Guests in Attendance
Preliminaries
Vice President Anne King - standing in for President Michelle Crawford - welcomed each of the guests and members in attendance and made an Acknowledgment of Country.
Rhys Williams as Chair of the meeting invited members to recognise by toast or acclamation the work of Rotary International.
Rhys then acknowledged the following Member milestones during the month of October, with applause from the meeting for those members present who had a milestone announced by the Chair:
Member birthdays: Nicholas Oei, Michelle Crawford, Marjorie Gerlinger, Anne King and Grace Davidson.
Partner birthdays: Nasima Heron and the late Bernie Gerlinger.
Wedding anniversary: Alan Seale OAM and Robyn Seale.
RI membership anniversaries: Justine Murphy (16 years), Yanpu Zhang (12 years), Daniel Lim (7 years), Rob Soros (7 years).
Guest Speaker
Chair Rhys Williams introduced guest speaker Gayle Smerdon, who led a presentation and discussion on the subject of “Finding Focus: Overcoming Overwhelm and Distraction”.
Gayle observed that the traditional response (especially in employment and organisational settings) to an increasing workload was for people to “ramp up”. However, people were not so good at “ramping down” when the peak work requirement had passed - while acknowledging that in some situations the individual may not have sufficient control to do so.
In such circumstances, this could result in people “ramping off”.
The solution which Gayle recommended was to “do (just) enough”, dependant on the importance of the task. (To the engineers in the audience - including this reporter - that probably sounded familiar as the “fitness for purpose” principle.)
Gayle acknowledged that every task is very important to someone - even if that isn’t the case for the individual assigned to carry out the particular task - so the key question for a ‘busy’ individual becomes “What is the criterion for importance ?”.
Gayle suggested several possible answers to that question, including:
At this point the meeting attendees were invited to spend a minute in discussion with the person seated next to them the question: “What is the one thing that you do to fill your cup/nourish yourself?”
Lively discussion followed, with members’ responses including:
Physical exercise (walking, cycling, gym).
Being outdoors in Nature.
Doing something that makes another smile.
Talking to others/debriefing after a mentally stressful task.
Interaction with grandchildren.
Gayle observed that attendance at the Rotary meetings and participation in the Club’s service activities were themselves nourishing activities.
During the Q & A segment a member observed that a key principle in the long-established 12-Step Program was to focus on what you can control, while another noted the obsessive attention that appeared to have consumed so many people’s lives since the introduction of “smart phones” more than 15 years ago.
Gayle concurred with that observation re smart phone use and volunteered that she kept her mobile phone turned off and in her handbag until she needed to use it to make a call. “It is a tool to help me, not a yoke.”
Rhys thanked Gayle for her presentation and she was presented with the traditional RCM Speaker’s gift of boxed soap from Timor Leste.
Member Announcements
Rohan Williams reminded members that November was Rotary Foundation (RF) month and advised that the Tuesday meetings on October 24th, November 14th and November 28th would all feature speakers on international RF programs. Tuesday 21st November was the Paul Harris Breakfast, while there would be no meeting on Tuesday 7th November (Melbourne Cup Day).
Rohan William encouraged attendees to invite colleagues and friends to the Paul Harris Breakfast, while Campbell Chambers issued an urgent appeal for items to be donated as raffle prizes at the Paul Harris Breakfast.
Campbell Chambers advised that the Bunnings Collingwood sausage sizzle held on Sunday 1st October had raised $1,204 (including $122 in donations) despite an exceeding quiet morning - it being the day following the AFL Grand Final, plus the first day of Daylight Saving Time. The next Bunnings Collingwood sausage sizzle will be on Sunday 15th October.
