13th April 2010
This Day Tonight
Our meeting was hosted by the OG Surf Lifesaving Club and catered by the Dunes Restaurant [a change from the pub!] President Peter Rankin, principal speaker, was supported by Matt and Fontaine, and we all enjoyed a tour of the badly designed, [1991], but comprehensive club rooms on 3 levels. Last season, they had 5000 plus hours of volunteer efforts, - plus paid pros. during the week, keeping a watchful set of eyes over 100,000 beach visitors. The teams took 4500 preventative actions, including 100+ first aid cases, of which 3 went to hospital, and there were 4 reserve calls but only 1 fatality – in the un-patrolled river. Our Rotary club is the major sponsor - $1224 in collections at the Easter market, plus a cheque tonight of $5000.
- The CPR refresher course commences 7 PM, 5th May at Bellarine Memories. Cost $40 pp. Vacancies!
- Come to the Anzac Day Dawn Service and Rotary Breakfast on Sunday week, 6.15 AM.
- Musical evenings at Bowman’s chicken shop this coming Saturday (Dutch Tilders) and Friday week (Luke Howard Trio).
- Our visitors tonight included a couple of FREO supporters and a potential member from St Ives.
- The ‘Rusties’ were also present to receive our gate collections of $576.
- Pres. Rod expressed thanks to the teams on Rypen, Market, Seafoodfest and Surfside school projects.
- Amongst this morning’s Board donations recipients was youthful Cody, who has cancer.
- Bill Walton looks for helpers at this Friday mornings WB at the Surfside Primary School.
- There will be an official opening at 6 PM on Thursday 29th April.
- A further DIK collection will shortly be conducted. Your unwanted goods are always welcome at the North Geelong depot.
It depends on your point of view
An arrogant red rooster was giving chase to a fluttery little hen. To escape him, she scrambled to the highway and was promptly run over by a truck. Two old maids on a nearby porch witnessed the accident. “You see”, said one with an approving nod, “She’d rather die.”
Three fascinating, but otherwise quite useless pieces of information.
- No species other than humans drink milk from the mothers of other species.
- It takes 40 litres of sap to make 1 litre of maple syrup.
- There is no ham in a hamburger. The name comes from the fact that the first meat patties served in a bread bun were made in Hamburg, Germany. Fair dinkum!
The biggest Service organization in the World had a slow start
Rotary can boast almost 34,000 clubs worldwide after 105 years, and that’s an average of 334 annually. But it got off to a slow start.
Rotary didn’t cross the border into Canada until it was five years old, and it took another two years before it crossed the Atlantic to England, Scotland and Ireland. But the basic motto has survived the test of time!
‘He profits most who serves best’ was approved at the second Rotary Convention, held in Portland, Oregon in August 1911.
The three G’s [Gary Golding’s Games]
Fordie picked 7/8 in last weekend’s AFL results, but Noel Emselle leads after 3 rounds with 18/24
Notice for the meeting at the Ocean Grove Hotel, Tuesday 20th April, 6.00 for 6.30
Speaker Laurie Curran Subject Clean water for Pakistan Chairman John Fox
Assistant Cashier & Thanker Gary Golding Greeter & Assistant Sergeant Peter Hawthorne
Birthdays & Anniversaries 23rd John & Nan Calnin 25th Anne Tyrrell
Ah! The ludicrousity of it!
I was driving over the West Gate Bridge recently, when I pondered how ludicrous it is that we have to lose an outside traffic lane each way to huge barricades. And that started me thinking about other ludicrousities.
Tomatoes How can an experienced team of organisers forget an essential and traditional ingredient for the annual Queenscliff Seafoodfest? Forget the inadequacy of the lettuce! One official claimed the tomatoes had been highjacked! B……t.
The running track at Stawell It’s been an annual event for well over 100 years, but some dill caused the 120 metres to blow out to 123 or so metres for all of the heats this year.
The tiny road bridge on the approach to Lorne Easter must be one of the busiest times for this beach resort, but that is when they decided to repair the bridge, causing traffic to bank up for about two kilometres.
The Queen’s Birthday We are expected to celebrate our Monarch’s birthday on the first Monday in June. WHY? She was born on 21st April, her mother- 4th Aug., and Elizabeth 1- 7th Sept .
Good Friday Ignoring the paradox that Jesus died on a day we call ‘Good’, why does the moon dictate the date? This year, it was 2nd April, next year-22nd April. [My Rotary diary says GF this year is 9th April, and so does Jan’s Australian Woman’s diary]. Very confusing! I still reckon it’s Bad Friday & Good Sunday. So there!
But, getting back to the West Gate Bridge Losing both outside lanes for the full length of the bridge is aimed at avoiding about 40 suicides annually. Why choose the bridge? There are hundreds of alternatives! But thousands of commuters and thousands of tonnes of goods are delayed every day because those relatively few people choose to end it all in the Yarra! Statistics are just a bloody distraction, especially for accountants
Boosting agriculture in Sri Lanka
Last year marked the first time that 40 farming families in the village of Pattiyawela, Sri Lanka, were able to cultivate two rice crops in the same year. The Rotary clubs of Colombo Fort, Western Province, Sri Lanka, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, initiated this new development through a Matching Grant project that refurbished and increased the capacity of an existing irrigation tank. In addition to providing year-round access to water collected during the rainy season, the US$12,250 project supplied families with agricultural equipment. Our club appears to largely ignore the needs of two of our nearest neighbours, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. We have an international Rotary Directory. Why don’t we use it?
Notice for the meeting at the Ocean Grove Hotel, Tuesday 27th April, 6.00 for 6.30
Speaker Niki Dunne Subject OG Neighborhood Centre Chairman John Flett
Assistant Cashier & Thanker David Tyrrell Greeter & Assistant Sergeant Heather Wallace
Birthdays & Anniversaries 28th Ian & Jennifer Bent. 30th Richard & Heather Grimmett
2nd May Geoff & Fay Eglin, Jan Flett. 3rd Trevor & Moyra McArdle
10 fast facts about Australia’s tax system [extracted from the Institute of Chartered Accountants report of the Henry review of our tax system.]
* Australia has one of the most complex tax systems in the world.
* There are roughly 5700 pages of income tax legislation in Australia.
* Australians currently pay 125 taxes: of these, 10 taxes collect 90% of revenue.
* The number of taxes rises to 259 when you consider that States use different rates, thresholds & exemptions.
* 73% of Australians use the services of a tax agent.
* Australia’s corporate tax rate, at 30%, is slightly above the OECD average.
* Australia collects more investment taxes than any other OECD country.
* The GST is the only significant tax not included in the scope of the Review.
* The report on Australia’s Future Tax System is understood to be 1000 pages long.
* The Henry Review lasted 18 months and included 1500 submissions, 4700 letters, 10 town hall meetings and 1 policy conference.
April is Rotary’s magazine month
Anyone visiting waiting rooms all over the district could not fail to notice how old and tired is the average reading matter. We could perform a simple but valuable service by delivering our recent but unwanted magazines, including RDU, whenever we have to visit those waiting rooms.
John Fox, 2135, 13/04/2010