We welcomed Tony Laycock to his first Club meeting as President for 2020-21. Tony was quickly into stride calling for matters of interest from members which included:

 

 

Tony then passed the meeting over to Steve Wylie who has taken on the sergeant's role for this year. Steve immediately set a very high benchmark for himself when he worked members through an online quiz. Great start Steve.

 

 

 

 

We were very privileged to welcome back to the Club, albeit via Zoom, Bernie Farquhar to speak to us about East Gippsland Rotary Fire Aid.

 

Last year Bernie, who is the President of the Mitchell River Rotary Club,  spoke about the drought which was  ravaging the East Gippsland area. This time his very moving presentation was about the impact of the bush fire in the area which commenced late last year and persisted into the early months of this year.

 

East Gippsland Rotary Fire Aid is made up of a number of local East Gippsland Rotary Clubs who have formed an alliance to coordinate assistance to families impacted by the fires. Bernie spoke about the size and devastation caused by the fires, on families, businesses, the biodiversity system and animals.

 

Examples of the aid provided include:

 

Bernie expressed his gratitude to everyone who had provided funds, equipment and facilities, hands-on labour and support to East Gippsland Rotary Fire Aid and the  East Gippsland population.

 

In a very daunting conclusion to Bernie's presentation he anticipates the impact of the fires will last for very very many years.

 

Thank you Bernie for sharing the details with us and congratulations to you and all involved in the work being achieved by East Gippsland Rotary Fire Aid

 

 

 

 

 

Our speaker next week,  who will give us a member behind the badge presentation, is David Shave.

 

David joined us earlier in the year from the former Yarra Bend Rotary Club. David has been a rotary members for many years and worked in recruitment for much of his working life.

 

Please join us for what will be a very entertaining presentation.

 

 

 

Australian Rotary Foundation is a registered charity and does fantastic work with projects in Australia and also in many countries. It provides assistance to financially disadvantaged people, overseas communities or charities and people in rural/regional/remote communities.

 

It has a very impressive performance in terms of the extent of funds used directly on projects.

 

In the year ended 30 June 2019 the total income collected from donation and bequests was $3.47 m which represented 99.88% of the income of the Trust.

 

In the same period,  the expenses from  grants and donations were a staggering $4.16 m which represented an amazing 98.9% of the expenditure. So only 1.1% is expended on the costs of administering the projects.

 

Further details about the Trust are available from the Australian Charities Commission website at https://www.acnc.gov.au/charity/5f1ed6cfc28ad84ae02497642e3672c4