Summary of Meeting 23 Sep 2014

A warm welcome by Acting President, Martin Silink was followed by a number of announcements.

Director of Public Relations, Adrienne Witteman reminded members of the quarterly gardening morning at Blackman Park this coming Sunday and asked for volunteers.

Past President Ann Smith informed the club that she would be unable to be President in the coming Rotary year. She raised a number of issues for the club to consider, including:

A discussion ensued. PP Martin was concerned that President Tom Grozier was unable to attend the meeting since he was unwell. He felt that no decision could be made about the Fair and that the views that had been expressed needed to be communicated through the Board to Tom. The resulting decision was for a delegation from the Rotary Club of Lane Cove to speak to the General Manager of Lane Cove Council, Mr Craig Wrightson.

 

A very profitable fine session was conducted most ably by our Sergeant, Rotarian Ian Jagelman. A highlight of the fine session was the very proud ‘boast’ by Rotarian Robyn Barrett, whose son, Johnathan Barrett, was named at the 2014 West Australian Media Awards evening as the 2014 Daily News Centenary Prize Journalist of the Year. He also won the award for the Social Equity Report and Best Print/Text Feature Writing for his story in the Australian Financial Review Weekend, “The Intersection” and also the Business Economics or Finance Report for his article, “Digging Up Home Truths”. Your scribe can recommend “The Intersection”   (http://www.afr.com/p/national/arts_saleroom/how_meth_can_destroy_your_life_even_QHHXMegPdGOWxrmlQehc5L)  - it is an excellent article and well worth reading.

 

Acting/President Martin introduced the guest speaker, our own Rotarian Harry Clarsen, who spoke about Burma, Harry’s interest in Burma was sparked when he studied the Burma Campaign. In 2005 he had the opportunity to visit Burma/Myanmar, and his association with the country has continued with his involvement in the Constitutional Democracy Project (2013/14), which was initiated and continues to be supported by the Rotary Club of Lane Cove. Harry provided information about geography, history and its role in World War II, its independence from Britain on January 4, 1948, the military coup on 2 March 1962 and the resulting military dictatorship which lasted until 2011. Now called Myanmar, the country’s population is approximately 51 million, about 80% of whom are Buddhist, with 4-10% Muslim. The country is very religious and most boys spend some time as Buddhist monks. U Thant was a Burmese diplomat and from 1961-1971 was the third Secretary General of the United Nations. During that time, Aung San Suu Kyi worked for U Thant. Yangon, the former capital of Burma, has been referred to as the Jewel of Asia. From Harry’s photos, it seemed that many areas of Burma could qualify for the epithet. This very brief report only touches on Harry’s enlightening talk. Rotarian James Shevlin presented the wine he won to Harry for the insights he provided into a country that for many years was closed to the outside world.

The meeting was closed by Acting President Martin, who sent the best wishes of all club members to President Tom for a speedy recovery.

19 Rotarians