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Last Thursday Heather Ploeger spoke to the club about the 'Commission for Children'.  She is involved in investigating children's deaths in Victoria. She gave a harrowing account of a child named 'Sam' who was serially neglected over a period of years by his parents, and was in and out of care and finally died of a drug overdose at age 14.  Heather outlined the Victorian legislative framework for child protection and described some of the limitations and shortcomings. She said that around 25 children die each year through parental abuse and associated injuries.  All deaths are investigated. Deaths of children aged 0-3 years by shaking is the most prevalent cause in that age group.  We have a long way to go as a community to prevent children dying due to abuse, neglect and assault in their homes.

Marie-Louise Prusse attended and presented for sale some traditional Danish cookies to raise funds for the homeless.  She was sold out in minutes !! Well done Marie-Louise. Her new host parents: Rosie and Jo Dodds were our guests. Marie-Louise will commence her 21 day safari this weekend with all the District 9780 Youth Exchange students.  They will travel to Alice Springs, Uluru and as far away as the Great Barrier Reef. Mare Louise will give the club a report on her stay at our meeting on June 18th.

Mark Williamson, Lorne Pier to Pub Race Director also presented us with a cheque for $13,000 for our work at the Pier to Pub last January.

Next week we have our Budget Forum and will consider our 2015-16 budget and the projects and programs we wish to include. Please come prepared to suggest what we should be continuing or commencing next year.

 
Thanks to all our generous club members who donated $1090 as a donation to Polio eradication - The 'Ride the Bellarine' still needs 4 Marshalls to fill our quota.'  We have 4 riders from the club in the event.
 
Regards,
Ian C
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I wasn't at the meeting but from the reports it sounded jam-packed full of news.
 
Ian's commented superbly on the presentation by our guest speaker which was jam-packed with interesting and confronting facts.
 
Then Mark Williamson presented the (what we hope is annual) cheque for our assistance at the Lorne Pier to Pub event. A welcome influx into the coffers.
 
Marie Louise was selling cookies to raise funds for the "backpack swags" which the exchange students have adopted as their project this year. I seem to remember we participated in a similar project some years ago - the night we had a meeting at the golf club.
 
This week as we consider our budgets and projects for next Rotary year and how the emphasis might change as a result of the "Visioning" process, we could be in for some lively debate.


 
 
 
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Difficult to know what to post as my editorial this week.

A number of things come to mind.

Jan and I (together with Stephen and Maiko and their 2 children) recently visited the Royal Botanic Gardens in Cranbourne. For those who haven't been, it's 16 hectares of all Australian native plants/bushes/trees put together in a number of display gardens or areas - each with a different focus. An absolutely stunningly beautiful display of what Australia could look like, but in most cases doesn't. Whilst our natural bush areas are beautiful, they tend to be a bit scraggy - I know my block at SheOaks could do with a bit of beautification. Just pondering on that from a philosophical point of view made me wonder how our Australian economy could be viewed in the same way. Just at present we seem to lack focus or ideas about how to best present ourselves to the world. What are the various "display areas" we could show that are really brilliant and home grown - specific to Australia. We tend these days to be concentrating on how we "fit in" to the Global Village complete with its economic forces. How about really ramping up something that no-one else does as well as Australia - but what is "it" ?

Then I was in the car and heard about the youth unemployment problem - which has been around for a long time but has just hit the news again because of the Government's revision to the funding system - which by the way will result in the loss of about 20 jobs at Diversitat which runs the You-Turn project which we support. The figures given for Geelong for February 2015 was a bit over 17.5% unemployment for the 18-25 years group compared with 6.9% overall for Geelong. That compares with over 20% and 5.8% respectively for the same time last year.

The current solution to just about everything seems to be to find someone to blame - a very negative attitude - when a better use of our energy (in my opinion) would be looking for solutions. It's difficult to know what those solutions might be when we appear to be pricing ourselves out of the market in a number of areas because of our high wages. Some have posed the question of taxation rates being too high - if we had a tax system the same as Singapore, would we attract more businesses, create jobs and hence help to solve the unemployment problem ? Maybe, but do we want the same lifestyle and ethics as Singapore to go with those advantages. Not likely.

So what's the solution ? Like everyone else I have no idea - but as Vocational Director next year I'll be thinking about it quite hard from here on. One thing I'm convinced of - whatever we propose must not compromise the ethical standards which we hold dear - those embodied in Rotary's four-way test.

 

 

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It's not too late to register as a volunteer or rider.
Please also consider donations either direct to the cause or by way of sponsoring one of the riders.
Join the pledges given to Tony at the last meeting to make Highton's contribution meaningful.
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Polio this week as of 8 April 2015
 
I put these charts in every week. I wonder how many of us realise what a good story is happening this year. Have a look at the figures below to see what's going on. The end is getting closer !!! We just need a bit of an extra push - and your participation in the RIDE THE BELLARINE Project will help. Get involved now !!
    • April 7 marked one year since the onset of paralysis of the most recent case of wild poliovirus in the Middle East.
    • April 12 marks 60 years since Jonas Salk’s inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) was launched, enabling children to be protected against polio for the first time.
    • National Immunization Days are planned in Madagascar on 27 April to 1 May.
Wild poliovirus type 1 and Circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus cases
 

Total cases

Year-to-date 2015

Year-to-date 2014

Total in 2014 

WPV

 cVDPV

 WPV

 cVDPV

 WPV

 cVDPV

Globally

22

0

55

8

359

54 

- in endemic countries

22

 0

47 

8

340

 51

- in non-endemic countries

0

 0

7

 0

19

 3

  

- See more at: http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx#sthash.TZTCHzMD.dpuf

 

 

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In accordance with the Bylaws of Rotary International and in particular Article 13 , Section 13.020.2 the candidate named below was nominated , and in the selection process conducted on Saturday 11th April 2015 was selected by the District 9780 Governor Nominating Committee as nominee for District Governor 2017 - 2018.
 
                PAST PRESIDENT RAY HERBERT OF THE ROTARY CLUB OF MOUNT GAMBIER WEST INC
 
Any objections must be lodged in accordance with the protocols set down in  the Manual of Procedure and be done so within 14 (fourteen ) days of the date of this message (April 12th 2015) addressed to Past District Governor Chris Sims.
 
PDG Chris Sims , PO Box 322 , Torquay 3228         or         
 
If there are no objections received by this deadline, then as District Governor, I will declare the unchallenged nominee to be the official District 9780 nominee for District Governor 2017 - 2108.
 
DG Geoff James
Member of the D9780 Governor Nominating Committee
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April doesn't seem to be an overloaded month for celebrations.
However we have 2 this week - Ray Dunn has a birthday on 11th and Daryl Cox is also celebrating a birthday, but his is on 13th.
 
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16th April                Club Meeting - Forum - Budget process for 2015-16
                                Chair                                    Ian Campbell and David Farnsworth
                                Welcome and Property        Linda Kelly & Eeon Macaulay
 
23rd April                 Bart Ziino - Anzac Day
                                 Chair                                    TBA
                                 Welcome and Property        Ken Mansfield & Malcolm Marquardt
 
30th April                 Peter Cavennagh - Shelterbox
                                Chair                                      Ken Mansfield
                                Welcome and Property          Rod Morrison & Jim Mulcahy
 
7th May                   Mayors Robert Doyle and Darren Lyons
                                Chair                                      Ian Campbell
                                Welcome and Property          Bruce Nankervis & Dianne Pearce               
 
 
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Vivacity, leadership, must be had, and we are not allowed to be nice in choosing. We must fetch the pump with dirty water, if clean cannot be had. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

There is nothing which persevering effort and unceasing and diligent care cannot overcome. - Seneca, 4 B.C.-65 A.D.

The first ingredient in conversation is truth; the next good sense; the third, good humor; and the fourth wit. - Sir William Temple, 1628-1699

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A few "One liners"
I thought I saw an eye-doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical aleutian ..
She was only a whiskey-maker, but he loved her still.
No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
Two silk worms had a race, they ended up in a tie.
A hole has been found in the nudist-camp wall. The police are looking into it.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'
The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
A backward poet writes inverse.
In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.
When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
When cannibals ate a comedien, they thought he tasted funny.
 
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The kids filed into class Monday morning.
They were very excited. Their weekend assignment was to sell something, then share with the class how they were successful.
Little Mary led off, "I sold girl scout cookies and I made $30," she said proudly, "my sales approach was to appeal to the customer's civil spirit and I credit that approach for my success."
"Very good," said the teacher.
Little Sally was next, "I sold magazines," she said, "I made $45 and I explained to everyone that magazines would keep them abreast of current events."
"Very good, Sally," said the teacher.
Eventually, it was Little Johnny's turn. The teacher held her breath. Little Johnny walked to the front of the classroom and dumped a box full of cash on the teacher's desk. "$2,467" he said.
"$2,467!" cried the teacher, "What in the world were you selling?"
"Toothbrushes," said Little Johnny.
"Toothbrushes?" echoed the teacher, "How could you possibly sell enough toothbrushes to make that much money?"
"I found the busiest corner in town," said Little Johnny, "I set up a chocolate chip cookie stand and gave everybody who walked by a free sample.
They all said, "This tastes like MUD!"
Then I replied, "It is. Wanna buy a toothbrush?"
 
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Marriage is the process of finding out what kind of man your wife would have preferred.
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Russell Hampton
National Awards Services Inc.
Sage