BULLETIN of the ROTARY CLUB of OCEAN GROVE INC.
Volume 24 No. 12
Notice for the meeting at the Ocean Grove Hotel, on 27th September 2005 – 6.00 for 6.30.
A Club assembly, chaired by President Helen, with Bill Steains as ass’t cashier, and John Wynn as greeter and ass’t Sgt.
If Bill and John have done duties in the last few weeks, I apologise, but I have no recent records, so I am starting a new roster.
Meeting held 20th September
That was a ripper of a night, thanks to JC and Daniel, Alistair and Mickaela of Kilgour Wines, Rachael of Bellarine Estates and Sally Enders of Scotchman’s Hill, who was also our g speaker.
We sampled some excellent wines, and Sally spoke knowledgably and fluently of soil ‘n climate ‘n water ‘n markets ‘n varieties ‘n cool climate wines v. warm climates ‘n pruning ‘n trellising ‘n weather ‘n flowering ‘n sprays ‘n baume ‘n harvesting ‘n mildew. Yields of 3 to 3.5 tonnes to the acre is OK down here.
Bill and Marion Walton were inducted into our Club and Tim Kemp’s 1887 edition of ‘Liz Browning’s poems were knocked down to Billy S for $100 as a donation to Rotary.
Student Exchange – Quo Vadis?
We spent $3489 on this programme last financial year. Just $730 on Ryla and Rypen combined. Did we get value for our money? And, for that matter, does it matter if we didn’t?
Our inwards student was charming, articulate, linguistic and intelligent, but did she;
• Make friends or lasting contacts outside her Rotary families?
• Contact any of us in the three months since she went home?
• Address any other Rotary Club?
• Leave her Geelong school with any real knowledge of her own country?
• Take home any lasting favourable memories of our country, or us?
What did we expect of her? Do we have sufficient members with school-age children to make this programme effective? Can we justify spending 17.5% of our total charitable expenditure on just one person?
I suggest it is time we debated this question, strictly within our own Club. This bulletin will not be put on the web. As one member suggested a few years back, has Student Exchange reached its ‘use-by’ date?
How about a letter to the editor? If you want to remain anonymous, just say so. Such a letter would be designated ‘name supplied and with-held’ I will not print verbal or unsigned submissions.
Interesting facts
On a lighter note, have you ever been challenged to name the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and been stuck with 3 or 4 at the most? Well, here is your chance to prove yourself very clever. Just memorise the following;
Structure Location Date Builders
Pyramids of Egypt Egypt 2575-2465 BC Ancient Egyptians
Hanging Gardens of Babylon Iraq 605-562 BC Ancient Babylonians
Temple of Diana at Ephesus Turkey 550 BC Ancient Turks
Statue of Zeus by Phidias at Olympia Greece c.447 BC Ancient Greeks
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus Turkey 350 BC Ancient Greeks
Pharos of Alexandria Greece 297 BC Ancient Greeks
Colossus of Rhodes Greece c.280 BC Ancient Greeks
Ed. Note- It would appear that the Greeks have slipped a bit in the last 2285 years!
Serial no. 1 – Chocolate v. Sex – 5 to 8 of 20.
5. You can make chocolate last as long as you want it to.
6. You can have chocolate even in front of your mother.
7. If you bite the nuts too hard, the chocolate won’t mind.
8. Two people of the same sex can have chocolate without being called nasty names.
Membership gain is a link with Rotary history, and in our own district.
When Peter Schroeder was inducted into the Rotary Club of Hamilton, a link with the past was maintained.
He is a grandson of the late Walter Drummond, a Hamilton-born man credited with bringing Rotary to Australia 84 years ago. Walter met Paul Harris in 1913, but the intervention of WW1 delayed Walter’s determination to establish Rotary out here until the successful charter of the Melbourne Rotary Club in 1921. one of Rotary’s firsts: see below.
Some Rotary “Firsts”
• The first Rotary club meeting was in Chicago, Illinois, on February 23, 1905.
• The first regular luncheon meetings were in Oakland, California, chartered in 1909.
• The first Rotary convention was in Chicago in 1910.
• The first Rotary club outside the United States was chartered in Winnipeg, Canada in 1910.
• The first Rotary club outside North America was chartered in Dublin, Ireland in 1911
• The first Rotary club in a non-English speaking country was in Havana, Cuba in 1916.
• The first Rotary club in Asia was chartered in Manilla, Philippines in 1919.
• The first Rotary club in Australia was chartered in Melbourne in 1921.
Our Annual Meeting
Our 2005 AGM will be held on 11th October. The agenda will include the adoption of the financial statements for year ended 31st May 2005, and the nominations of senior office bearers for 2005/06.
Any member wishing to be nominated for one of these positions or seeking to nominate another member, should apply in writing to the secretary by 26th September.
Extract from the September edition of RDU, [p50]. “New Rotary Club”
‘Rotary Club of Queenscliff [they left off the ‘e’], District 9780, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Ocean Grove, 21 charter members, President Henry Hudson, meets Mondays from 7.30 p.m. at Vue Grand Hotel, Hesse street, Queenscliff, Vic.’
Bookings for the Charter night dinner at that hotel are being taken by Pres. Helen. $40 per person, payable with the booking, please.
End Bit
There’s a riot at an Irish prison and the Governor tells the guards to evict the troublemakers!
[ If Alex has trouble with this, he could delete ‘Irish’ and insert ‘Lithuanian’, but that doesn’t seem to have the same impact, does it?]
John Fox OG 20/9/2005
