GUEST SPEAKER TRACEY UKOSICH - HER JOURNEY WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
Tracey is about to embark on a cycling trip across the Nullabor to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. Tonight, she told us that MS is a condition of the central nervous system which manifests itself in lots of different symptoms including extreme fatigue, blurred vision, loss of balance and muscle co-ordination. MS cannot be cured. It costs $70,000 per year for Tracey’s medication and it is all paid for.She is taking 12 months off and travelling solo by bicycle across the Nullabor where she is hoping to resolve personal issues, face mental challenges and do something meaningful by raising money for MS
Want to know more? Go to Tracey’s Facebook page
The Long Road to Me
You can donate via www.doitforms.org.au/fundraisers/tracey ukosich
Or you can donate through the Rotary Club of Yea as below.
Donations towards Tracey’s MS Fundraiser can be made as follows
RC Yea Project Account
BSB: 633 000
Account: 144 545 126
REF: TRACEY MS
Guest Speaker: Deb Robinson Real Estate Agent
Deb gave some insight into the industry and some of the changes/developments over the years.
Deb grew up in Glen Waverley and attended a Girls Grammar in St Kilda but always loved the country, being a regular visitor to her Uncle’s farm.
Deb began in RE in the 2000’s and worked in Croydon, Ringwood and Monbulk, initially with a sub licence, before moving to Yea and getting her full licence.
Things were slow in Yea 10 years ago with lots of listings and not much movement whereas now it is the opposite. Prices of course have increased a lot, particularly in the last couple of years. Deb was attracted to Yea because of its small country town appeal and hopes that by doing her job, she doesn't change Yea into something else altogether. Like everyone else, Deb loves the community and the feeling of being able to live safely. Now of course, with more people able to work from home, Yea should continue to be a sought after place to live.
Deb was then called on to draw the Art Show Raffle
 | Prize Winners 1st Prize—Jan Green—Julian Bruere painting 2nd Prize—John Brick—voucher Royal Mail Hotel 3rd prize—Mother Eden—hamper of local goods | ||
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GUEST SPEAKER MATT SPURGEON Manager—Yea and District Community Bank Branch - Bendigo Bank
Matt started with his personal journey so far and the fact that he’s originally from Corryong. He’s a Hawthorn supporter and has been involved with sports since he was young throwing a lot of energy into Carrum Downs Cricket Club. Somehow he got into cycling and took up the challenge to ride from Melbourne to the Gold Coast for a conference. It took 14 days. Glenda and Julie have almost got him committed to Cycle Dindi this year.There was a stint of Amateur Boxing and Matt wrote a book about his experiences with that. (something about blood on the pillow for 5 weeks after his first major fight).
Professionally, Matt’s journey has seen him working with companies such as Nissan, Audi and Volvo where he was regional manager covering 3 states.
Here at the Yea Bank, he was the first male employee and arrived to find such things as high accumulated losses, low lend-ing, low confidence and narrow skill sets among the staff.
Now he has seen a 28% increase in lending, the bank is breaking even and there are increased sales of all their products.
In the future, Matt intends to settle in this area. He outlined his personal goals and is well on the way to achieving them.
Ann Drysdale gave a vote of thanks.
Guest Speaker Kelly Wilsmore Optometrist - OPTAIR EYECARE
Chairman Bob Dewar introduced Kelly Wilsmore who has a property at Glenburn and has been living here with her family for about 7 years. Kelly has been working out of Seymour during that time and in March 2020 had her first appointments in Yea. Kelly took us through the biology of an eye and what is involved in an eye exam. She had lots of stories to tell including being called out on Christ-mas morning to get an object out of a patient’s eye. ‘I love doing those’, she said.
There was information about a couple of common eye complaints including Dry Eye and Cataracts. Would you believe that the aver-age age for cataracts is 82!
Kelly also told us about her new machine which was very costly but allows her to see a much wider scan of the eye and pick up problems which might be otherwise missed.
Questions flowed from the floor and Terry Hubbard was asked to give a vote of thanks.
Terry made the point that Kelly was the first guest speaker for ages and she’d given us an informative update on her work while entertaining us all at the same time.
Changeover (at last) and Christmas Breakup at Beaufort Manor
PP Sue welcomed special guests Cindy McLeish and Mayor Sandice McAulay (pictured with Sue and Di Welsh) along with Rotarians and partners.PP John Sinclair proposed a toast to Rotary
PP Sue presented a review of 2019/2020 and referred members to the Annual Report for more information.
Richard Long presented the David Long Community Service Award to Julie Lynch, introduced by Glenda Woods who told the gathering all the things Julie has done, and continues to do for the community.
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| Glenda, Julie and Richard | Richard presenting the award | Julie's acceptance speech. |
Photos: Ken Foletta
Paul Harris Fellowship Recipients
The Paul Harris Fellow recognition acknowledges individuals who contribute, or who have contributions made in their name, of $1,000 to The Rotary Foundation.
This year’s recipients from left: Ken Foletta, Bob Dewar and Gary Cocks with PP Sue.
Photo: Glenda
Induction of Carol Hogg as President 2020/2021
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| David Anderson officiated with Carol Hogg’s induction as President | PP Sue passes the chain of office to our President, Carol |
President Carol, addressed those present. President Carol talked about the goals and ideas she had had for her year as President which officially started in July this year and how they had been forced to change because of Covid 19 but how much she was looking forward to the club getting back to normal in 2021.
GUEST SPEAKERS Michael Chesworth Acting CEO and Vito Albicini, Director Assets and Development Murrindindi Shire Council
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| Michael | Vito |
Michael kicked off with some of his earliest memories of being involved with Rotary and then described how, as he is a resident of Yea, he feels the mood and feelings about what is happening and of late, the streetscaping.
Vito came to the country and he said the advantage of working in small country towns is that it is easy to talk about what’s best for the community.
Michael and Vito, then opened up questions by starting with the most frequently asked questions about the new streetscaping.
First was how many parking spaces we have now. We used to have 236 and now we have 239. This led to a lively discussion about the need for long parking bays for caravans, bus parking for tourists and turning room for Bdoubles wanting to turn onto Station Street.
Michael mentioned that Yea would have eventually had to meet VicRoads standards and the work would have been done down the track. Everything has to have approval from VicRo-ads, then that also opens up opportunities to obtain grant money.
Several comments and suggestions were made for improvements in the future and Vito is happy to receive more. You can email him at valbicini@murrindindi.vic.gov.au
Terry raised the issue of shelters which were proposed as a Rotary project celebrating 100 years of Rotary and the meeting was advised that community consultation was a priority and if the community supported the project then planning could go ahead.
Michael told the story of receiving funding to provide more outdoor seating for diners and installing the new aluminium picnic tables in the median strip which are only temporary. Apparently there was a huge outcry from the community about the changes made to the median strip .
AGM and Club Assembly
AGM
President Carol chaired the meeting.
Attendance records were kept and apologies noted.
The minutes of the previous AGM were voted correct.
Russell Hogg, Treasurer, thanked Jim Osborne for his efforts in au-diting the accounts which were moved as correct by Russell and se-conded by Terry Hubbard.
President Elect Paul Kellett was asked to nominate his office bear-ers for 2021/2022.
President Elect—Tony Jacobs
Secretary—Ian Sichlau
Treasurer—Russell Hogg.
Sue Carpenter passed on apologies for tonight’s meeting from Tony Jacobs.
The next AGM will be held in November 2021.
Guest Speaker: Ian Riseley Past International President and Rotary Foundation Trustee
Ian asked the question—Where are you going and why? then related it back to the changes that have taken place in Rotary over the years bringing in the introduction the new area of focus—the environment
From there he explained how the first plan to fund environmental projects was pre-sented and how The Rotary Foundation adopted it so that from July 2021 there will be funding for environmental grants.
He believes that funding will
• allow training for incoming governors
• Increase visibility and recognition of Rotary Clubs
• Increase capacity to undertake environmental projects
• Involve all ages and increase membership
However this puts increased pressure on funds available so Ian invited us to take No-vember –Foundation Month and donate to The Rotary Foundation. It is tax deduct-ible
Ian also spoke about donating through the Centurion Club or the Paul Harris Fellowship.
In our club, the best person to talk to is David Anderson who is the District Chair of Fundraising for The Rotary Foundation.
To hear more use this link https://zoom.us/rec/share/TsaNYLY3LtX1NNkbUTAT5F7d8cykJLQt2lhlPGxmpI4RMr7Abff_D8vjbjdz-JDu.4HIXkKrfU1S9QoHJ Passcode: vFB0ajt*
Ian asked the question—Where are you going and why? then related it back to the changes that have taken place in Rotary over the years bringing in the introduction the new area of focus—the environmentFrom there he explained how the first plan to fund environmental projects was pre-sented and how The Rotary Foundation adopted it so that from July 2021 there will be funding for environmental grants.
He believes that funding will
• allow training for incoming governors
• Increase visibility and recognition of Rotary Clubs
• Increase capacity to undertake environmental projects
• Involve all ages and increase membership
However this puts increased pressure on funds available so Ian invited us to take No-vember –Foundation Month and donate to The Rotary Foundation. It is tax deduct-ible
Ian also spoke about donating through the Centurion Club or the Paul Harris Fellowship.
In our club, the best person to talk to is David Anderson who is the District Chair of Fundraising for The Rotary Foundation.
To hear more use this link https://zoom.us/rec/share/TsaNYLY3LtX1NNkbUTAT5F7d8cykJLQt2lhlPGxmpI4RMr7Abff_D8vjbjdz-JDu.4HIXkKrfU1S9QoHJ Passcode: vFB0ajt*
FIRST OFFICIAL MEETING SINCE MARCH
Rodney had set up all the regalia, and 28 people arrived for dinner and our first official meeting for ages. It was held in the back courtyard at the Royal Mail Hotel and fortunately, the rain held off.
Rodney had set up all the regalia, and 28 people arrived for dinner and our first official meeting for ages. It was held in the back courtyard at the Royal Mail Hotel and fortunately, the rain held off.
GUEST SPEAKER - PENNY PAXMAN - Author—Ready, Aim , Fire
Penny shared the steps she took to write her book, the core of which was written in 48 hours.She talked about the motivation behind writing, the preparation she needed to do and how to organise material. In her case, Penny subscribed to a program which supplied an editor, transcriber, photographer, publisher and printer so she just followed the steps.Then she described creating a manuscript through recording your words and sending the finished file to a transcriber.
It was the editing and artwork that took much longer than actually writing the book in the first place.
The final step is marketing and that is a whole story of its own.
Penny finished by saying ‘now that I know what to do, I think I could do it all again, so look out for my next book’
Copies of Penny’s book are being made available free of charge to those involved in our Business Buddies program.
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| Richard and Ann | President Carol | The Group |
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| Rodney opening the meeting | Happy Members | PP Sue |
FIRST NIGHT OF FELLOWSHIP IN AGES
Held at the Royal Mail Hotel in the Beer Garden (where we could spread out and relax)., a long awaited face to face meeting was enjoyed by 19 members last night..
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| Happy Birthday Tippy |
Guest Speaker Alice Glachan (RC of Albury Hume) Fundraising Campaign Director for the Hilltop Accommodation Centre in Albury.
Alice provided personal information about herself (former Mayor of Albury City Council, Rotarian and former exchange student, local business proprietor) before outlining details of the Hilltop Accommodation Centre and her current role as the Fundraising Director for stage 2 of Hilltop with a goal of securing $1,000,000 from community sources.Hilltop Accommodation Centre in Albury is a joint project of Fight Cancer Foundation, the Zonta Club of Albury Wodonga, Rotary Club of Albury North and Lions District 201V6.
Hilltop offers first class facilities and provides a safe, comfortable and affordable home away from home for cancer patients from outlying towns across southern New South Wales and north eastern Victoria.
Construction of Stage 2 (providing an extra 10 motel rooms) has already commenced and is expected to be opened early in 2021.
Alice shared a number of slides which detailed the LGA’s across Victoria and NSW from which patients are drawn. From 2018—present Murrindindi residents have spent 400+ nights at Hilltop.
Alice encouraged all members to spread the word about the fundraising campaign and she welcomes further speaking engagements via Zoom.
Guest Speaker: Professor Tracey Wade Flinders University - What’s So Bad About Being Perfect?
PP Sue introduced Tracey and mentioned that she had been a recipient of a Rotary Health Grant and had conducted a research project with that money. In fact Tracey has received 3 Rotary Health Grants.She started by asking what is perfectionism and defined it as the setting of excessively high standards of performance accompanied by overly critical self evaluation which leads to self hate.
It’s increasing in young people. There are several reasons.
40% cases are genetic
Environmental changes enhance the expression of these genes
Increased importance of achievement and money
Increased influence from parental control and practices
Exposure to peers perfectionism through social media eg images, bullying and criticism
What’s so bad about perfectionism?
Increased depression
Increased anxiety
Increased eating disorders
Less likely to respond to therapy
Less likely to aim at goals which leads to procrastination
Less resilience to failures and setbacks.
Can we help people to overcome perfectionism. Yes through Behaviour Therapy.
This can be in a clinical situation, in a classroom or via the internet. Tracey and her team are still tweaking the latter.
Tracey shared a comparison between being a perfectionist and a high achiever and she also introduced us to the art of Kinsugi which is a Japanese skill in repairing ceramics that have been broken using gold and demon-strates the benefits of making mistakes and creating something quite differ-ent from the original intention.
There were lots of questions .
Want to know more? Tracey has co-written a book which is now available and is designed as a self help tool.
Global Grant Zoom Meeting with Dayspring School and Rotarians from Districts 9400 South Africa and 9790 Australia.
The meeting tonight was attended by more than 40 people including friends of Ruth Konig, Members of district 9790 , Rotarians from Rustenberg Kloof in South Africa and Bishop Bester and all were warmly welcomed by both President Carol and Chair David Anderson.
A minute’s silence was held in recognition of the passing of Francois Pinaar, RC of Rustenberg Kloof who was very involved in the Dayspring Childrens Village
Dayspring Childrens Village
Julie Lynch gave us some background into how the project started through Ruth a dedicated teacher, a Rotarian and also a humanitarian who was working with students from Sacred Heart Primary School in Yea who started fundraising for a school in South Africa. The students raised $1000, then approached Rotary to find a worthwhile project to which they could donate funds, Rotary matched the funds creating a total of $2000 . (Click for Julie's background talk)
Ruth, while participating in a Rotary Friendship Exchange to South Africa, met Cheryl Phillips who is now a member of the South African Parliament but had been a Rotary Exchange Student in Australia. They visited Dayspring and Ruth saw that this was a project that could use the funds.
Ruth went on to raise much more money and through the efforts of Rotary Foundation,
Rotary Yea and Rotary Rustenberg Kloof they raised $1,200,00 to fund a classroom block and toilet block.
Unfortunately, Ruth died just after the grant was approved so did not see work commence.
Many of those involved in processing the grant application, obtaining permits and getting to this point acknowledged Ruth and her passion for the project.
Kim Katuta wanted to pass on thanks from the staff and children to everyone involved so far.
She told us that the kids are from impoverished backgrounds and that the children Ruth had met had done very well in society becoming lawyers and doctors among other professions. She also reminded us that the projects provides those employed with upskilling, work, and food for their families.
Kim has promised more photos as the project progresses.
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| Construction work at Dayspring | |
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DISTRICT GOVENOR BRUCE ANDERSON'S VISIT
President Carol welcomed DG Bruce Anderson and partner Marilyn to the meeting.
DG Bruce had limited time due to another meeting to go to but emphasised that he was hoping to get to each club in the District in person but was starting with Zoom due to Covid 19.He talked about the District Conference scheduled for 18-21 March 2021 in Wangaratta and the opportunity to party post Covid. Subject to spacing requirements the Conference would welcome everybody’s involvement and if Covid is still causing problems there could be a limited number of attendees chosen by ballot and supplemented with Zoom coverage of conference proceedings.
DG Bruce asked us to diarise the District Conference and also the RI Convention in Taipei in June 2021
Marilyn spoke about a proposed partners program which has been stifled due to Covid so is on hold till the end of 2020 but proposed that we put together a District book with a couple of pages from each club. This would be a Rotary Centenary celebration
Another suggestion was that each club spruce up signs in towns to promote Rotary. There will be a release of coins and postage stamps in 2021 for the centenary.
DG Bruce and Marilyn then introduced Ozzie the Mozzie – District conference mascot and highlighter of the Malaria eradication project. He’s hoping that when clubs can get back to fundraising any leftover funds can be donated to this project which is aiming to create a Malaria free shield across the top of Australia.
Do we need to keep members engaged? Rotary Foundation suggests supporting the environment as a new area of focus. DG Bruce sees it as a way to promote Rotary, engage and recruit younger members and identify and complete local environmental projects. Phil Clancy is to set up a task force and funds should be available from July 2021.
On the subject of new members Rotary International President, Holger suggests focusing on their suitability for the club rather than on gaining numbers.
Last but not least was the End Polio project. DG Bruce said that Covid is preventing us to maintaining the vaccination program and that it will also take away funds, energy and awareness from the project. We will know the likely impact in 6-8 weeks.
Guest Speaker Craig Lloyd CEO Murrindindi Shire Council
• Last few days have been chaotic as shire shares borders with 4 shires in lockdown and Craig is fielding up to 100 calls a day answering queries, and Shire staff doing similar• Some confusion over holiday homes and was remarkably busy Weds as people rushed to homes or be out of Melbourne before the commencement of lockdown
• Craig spoke of Shire surveying people within the Shire in last few weeks and overall people are quite positive, which was a little surprising and he said Yea came out the happiest town in the Shire – (4 on a scale of 5) which people less happy in the parts of the Shire closer to Melbourne
• Since COVID-19, Shire has learnt lots. Their aim was to go paperless in 3 years and they have almost achieved it in 3 months!
• Everyone is working remotely from home except for grounds staff and Library staff and it is going well
• For a very conservative Council, there have been big changes. All Council meetings are now live streamed
• Craig believes lockdown has assisted communication for example comparing a community meeting in a hall with a few dominating questions, to now being online, there is far more interaction with more people – a great outcome of being online – much more inclusive. Shire will use this meeting technique some of the time post COVID but acknowledged it is hard for those not online.
