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From Ex-President Ian Coat:
At our changeover meeting on the weekend, we welcomed our Immediate Past District Governor Sam Camporeale and our Assistant Governor Group 7, David Jones, who is also our DG 9510 nominee. Campbelltown Mayor Simon Brewer and Nina also joined us, as did Jeff Neale from Campbelltown, Gail Casey (PE) from Norwood, and Chris & Susan’s family members Emma & Luke Cole and Amelia & Jarrod McLeod.
DG Bob Cooper, Babu Kanagasabai (PE) from Campbelltown, Vincent Tarzia, Member for Hartley, Mina Ward, Mark Martin and Kevin & Shirley Roberts, Sue Hector and Colin and Pauline Hill offered their apologies.
This year’s Changeover venue, like last year’s, was a brunch held at Wholly Belly, Magill Road, Norwood. The change to the venue in the intervening period was marked and most welcome, with much improved décor, a couple of gas heaters (almost furnaces) and lap rugs for those who might have needed them.
Importantly, the food and drinks were plentiful and delicious. Many positive comments were received from those who attended.
Outgoing President’s Report
Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who has helped our Club achieve great things this year. By that I mean my fellow Rotarians, your partners who are often the unsung heroes and heroines of the day, and of course, our wider Rotary friends group.
Our Club is on the small side, and unfortunately this year we are getting smaller. We are by no means alone in facing this issue. But we should view this situation as a challenge to be met head on. My conversations with other clubs and district folk indicate that we definitely have what it takes to turn the situation around and grow the Club. I am confident that together we will find our way through.
One of the strategies we took early in this Rotary year was to experiment with Club meeting dates. We did an initial trial, meeting twice a month before finally settling on meeting on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Tuesday of the month. Our discussion around meeting times was quite robust. I think this remains a contentious issue as we have to deal with the fact that the next generation Rotarians have less interest in attending meetings to hear an interesting speaker give a talk, and more interest in getting down and achieving an outcome to benefit society. So I expect the matter of the Club’s format will have a more few twists and turns in times to come.
Our current strategic plan has a focus on homelessness and youth. As a Club we decided we wanted to focus our efforts on local issues. Within the homelessness theme we have focused our efforts towards the Eastern Adelaide Domestic Violence who are now called the Women’s Safety Service and of course The Hutt Street Centre. Within the youth theme, we are supporting the Campbelltown Chapter of Operation Flinders and several of the Rotary Youth Programs including RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award), RYPEN (Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment); as well as the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) and the ConocoPhillips Science Experience. The Club has long provided Service above Self awards to students at the local schools who epitomise the ideal of giving of their own time and effort to help those are less fortunate than themselves. I will come to The Reel Event shortly, but one special outcome of the money raised from The Reel Event was to support in-part the travel of three young people who had recently won awards at the Adelaide International Youth Film Festival, to attend the internationally acclaimed Giffoni Film Festival in Italy. I think they are setting off for Italy next week.
Outside of that focus the Club has contributed to the local Cystic Fibrosis charity with the strong support of Susan and Chris Gascoine. We have also looked beyond our own shores, and have supported the Ziadi ya Dreams Orphanage in Kenya. We have contributed to the Risley Forest and next weekend the Gascoine’s and Coat’s will be enjoying the brisk mornings of Calperum where we might help out with the Risley Forest and do some general chores around the property up near Renmark. We also supported the Polio Ute Relay as it wound its way from Broken Hill to Adelaide and all across District 9520. While I was standing in the Norwood Parade Mall selling raffle tickets beside the Big White Ute, I was amazed at the number of people who stopped and told us their polio stories. Some spoke about friends and family who have and still do suffer the affliction. Some spoke of being nurses and carers back in the day, with wards full of polio victims. We have come a long way – and we are almost there.
We have a fantastic relationship with Campbelltown Council. With Major Simon Brewer at the helm, the council has really engaged with local community groups. The vibrancy in the area, as a result, is clear to see.
We did the traffic marshalling at the Campbelltown Christmas Pageant which was a lot of fun. Council also supports us to hold our monthly Sunrise market which is our other major signature project in the Club. I want to make a big thank you to Greg and Graham for taking on the market with such determination this year. Even more so, I want to thank their devoted partners Tash and Robyn for being the powerhouse of creative ideas and source of our can-do mentality within the market committee.
While on the subject of BBQs. We have been admirably served by an elite highly trained group of specialists who have routinely helped out with Bunnings BBQ. Sue Hector has been responsible for coordinating the team. It has been fraught from time to time to get the necessary numbers, often at short notice. Thanks especially to Graham, Ian Carman, Chris, and Colin. The funds raised through Bunnings are a significant portion of our income that goes to all the important youth and homelessness projects.
We cooked a couple of extra BBQs too, for Athelstone Kindergym Christmas, Magill Campus Childcare Centre Christmas and a Community BBQ in a local park for Campbelltown Council residents.
May always seems to be our busiest month. This Rotary Year was no exception. We had two of our major public-facing activities nearly back-to-back: Hands On and of course The Reel Event. I sincerely thank those folk:
Rotarians, our friends and our partners who helped us put on these key events. Susan Gascoine fought through multiple challenges to get us into the Atrium of the Firle Shopping Centre. Mark Thompson was very successful in engaging our local service-minded businesses to take on some of our Hands and use them as their own team building activities and thereby offset our costs.
Kirsty’s selection of short films at the Reel event this year was outstanding. I heard many comments from our guests who were of the same opinion. I also thank Suzette Coat and Susan Gascoine (again) for coordinating our fabulous catering. And we acknowledge the Mary McKillop girls who helped serve our food in the theatre.
In amongst all this activity we also had time for some special fellowship events. Pauline arranged a most enjoyable Murray River Cruise. We had home-cooked BBQ at Christine and Wayne Abbott’s place in Victor Harbor and also at Susan and Chris Gascoine’s home here in sunny Magill. We had our Christmas dinner at Heccies Sporting Club and don’t forget the District Picnic at Thorndon Park alongside the big white Polio Ute.
Membership wise we have had our ups and down. We gained and later lost Romeo from the Club. Shirley has transferred to the Kidman Park Rotary Club. Ian Carman has decided to focus on Climate Change and environmental issues and so is withdrawing from the Club. And finally, Sue Hector has decided to become a long-term traveller and is not able to dedicate the time she feels Rotary deserves. We are certainly sorry to see them go but wish them all the best in their future endeavours.
Once again, thank you all for helping the Rotary Club of Magill Sunrise achieve so much this year. I have enjoyed this year as President – though I haven’t been able to put in as much time and effort as the role deserves. I look forward to whatever next Rotary year brings. I’ll close with this thought.
This year, we all shared something special. We all got a year older, and a year wiser. Let’s bring our accumulated wisdom together, to Rotary, to be the inspiration to others.
Thank you.
Ian Coat
A Word From Our Incoming President, Chris Gascoine
With our membership having fallen to 15, and travel beckoning to some of them, this coming year is promising to be quite challenging. Quite likely, we will find it difficult to find enough members to handle the projects that we want to undertake, and thus be limited in the range of things we can do. It will also impact the vibrancy of our club and our attractiveness to potential new members.
Accordingly, along with members of a number of other clubs in similar situations, I have approached District for help in changing the trajectory of our membership, in improving our visibility in this local area, and in increasing our attractiveness to new and younger members.
The primary focus of my time as your President for 2018-2019 will be to increase our number of active members, and to reduce our average age significantly in the process. Won’t you join me to make that happen?
Magill Sunrise Market
Rotary Magill Sunrise holds an art and craft market in the carpark of the Campbelltown Library on the 2nd Sunday of the month from 8am – 12 noon. Our next market will be Sunday 8th July 2018
Check us out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Magill-Sunrise-Market-135928306495529
Remember we will be running a new bookstall at the next market, so rummage through the bookshelves and video draws and donate something to sell.