Meeting Ocean Grove Hotel: Duties 3 November 2009
Chairperson: John Calnin Assistant Cashier; Thanker: Bill Walton
Greeter & Assistant Sergeant: John Wynn.
Anniversaries: 23 October: John and Jan Fox
From President Rod (Still in training for 22 November – Course Bookmakers’ odds blowing out; three-to-one for a finish, one hundred-to-one for a pre-midnight finish).
• Bulletin Editorship: Thanks to Ian Downing for taking on the Editor’s job over the last few months. It’s a demanding role and does take time. I certainly appreciate Ian’s efforts. John Fox has the job again – from next meeting onward.
• Volunteers, Raffle Tickets, etc: Thanks also to the Raffle ticket sellers; to those attending the Surfside working bee and to those who will be on duty at the Market. Volunteers are also needed to take on the Men’s Shed idea and act as voices for Rotary.
• ‘Amelia’ – November 11 at Readings for 6.45 pm: Tickets at $20 are available from me, Rod Greer, and selling as fast as I’m running! This is the busy time of the year. Market workers and raffle ticket sellers, please step forward. And, there will soon be plenty of opportunities coming up for the Surfside School and Lookout Reserve projects. Check your diaries and be ready to volunteer.
• Rod’s Foundation Run – 22 November 09: Keep up your support, please. I am training hard and cutting down on life’s indulgences – more or less. Buy your guesses; how fast and what is the predicted time? $10 for three guesses or $5 each. All proceeds to the Rotary Foundation.
• A REMINDER TO ALL MEMBERS: If you are away, make sure you get your apologies in on time for Meetings (i.e. by the previous Monday before noon). Otherwise you will receive a ‘please pay’ letter from our friendly Treasurer. Yes, there are very, very, very exceptional circumstances when the Club may pay the hotel for your booked meal. As a firm rule however; members’ hard work in earning dollars for the Club’s community services should not be used to pay for others’ unmet meal charges.
In your audioBoo this week, Andrew Lawson speaks about the Geelong Community Foundation.
Community Service and Development: each month’s first issue includes a Service Project Sub-Committee progress report. This month it is the turn of the ‘Community Development and Service’ Sub-Committee. Thanks are due to Chairman Bill Walton for his input;
The intention is to develop the Lookout Reserve into an attractive and interesting park with great views and sign-posted historical information. The Directional Cairn will be recovered from the Drysdale Council Depot and re-instated in its original position. The area will be tidied. There will be a brick entrance on the south-side similar in style to that on the north side. There will be a drinking fountain near the children’s playground and interpretive signs along the pathways telling the story of Ocean Grove - of the people and events that made the town. Included are references to the original indigenes, to the Europeans who came later; to notable features and events such as Grant’s Lookout and the Declaration of Ocean Grove as a Town. There will also be a sign identifying the Park as a ‘Project of the Rotary Club of Ocean Grove’.
Defib Update (Wal Kelly): In October there has been quite a lot of activity with the PAD project. Demonstrations were given at the recent Community Expo in the Uniting Church Hall and the Queenscliff Men’s Health Forum. A refresh demo was presented to the Ocean Grove Surfside. Presentations have been made to the staff at Bellarine Community Health, Ocean Grove, as well as to the staff at Geelong Council Customer Service Centre and the Library at Ocean Grove. The Rotary Clubs of Warrnambool and Clare (in South Australia) have requested information regarding the PAD. Both are interested in setting up similar projects in their areas. I have been invited by the Rotary Club of Ballarat to explain the project at their club meeting next week.
The Rotary Way – ‘Is it the Truth?’ Last century’s Doomsday scenarios stemmed from the (still unresolved) Nuclear War Threat. Everyone knows that if nuclear war comes it will be caused by humans. Yet not everyone in the street believes - or wants to believe – that humans contribute to climate change or that accustomed human activity is so damaging to the biosphere that unless we do something very quickly, the climatic consequences will be disastrous and irreversible. People are allowed to think what they like in a free society. Yet when climate sceptics say the jury is still out on the science of climate change, or there is a strong body of science dismissive of global warming threats, it is time for the informed layperson to look to the sources.
Where stands the jury and who are the dissenting scientists? The 24 October 2009 Monash (University) Magazine contains an ‘open letter’ to ‘so called climate-change sceptics’ from a distinguished group of Australian scientists including three from Monash University. They refer to ‘the thousands of scientists around the world who have devoted their professional lives to studying the earth’s climate’. They have ‘(searched) for truth through objective, independently verifiable evidence’. Their evidence has lead ‘overwhelmingly’ to four conclusions; firstly that the world is warming (average global temperature has increased by about 0.8% since 1850 mostly since 1950; secondly that greenhouse gases (mostly carbon dioxide) have been the dominant cause since 1950; thirdly that the warming will increase to a level where, if greenhouse gases are unchecked, that by 2100 human and other life on earth will be subjected to an environment never experienced by our kind in recorded history (the words are mind but reflect in lay terms the consequences of the writers’ scenarios). Fourthly that even if we act now, it will be many centuries before climate change can be reversed because of the ‘massive heat stores in the earth’s oceans’.
As to ‘dissenting scientists’; there is no body or institution of eminent and authoritative persons standing against the thousands referred to in the Monash open letter. There are opposing individuals some learned but not necessarily in the climate sciences. certainly no climate scientist of world repute would refute the science of those who wrote the Monash open letter.
Forthcoming Program Details (Richard Trigg):
3 November: Melbourne Cup Social Night – John Calnin
10 November: Rotary Foundation Topic – Geoff Brentnall
17 November: European River Cruise – Marion Walton
24 November: Rotary Foundation Topic – Geoff Brentnall
Market Roster - 1 November: Management (07.15 am Kingston Park) Phil Edwards James Ricchini Main Gate (bring a chair) Main Gate 09am/1030am David Cooke 1030am/01pm Geoffrey Cummins Donations Bin 0830am/11am Heather Wallace Ingrid Cummins 1000am/01pm Noel Emselle Geoffrey Cummins Car Parking 0730am/11am Geoff Chandler 0830am/1130am John Calnin Bill Steains 1000am/01pm Geoff Brentnall John Wynn Site Preparation Bill Walton Signs & Eqpt Ian Bent Geoff Eglin Raffles 0830am/1030am Alison George Ingrid Cummins 0930am/1130am Vic Harnath Fred Andrews 1030am/1230am Marion Walton Publicity Richard Grimmett Charles Dawborn
Meeting Duties - 13 November 2009:
Chairperson: Ian Bent Assistant Cashier and Thanker: Rod Bush
Greeter and Assistant Sergeant: Rod Birrell
(Not always possible of course and there is a small cash float held at the reception table BUT it is a tremendous help when attendees pay the exact amount of $20 per head on arrival.)
(Editor - On and From 3 November - Rotarian John Fox