Report on Dinner Meeting 13th September 2016
The meeting started with Pres Margaret warmly welcoming everyone, especially the visitors: Philippa Paull, Keith McNeill (visiting Rotarian), Yvonne (Von) Norris and John Norris, who was to be inducted (again) into the Club later in the evening.
PP Jenny reported on her participation in the Australian Rotary Health Committee (ARHC is one of the largest independent funders of mental health research within Australia). Jenny also reported that she and John Norris attended a very successful Lane Cove Youth Orchestra concert at the Conservatorium on Sunday 12th Sept (and the fact she and John both won hampers in the raffle). She also reminded all members to donate good quality wines or other goods for the Rotary Raffle for the Fair on 9th October.
PP Chris reported that he and the team from the Nusa Tenggara Association (NTA) made a presentation to the Rotary Club of Mosman. NTA is a non-for-profit NGO which is working in the East Nusa Tenggara Province of Indonesia (NTT) immediately to the north of Australia. He asked all members to continue supporting the NTA program, and reminded Rotarians hat they are welcome to visit the NTT project sites.
Rtn Pat invited people to a fundraiser dinner at Mustang restaurant, Crows Nest, ($60 pp) on 28 October for Heartland Academy College in Nepal.
Pres Tania indicated that all members will be needed for the Lane Cove Fair on Sunday 9th October. Volunteers will be needed the day before to mark out the sites for the stalls. This year there will be a smaller number of stalls, no coffee stalls, 10 food stalls, but more rides. Volunteers will be needed for traffic managing duties during the day, as well as on the barbecue.
Rtn Hazel asked members to suggest nominations for a candidate to attend the RYLA leadership camp in January 2017.
PP Lindsay reported on Phil Wade who has been unwell for the past 2 weeks. He has been in and out of hospital but fortunately was able to avoid exploratory surgery at the very last minute.
Pres Margaret reminded us that volunteers were needed next Sunday (19th September) at Blackman Park for a BushCare working bee and also asked for volunteers to work on a BBQ for the Lane Cove Swimming Club on 30th September.
After the reports, Tania and Margaret as co-Presidents, then conducted a formal induction ceremony to welcome PP John Norris back to the Club. Tania summarised John’s 29 years in Rotary, including 2 terms as president of Lane Cove Rotary Club (2004-5 and 2007-8) and one term as president of Warners Bay Rotary Club (1991-92). Margaret formally conducted the induction ceremony for John (just to keep it in the family), and he in turn said how pleased he was able to rejoin the Rotary Club of Lane Cove. Tania presented John with his Rotary pin, his dinner badge, a directory, a club shirt and his certificate and advised his classification was Local Government Finance. John has been appointed to the Administration Committee, chaired by Rtn James Shevlin.
The Sergeant’s fine session was conducted by PP Lindsay and, as usual, most of the members were fined for flimsy reasons.
PP Chris then introduced PP Noel Phelan (a member of Northbridge Rotary Club) to speak on his cruise to Antarctica but more importantly on his involvement as a Director of the Taldumande Youth Project. The report on his trip to Antarctica touched on many details including the need for preparations, Arctic clothing, travel insurance, visiting the Falklands Islands, cruising on the “Ocean Diamond”, and riding zodiacs at high speed among icebergs and icy seas. He showed wonderful photos of icebergs, sea ice, whale skeletons, meeting whales, as well as seeing icebergs calving, icebergs rotating, and finished with photos of proving that he and others were actually swimming in the sea at just below zero degrees.
PP Noel then presented details about Taldumande, which is a not-for-profit community organisation supporting vulnerable children, young people and their families.  Noel is a director of Taldumande Youth Services, and invited Lane Cove Club to join other Rotary Clubs in “adopting” a Taldumande property and support the funding of these refuges. The organisation specialises in crisis response, residential care and support. Taldumande offers services that enhance family relationships and assist in the prevention of youth homelessness and family breakdown, responds to the changing needs of children, families and young people in crisis or at risk in the local community and provides quality, short and medium term accommodation, case management and support services. Noel spoke of the harrowing experiences faced by youth fighting drugs, abuse, alcoholism and loss of family support at a time when they had no education or training, no jobs, no hope and nowhere to live. Noel indicated that the project would also welcome individual donors or packages $1000 for a bedroom.
PP Jenny then formally thanked Noel for his talk on Antarctica, as well as for his presentation on the amazing work done by Taldumande.
The raffle prize was won by PP Keith McNeill who presented it to the speaker.
The dinner meeting was concluded by Pres Margaret who thanked Keith, Philippa and Von and welcomed John back as a Member. She reminded everyone to remember the working bee at Blackman Park on Sunday and wished Hazel safe travels to Ireland.
Scribe Martin Silink