Club History
Once again Paul Ying has been assisted by Warren Newman and others in keeping our club history up to date. As usual Warren has given us his wealth of knowledge.
District Conference
Tamworth was represented by Ken Hall and others at this year’s annual
conference at Port Macquarie.Ken Hall is preparing for this year’s district conference to be held at Narrabri.Please give support to Ken our new district governor.
Bulletin Editors
This has been taken care of in the efficient way of Andrew Swain, Jim Wilson and Denis Woolaston.Thank you for all your efforts.
Programs
Mr. Dick Howard has seen we have had an exceptional array on quality guest speakers and outings.It will be difficult to continue such quality guest speakers.
Publicity
This year has been no exception with Barry Smith and Mick Moroney assisting in this difficult task.The TV advertising for the book sale was excellent and Tamworth Rotary has been supported by Radio and The Northern Daily Leader.Thank you to these organisations for their wealth of experience and assistance.
Attendance
Kevin Haycock, assisted by Bruce McCorkell, has kept us up to date weekly with our attendance.Attendance this year has been quite acceptable for the large majority. With Terry Bella issuing a questionnaire for all members, which we expect to lead to more members.
Catering & Fellowship
Thanks to Bernard Barnsley and John Frame and others.Tamworth Rotary Club was well catered for at 4 x Rotary BBQ’sand 3 book sale sorting nights. Tamworth did have 32 people enjoy a bus trip to the Walcha area, which was most enjoyable.
COMMUNITY SERVICE - Geoffrey Ward
It is with pleasure that I submit my report for the above portfolio for the
period July 2007 through to June 2008.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank the board for their understanding at my inability to attend board meetings due to employment commitments, when accepting the role I was not anticipating continuing with night work, however due to family circumstances, namely the birth of my first child and what I must say has been a challenging employment situation in Tamworth for
people with my previous experience and skill set, I have continued with night employment.
GARDEN AND OUTDOOR EXPO
The first task was being part of the organisation of the Garden and Outdoor Expo which was held in October. This event was the fourth expo with Bernie Barnsley, Paul Ying and Paul Cole at the helm, however special thanks must be given to Steven Simpfendorfer who did a considerable amount of hands on work in the days leading up to the expo, he was excused from activities on the Sunday of the event due to the birth of a child overnight. The weather was again, not the perfect spring, but on the hot side, in spite of such conditions we had a good attendance of exhibitors and the public despite what were still drought conditions at the time and several other major events on in town over the weekend.
Last year the Club allocated $10,000.00 to-wards the cost of a gazebo that is a feature of a new ponds development within the gardens. Tamworth Regional Council and Dpt of Corrective Services Inmates undertook the bulk of the construction work. It was officially opened during the Expo.
This feature will soon have a plague attached drawing attention to the fact that it was the Tamworth Rotary Club project and celebrated the Club’s 75th year of service.
Planning for the 2008 expo is well underway with it being held earlier in the year and in conjunction with 2 major events onsite being the opening of the model railway, the annual friends of the botanic gardens plant sale and
possibly a live radio broadcast from the site on Sunday with the ABC’s
Australia All Over program.
Given the better weather conditions and these 3 events, the club has the
potential to raise a significant amount of funds from the event as long as we take the time and effort now to market the event as widely as possible to
potential commercial exhibitors and build up community enthusiasm to attend the event to ensure our commercial exhibitors feel it has been a worthwhile event for them to attend. Given the difficulties we face with our annual book sale over the long term, it is vitally important that all club members take an active interest in supporting this event into the future. Preparations for the event involve mainly administrative tasks with only a moderate amount of labouring required by club members in the immediate vicinity of the event.
BOWELSCAN
The Club again participated in the annual event. The response from the public was very good and thanks go to Mal Souter for his organisation in preparing rosters and seeing thing ran smoothly.
SENIORS WEEK.
As has been the custom, our Club sponsored a coach trip for the Seniors.
Although I was unable to attend at the last minute I understand the seniors on the trip had a wonderful time.
ANNUAL BOOK SALE
The book sale was held for the 3rd year in a row at the same premises at
Tamworth Home Space. This year the result was a little disappointing due to a number of factors including another service club holding a similar event earlier in the year, Difficult economic conditions for our primary target
customers (low and middle income earners / pensioners) and what I accept was not as well organised a preparation for the event due to my lack of
experience as a first time club director, however I must personally thank Mike Moroney for his
mentoring of myself through this event. Our “drop-off” depots worked well and our thanks go to Terry Balla, Graham Stevens, Wayne Turner and Soundys for their help in this regard.
Although funds raised this year were down on previous years, the event proves a real opportunity of fellowship amongst club members and has other community benefits such as international aid support through onward
donations of reference publications, and encouragement of recycling and
literacy.
Not withstanding the above I do have concerns for the future of the book sale, The preparation,
holding and clean-up of the event requires a
significant amount of volunteer hours and physical labour, the current club demographic does not lend itself to this being a viable project into the medium term unless we get an injection of new members willing and able to devote the time and energy in the preparation and cleanup of this event.
BREAKFAST CAFÉ.
A small number of Members still give their time to operate the Café on a weekly basis. This facility is organised by the Red Cross and the Club
Members act on a voluntary basis for which I thank them. Student numbers attending the Café remain solid and more volunteers are always welcome to assist where they can, I’m told it is not a difficult task and proves to be most rewarding experience being able to interact with a diverse group of students.
SUMMIMG UP
As a club we need to work smarter not harder, whilst we always need to
remember that our major community service projects are not just about fund raising and that in any case, every dollar raised is a dollar the recipient
organisation didn’t have, we do need to be conscious about the type and scale of projects the club can and should be hold into the future, I believe the
Garden and Outdoor Expo has a real potential to earn significant funds for the club with a moderate amount of effort by club members and that we need to rethink how we go about holding the annual book sale to minimise the amount of physical labour involved in the project.
VOCATIONAL SERVICE - Bruce McCorkell
In this portfolio I have become aware that there is much that we do as a
Rotary Club, and in conjunction with other Rotary clubs and local
institutions, to foster high ethical standards in the production of goods and the
delivery of quality services within our community. This is an opportunity for us to be made aware of, and acknowledge excellence where it exists, and to extend the ideals of The Four Way Test to the broader community.
The club was treated to a workplace visit at the Tamworth Agricultural
Institute in January. Bruce Terrill, the institute manager, showed members through the site, demonstrated some of the equipment, and explained some of the research being conducted by world class scientists at that facility. These visits allow us to see some of the great and important, if unpretentious, work conducted locally that is a source of justifiable local pride. In the same vein, I have an invitation from Gary Pollock, the director of the Tamworth TAFE College, to visit that institution during the 2008-09 term, to inspect their new training facilities, and hope the new Vocational Service director will take
advantage of that opportunity.
We had just one nominee for the 2008 National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) in Canberra and were pleased to be able to support the application of Astrid Hooper from Tamworth High School. I am pleased to report that we currently have two nominees for the 2009 NYSF – from Calrossy and Carinya. As in 2007, there were no applicants for the 2008 Honeywell
Engineering Summer School (HESS) to be held at the various universities in
Sydney and Wollongong. This apparent lack of interest in engineering among year 10 and 11 students is unfortunate, given that the demand for engineering graduates currently exceeds supply, and is tipped to increase in coming years.
The Pride in Workmanship awards for 2008 were organised by the Tamworth West Rotary Club with the support of the other local Rotary clubs. Awards were presented at a gala function held at Wests Diggers in May. I am concerned that, at that an award evening, as in past years, little insight was afforded into the reasons for nomination, or the processes and criteria by which nominees were evaluated. In the absence of this sort of transparency I believe these awards lack credibility.
The 2008 Youth Encouragement Award ceremony was conducted at the Futures Restaurant at the Tamworth TAFE College in May. The award was presented to Gavin White, a 3rd year metal fabrication and welding apprentice who has continued to distinguish himself with his employers and trainers throughout his training, by his attitude to his studies and the work he produces. Charles Nott was responsible for organising this evening, and the award, with Bernadine Hunt of the TAFE College. The staff and students of the Futures restaurant have continued to exceed all of our expectations for an impressive and enjoyable dining experience.
There are few tangible rewards that accrue to this club from this portfolio but the value of the insights derived from workplace visits, opportunities for students from NYSF and HESS functions, and the acknowledgement of superior efforts in the Pride in Workmanship and Youth Encouragement awards are incalculable. This is in keeping with the altruistic nature of much that we do as Rotarians.
INTERNATIONAL SERVICE - Tony Broadhurst
The Rotary Club of Tamworth has continued its involvement in International Service in 2007/2008.
There has been continued participation in Friendship Exchanges and the Club currently has a number of nursing beds in storage awaiting shipment to the Pacific as Donations in Kind. Individual members have continued their involvement in projects being carried out overseas and DGE Hall has a very interesting project planned for next year in India. Hopefully that initiative will receive strong support from this Club.
In addition to the more than $19,000 donated or planned to be donated this year by the Club to International service initiatives, a number of individual members have contributed generously to causes including Shelter boxes which have been of significant assistance in the recent Myanmar cyclone
aftermath.
NEW GENERATIONS - Andrew Swane
RYAG
RYAG Beef and were well attended by Calrossy and Farrer this year, with Calrossy being the keenest. No interest in other RYAG events this year.
RYLA
Thanks to Geoff Ward for nominating James Burling, a work colleague. Geoff says James has found RYLA experience to be a valuable learning experience.
YEP
Vini has proved to be a fine exchange student – probably too refined for us. However, we hope to put some rough edges on him before he returns.
MUNA
Well supported by Calrossy this year. Two teams were entered and by all
accounts from their teacher, Sharon Draper, they enjoyed the experience
immensely.
In short, it was business as usual for NG this year. Thanks to the rest of the Board for their direct and indirect support.
MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT - Terry Balla
Well another year has flown by and we are all one year older , wiser but far better looking.
Membership is, as always, a hard battle and forever on president’s and district governor’s top mind. With that said we will finish the year with two members up on last year, taking into account the induction of John Nash, Benn
McCorkell, Peter Holzberger, the return of Keith Gates, and the impending induction of Steve Hoad at this changeover.
While excuses do no one any favours it is hard to come up with fresh ideas for membership and while the form sent out had mutterings (seen this before), the people who have looked at the list have provided nearly 30 names; some very good leads that will be followed up by myself and next year’s committee and I encourage all members to have a look at the classification list and try to add a few more names.
Best wishes to next year’s committee.
100% ATTENDANCE at Club Meetings during the year 2007-2008.
We congratulate the following members:
Paul Cole
Peter Godden
Ken Hall
Paul Ying
Kevin Haycock
Steve Beaton
DONATIONS and PROJECT SUPPORT
Youth Projects
$1775 National Youth Science Forum (NYSF)
$ 100 Youth Encouragement Award
$ 695 Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA)
$2100 Rotary Youth Exchange Program
Vocational Service Projects
$ 250 Pride of Workmanship Award - estimated
International Service Projects
$ 290 RAWCS Annual Memberships
$3000 RAWCS Donations in Kind
$3600 Shelterbox (including 1 donated by members)
$2400 East Africa Fund – School of St Jude
$9600 Australian Foundation for Peoples of Asia & the Pacific (AFAP)
$600 Rotarians Against Malaria (RAM)
$2000 Rotary Foundation - Paul Harris Fellows
$2400 Polio Plus Challenge
Community Service Projects
$1250 Liberty Swing (Joint Presidents) - estimated
$500 Seniors Bus Trip
$1000 Tamworth Regional Conservatorium of Music
$ 400 TRCM Concert Band (Gerries)
$750 Australian Rotary Health Research Fund - Bowelscan
$ 500 Red Cross Tamworth - Breakfast Café
$ 500 CAPERS
$2000 Ronald McDonald House Tamworth
$ 500 Legacy Tamworth
$1000 Lifeline Tamworth
$1000 Westpac Rescue Helicopter Tamworth
$ 500 Youth Insearch
$1000 Salvation Army
$1000 Tamworth Meals on Wheels
$1000 Northcott Society Tamworth
$ 300 2YOU-FM
$ 500 Prostate Cancer Foundation (Tamworth)
$1000 Oncology Unit TBH
$1000 Tamworth Foundation for Musical Education
$ 500 Carols at the TREC (provision)
Prize Giving
$ 50 Oxley High School
$ 50 Somerton Public School
$ 50 Tamworth High School
$ 300 Tamworth Eisteddfod Society
$45460 TOTAL FOR 2007-08