Kevin Tattrie & George Raffan (Reserves: Chris Switzer & John Turner)
Set up & pack up:
Bob Farrer & Masa Ohtani (Reserves: Susan Law & Karin Eurell)
Speakers & topic:
Club Forum - visioning
Rotary Club Meeting 12 February 2019
Welcome
PP John Turner, in the absence of President Ranald, welcomed members, guest speaker Mary-Ellen Feeney and guests Vicky Antaw and Coralie Littlewood.
Toast
John Garrett gave a toast to the RC of Coonamble. The club meets on Mondays at Coonamble Bowling Club and has 13 members. It supports Community Assist, Health Assist, Drought Busters, recognises sporting achievements, and runs the Young Citizen of the Year Award. The club holds fundraising BBQs and a Rodeo.
Announcements
Kevin Tattrie advised there would be a presentation at the meeting on 26 February about the progress of the new North Sydney Rotoract club and other club youth initiatives.
Sally O’Neill advised the roster is full for the Bunnings BBQ on 24 February and thanked all those who have volunteered.
Fay Petrou encouraged members to register for the District Conference to be held in Newcastle at the end of March.
PP John reminded members that next week’s meeting is a Club Forum and there will be reporting on the progress of the Visioning program.
Jon Gidney advised members that RCN had received an invitation from the ABC asking for interested members to attend a recording of Q & A. Several members expressed their interest so he will follow up on the invitation.
The Rugby tipping competition is now being run by Luke Keighery. If you are interested in taking part, please register at https://www.footytips.com.au/comps/northbridgerotary by Thursday, 21 February. If you have friends or family interested, please pass on the link. The tipping comp raises about $1000 a year for the club so is a win/win venture for all participants.
Jon is looking for a volunteer to act as Sergeant for the month of March. Please let Jon know if you would like to take on this position for 4 weeks.
PP John is the Fireworks roster co-ordinator. Please encourage friends and family to volunteer for the night. He will be sending out an email to all members shortly.
Sergeant's Session
Sergeant Malcolm Lye again extracted fines from members for various misdemeanors as well as "good on ya's".
Luke Keighery introduced our guest speaker for the evening, Mary-Ellen Feeney who spoke on the topic of Antarctica & STEMM (science, technology, engineering, maths & medicine). Mary-Ellen is a scientist and a Survey & Spacial Information consultant for Jacobs NSW.
Mary-Ellen started her talk by telling us that she was sponsored by Rotary many years ago to attend the Rotary Science Summer School, something which furthered her interest in science and for which she has always been grateful. She spoke about her involvement in the Homeward Bound 2019 project (https://homewardboundprojects.com.au/hb1-participants/2019-participants/). This outreach project brought together 80 women from 28 countries - women of varying professions, occupations and career levels, all with science backgrounds, who were selected on their potential to have an impact on decision making as it relates to the state of the planet and its inhabitants. The group travelled to Antarctica on the MV Ushuaia leaving the port of Ushuaia, Argentina on 31 Dec 2018 and returning on 19 January. The preparation for the voyage included many conference calls, emails and collaboration between the women for many months prior to the start of the journey and the women only met once they joined the MV Ushuaia. On the voyage to Antarctica they undertook symposiums, leadership training, collaboration, networking and observation, as well as practising the exercises which enabled them to land safely in Antarctica. During the journey they encountered many animals including whales, Adelie penguins and orcas. They discussed many topics including climate change, sustainability and conservation.
Mary-Ellen explained that women scientists need to be role models to inspire young women and girls to enter the profession. Women are very under-represented in the STEM subjects. Currently there are only 17% of women in IT, 13% in engineering and 15% in research & technology.
Angie Fernandes thanked Mary-Ellen for her very interesting talk. She said it is a credit to her to be one of only 80 women involved in such a project, to learn new skills and to play a role in narrowing the gender gap.