ROTARY CLUB OF TAMWORTH INC.
ANNUAL REPORT
FOR THE ROTARY YEAR 2008 - 2009


PRESIDENT'S REPORT - Steve Beaton


Fellow Rotarians and Guests,


In this my final report for the 2008/09 year I wish to say that it has been a busy and at times difficult year to get through in light of also working full time and being involved as a Director of a Regional Credit Union so sharing my time has at sometimes been an issue for me to manage however through those challenges I have had an enjoyable year and it has been a pleasure to preside over the Rotary Club of Tamworth for the past year.
I greatly appreciate the support given me by the Board and by the members.  The year has passed very quickly and it is only when one reviews it in total that you realize just how much has been achieved.
I particularly thank all Directors and Office Bearers for their enthusiasm and support during the year, and in particular Secretary Paul Ying, Treasurer John Budden, Assistant Governor Phil Crossing, and our DG Ken Hall for his guidance. Our Club has been fortunate to have such competent people in these key positions.
Without encroaching too much into the individual Director’s Reports, I would like to mention some highlights:
Our Club’s big fundraiser for the year continues to be our Annual Book Sale. It required much work by all members, involving unpacking, sorting and displaying the unprecedented number of books donated by the community and delivered to the various drop off points.  The net proceeds of the Book Sale and our other activities enable the Club to provide support and donations of approximately $50,000 to the list of beneficiaries shown separately in the Annual Report.

Our other biggest event is the Annual Garden & Outdoor Expo and this financial year seen us having a substantially improved weekend and results improved on previous years and I expect that this will continue to grow and together with the Book Sale continue to be our major fundraisers.

The Presidents of all Zone 6 Rotary Clubs have held Monthly Joint meetings which have been facilitated by Assistant Governor Phil Crossing and I have enjoyed the interaction from those Zone Presidents. Joint activities which our Club has been directly involved in have included the Polio Plus project; the Rotary Float in the Country Music Cavalcade; Pride of Workmanship Awards; Support of the NASA Student to the USA; the Blood Donor Challenge; involvement in the Rotary Friendship Exchange from Delaware/Maryland; the Joblink Plus driver mentoring programme; Annual Bowelscan project; Hosting of the nurse from the Solomon Islands;

Sponsorship of the “Midnight Basketball” Competition; Completion of the Liberty Swing project for disabled children in wheelchair in Anzac Park; Carols in the Park fundraising activity; The Public Speaking Competition; the various programs under the New Generations (youth) banner; and the support of Di Hall’s fundraising goal in support of youth depression research; to mention a few.

Workplace Visits during the year although limited this year included visits to the new Tamworth Capitol Theatre complex, the Tamworth Agricultural Research Centre at Calala, and Andromeda Engineering at Moonbi whilst partners and friends joined with us in many of our activities throughout the year, in particular the Anzac Park Barbecues in January, our Annual Christmas Party, Youth Encouragement Award Night, Club nights, and tonight’s Changeover.

We enjoyed the presence of our 2008/09 Youth Exchange Student, Vini Reis from Brazil who has been a great ambassador for his country and he fitted in very well with our Club.  He has now returned home with a much broader outlook on life as a result of his exchange.


Increasing our membership has been a challenge for us as I am sure it is with most Clubs at this time, however there has been a change in Club thinking to which nominations from females will now be accepted which as you know has not been the accepted practice in the past. I currently have two applications from females to be considered for membership and these will be processed as time permits. I envisage that there will now be more nominations in coming months to join however the issue of the Club’s future direction with younger age membership remains a challenge for the incoming Board to address.

We had a busy time in co-ordinating the registrations for the District Conference held in Narrabri this year and special thanks goes to Paul Ying, Bill Warburton, and Kevin Haycock from our Club, and Bruce Hemmett from Tamworth First Light, for working with me for that project and to John Budden who filled in for me when I was sick during that time. The conference was a great success so well done to all.


I thank our Programmes Committee and Dick Howard for continually presenting a wide range of competent, interesting and entertaining Guest Speakers, our Bulletin Editors for interesting weekly bulletins and our Sergeant at Arms, for painless extraction of funds where possible and to Bill Warburton for his weekly “5 minutes with Bill” segment at Club meetings. Particular thanks to Col Quast, & Paul Cole for their donation of prizes during the year. All these aspects contributed to enjoyable meetings and functions. I am very grateful also for the support during the year from my wife, Vicki who has to put up with me and the various work and community undertakings that I get myself involved in. Finally, I thank all the members for assisting and supporting me in another year for the Rotary Club of Tamworth, congratulations to those members listed for 100% attendance during the year, and I wish Incoming President Bruce McCorkell and his Board every success for the 2009/10 Rotary year. Following now are my Individual Board members reports for the year.         

Donations and Project Support:

It is with pleasure that the Board announces the following donations:
$500                             2YOU FM
$200                             Australia Medic Alert Foundation - MedicAlert
$6620                           Australian Rotary Health - Youth Depression Research
$500                             Billabong House
$500                             CAPERS
$500                             Challenge Disability Services
$500                             Children's Cancer Institute
$500                             Cure Our Kids Inc
$1000                           D9650 - Rotarian Against Malaria (RAM)" Adopt a Village" Appeal
$1000                           9650 Rotary Australia World Community Service
$2000                           D9650 RAWCS (Water Conservation Projects
$500                            Fred Hollows Foundation
$500                            Guide Dogs NSW/ACT
$500                            Interplast Australia and New Zealand
$500                            Legacy Tamworth
$1000                          Lifeline Tamworth
$100                            Mercy Ships Australia
$500                            Midnight Basketball - Tamworth PCYC
$360                            Model United Nations Assembly - MUNA
$325                            National Youth Science Forum - NYSF
$1000                          Northcott Society
$500                            NRMA CareFlight
$500                            Nundle Tutorial Centre
$30                              Oxley High School - Annual Academic Prize giving
$200                            Peter Nelson Leukaemia Research Fellowship Fund Inc.
$500                            Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia
$1000                          Red Cross Breakfast Café - Tamworth High School
$2000                          Ronald McDonald House - Tamworth
$2000                          Ronald McDonald House - Newcastle
$3000                          Rotary Foundation
$2000                          Rotary Foundation - Polio Plus
$1000                          Salvation Army
$5000                          Scouts Australia - Lynchwood kitchen building fund
$400                            Seniors Week bus trip
$1200                          Shelterbox
$500                            Smith Family
$30                              Somerton Public School - Annual Academic Prize giving
$$2000                        St Jude School, Tanzania, School Building Fund
$500                            Starlight Children's Foundation
$100                            Tamworth Eisteddfod
$30                              Tamworth High School - Annual Academic Prize giving
$1000                          Tamworth Meals on Wheels
$1000                          Tamworth Regional Conservatorium  of Music
$1000                          Tamworth Regional Tidy Towns Committee
$200                            Tamworth Stroke Recovery Club
$1000                          Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service - Tamworth
$200                            Youth Encouragement Award
$2567                          Youth Exchange Program
$1000                          Youth Insearch

TOTAL $49,562

CLUB SERVICE REPORT - Andrew Swane

Thank you to my team especially those who have been involved in setting up the Clubs programmes and to those who publish our bulletins: those are so critical to the running of our Club and I know go to great lengths in time to undertake those functions for us.
Some comments in relation to particular aspects of the portfolio:

Attendance. Congratulations to the following members who have achieved 100% Attendance in 2008-2009
Steve Beaton; Paul Cole; Peter Godden;  Ken Hall;   Kevin Haycock;   Bruce McCorkell; Paul Ying

Catering & Fellowship. A big thank you to some of our fellows who continue to organize food and drinks at all our functions external to Club meetings – John Frame, Paul Cole & Bernard Barnsley. Your work is appreciated.

District Conference. As you know a successful conference was held in Narrabri and coordinated by the Narrabri Club however we were responsible for management of Registrations for that event. A job well done by President Steve, Paul Ying, Bill Warburton, Kevin Haycock , and John Budden.

Thank you to all who helped during the year.

COMMUNITY SERVICE REPORT - Paul Cole
Rotary Book Sale
This has been the most successful Rotary book sale since commencing 25 years ago, with excess of $40,000 being raised. Tamworth Rotary has purchased its own 20' shipping container and a further 6 tables. We now have 106 tables in storage (signs, tables, a counter are held at Frank Dengate’s storage shed in Taminda) A special thanks must go to the owners of the Stockland complex for allowing Tamworth to utilise their venue at no cost to our Club. The venue has been left clean and tidy after the book Sale.

Thank you to Scott Simmons for his assistance in sending a letter to Stockland, making the Homespace Centre premises available for the Book Sale venue. Barry Smith once again put together an excellent advertising campaign. The extra cost in advertising surely paid off. My Community Service deputy director, John Frame has shown full commitment to this Book Sale on many levels, sorting books with his wife Frances on many occasions and on several occasions by himself. John also assisted with the catering at the venue. Thanks go to Wayne Turner for updating our signs and to Graham Stevens for the several laminated signs being provided promptly.

Thanks to Alec Noble who organised our extensive record, DVD and video arrangement.

All able members have assisted in the Book Sale, depending on their health, workload and other personal commitments, putting in several hours of work when needed.

Thanks must go to Soundys, the Chemist Warehouse, United Fuels, Terry Balla - Beaurepaires, Graham Stevens, The Good Guys, McDonalds South Tamworth, Country Chickens, Peter and Virginia Holzberger - Outback Jacks for their times and or donations. We also thank Ian Kensell in providing a site to house our container at his spare parts warehouse at the corner of Denison and Barnes Street for storing books; ABC New England North West, 2YOU FM, 2TM, Northern Daily Leader and the TV stations for their broadcasting and promotion.

Garden Expo
Last year the Garden and Outdoor Expo at the Tamworth Regional Botanic Garden was a great success with over $6600 being raised. The attraction of the Tamworth Mini Rail in conjunction with the Friends of the Botanic Garden plant sale, proved to be a winner. The members of the Club need to get behind this years Expo with regular meeting and planning. A new brochure is being developed, and will be available in the next few weeks. The committee is looking at the advertising campaign to go with that as well.

Breakfast Cafe
Thank you to Ken Hall, Peter Godden, John Nash, and Steve Beaton and those members and partners that assist this worthwhile project.

Community Health and Aged Activities
Once again the club participated in the BowelScan campaign in selling the screening kits at the Kmart Plaza in March. Over 3000 kits were sold between the five Rotary Clubs in Tamworth and we gained a share of $650 profit donated to the Australian Rotary Health. Thank you to those members who assisted in selling the kits and especially to Denis Woolaston who provided numerous hours in testing and results.

During the Senior Citizens Week, a bus tour and picnic lunch was arranged for the senior citizens and was enjoyed by everyone on board.

It has been a very successful year for the Club in community service, distributing over $40,000 to various charity and volunteer organisations.

VOCATIONAL SERVICE REPORT - Bernard Barnsley

I would like to make mention of some particular aspects of my portfolio.

  • Rotaract & Interact - Due to inactivity over the past few years there is no report however we are still holding money on behalf of Rotaract.
  • National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) No candidates this year.
  • Honeywell Engineering Summer School (HESS) No candidates this year.
  • Siemens Science Experience (SSE) No candidates this year.
  • Pride of Workmanship This year Tamworth First Light Rotary Club were organising the awards on behalf of the Tamworth clubs and with the other clubs a committee was formed to facilitate the award. Our club was involved on this committee and we also assisted in
    interviewing and judging nominations for the hospitality award. The award presentation night was held on the 13th April at the West Leagues Club and from all reports a successful night was achieved. This coming Rotary year our club will be the organising club for this award.
  • Youth Encouragement Award was again organised by our club and the award was presented to Kyle Waters at a dinner at the TAFE College. This night was a resounding success and the dinner prepared and served by the TAFE students was brilliant. This year a number of wives and partners attended and I can recommend this evening to more wives and partners to attend next year for this experience.

I would like to thank all the members who assisted in making Vocational Service a successful year.

INTERNATIONAL SERVICE REPORT - John O'Connor

  • RAWCS. Our Club has again been active in assisting Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS).  Les Rae has been instrumental in having the number of beds donated last year from St Andrew’s Village, successfully transported to Sydney for shipment by District to Tanna Island in Vanuatu. Three crates of surplus medical supplies are currently in storage at Tamworth Base Hospital awaiting similar transport to Vanuatu later this year.
  • RAWCS Appeal. The Annual RAWCS Appeal was again conducted by Frank Dengate and Fred Edwards, resulting in most club members making a further life membership donation. Funds raised through this appeal, and from our other club activities have been
    donated to many International Service projects including the Rotary Foundation, Polio Plus, D9650 “Adopt a Village” Appeal, D9650 RAWCS Water Conservation Projects, Shelter Box, School of St Jude and Mercy Ships.
    One outcome of our annual Book Sale has been the donation of two trailer loads of Encyclopaedias and Children’s Knowledge Books for ultimate transport to Primary Schools in the South Pacific.
  • District 9650 Pacific Training Aid Program – Practical experience was provided in the New England area for a number of nurses from the Solomon Islands.  In co-operation with Hunter New England Health, one of these nurses gained practical experience at Tamworth Base Hospital with accommodation provided by John and Barbara Potton.
  • International Friendship Exchange – Our club assisted Armidale North Rotary Club with their hosting of a Chinese Friendship Exchange group from Shandong Province.
  • Michael and Marie de Groot recently participated in a Friendship Exchange to Denmark.
  • OAM. Congratulations to Fred Edwards on his Order of Australia Medal announced in the recent Queen’s Birthday Honour’s List. This is worthy recognition of the many working trips Fred has undertaken to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, carrying out school and hospital construction work, under RAWCS and former FAIM programmes.

My thanks to President Steve, my International Service Committees and Club members for their assistance with these activities during the past year.

NEW GENERATIONS REPORT - Geoff Ward

The club supported a range of youth related programs and activities during 2008-2009.

  • Youth Exchange. The first ½ of the year saw our club continue to support the Youth Exchange Program by hosting Vini Reis our
    Brazilian exchange student. Thank you to the members of our club who hosted Vini and included him in their family activities. The club will be jointly hosting another student, Felix Frankenberg from Sweden later in 2009, maintaining our club’s long history of supporting the Youth exchange program.
  • RYAG. Students from the High Schools sponsored by our club participated in a number of RYAG programs, all be it independently of sponsorship by our club.
  • RYLA. Although the club did not directly select a candidate for RYLA this year, the club did assist a participant to attend this worthwhile
    leadership course. I’m pleased to advise that the club’s participant from last year, James, has successfully completed his teaching degree and is now teaching at Dubbo South High School, James tells me that the skills and experience he gained at RYLA assisted him greatly in
    completing the outstanding practical components of his course.
  • MUNA. 2 teams from Calrossy were sponsored by the club to participated in MUNA (Model United Nations Assembly) held in Narrabri, which they found both an enriching and fun experience.

I have found interaction with our supported Schools a bit patchy during the year, I believe it would be wise of the club to actively seek out staff from the Schools who may wish to be considered for membership in the club next year, this would give the club direct access to someone “within” the School who could assist the club promote our range of many worthwhile Youth programs more successfully.

Although not directly related to the New Generations portfolio I’d also like to mention other actions the club has taken to support Youth, including coordinating the Country Music Cavalcade float with other youth exchange students from the District. Our catering for students travelling to and from Canberra to attend the National Youth Science Forum and a number of donations made to Youth related activities made throughout the year and at our annual disbursements.

It seems that sometimes it is difficult to gauge whether the activities the club supports have a long term affect on the youth involved so as the final part of my report I would like to include parts of an email received by the club from a former Tamworth participant in the NYSF in 2008, Astrid Hooper.

“I am writing to thank you once more for the opportunities which have been provided to me through being able to attend the National Youth Science Forum in 2008. I have only now been able to see how influential the forum was in shaping my choice of degree and thus my life.”

“When attending the orientation for NYSF, Mr. John Walton told me that I should seriously consider my future career plans before leaving for Canberra, as when I return to Tamworth I wouldn’t have any. At the time, I did not believe him; I had my heart set on mining engineering, yet on returning I had forgotten the reasons as to why engineering looked so appealing. I then turned to the medical field and over the course of year twelve I decided that dentistry was my calling. It was a rapid turnaround from wanting to drill holes in the ground to drilling in someone’s tooth, and I can only owe it to the NYSF.” 

Thank you to all those who have assisted in this portfolio during some of my absences.

MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Jim Wilson

Unfortunately the Club has had a decline in membership for the year for a number of reasons however there have been some actions during the year and work still to continue to address this problem.

Aging Membership. The aging membership of our Club is not a new issue and has been discussed for a few years now. As you all know increasing our membership has been difficult to do especially in encouraging the younger age group to our Club.
During the year we set up two “Potential members Forums”, developed an agenda for those evenings, including having various representatives from our Club attend and President Steve personally sent out 30 or so invitations to various persons with a view to encouraging them to join our Club but unfortunately to no avail. Although we were not able to sign up any new members as a result we did however obtain some positive feedback from some who are interested in joining when work commitments permit so we will keep in touch with those.

With some guidance from DG Ken we also are currently talking to another six or so potential members who we are hoping will follow through with an application to join and we will continue to follow those up as well.

Female Members. On a more positive note for the Club in light of the membership issue, the Board agreed to consider as part of the Clubs normal membership recruitment processes to accept applications from females and this is a major change from the generally accepted past practice of the Club and there are two applications before us at this time for the Board to pursue.
As they say, watch this space for the results but I am sure that the new Board, as will all members, continue to work on solving this issue so that the Club can continue to be of good strength and viability in Tamworth.

Honorary Membership. It was with great pleasure that the Club Board decided to bestow member Warren Newman OAM with an Honorary
Membership award to the Club for service to the Community in general, to Rotary, and most importantly for his past work with our Club. Congratulations Warren.

Finally, I would like to mention the passing of Club member Fred Kelley recently and that our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time, and to all those that assisted me in the Membership portfolio, thank you.

 

BARRIE'S BROOCH
Silver brooch with four bars on the right hand side, three pearls on the left hand side, and the badge of Rotary International in the centre. Barrie's Brooch, as the name suggests, was a gift to the Rotary Club of Tamworth from member Barrie Titcume. Barrie was President of this club for the 1965/1966 year and Governor of the then District 265, now District
9650, for the 1971/1972 year. Barrie attended the 1971 International Assembly in Lake Placid, Essex County, New York, USA, before taking office as District Governor. His return to Australia was via Hong Kong and it was there that the badge was purchased. Barrie considered the Club had been most supportive of him leading to his year as District Governor. He wished to acknowledge that situation knowing that there would be further demands on the Club and their Rotaryannes (the
partners of members) during his term as D.G. Indeed, the District Conference in Tamworth from 17th to 19th March, 1972 was organised by the Tamworth Club in conjunction with West and North Tamworth Clubs and was a tremendous success. In fact, it proved to be the largest ever held in this Rotary District with 1,150 registrations. Barrie's Brooch is a token of recognition and appreciation for what the President's wife does during her husband's year of office and for the contribution of all Partners during the term of their husband's membership of this Club. The badge was first presented in June 1972 to Hazel McKellar, wife of the late Norm McKellar, President of the Rotary Club of Tamworth for the 1971/1972 year. It is to be passed on each year to the wife/partner of the incoming President to wear on all official Club occasions during the ensuing term of office.

 

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