A Business Meeting and another sad farewell to one of our own.....

Monday 27th July

Last Week

Friday was a business meeting with the various committee heads reporting back to the members.

Of interest:

• Although our weekly Zoom meetings have the same log-in details every time the majority of attendees  asked for Ann to send a reminder on Friday mornings
• John Symons went through the financials, and conveyed the Board decision that the subscription fee for the 2020/21 Rotary year will be R2 000. There was no increase in the previous year, but due to the Rand/Dollar exchange rate now sitting at R17.29/$ it was inevitable that our subs would have to go up.
• James Croswell shared that the container for the Baragwanath Palliative Care Division will be moved from Kevin's property to Bara in the near future and the final interior modifications will be done on site, and Covid permitting we will hopefully be able to host a opening function in September.
• James is also still looking for willing members to join his International committee.
• Jean Bernardo reported on Youth that the Interact Club of Highlands North Boys High School had finally been successfully incorporated into the Rosebank Rotary  club.
• Unfortunately due to the present Covid situation this year's youth camp had to be cancelled. We were refunded the full deposit.
• Les Short reported that there will be various online RI training courses on offer that he hopes all of us will take advantage of.
• Sybille Essmann reported back on Community Services that it had been decided that for the 20/21 Rotary Year they will continue with the projects such as the Spar "Christmas Hamper" collection, the Blanket Drive, as also Charity Begins With Me which is a new initiative. Puthadithjaba, as part of Linda Twala's efforts will also benefit.  
•  Pick & Pay had made a generous donation of R5000 to the Art Exhibition, and it was decided that this will be given to the Boikanyo Trust. 
• DG Annemarie Mostert will be visiting our club on the 18th of September
• President Ann encouraged all of us to install the ClubRunner app onto our Smart Phones.           As per Google: An official Rotary International Licensee, ClubRunner serves thousands of Rotary clubs and districts just like yours across the Globe with one goal in mind - to make technology work for anyone, anywhere while enabling Rotarians to streamline club processes and improve productivity. It manages your club or district with features such as attendance reporting, event and volunteer management, directory builder, social media integration and more.    

Farewell to Cesare 

 

Juanette shares her memories:

Well, when we both were in the Rotary Club of Orange Grove. We were much closer in the sense that he seemed to care about me and my being the youngest in the club at the time (45). But I cannot describe what exactly it was about our friendship.. I believe we just got on well and took the time to actually speak to each other .. sorry..

He and Donny were great, kind, generous people. 

He often came to my office to exchange all the small change collected at Rotary. I cannot remember how this arrangement came about. 

He also used our company truck for the moving of the blankets for the blanket drive. 

 Cesare was an avid cycler... he used to organize the cycling race for RC of Orange Grove long before it became  commercialized as the 94.7 race.. it was one of our big fund raisers, it was before my time. 

 He used to make pizza once a week, and was super proud of this skill. 

 As an Italian he was passionate about anything and everything he did, he was a great family man and spoke often of his children and grandchildren. His son lives in Mozambique and he organised a trip for the club, I am only sad I did not go with. 

 

Tutty's memories of Cesare

Indeed I was shocked to open the e-mails this morning to learn of Cesare’s passing. I got to know Cesare in the 1970’s through business when he served my building company with superb service with the supply of reinforcing steel. This service was so good that it struck me early in my Rotary membership that he would be a good Rotarian so I sponsored him. When he accepted membership of the Orange Grove club he enthusiastically and efficiently got stuck in in all manner of projects. Speaking from memory he successfully served as the Orange Grove President four times. In fact he was the final president. Despite being the president he continued to do all his committee and project work.

 Cesare in his younger days was an competitive and keen cyclist having competed multiple Argus races in the upper echelons. With his knowledge of the cycling world he was instrumental in setting up and organizing the first “Transvaal” Rotary cycle race which was a major money spinner for the Orange Grove club after our “Wilds Tearoom” project finally closed down. We did that for three years before we were muscled out by other sponsored promoters.

 In latter days Cesare served the Highlands North Interact Club as his main Rotary interest. I hope the club can continue to serve those young boys as well as he did.

Tutty's memories of Marian

I had very few dealings with Marian while she was a member of the Hillbrow Club. She contacted me to use my Professional Engineer status to make a professional assessment of the structures in Paterson Park in Norwood. She revealed to me that she was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the subjects that occupied a vast spectrum with her. This was illustrated when David Bradshaw invited her to speak to the Club about the re-development of the Rietfontein Fever Hospital site. The tributes to her in the Caxton press were thoroughly deserved.

Residents pay respect to late community member

This week

I hope I am not stealing Linda Cavid's thunder by giving the briefest of introductions to her topic:

For over 230 years, Franchi Sementi has offered their traditional Italian varieties of vegetables to discerning gardening and cooking enthusiasts in Europe, America and Australia. Now, South Africans too can experience the uniqueness and quality of Franchi Sementi seeds and seedlings through its South African distributor - Sought after Seedlings.

In 1783 in Bergamo, Northern Italy, the Franchi family started cultivating seeds that today, have become a byword for quality and authenticity. Franchi Sementi are not your run-of-the-mill seeds but rather, a story of tradition, pride, experience, quality, passion and excellence handed down over seven generations.

Most Franchi Sementi seeds are open pollinating heritage/heirloom varieties that are grown to maintain the longevity of vegetables which have been around for hundreds of years, ensuring quality and exceptional taste. Nature takes care of their propagation which means that they are not genetically engineered nor tampered with in any way.

Besides from the unique look, difference in taste and the obvious nutritional benefit of Franchi Sementi vegetables, South Africans will also benefit from their high germination rate and long shelf life.

As they say, variety is the spice of life – buon appetito!

A social meeting with friends near and far, Membership and an attainable project

Monday 20th July

Last Week

Friday was a social meeting and again we had a good turnout of 23 Zoom participants. Keep it up Fellow Rotarians, at the end of the 2020/21 Rotary year, most of us will be on the 100% attendance Register.

As you can see we had a few laughs along the way

It goes without saying the topic first and foremost on everyone's mind is the Covid19 Pandemic; it is getting ever closer and it was with sadness that President Ann conveyed the news that Marian Laserson had succumbed to this nasty scourge.

Social meetings gives us the opportunity to share what has been happening in our lives and James Croswell told us that the anniversary of the fire set by some dastardly invaders to their home was now a month ago, and slowly the damaged parts of the house have been repaired. We did have a chuckle when we pictured him trying to extinguish the fire dressed only in a t-shirt, which is the attire he usually sleeps in. It was probably not that funny at the time, because he sustained some pretty bad burns to his legs and hands.

We asked Juanette and Reiner how Covid is affecting them in Hamburg, and it seems that Germany has much more freedom of movement. They recently purchased two Harley Davidson motorcycles and took a road-trip 80 km north of Hamburg. Masks are still mandatory as is social distancing and contact tracing, but restaurants are open and the youngsters are quite happy to quarantine for 14 days after a party. The divorce rate has sky rocketed five times and it seems that the pregnancy rate has also increased exponentially.
Life in Italy has also normalized somewhat as attested by Lorenzo, who lives in the town of Palestrina just 35 km east of Rome. We are all envious of his lifestyle and with the power of technology he has promised to give us a guided tour in the very near future.
 John Symons reported that R3 600 had been deposited into the Rotary Project bank account which will go towards our Mandela Day/Month efforts and help with the Charity begins with Me feeding program.

Our President Ann found this very apt image of RI's 7 areas of focus, which she wanted to share with us.

Membership

An impassioned plea by David Bradshaw

The last  Rotary year was a great disappointment as far was membership numbers were concerned, we had to let two members go for not meeting their obligations regarding subscriptions, another decided that he was too frail to attend any more and we had the very sad passing of Past President Brian Leech.

We did not induct any new members and therefore ended the year minus four members. We did have 3 or 4 prospective members attend during the 9 months that we met at the Wanderers but due to various reasons three did not take it any further, and only Chrispin looks set to join us.

 Whilst holding our meetings on Zoom,  Lorenzo, a past member now living in Italy, is a regular attender and hopefully will become our first “E-member”.

 It has been said time and time again that it is the duty of all members to ask friends, relatives and business associates to join us, but in general, we are not very good at this. Of our current membership approximately 42% of our members were not inducted into this club as first time Rotarians, but joined us when their clubs closed down, or for other reasons. The vast majority of the remainder have been members for many years, and only a handful have joined in the last few years.

The new Rotary year is certainly looking more positive member wise with a number of very good prospects lined up already.

 President Ann has set a target of 4 new members in her year, lets really go all out to achieve at least this number.  So as Chairperson of Membership Development, PLEASE really make an effort this Rotary year to ask possible Rotarians to join us on Zoom or bring them along on a Friday, once this is possible. Please let President Ann know in advance if and when you invite a Zoom visitor.

 Wear a Rotary sticker on your car, and keep some Rotary information in your car, chat to everyone you meet socially (on Zoom?) about this wonderful organization.

 Why did you join? You joined because somebody asked you.

 Membership information will appear on a regular basis in the Ramble.

 Let’s make it happen.

 Regards

 David

Charity begins with Me

Here are some easy projects that all of us (well those of us that are in Johannesburg) can get involved with. I took them from Stephan's Facebook page and am sharing with you.

Project  1

  

I have a very special project planned for August but desperately need 150 empty 2l ice cream containers + lids

Please help me collect from friends, family, shops, restaurants etc!!

If you know ANYONE working in the food industry please share this with them.

Drop off in Fairland.

Please WhatsApp or SMS if you can help.

Stephan (072 593 3866)

Project 2

If you have kids, PLEASE ask them to help with a special project.

I need 500 x home made cards by end of July.

Size A5 or smaller - any shape or colour.

Use your creativity to either, paint, draw, use stencils, whatever you like.

The theme = hearts.

Cards must be blank so please don't include any messages.

NO messy glitter please!!!  

.

Drop off in Fairland or via PostNet.

Please SMS or WhatsApp if you can help.

Stephan

072 5933 866

Marianne shares her story, Quiz night fever and Nigel Bellamy ensures that 100 people stay warm this winter....

Last Week

I was so humbled and grateful for the many kind words of encouragement I received for my first Ramble from our members, the Ann's President and even from our DG Annemarie Mostert. Thanks guys, it means a lot to me. It was a collaborative effort, and I would not have been able to hit the "publish" button without the patient input from Patrick Hope-Bailie, who put the final techno-touches to my content.

And speaking about content: The Ramble is our Ramble, and it is a platform to share our collective stories, so should you come across anything that would be of interest to your Rotary family, please send it my way. 

We are now becoming old hands at attending our virtual meetings and Pam must be thrilled that she can put ticks to most names on her attendance sheet, and it's wonderful to greet Juanette in Hamburg, Lorenzo in Italy, Nigel in Botswana often makes an appearance and Momo, our intrepid and cheerful exchange student, who has to contend with the time difference in Thailand.

The only thing that might put a spanner in the works in the next few weeks/months is that the dreaded load shedding is rearing its ugly head again. My work week normally ends in time for me to make it home for our weekly meeting, but last Friday, in anticipation of a power cut at home I decided to not chance it and rather take advantage of guaranteed electricity at my office. 

Marianne's story

Our Marianne had the stage this week and she used the apt analogy of a glass of water on a saucer to illustrate her abundant life. She is the youngest of 6 siblings of Dutch parentage, the laat-lammetjie that was born in South Africa, when the family eventually settled here, after a stint in Zambia and Rhodesia. She does not deny that there were instances in her life that the glass wobbled terribly and was even knocked over and spilt that precious water, like when she was still at primary school and her beloved father died of a massive heart attack.

Her glass overflowed when she got the opportunity to become a Rotary Exchange Student, which allowed her to spend a year in the United States in her final year of school.

She studied to become a teacher and met and married Daryl, who was a theology student, when she started her first post at Risidale Primary school. As a pastor’s wife with four young children they were posted to various parts of the country, and Marianne used her teaching skills to build up Faith communities. They are now based at Rosettenville with a very cosmopolitan flock from many different parts of the world and demographics. And Marianne shared the wonderful news with us that Daryl only last week heard that he had graduated with his PhD from the University of the North West.

Thank you for sharing your story with us, your unfailing faith and inimitable spirit truly is an inspiration.

Lets Quiz....

What started off as a once off quiz challenge with Kyalami has now become a regular Wednesday evening fixture in our lock-down calendar, and the Rosebank team is now taking on challenges not only from local Rotary Clubs, but we have ventured as far as Gaborone and are warming up to take on the mountain goats of the Newlands Club in the Cape next week. Sonja Hood’s son Garreth is proving to be a worthy quiz master who certainly gets our grey matter going. We are now even looking at international fixtures from Kenya to Sweden, and our team members will attest to how much fun we are having. Please join us. Just let David Bradshaw know.

Wednesday 8th challenge against Fourways

Rosebank Rotary's Blanket Drive

Nigel Bellamy has always been a staunch Rosebank Rotary supporter and this year he very generously purchased a 100 blankets during our annual blanket drive and he sent us some lovely pictures of very grateful blanket recipients.

Mandela Day Rosebank Rotary Initiative

Following on to last week's appeal to support  our designated Charity begins with Me Mandela Day (in our case month) initiative:

     

Monetary donations may be deposited into:

Rotary Club of Rosebank Project Account

Nedbank

Sandton City

Account    1145999336

Branch      197005 

New year, and a new editor... Last week's news, Eddie from the Salvation Army and Mandela Day Rosebank Rotary Initiative

Last Week

Well folks, I cannot tell a lie, the new Ramble editor is a tad nervous of taking over from a pro like Peter James-Smith, and it will more than likely take me a few weeks to get into the swing of things, but there is nothing like a new challenge in life, so I will certainly do my best. And thank you Peter for your patience in showing me the ropes. Please bear with me for a week or two while I iron out the teething problems.

Friday the 3rd of July was President Ann's first official meeting, and is it not Murphy's Law that the techno-gremlins decided to strike that day. But our President took it in her stride, and long before short we were up and running.

Before our speaker Eddie de Vos from the Salvation Army took the stage, Jeannette (via Costa Qually), who liaises with the Angel Network, sent out the following plea for assistance.

They were notified of a devastating fire in Alex which destroyed over 200 shacks and left more than 1000 souls without a roof over their heads. They are desperate to get them fed, clothed and re-established ASAP. They are in need of blankets, bedding, pots and pans, clothing and non-perishable food.

I have been in touch with Glynn, one of the Angels, and will be delivering items already collected to her on Tuesday morning. Please contact myself or Ann should you wish to assist in any way.

Talk by past member Eddie de Vos of the Salvation Army

Eddie de Vos gave us a very sobering and thought-provoking account of the daily challenges he and his wife Hazel are faced with in their capacity as the administrators of the Beth Rogelim Men's Home in the very heart of the Cape Town City Bowl. The perfect setting belies the squalor they encountered when they took over this mammoth task two years ago.

Beth Rogelim Men's Home

The home had become a drop-off place and night shelter for the destitute of society. There was a general feeling of apathy, negativity and low self-esteem, which was reflected in lacking personal hygiene and unkempt surroundings.

Their first task was to give the 7 story building a face-lift to the tune of R500 000, then bring the run-away expenses under control and institute some strict rules that the men had to adhere to, such as daily showers and fresh clothes, weekly change of bedding, smoking ban in the bedrooms and instant expulsion for drug use.

They also had to get the Department of Health to rehouse nearly 30 mental health patients.

The 3 programs that they offer are:

1) Assisted living for older men, where said men receive a small grant
2) Low income earners, and
3) Victims of human trafficking. Eddie tells of 10 men that they took on that had been forced to work on a Korean boat under the most appalling conditions.

The cost of a room, ablutions and three meals a day (which are thanks to daily food donations from Woollies) and DSTV will cost the men between R2 500 and R4 000 a month. 

It goes without saying that a huge part of Eddie and Hazel's purpose is the spiritual upliftment of these men, and as Eddie so humbly put it, he feels that they were placed there to make a difference.

Mandela Day Rosebank Rotary Initiative

In  President Ann's letter she highlights Mandela Day, but the consensus is that we are going to declare this Mandela Month.

And in tribute to our Paul Harris recipient please let us all support his very worthy cause.

No doubt you have all clicked into the page we specifically created for him and are well aware of his feeding program. We get so many questions: "What do you need?" So  Please see below an idea of what the food parcels contain, and any of these items would be greatly appreciated.

Let either Ann (cell phone number 082 570 6627) or Sybille (082 601 0180) know, and we will happily collect or drop off with them.

 

     

Monetary donations may be deposited into:

Rotary Club of Rosebank Project Account

Nedbank

Sandton City

Account    1145999336

Branch      197005 

Rotary International 2020 Convention

For most people it would have been an unattainable dream to attend this year's convention in Honolulu, and although Covid 19 has dashed many travel dreams, every Rotary member in the World had the opportunity through the power of technology to attend this year's event.

Rotary's first virtual convention