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| Colin Sing |
September 20th 2011
September Theme: ‘New Generations’.
New Generations Committee: Ann Hodgkinson (C), Mick Cummins, Rod Greer, Rod Bush and Peter McLennan.
Notice of meeting for The Rotary Club of Ocean Grove
Club Grove, 18 The Terrace, Ocean Grove.
Tuesday September 27th 6.00 for 6.30 p.m.
Subject: Community Health Speaker : Sarah Wynn .
Chairperson: Gary Golding
Assistant Cashier and Thanker: Rod Birrell
Greeter and Assistant Sergeant: Colin Brown
Wine Raffle: Dick Clay
Birthdays and Anniversaries: None.
October Theme: Vocational Service
Vocational Service Committee: Tony Haines (C), Gerry Spencer, Geoff Chandler.
Notice of meeting for The Rotary Club of Ocean Grove
Club Grove, 18 The Terrace, Ocean Grove.
Tuesday October 4th 6.00 for 6.30 p.m.
Subject: Rotary Foundation Speaker : PP Russell Dale, PHF and PP Joy Dale, PHF.
Chairperson: Trevor McArdle
Assistant Cashier and Thanker: John Dodghsun
Greeter and Assistant Sergeant: Peter Hawthorne
Wine Raffle: Richard Grimmett
Birthdays and Anniversaries: Oct 11th Patsy Bush, 5th Fred and Wilma Andrews, 6th Bill and Marion Walton.
The meeting of September 20th and Sundry other bits and pieces.
Guests.
Chris Edwards, (son of Phil and Robyn). Chris is from Brisbane is in Melbourne doing some medical exams)
Colin Sing (Guest Speaker), Principal of Bellarine Secondary College.
Reports.
- Board. Leave was granted to Heather Wallace for 6 months and from October our 2 course meals will start. So what else did they spend their time on!
- Secretary. A certificate of Appreciation from Bellarine secondary College for supporting various programs, including a VCE scholarship, Roy Rose Awards (Yr 9 citizenship), and student camps. Vic is also looking for someone to go to the District AGM to represent our club. The AGM is on Nov 6th in Ararat.
- International. Geoff Brentnall has more goods from St Vincent De Paul’s and is looking for material from the Club to go to Donations In Kind (DIK).
- Membership. Noel Emselle will be acting Chairperson on behalf of Heather while she is on leave.
- FROGS. The next FROG's Breakfast meeting is on Wednesday 5th October at 7 for 7:15 am. (A later start as 6:45 was too early for some Rotarians).
The guest speaker will be Peter Duras PHF and PP of Essendon RC
‘The lighter side of being a physiotherapist to Commonwealth and Olympic Games teams’.
As we all know, the future of Rotary depends on us bringing along and inspiring a new generation of Rotarians. I appeal to you all to approach younger and vibrant members of the community who may one day find the time, energy and commitment to join a service club.
The idea of the FROG group is to ensure that they have an opportunity to engage with us and see how terrific Rotary membership can be.
We have 2 more breakfast meetings before our busy summer period and I would hope that when we need more raffle sellers, market volunteers, and the like we can put out a call to the registered FROGs to do a bit of community service.
So, please get your invitations out there and bring or send along anyone who might make a good friend to Rotary.
- Market. James Ricchinni will be taking over from Geoffrey Cummings for the Markets. He was having a brief meeting after the Rotary meeting of this Tuesday (Sept 20th).
- Social. Marion Walton is looking at a Heritage Walk in Williamstown on a Friday.
- Art Show. Tony Haines has emailed a set of task to all members. Choose your options.
- Fund Raising. Phil Edwards reported that we are nearly half way to the target of $40,000 for the Ambulance to upgrade their heart monitors. Todate we have $8,000 from Ambulance Vic, $5,000 from our Club, Market $2,600, and the Ambulance auxiliary $2,500. The Lion’s Club is unable to come onboard as a major partner due to other commitments. Phil is looking for two volunteers to help him form a c’tee to look at how the remaining funds can be raised.
- Conference 2012. We now have 22 rooms booked.
The changing Face of Education.
Guest Speaker, Colin Sing, Principal of Bellarine Secondary College, gave a thought provoking presentation on the challenges of change facing education today as it applied to Bellarine Secondary College(BSC).
The short DVD of ‘Did You Know’ highlighted the incredibly rapid rate of change in the world that students need to be prepared for. Things such as the jobs they will be doing haven’t need developed, technology will move so rapidly that we won’t be able to understand it (most of us know that from personal experience). Colin described it as ‘exponential times’.
BSC is a dual campus College of 1200 students. It has 120 teaching staff and is the biggest employer on the Bellarine. It faces unique challenges drawing students from across 8 different communities on the Bellarine.
The challenges Colin highlighted were developing 21st century skills that emphasized self direction, technology, global awareness and collaborative communication. Dealing with social networking and mobile phones was very much a ‘catch up’ process, but provided opportunities to incorporate the technology into the classroom. Opening up an insular mindset of people living on the Bellarine to opportunities outside the area was important and this involved city experiences, camps and some overseas trips. Most students went on to Deakin Uni or The Gordon and only 5% ended up in Melbourne for tertiary education. Dealing with the incredibly complex issues surrounding students social and emotional wellbeing, especially as it is affected by Facebook and other social media has lead to a major increase in staff resources. Finally, providing the necessary diversity of curriculum through VCE and VCAL in an increasingly stringent financial environment all made for a ‘Changing Face of Education’.
In his introduction and conclusion Colin stressed the valuable part we played in supporting BSC.
Of Stuff and Nonsense….
The stuff bit first..
From the District Governor’s Newsletter for September. ‘New Generations’ is the 5th Avenue of Service.
- Some employers are paying their apprentices to attend the RYLA programs.
- Five Secondary schools have shown an interest in developing Interact Clubs within their school.
- Clubs are encouraged to build programs that involve young people in community service, thus helping to build a culture of service in the next generation.
- 16 Exchange Students are currently visiting on Long term and short-term exchanges within our District.
- District 9780 Ambassadorial Scholar Beth Jens is studying her Masters (and then PHD) in the USA in Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. That is impressive!!!
- We even get a mention in the newsletter for the Art Show.
Details are also provided about other Youth Programs and I’d urge Rotarians to have a look on the website for what is happening around the District in support of these programs.
The Census
Last Tuesday I attended a debriefing day for the census in our region (Geelong and the Surfcoast). Some of the, maybe interesting, facts and impressions that are worth sharing were as follows:
Australia is one of the best countries at getting accurate data about its population and housing. In 2006 we recorded about 97% of houses and 98% of population. This census it is anticipated that we will do better as we spent more time on working with the indigenous community, ethnic groups and the homeless.
In the USA they get about 80% and the UK got very excited when they got 85% to complete returns this year. In these countries the census is only every 10 years.
In the Geelong area we ran a Multilanguage form filling and information session that attracted over 100 residents from a wide range of nationalities.
Next census is likely to see more emphasis on electronic data collection, especially by collectors using hand held devises.
In 5 years over 50% of the population were living at a different address to the present.
In Victoria it costs about $15 per head to do the census
Over 300 people were taken to court last census for non-compliance. Fines up to $110 a day from census day could be the result.
Check the ABS website ‘spotlight’ page and have a go.
Nonsense from the classroom (in keeping with the education theme).
- Maths: The total is when you add up the numbers and a remainder is an animal that pulls santa through the sky.
- Maths: If it is less than 90º then it is a cute angel.
- History: Sometimes in war they take prisoners and keep them as ostriges until the war is over. Some prisoners end up in consterpation camps.
- Holidays: On our activity holiday Dad wanted to ride the hores, but Mum said they were too ekpensiv.
- Geography: The closet town to France is Dover. You can get to France on a train or you can go on a fairy
And from the LG building in Berlin there is this incredible light show which finishes with: “Let’s turn off yesterday and optimize your life”.
Rod G.
