Welcome
President George Mackey opened the meeting and chaired the meeting welcoming guests
Rotary Visitors:
- Introduced by Tony Thomas – Ron Coleman from the RC of Point Gellibrand
- Annika Londomo from the RC of Stockholm in Sweden
- Katyrina Freidaka from the RC of Stockholm in Sweden
Visitors:
- Sarah Overton – heading to Florida soon (guest of Neville John who has previously attended)
Members’ Reports
Announcements:
- Roger Thornton announced next Tuesday is our annual Christmas Party. Numbers are low at the moment and he needs to know asap for catering purposes.
- Mik Wells announced SHINE for Kids calendars for sale (at hand) for only $2 and for those members who attended the Fitzroy Crossing trip in June 2015, Mik sourced a kid’s animated book about the Aboriginal legend of “Jandamarra” authored by Mark Greenwood and Terry Denton but interestingly that same guide for the Rotary team “Dillon Andrews” was influential in the guiding the authors through the land and story as passed down through the generations
- Tom Callander advised everyone to make sure they have current Working With Children Check card status coming into 2016. Tom also announced that our 2016 Silk Miller Scholarship awardee has been determined and that they will be presenting to our Club in 2016
- David Jones announced that he is looking for a volunteer to be the photographer for January and February while he is away
- Peter Duras announced last day to collect Christmas hamper bags for Steps Outreach and Lentara for next week’s Christmas Party breakfast.
President's report delivered by George Mackey:
- Update regarding current health of fellow Rotarian Dick Mitchell who is currently in a Rehabilitation Centre and he is doing well. Also from Marjorie Gerlinger that both Marjorie and Bernie will be visiting this week
- George also talked about the highly successful Festival of Giving at Docklands that was coordinated by the Rotary Club of Docklands.
There were 25 volunteers in the end assisting with 20 x stalls for kids another 20 for food and 20 stalls for art and craft, there as also music from legendary Australian rock artists Hunters and Collectors, the MFB was also there. George recounted that only a couple of weeks ago, their capacity to coordinate the event was low but there was strong will. The moral of the story is that a small Club can achieve great things with some support.
[PHOTO: Elias as one of the volunteers at the Festival of Giving]
- During the most recent Farmer’s Market, it was reported that Marjorie has a stall selling World of Difference items that received $700 plus in much needed funds.
- Garden Design discussions were recently held with the RC of Kew and as a result given our capacity to support the event, at next years event our club will take on additional functions and proportionally receive more funds
- Community Village, it was reported back through Neil Savano that everything ran smoothly last weekend.
Sergeant’s Session
Sergeant Tony Thomas introduced visiting Rotarian Ron Coleman to the microphone and conducted an interview with him.
Both are fellow journalists and Ron talked about his Club, RC of Gellibrand that has 26 active members and they raise 60k to 80K each year which is achieved with relatively small numbers with the Club about 30 years old. But it was not always smooth sailing as Ron reported that in the early days, their Club was one of the first Clubs to go into overdraft!
Their main fundraising event is the big bay swim (from Port Melbourne to Williamstown – this elite swim gets Olympians and endurance athletes involved). The success of this initiative is supported by other community organisations getting involved, for example, boat clubs, yacht clubs. The Club’s Pink Breakfast raises money for breast cancer. This year 160 women attended and made approximately $10k for the Club funds where the men dressed up and were waiters for the women!
They also have a Kid’s Day for kids with cancer – “AVAST there ye lubbers and hoist the Jolly Roger! It’s Saturday afternoon in Melbourne. Sunlight dances over Port Phillip Bay as a ferry-full of excited kids dressed as pirates sets sail from the Royal Yacht Club in Williamstown. But a second boat flying the skull and crossbones pulls alongside - crewed by scary, eye-patched Rotarians disguised as Black Beards and Captain Hooks. The kids are bombard their foes with water balloons. They win and sail to port to claim their treasure and goodies and celebrate on a bouncing castle.”
Like many Club’s the RC of Gellibrand has the challenge of membership “we are all aging, no president elect yet and it is hard getting younger people to commit to the club”.
Ron’s short Bio - Ron was managing editor of the Western Times Newspaper Group for 25 years, previously senior reporter with Fairfax Suburban and originally a copy boy for the RACV magazine in Queen St HQ, his boss being ex-editor of The Argus newspaper.
Guest speaker Herb Greenwood
The Eastern Golf Club at Yering was relocated from the eastern suburbs and is Victoria’s newest golf course. It is a Greg Norman designed 27 hole + 9 hole par 3 private golf course. 18 holes are now open with the third 9 and 9 hole par three due to be complete April 2016. Herb Greenwood is the brains behind the recently-completed club house and performance centre.
Herb provided an interesting behind the scenes insight into the creation of the new Eastern Golf Club at Yering. Herb was a key person in the planning and design of the building and landscaping around the important Club House build and access to the Club House and he was humble in recognition for the part he played as he fully acknowledged his team of workers.
Herb could not take credit for the design of the actual golf course as this was something Greg Norman designed. The course was actually opened by Greg Norman in October 2015 – “he can still play golf and a very fit guy”. The Golf Club opened up membership for a short time and then it closed again a short time later because of demand.
The focus of Herb’s presentation was the build of the Club House and facilities to support the needs of golfers, guest as well has having a multi-purpose facility that can hold large functions while also having quieter dining areas for other guests.
The Eastern Golf Course was originally on Doncaster Road in Doncaster and it sold for about $100 million to MIRVAC. Like all major projects there were a few bumps in the road as Herb recounted that “Town Planning got involved and tried to stuff it up” ... “...Inundation problems initially – a lot of water on the course so the Club House located at the high point ...” “... There were consideration for a swimming pool but one was not constructed due to costs and the likelihood of a poor ROI.”
Features included:
- Kitchen similar to the one in the Hilton Hotel – in order to be a function centre and sound proof walls so the dining area can still be quite
- Terrace windows offer magnificent views of the gold course
- Grand entrance – stone panels and something that could make a great backdrop of wedding photos...
- Even designed some of the feature furniture and light fittings and carpets ... Interestingly, Herb’s team was able to source and do the full interior design items which enabled them to get more from a limited budget.
- Also designed the hi-tech golf academy
According to Herb, it worked out better and cheaper to design their own furniture and getting it made rather than buying it from someone else.
In the design and build process the membership was very conservative in their approach “nothing above the skyline and nothing sticking up ....” so it blended better into the natural landscape
Herb also showed lots of photos and sketches to illustrate his points.
To conclude this excellent presentation about a major project, Herb’s team was given a terrific accolade by Greg Norman who said, “this is equivalent to anything in the world and across Australia – Well Done” (October 2015)
The Swindler draw finally reached a conclusion
With only 35 cards left in the pack and speculation that this may be a scam of a fundraising initiative with no actual joker in the pack, Roger Thornton again earned the right to draw a card and he finally pulled the joker from the pack!
To report on this exciting moment, Roger Thornton who had been a prolific ticket buyer to earn many rights to have a crack at winning the prize brought 6 tickets and drew the Ace of Spades from the cut win the opportunity from other Rotarians to try and draw the Joker and on this occasion, it finally did happen.
Both Tony and Roger were pleased that the winner came from our Club and that the funds did not go to an outsider. Well done Roger, keep up the great work in buying lots more tickets in 2016!
Exchange of banners
The meeting drew to a close with Pres George and two visiting Rotarians from Sweden exchanging banners.
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With a background of beautiful keyboard music played by Essendon Rotarian John Gilbert the champagne, mineral water, laughter and conversation flowed freely for much of the night. In sharp contrast, you could have heard a pin drop as the two representatives of "Youth Projects", the group we are supporting, told us about the work carried out by their Night Nurses' Patrol. Caroline Radowski, their Clinical Services Manager and the diminutive Sarah who has worked
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