Club Bulletin 12 March 2019 (Mar 13, 2019)

Welcome to The Rotary Club of Northbridge

Service Above Self

We meet Tuesdays at 6:00 PM

Northbridge Golf Club

Sailors Bay Road,
Northbridge, NSW 2063
Australia

District Site

Venue Map

Northbridge Plaza Bookstall

Northbridge Plaza

Mar 17, 2019
8:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Board Meeting

McNair Residence

Mar 21, 2019

Rotary District Conference 2019

Mar 29, 2019 – Mar 31, 2019

RCN Visit to The Aust. Cinematographers Society

Apr 02, 2019
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Please send apologies to Helen Gulson before 10:30am each Monday at helen.gulson@ozemail.com.au

Next Meeting – 19 March 2019
Attendance desk:	Eleanor Chevor & Helen Gulson (Reserves: John Weingarth & Garth Carter)
Set up & pack up:	Jon Gidney & George Raffan (Reserves: Denis Fernandez & Noel Phelan)
Speakers & topic:	Steve Hui - IFlyFlat

Rotary Club Meeting 12 March 2019

Welcome

President Ranald welcomed members and guests Syd & Marcel Grolman, Marillyn Stewart, Peter Russell, Alacoque Welsh from the E-Rotary club of Greater Sydney, and guest speaker John Feist from the NSW Blood Service.

Toast

Malcolm Lye gave a toast to the Rotary Club of Broken Hill. Malcolm worked in Broken Hill as a mining engineer and there met his wife Penny, who was working as a journalist. The RC of BH is in district 9520 and meets at the Barrier Social Democratic Club and undertakes the usual Rotary projects.

Announcements

Luke Keighery advised that Northbridge Library is hosting a talk on 4 April by Noel Braun on “Searching for Meaning on the Camino”. Noel has walked the 800 km camino route 4 times in recent years and is aged over 80. Details are on the Willoughby City Council website and a booking is required.

Peter Grinter again asked for volunteers for the Rostrum Voice of Youth to be held at Ascham school on 3 April. A number of club members volunteered immediately.

Alan Hession drew members’ attention to the sponsorship document on each table explaining the requirements for sponsors for the upcoming fireworks. If anyone has any ideas or contacts for potential sponsors please let Alan know. Sponsors/donors are also needed for the fireworks so if you know of someone who can donate a raffle prize please advise Alan.

The major sponsors will again be AMP/Northbridge Plaza and CBA.

Kevin Tattrie advised that Taldumande are holding their annual Gala Dinner on 5 April at the Grand Ballroom, Luna Park. He suggested that the club could get a table together to attend. Please contact Kevin for further details.

Alacoque Welsh, a member of the E-Rotary Club of Greater Sydney, visited our club and spoke about her club. The E-Rotary Club is the first in Australia and meets online every fortnight via ZOOM. The club has about 32 members and the president chairs each meeting with the usual procedures. Most members have their own particular projects. Alacoque welcomed all members to come and visit them online during one of their regular meetings.

President Ranald reminded members that registration for the District Conference closes on Friday so anyone wishing to go should register by then.

He also advised that unfortunately, due to heavy work commitments, president-elect Fay Petrou has sadly decided she would be unable to adequately undertake the duties of president for the 2019-2020 year. Therefore, this position is currently vacant. The board is open to the position being split between 3 or 4 people over the year and asked members to think about undertaking the position for 3 or 4 months during the year.

With regards to the other positions, Jon Gidney has agreed to take on the job of Treasurer, Fay Petrou will head Club Services, and Denise Woodward will head Youth.

Sergeant's Session

Sergeant Susan Law tested our knowledge of the primary industry in Australia and managed to extract fines from our lack thereof.

Guest Speaker - John Feist - NSW Blood Service

President Ranald invited RCN life member Syd Grolman to launch The Grolman Challenge. Syd spoke about first becoming a blood donor at the aged of 17 to help a newly born cousin who needed a total blood transfusion at birth due to his mother being RH negative. He first donated in South Africa and then continued to donate once he moved to Australia and he did this until he turned 80, having donated 383 times. Syd also talked about his involvement with the blood bank over the years and is very proud that the Challenge is named in his honour.

David Hyde then spoke about The Grolman Challenge. This challenge is a joint project between the Rotary Club of Northbridge and the Australian Red Cross Blood Service to recognize the contribution Syd has made to so many people through his donations. The aim of the project is to have enough people donate blood, plasma or platelets to reach Syd’s 383 donation target by the end of 2019. He stressed that it is not just a project to be undertaken by RCN members, but is for the wider community and is therefore looking for each of us to be ambassadors to encourage friends, family and colleagues to undertake this challenge.

David introduced John Feist, Community Relations Officer for the NSW Blood Service. John explained that donations of whole blood can be given every 12 weeks and plasma and platelets every 2 weeks. Whilst 1 in 3 people in Australia at some time in their life receive a blood transfusion or blood products, only 1 in 30 people actually donate blood. Australia has the safest blood stocks in the world, and 27,000 donations are needed every week to keep a good supply. Each donation of around 470 mls can be used to help three patients, therefore Syd’s 383 donations could potentially have saved 1150 lives. Interestingly the largest percentage of blood recipients are cancer patients who use 34% of the donated blood, followed by 19% who suffer from anemia, 18% for surgery down to 2% used by accident victims.

Donated plasma is made up into 18 different life saving products, and these donations need to increase by 10% each year to keep up with the improvements in medical science and increasing population.

Donations can be made between the ages of 18 & 80, and a person who has never donated can make their first donation up to the age of 70. So if you’re under 70 and have never donated, you can start now!

President Ranald thanked John and David for their presentation and for their commitment to The Grolman Challenge, and encouraged all members to take part in the challenge and/or to be ambassadors and spread the word.

End Polio - Getting Closer

Posted by Karin Eurell on Feb 06, 2019

Rotary International and its partners have made enormous progress in the past 30 years, don't you think? We can and we will #endpolio

THE 4 - WAY TEST of the things we say or do

1). Is it the TRUTH?

2). Is it FAIR to all concerned?

3). Will it build GOODWILL & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

4). Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?