From the Pen of the President....
It is
disappointing to note that the attendance during November was an average of 19
members per meeting. This is just over
half of our club membership. Please note
that members are required to attend at least 50% of the number of the club’s
regular meetings. The 50% can be a
combination of meeting attendance and make ups by way of attending other clubs’
meetings, participating in a club or other Rotary project or attending a
committee meeting. Please attend as
often as you can.
Costa Qually
President
Tailpiece
Whatever lies
within our power to do also lies within our power not to do (Aristotle)
Last Friday...
....was our monthly business meeting which was held via Zoom and sadly the attendance was very poor with only 16 members attending.
Report backs in brief by the various committee chairs: -
Attendance - Pam Donaldson:
December was not representative, as we only had one meeting, but in November attendance had gone down to a disappointing average of 19 members per meeting. It was emphasized that we should appeal to our members to make a bigger effort to make an appearance.
Finance - John Symons:
All subscriptions are paid up
Our finances are looking healthy
R17 000 of the proceeds of last year's quiz evening to be dispersed to the following charities:
- Charity Begins With Me
- Curamus School for Autism
- Boikanyo
- Gideon's Animal Outreach
Membership & Almoner's duties - David Bradshaw:
David needs to be commended for the sterling job he does as club almoner and he makes every effort to connect with as many of our "old" Rotarians, widows, Anns and friends of Rotary
Yvonne Franklin (Mark's widow) spent a month in Sedgefield with her children, and is keen to join one of our in-person meetings at Wanderers
Bernard Neuhaus, our oldest member, is still working hard and also wants to attend a meeting.
James Byrne - had all good intentions of attending our last Wanderers meeting, but lost concentration while driving to the venue, hit a curb and burst a tyre. Thank goodness he was fine.
Hugh Rix - had a few health issues, but is feeling better and hopes to soon attend in person again.
Roger Lloyd - has moved to the Cape, but has still not been able to move into his house. He says he's exhausted!
Carol Lawrence - has moved from mid-care into frail care
Elaine Margolius (Peter's widow) is doing fine
David is hard at work trying to establish a satellite club in Dainfern. Potential members meet in their clubhouse every second Thursday, and there are an average of 10 persons attending. Many of them are foreigners, working in South Africa for a limited number of years.
International - Richard Moloney:
Richard is hoping to identify some smaller sustainable local projects that could attract some overseas interest.
He would love for some of us to attend this year's RI convention in Houston Texas, and if not this year why don't we start saving for Melbourne, Australia in 2023?
Youth - Jean Bernardo:
Because of rotational learning last year the Interact Club at Highlands North Boys had great challenges, but they did manage to do a successful blood drive.
This year they would like to hold four blood drives and get involved in the Blanket Drive.
It is good news that they are joining the Junior City Council of Johannesburg.
A date has been set for Career's Day at the Holy Family College on Saturday the 5th of March, and Jean is appealing for members of our club to assist on the day.
The Youth Leadership Course, which had to be put on hold for the last two years will definitely go ahead this year. Dates to be confirmed. Because of the newly introduced Youth Protection Policy it will mean that we will need all hands on deck to make sure that we remain compliant with regulations.
Rotary Foundation - Les Short:
Les is making an appeal to all club members who have not yet registered with My Rotary to please do so.
Fundraising - Sonja Hood:
Because the past quiz evenings have proven to be really successful we are planning to hold two quiz events this year, in May and in October.
It is never too early to start collecting prizes, so please let us us have any unwanted Christmas gifts or liquor for our raffle hampers.
Community and Vocational Services - Sybille Essmann:
We once again need to say a huge thank you for the generosity of the Norwood Spar patrons who supported our annual food drive and over three weekends we managed to collect food items to the value of R32 000.
the five charities that each received a goods voucher of R6 400 are as follows:
- Charity Begins With Me
- The Frida Hartly Shelter for Women
- Phutaditjaba in Alex
- Curamus School for Autism
- Boeregemeenskap
The gratitude demonstrated by these recipients was immeasurable. Cheryl Hlabane of the Frida Hartley Shelter shared this special photo with us.
There are so many selfless people who do wonderful work in our community and it has therefore been decided that we will in future also acknowledge them with a Community Services Award.
Vocational and Community Services Award nominations can be forwarded to Lyn Collocott.
In conjunction with the Committee for Environment we would like to organize a Rotary Day of Service.
As part of his 2021-22 initiatives Rotary International President Mehta is encouraging clubs to plan and host a practical and action oriented Rotary Day of Service. The event should address a challenge facing your community that fits in one or more of Rotary's areas of focus and bring together volunteers from within and outside of Rotary. We are halfway through the Rotary year, and many clubs have already risen to the challenge.
Watch this space, we will share our plans in the near future.
Happy Recipients of beautiful books....
In early December Ann Hope-Bailie and Jean Bernardo made a trip with many of boxes of glossy books which we were donating to the Esperante Primary School in the West Rand. The language medium at the school is Afrikaans, so these books titled Wat of Aarde gaan hier aan, a story of the relocation of a family of elephants were very well received.
A few days earlier Ann was accompanied by Sybille Essmann to the German School of Johannesburg where they were welcomed by the principal Mr Holtmann who happily accepted over 100 German books titled Wo in der Welt sind wir bloss? (roughly translated as Where in the world are we). Mr Holtman earmarked the books to be presented
to learners that had achieved distinctions that year.
This Friday....
....is a social meeting at Wanderers. There will be no Zoom transmission.
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