On Thursday Dave Woodrow's daughter, Robyn, passed away after a long fight with ovarian cancer. The club extends its deepest sympathy to Dave and Cherie and the family at this sad time. 

On Sunday we'll be welcoming 150+ swimmers, and Kerry and Tamara and the team from SalTy Souls legacy, volunteers from Mooloolaba Rotary, the Sunshine Coast Satellite Club, The Sunshine Coast Rotoract Club and of course the amazing team at Alex SLSC for our Winter Solstice Swim. 

 

It promises to be a great day, and we're excited!!

 

It all start on Saturday afternoon, with making the preparations for an early start Sunday (when some of us are not at our sparkly best)...and after a warm up in the park, a safety briefing, then a 1k, 3k or 5k swim and a lot of effort and fun, we give out a few trophies and thanks and hopefully have raised enough funds to give SalTy Souls a permanent home at the THRIVE complex at Maroochydore. 

 

Volunteer list below, (subject to change whenever a certain scribe remembers what he has forgotten)..See you there!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So on Friday by show of hands we discovered what we all know..we're all visitors. So returning to the start of controversy corner a certain migrant (who Australian taxpayers actually paid for him and his family to come here - really??) posed the question...... "If you were going to pick a date to celebrate the being Australian on Australia Day,......would you really pick the date that the continent was colonised? Isn't that like picking the battle of Colloden as "Scotlands" day?.... Just saying. 

 

As we head away from reconciliation week and into Naidoc week are we comfortable with this situation? 

 

 

Last weeks controversy corner was met with complete agreement that we should see what we can do to get Australia Day moved to a more inclusive day (see below). So thats something a certain scribe has on his "things to do" list. 

 

But this week something more controversial. It starts with the question...are we diverse enough as a club? Obviously at an organisational level, Rotary is representative of the world community with over 1,200,000 members "in more countries than MacDonalds" was the slogan which I think is still true.....and all races and communities are part of the Rotary family....but what about locally?

 

At Alex we've been very fortunate to balance up our male and female diversity at Alex Rotary and hopefully are no longer seen as a man's club. But like most Rotary clubs we are predominately "oldies". So that brings challenges as well as opportunities. 

 

We'll probably never represent the community age profile due to the nature of Rotary and todays society.... But what about visitors to our community?

 

We know that the Sunshine Coast attracts a very high percentage of residents as first time migrants - either interstate or overseas....what can we do we attract them to Rotary? 

 

 

This is a story about reconciliation, appropriate to Reconciliation week, but perhaps controversial in some quarters. 

 

A few years ago Tamika,  young team leader from AIME - an amazing aboriginal mentoring support group at USC, spoke to the club. It was the first time a certain scribe heard the phrase" Invasion Day". It sort of jarred with me at the time but I could not really explain why.

 

Then recently Graeme spoke to the club about how the local parish priest always spoke of the Sunshine Coast as "a destination" and a show of hands demonstrated that we were all recent visitors. (some more recent than others!)

 

The more I thought about it, and Tamika's words, the more I realised that Tamika was right.  (and this is from a scribe whose race who have been front and centre in  every invasion for over 400 years). So when folks ask my opinion on the date of Australia Day I say that the date is wrong. I'd be upset if for example Scotlands day of celebration was on the anniversary of Culloden.

 

The date to celebrate this wonderful country  doesn't pass the 4 way test in my book, and the celebrations of Australia should go ahead on a different date. That would improve reconciliation. 

 

What do you think? Silence is assent. 

 

 

 

Last Friday Nick Foster Jones was our guest speaker. Nick is a good friend of Paul Scott and Paul introduced Nick as a veteran who is doing some amazing work helping soldiers (and their families) who are suffered teh after effects of serving Australia. Things like transitioning to society, PTSD, and the like. So Nick established "Diggers Rest" out at Beerwah and is gradually creating an amazing retreat for soldiers and their families with accommodation facilities, activities, organised adventure trips, and outdoor therapy.

 

Nick was incredibly enthusiastic about his cause and had some personal stories around these issues that brought home to us how demanding serving one's country can be. Unfortunately there is a great demand for folks like Nick and Karen Foster - Jones and the work they do to fill the gaps and mentor  soldiers after their service term is over and the damage that the service has created needs to be repaired. The diggers rest relies heavily on community support so spread the word about the great local work being done by Nick and his team.

 

See www.diggersrest.org.au

 

 

 

Great to see Brian Wallace and team at the slstice swim helping out. Here's a isof new members, and a special welcome to Anna who is taking up an official role as Chair of the Satellite club. Welcome.

 

On Friday we welcomed back Bob Lane to the club as a Friend of Alex Rotary. Bob is a past treasurer and all round good guy, who is also an avid swimmer, and a Dragons fan (apparently?). Bob is joining as a friend as he is supportive of Rotary and wants to join a movement that makes a difference to our community, and being a "friend of Rotary" is a great way to express that. Bob is hoping to make our winter breakfast meetings, and maybe a few of the summer meetings when the early morning swim is off the table.

 

The other member we welcomed (he never really left) was human dynamo Steve Newton, who makes the drive in from Beerwah every Friday morning for our breakfast meeting. Steve is a "middle aged surfy chap" who loves his Kombi's and was pillar of strength in last years "Surf Show and Shine". 

 

We also welcome members from the Sunshine Coast satellite club as members of Alex Rotary, Les Walsh, Brian Wallace, Craig Humphrey, De'Anna Delaney, Anna Myr, Cherri Deutschmann, Marg Fitzpatrick, and Ray Burton. 

 

So our membership is SOARING, and its great to see the numbers holding firm over winter when its a bit harder to get out of bed in the morning..for some of us anyway.

 

 

One of the benefits of having a bigger club membership, and particularly the Satellite club is that more volunteering opportunities become available. Here are some of the things that the Satellite club has on the go...

 

 

Look out for more on the club website  event page www.alexandrarotary.com

 

 

Les Walsh

Brian Wallace

Craig Humphrey

De'Anna Delaney

Nanna Mayr

Cherri Deutschman

Marg Fitzpatrick

Ray Burton 

 

 

 

 

 

The turn of the year will see lots of change-over dinners and the like and new Rotary club leaders for 2021/ 2022. But the major change this year, is that the District that we belong t o become much, much larger. Huge in fact. How this is all going to work is being sorted out just now, so keep your eyes on teh District newsletter below, and be sure to come along to our club changeover, where we welcome back Wendy Protheroe as guest speaker. 

 

 

Click on link for all the Rotary news

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Friday Michelle was host and Jane Hillyard was guest speaker, and wasn't it great to hear have the "young one's" speak with such enthusiasm about how Rotary Youth leadership programs had made such a difference to their lives. 

 

Jane was heading up the corporate success trail when she attended a Rotary Youth Leadership program which gave her the confidence to try new things and sent her along a different  path of accelerated development and a different aspect of her career, trying new things with added confidence. 

 

Added to that came the bonus of wanting to give back by helping the Rotary Youth Programs came along and she has now made a difference to so many others. Well done Jane.  So inspiring and comforting to know that there are folk like Jane in teh next generation of leaders.

 

 

There's still a bit of paperwork to do, but the vote on Friday was unanimous in agreeing that we move forward and sponsor the current Provisional Passport Club to become a Satellite Club to us. 

 

This follows discussions with Les W and Brian W a few weeks ago in Caloundra where the two "leaders" of the club explained that they had looked for a different strategy to enable their members to move towards a full Rotary charter. Their club and active members were well known to many of the clubs on the coast through their volunteering efforts, always turning up when a helping hand was needed at a Rotary community event on the Coast.

 

So Wendy and I  felt very privileged to be selected from all the clubs on the coast to help them become fully fledged "Rotarians". 

 

 

 

There's still a few administrative details to be sorted out but we're hopeful of starting the new Rotary Year with our very own satellite club and helping then achieve full Rotarianship. We're also looking forward to pooling our resources to make a bigger difference to the Sunshine Coast Community.

 

 

On Monday evening Wendy continued her "Johnny Farnham" farewell tour and said her thanks and goodbye's to Mooloolaba as their outgoing AG.

 

Its always interesting visiting a different Rotary club on the Coast and probably something we should do more often. It interesting seeing how they do they things slightly differently and have different community programs and the like.

 

One thing that is common is that they all want to "make a difference" and contribute the "glue" to the communities they work in.

 

So thank you Mooloolaba for a warm welcome and an interesting night. 

 

 

 

Following on from the clubs collaboration with Maroochydore Rotary, Jeanne spoke to the club about her idea to help the community through her business (which she is now returning to after the golf!). So we'll talk about that and there should be an email in your inbox from Wendy requesting feedback.

 

 

The registrations are rolling on, and we expect to pass 100 registrations this week. We're holding short (ish) meetings after the general club meeting at 8.00 am to tick off the things to do as we head into the final preparation. On Friday we're were joined by Jackie MacGregor who is well connected with the ladies in surf and the swim clubs around the region. Also Les W stayed back after witnessing the unanimous vote. Les has been doing a fantastic job with promoting the swim on social media. If any member wants to stay back and join the swim discussions please feel free. Also please don't forget the multi draw and drop a few posters off at your local shops..always a good opening to ask for a raffle prize...you never know...we have some amazing business people on teh coast who are always happy to help.