My year as President has been a very enjoyable one that has been enhanced by the support of the club. It has been an honour to represent the club as your President at various functions as well as at our club meetings.
 
One of the highlights outside the Club has been at the Citizenship Ceremonies at Lane Cove Council where I was able to speak to the new Australian citizens about the work that Lane Cove Rotary does both locally and internationally.
 
Unfortunately we lost one of our long term members during the year, PDG Tom Tait, but to remember him and his wife, Thel, we have established the Tom and Thelma Tait Award for a deserving member of the Lane Cove Youth Orchestra. This year it was awarded to Jessica Ellis on Tom’s birthday in October.
 
I am delighted to report that Membership of the Club has increased over the year despite the transfer of two long term members to another club. I hope to continue the growth of the club as Membership Director this coming year.
 
Activities run by or assisted by the Club this year include the Lane Cove Art Awards, a Family Fun Day at the Lane Cove Bowling Club, Hat Day to support Australian Rotary Health, which is the largest non-government research fund in Australia, regular bush care maintenance at Blackman Park in the Centenary of Rotary Tree Grove that we planted in 2005, and Barbecues at Lane Cove Swimming Club Spring Carnival, Greenwich Pool Nippers, National Tree Day at Stringybark Creek and Australia Day.  Walk Around the World was again run in conjunction with Lane Cove Council to encourage health and fitness in the community. Funds raised from this go towards exercise stations in our parks and play equipment for children with a disability.
 
Our major fund-raiser for the year is the annual Lane Cove Rotary Village Fair which involves the whole club as we sell and set up the areas for the stalls as well as running a barbecue and raffle. This year the fair raised just over $23,000.
 
With the funds raised from many of the activities we have been able to support many programmes both locally and internationally. Funds distributed to charitable causes this year totalled $48,490.
 
Internationally we supported the Heartland Academy in Nepal where we assisted after the earthquake, and with the new library and other areas as an ongoing project. Another continuing venture has been the Nusa Tenggara Timur Small Grants Project which supplies water, tanks, farm implements, seeds and so on to subsistence farmers in Eastern Indonesia. This is very ably co-ordinated by Chris Curtis.  
 
Shelter Box is a Rotary project that supplies an extended family with a tent and essential equipment to use while they are displaced or homeless. It is an immediate response after natural or man-made disasters and we are proud to be able to assist with this.
 
Through the Rotary Club of Chatswood Sunrise we have also bought two Hippo Rollers for a community in South Africa. These are specially designed barrels with handles for transporting water. A Hippo Roller saves people carrying large containers on their heads and has a far greater capacity. You may notice a couple of pictures of them in the slide show.
 
In Community Service we have donated to Lane Cove and North Side Community Services, Lane Cove Swimming Club, Lane Cove Concert Band, the Tree of Joy for Delvena Women’s Refuge, Taldumande Support Programme for homeless youths, Trish MS Research Foundation and Cancer Research at Nepean Hospital. The Prostate Cancer Foundation, which was established by Lane Cove Rotary Club, was also a recipient of funds. 
 
The club has supported Bowelcare over many years by providing kits to sell through pharmacies for bowel cancer testing.
 
In the Vocational Service area we held a Pride of Workmanship Awards evening in May where we presented five worthy recipients with their awards. In October we visited Ryde TAFE Hospitality Restaurant for dinner and presented apprentice Brent Hughes with an award for Excellence and Commitment to Training in Commercial Cookery.
 
Youth Service is an important area as youth are our future. This month we held the Primary Schools Speaking Competition with 10 excellent young students from schools in the Lane Cove area, speaking on a variety of topics. Our winner was Sam Modesto from Lane Cove West Public School.
 
Lane Cove Youth Orchestra was also supported for their annual camp and we have supplied Synergy, the local youth centre with money to buy some musical instruments. Other groups included in our donations have been Hunters Hill High School with an award at their annual Presentation Day and 1st Lane Cove Scout Group.
 
In January we sponsored a young lady, Kristine Abalos, to the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) at a week-long camp where the recipients have an opportunity to enhance their leadership qualities.
 
Lastly we gave to the Rotary Foundation which is Rotary’s own charity. This was in support of the annual programs fund, End Polio Now and workshops on Post-Polio Syndrome for medical professionals. Thirty years ago when an Australian Rotarian suggested we eradicate polio there were 350,000 cases annually. As of this week there have been only 17 new cases this year, 6 in Afghanistan and 11 in Pakistan. A wonderful achievement so far but we need to keep up the fight until Polio is eradicated! We are “this Close”.
 
As I am sure you will agree Lane Cove Rotary Club has lived by World Rotary President Ravi Ravindran’s motto for this year – Be a Gift to the World.
 
This would not have been achieved without the whole club being supportive but I would like to mention a few people individually. Firstly, the Directors and Avenues of Service Chairs for their hard work throughout the year.
 
Vice President Lindsay May, who filled in all positions when necessary and assisted with all the paperwork and printing,
Secretary Tania Mace, without whom I couldn’t have done the job,
Treasurer, Bob Cartwright,
Projects Director, Ron Tweedie, who is unable to be here,
Public Relations Director, Adrienne Witteman, who was also our Sgt,
Foundation Director, Harry Clarsen,
Community Chair, Phil Wade, who also filled in as scribe for a good part of the year,
International Chair, John Donald,
Vocational Chair, John Palmer and
Youth Chair, Margaret Silink.
 
Secondly, I would be remiss if I neglected to thank
Roger Wescombe for a wonderful speaker programme,
Robyn Barrett for organising our social functions and
John Norris, our resident visiting Rotarian who filled in many times on the attendance table.
 
Thank you everyone and I wish the new team all the best for a wonderful year.