Hearty voices sang our special Brunswick induction song as we welcomed our newest Brunswick Rotarian, Beatrice Melita.

President Karin congratulates Beatrice on her induction into Brunswick Rotary

Beatrice is a former barrister, and nowadays a practicing psychologist who works with the Family Court and with private clients. She was also the first Leo in Victoria for Lions, some years back — Leos (aged 12 to 28 years) are the equivalent in Lions of Rotary’s Interact (aged 12 to 18 years) and Rotaract (aged 18 to 30 years) clubs… our future Rotarians.

The Rotary theme for 2010-11

From the official media page:

Klinginsmith said he arrived at the theme after reviewing RI themes of years past. He noticed that only a few spoke to non-Rotarians.

“As a result, I decided to search for a briefly stated theme that would fulfill two objectives: the first to explain Rotary to non-Rotarians, and the second to validate our work for Rotarians,” he said. “The words I have selected to describe Rotary’s current mission and to highlight our achievements are what we do best: Building Communities — Bridging Continents. ”

You can read more, listen to or read the full speech on the 2010-11 Rotary theme by Ray Klinginsmith at the main Rotary website.

RI President for 2010-11 Ray Klinginsmith

Here’s a couple of snaps from the day (thanks to our regular visiting Rotarian Lindsay Crossen for the photos):

Thanks too to David Kennedy and Andrew Horgan for running another successful community BBQ and helping once again with our ongoing relationship with the Moreland City Council.

http://video.au.msn.com/watch/video/marysville-opens-swimming-pool/x223npw

This is the project that we contributed the $20,000 raised after the February 2009 Victorian bushfires — now up and running in the Marysville community.

We’re delighted to have been able to identify a suitable project, with funds also contributed from the Rotary Club of Ringwood, our Rotary District bushfire funds (District 9800), the YMCA and the Salvation Army.

This year’s changeover is at The Treacy Centre in Parkville — yes, the same venue as our famous (infamous?!) Changeover a couple of years ago with our karaoke and Village People performance! But this year, Karin’s entertainment is a little more subdued, choosing to have the Marcellin College music group perform for our musical enjoyment. Still promises to be yet another great Brunswick event.

All the details are on the attached invitation and booking form.

Please RSVP no later than Friday, 25th June.

We’ve now identified a suitable project (thanks to Immediate Past President David Kennedy), and have committed our funds — to the new Marysville YMCA facility.

Our $20,000 will be added to an additional $20,000 from Rotary District 9800 (our own District); plus $10,000 from the YMCA Open Doors Gift Fund and $8,805 from the Salvation Army.

The opening of this facility is this Sunday, 6th June 2010, from 1pm to 3pm.

You’re invited to join us at the event (join Immediate Past President David, President Dean and President-elect Karin) … see the attached 270kb pdf file YMCA_Marysville_opening for more information.

To recap, Megan is from Mississippi USA, and her sponsor club is Vestavia Hills is D6860. As our guest speaker she talked about her time here in Australia, having arrived at the start of 2009 (and will be  leaving again in June this year). After studying at university in Birmingham, Megan went on to do an internship and then be a journalist at the Washington Post, spending much time in Washington during the primary race and then presidential race leading up to Obama’s election.

Megan also was part of our team helping out at the Sport For Change BBQ on the weekend. She mentioned to me that she’s about to have an article published in the Washington Post (on the front of the Travel section) about her trip through central Australia. It appeared on Sunday.

If you’d like to read more, here’s the link to Megan’s article.

The Rochester project our club and Heritage cluster has been involved with has been very successful in connecting the city and country together.

The District Governor called me just before our Rotary breakfast this morning to announce a much bigger initiative for people to have an experience of a big city that they cannot simply get in rural and regional areas. It goes well beyond what we’ve achieved at the cluster level.

And most exciting is that this will definitely be a global experience, not just in Melbourne, but in 100’s and thousands of cities worldwide.

The new project is the Rotary Action Team for Rural And Country Engagement.

It’s designed to give people who live outside Melbourne an experience like no other in their rural or regional community.

And, as I said, it’s very much a global experience, and is literally on a massive scale. It will involve a lot of people outside of Rotary, which is great too.

Mr Joe King of the Rotary Club of Pesce d’Aprile has already contacted me with a resounding vote of confidence.

Enjoy your day … and Happy Easter.

Cheers,

Dean
8:30am, 1st April 2010

PS: Rotary loves acronyms

• Gearing up for the Sydney Road Street Party on Sunday 28th Feb
• A report of our guest speaker, Glenn Tebble, on his experience with Cystic Fibrosis
• Invite for Richmond Rotary’s Lunar Dinner on Friday 26th Feb
• An update on programs and projects including Stewart Lodge, the Rochester project, and the Moreland L2P program
• Club discussion for an upcoming Past Members Fellowship Day
• Announcement of $5,000 in funding for Bagong Barrio projects (our health project in Manila, The Philippines)
• Upcoming club events

Brunswick Bulletin vol 57 no 27 (541kb pdf)

Mal Dubock has taken up the reigns again as our faithful Bulletin editor (with much grateful thanks from President Dean) … the latest edition is attached.

Mel Kennedy’s efforts and input into the Bulletin in the past was certainly worthy of the title “service above self” — and admirably included a lot of time spent on club activities in the background, while holding down a full time job, her own part-time business and work in and for Dean’s business. Most of her work is hidden in the background, but she puts her heart into Brunswick Rotary and the Board gladly last night gave her our congratulations for the work she’s being doing both as Secretary and with the bulletin.

It will be somewhat interesting once again to see what Mal comes up with each edition!

Download Bulletin Number 26, Volume 57 (660kb pdf file)