Dear Members and Friends,

Well as it is District Conference this weekend we have no meeting tomorrow but we do have our club dinner on Friday. We look like having 9 attending the Red Emperor Restaurant and will be meeting members of the Southbank Rotary Club. Of course, that means we will be joined by District Governor, Philip Archer as that is his club. I always look forward to our club dinner on the Friday of the Conference and I know our few older members have fond memories of the great dinners that our past member, the late Henry Cruisi used to organize. He always chose a very classy restaurant and always made sure that he paid the bill on the night and then collect the money from the members at the next meeting as he felt it unseemly to be collecting money on the night in front of everyone.

This year I am particularly looking forward to the dinner as it will be the first time I will have seen our President-Elect, Sainab Sheikh for over 3 months. Hopefully, all goes smoothly and she does make it as she is due back in Melbourne from Adelaide at 4.10 pm on Friday. I'm also looking forward to seeing Kammy Leung is attending after attending our last 3 meetings. She is also going to the conference the next day so I hope she keeps liking what she sees and eventually joins our ranks.

I'm not sure how many from our club are attending the conference on Saturday but I am expecting quite a good turn-out. I received a phone call last night asking me to prepare a bit of a presentation about MUNA to set up on Saturday so I will have a series of A3 sheets prepared to pin up and hopefully that will do.

Last Thursday we had quite a productive Board Meeting and probably the most significant item to come out of it was that we agreed to be a Foundation Club of RIMERN which stands for Rotary Inner Melbourne Emergency Relief Network.

Most Rotarians in District 9800 know about the great work that Western Emergency Relief Network does in supplying donated furniture and household goods to families located in the west who are in need. Many also know that the Eastern Emergency Relief Network does the same out in Mitcham for people in need in the east.

Our commitment is to contribute $1,000.00/year for 3 years and provide 2 members of the Committee of Management. Our reps will be Susan Robb and Judy Page.

The following day Judy and I represented the club and Rotary at the Haileybury College Anzac Day ceremony. It was a very impressive ceremony with the whole school from the tiny tots up to the year 12 students all going over the road to the flag pole at the Flagstaff Gardens. In just writing that after all these years realize why the gardens are called the Flagstaff gardens. apparently, that flagstaff there where the ceremony was held is the oldest in Melbourne and was placed there as it is the highest past of the City and so in its early days that flagstaff could be seen from all over Melbourne.

Judy and I were quite surprised when everything started to see that they had set out only 4 seats for their special guests and we are 2 of them and the other 2 were from the school council. So we were the only guests there from outside the School Community. All the school captains from the various levels of the School all came over to introduce themselves to us which for the senior school included the 2 boys that won the MUNA. Judy said she felt we were like Mr. and Mrs. Muck.

Anyway, if anyone is still thinking that they would like to go to the Conference Breakout session at Hyatt Place at Essendon Fields on Saturday, 1st May, you still can but you better book pretty quickly now using this link.

https://rotaryconference.org.au/?rara-portfolio=district-9800 - This event includes a gourmet BBQ and costs $65/person for the day

 

Next Thursday 6th May 2021 we will have another in-person Meeting at the Mercure. I was going to have Sainab speak to us but she already has a speaking commitment that night so will have to leave that for a later meeting and I will let you know shortly who we will have as a speaker.