Rotary Club of Phillip Island & San Remo
District 9820
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District Governor: Tim Moore
Club Information
President: Ian Milton 5678 5278
Guest speakers:
19th August
Secretary: Phil Dressing 5952 5443
Chairperson: Carron Bourke
Meeting every Monday 6.30 p.m. at Cowes RSL
Gary Parker. Update on VVM.
Handover of cheque for
Defibrillator
Presidents Ian’s Report - 19th August 2013
26th August
Chairperson: Kon Cili
DG Tim More and his wife are visiting our club on Monday, September
30th. It is an important meeting and therefore I ask as many members
as possible to attend with your partners. The Planning Guide for
effective Rotary Clubs is being prepared and sent to the DG, this will
give him a summary of our club’s performance and plans for the future.
Last Monday’s meeting was busy. Treasurer Gary presented a summary
of the 2013/14 budget as detailed by Keith in his RR report. If any
member requires details of the full budget please contact Gary via
email, he will be on sick leave for several weeks.
The new Annual Program Calendar for 2013/14 was presented last
week and discussed. There was a positive outlook by most present with
a mix of constructive suggestions and ideas. The Future Directions
committee will be meeting to do some “fine tuning” particularly with
the breakfast meeting on Sept. 23rd when interested business people
will be invited. A revised calendar will be emailed to all members
shortly.
29th
Apart from the Candowie Reservoir barbecue on August
which is
now organised and ready to go we also covered the District Conference
and Avenue of Service Seminars. Attendance sheets will be circulated.
Jeanette Connolly -Variety
Splash
Birthdays:
Anniversaries
August monthly duties:
Cashiers:
Dianne Barlow
Set Up:
Ian Barlow
Take down
Peter Kelly
Roving Reporter: 19th August
Keith Gregory
Apologies: to
John Tennant 0418 919 009
Prior 3 p.m. on the day of the
meeting
The Tough Mudder was also discussed. This is being held on Sept.
14/15th. The board decided to make an offer to the organiser of
$30/man hours. This was made and accepted and we were also told
they would be happy with any number ranging from 5 to 10 or up to 15 or more.
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Rotary Club of Phillip Island & San Remo
District 9820
We haven’t got much time so therefore we need to know if anyone is willing to act as “Organiser” and how
many members would give their time. The hours would be 5/6 hrs Saturday and 2/3hrs Sunday. An
attendance sheet will be circulated.
We have Gary Parker speaking this week giving us an update on the VVM. Knowing Gary it will be presented in
his usual professional style and will be very interesting. The club will be presenting a cheque to Gary covering
half of the cost in transporting an aircraft down from Canberra which will be restored and displayed in the
Museum extension. The club is also paying for the cost of a defribrillator for use at the museum.
In finishing and on behalf of our club I wish Treasurer Gary a successful foot operation and speedy recovery.
Guess what – only two weeks to spring!!! See you all Monday.
Roving Reporter Keith -12th August
The meeting was very full and interesting.
John Tennant Man behind the badge
John Tennant gave a really great overview of his life. He spoke with me before the meeting and told me that
his philosophy of life was based on serendipity. One definition is “the faculty or phenomenon of finding
valuable or agreeable things not sought for” and John exemplified this in his presentation. His life has been
mainly influenced by his family and church leaders.
John was born in Birmingham in 1948 and has one older brother and three sisters. His father was in the
services during the Second World War and was almost killed during the conflict. John explained that his father
was also a member of the Mormon Church and explained how in those days the difficulties that brought to
life.
John enjoyed his time at school and was encouraged to leave school early. He desperately wanted to become
an architect and joined an architect’s office for two years. He then decided, at twenty years of age to take the
exciting journey to Australia, lived initially in Penrith and then joined a Sign display company in Manly. It was
here he met Anja and then they returned to UK. After four years working they returned to Australia to the
same practice he had worked in previously and it was during this time that his two sons were born. John
explained that the company went through some tough times and John was fortunate to be the only one not
made redundant and was given the opportunity to manage the construction of the AMWU building. John then
left that company and started his own company working from home.
Once again the family returned to UK living in Warwick for a further four years working in the sign company
he had worked previously. They then, in 1980, decided to return to Australia where he started his own
company called Signage and eventually moved to Phillip Island in 2001. . He told us of his great work with the
signage at Rod Laver Arena plus a lot of other very familiar signage work with other buildings including that
with Golf tournaments. We are all familiar with his current successful business Archisign and Access Signage.
John ended the talk telling us the he has been very fortunate saying “Lots of people have helped me, I have a
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Rotary Club of Phillip Island & San Remo
District 9820
great family, I have made more friends than enemies and always want to help others” We all know John for
his support and help in the club and whilst acknowledging his philosophy of serendipity also know that he is
very professional and a great Rotarian.
Treasurer Gary presented the Club Budgets which have been passed by the Board. Because he presented
these in a clear and easy to understand manner there were no questions from members. Well done Gary.
President Ian presented the proposed club program to members which included fellowship meetings, a
couple of breakfast meetings, visits to cluster club. He explained that this was to assist in making the club
more interesting both to current and prospective members, and hopefully less expensive. and to ensure the
long term viability of our club. Most were in favour of giving the new look a try although some were not so
encouraged. One point was made that we need to have a way of measuring the success of the new look and
that will be done by the New directions Committee and presented back to members.
Ian also advised that we have been offered to do the parking for Tough Mudder on the 14th and 15th of
September. . We will make an offer to the organisers and will then see if we need help from others to make
this happen. Ian will brief us on progress at the next meeting
Keith advised that we have sufficient numbers to do the BBQ at Candowie on 29 August. Westernport water
will make a donation to us for this work. Keith suggested that a donation towards our Breakfast work a
Newhaven Primary and this was agreeable to the Club.
Russell & Jean’s s news from Florida
Please spare a thought for us - way over here in tropical Florida, wedged between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of
Mexico. The thermometer does lie as the claimed 90 Degrees F is added to by the humidity. My word
thunderstorms can be savage and seem to erupt without notice. Sheltering behind some roadside signage in
pouring rain for 90 minutes is not really a highlight as one watches little inhibition of traffic speed, but
observing an increase of emergency vehicle movements.
The car is king, mostly new, mostly us brands, few Land cruisers but abundant numbers of F150, F250 and GM
pickups. The bargain monthly payment on new vehicles doesn’t seem to ever equate to ownership. Car ads
and those of law firms seem to dominate TV advertising. Haven't seen a diesel pump yet, otherwise fuel cost
is around 90c a litre When I do my arithmetic. Motor cyclists enjoy their democratic right of not wearing helmets.
I think we came out, or are coping with, the GFC pretty well in Oz. There are obvious challenges in finding
employment and house values astound me. Those as Getaway Phillip Island would lose out on a sale if they
quoted 900k for a nice home on a one acre block and in a good neighbourhood, probably over quoting by
more than 50%. The good news in the press was that the median price around Tampa Bay had increased 25%
to 175k.
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Rotary Club of Phillip Island & San Remo
District 9820
The good news is that we survived a crash landing. This was at the top of the elevator at Tullamarine Airport.
The guy a couple in front had no comprehension of the need to deactivate his luggage trolley brake on
reaching the top. Caused quite a fracas as the emergency stop button seemed to have been a distance away.
Only other challenges en route were at Dallas/FW, as geriatric Australians a surely dubious safety risks. With
multiple entry screenings, then for flight transfers, Jean's two replacement hips and that plastic ball point pen
inadvertently left in R's pocket were dead give-aways. Fortunately I managed to reclaim my shoes from the
conveyor. You would think that after having lived in the US and made other visits they would at least
recognize us.
The purpose of being in the States is not just for fun. Jean's Aunt needs some help. Well two trees have been
removed, the gutters cleaned and the downpipes unblocked.
Numerous medical appointments have been arranged, despite protests, and today there was long overdue
surgery on some real nasties. Jeans 86 year old aunt now alone, lives in a very pleasant neighbourhood of 1
acre blocks and has some really supportive neighbours (perhaps these are all Rotarians?).
A group of us went off to a British Pub named Cricketers' Arms. None had any idea of cricket and thought the
pub had some connection with insects. They seemed intrigued with my explanation of the game (Jean thinks
'bored to tears', more likely). Anyway they know about bowling, LBW, silly point, fielding in slips, square leg
etc., but couldn't seem to get a grasp on the redefinition of 'bowling a maiden over.' Might I add that they
had never heard of the great sport of Bowls either? The Aussies playing the Poms was beyond
comprehension, not only because they didn't know who the Poms were, but how a test could go on for up to
five days. I named the major cricket nations and it surprised them that a cricket powerhouse lay just out there
in the Caribbean. By contrast, the Indian plastic surgeon we encountered today could not resist raising the
topic of recent test results. This guy did not get off to a good start when he introduced himself as Dr Patel our confidence in him plummeted when we thought he may have been that infamous Dr Patel who once
worked in Qld, but I'm now sure they are just namesakes.
Shopping in the supermarket is quite like home. In particular there is some terrific fruit, with beautiful apples
all the way from NZ. The size of the ice-cream freezer is absolutely huge, rivalled only by the frozen meals
section at Fitzroy North in Melbourne. Checkout presents more of a challenge because of the
indistinguishable (by colour)
Banknotes and the coinage going right down to cents. Alternatively paying by card requires a signature and
never a PIN.
You may think that I am not allowing truth to get in the way of a good story, but a Rotarian would never allow
this to be the case.
With Best Regards
Russ & Jean
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