattle and the Australian Flag on a lapel pin – a symbol of Australian Pride, Unity and Peace. The badge is a fundraising initiative of the Rotary Club of Canterbury and is the brain-child of Past Rotarian and Past Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner and past WA Police Commissioner Bob Falconer. 
“On The Right Track” Kokoda Challenge program is a partnership between Victoria Police and YMCA at Boroondara which is proudly supported by the Rotary Club of Canterbury. The program co-ordinated by Victoria Police Leading Senior Constable Brett Phillips , Youth Resource Officer with Boroondara Police and Rosemary Brett, Community Development Director, YMCA at Boroondara, takes at risk youth on the challenge of their life, walking the Kokoda Track.
Wattle Day in Wattle Park, opened by State Member for Burwood, Bob Stensholt, was a huge success with hundreds of locals visiting the park and enjoying the festivities. The Tramways Big Band and Wattle Park Primary School choir performances added to the spectacle on the day.
Links:
For more information about the Rotary Club of Canterbury and their Aussie Pride Badge visit http://www.canterburyrotary.org or phone 0416 661 321.
For more information about “On The Right Track” Kokoda Challenge Program contact the Rotary Club of Canterbury or email Brett Phillips brett.phillips@police.vic.gov.au
Friends of Wattle Park: http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1process_details.cfm?volunteer=121
Parks Victoria: http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/index.cfm