Last week - Rotary Club of Burnie

ROTARY CLUB OF BURNIE
THE BULLETIN
Vol 47 - No. 23
President - Jim Forsyth
Secretary - George Austin
Treasurer - David Bennett
1st December 2014
PROGRAM
1st December – Marielle Ruigrok –
director of emergency department of health and human services, tasmania
th
6 December - Christmas Dinner evening at the Burnie Gentleman’s Club
8th December – No meeting
15th December – David Foster
22nd December – Breakfast Meeting
DECEMBER: FAMILY OF ROTARY MONTH
Duty Roster December – John Packham, John Pease, Peter Vincent
Apologies - If you are unable to attend for any reason please notify Carolyne at BRL
(6431 6333; or email [email protected]) by midday on Monday. Failure to do so
will mean you are still responsible for the cost of the meal.
Birthdays & Anniversaries - Birthdays - 24th Nov – Tara Vincent
Invocation
For good food, for good fellowship,
may the giver of all our blessings make us truly thankful.
President Jim Forsyth opened the meeting.
He welcomed the Soroptomist members and their guests
Rotary invocation by Stan French was followed by the Soroptomist invocation led by Simone
Gehner.
 Lucky Starr concert – at the Rhodo Garden in January where they are planning for 200 inhouse guests. They are hoping to get as many Rotarian helpers as possible. We have been
invited to become members of the Emu Valley Rhododendron Gardens $25 or $35 for a
couple.
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Thanks to Geoff McLean who has volunteered to take on the Program Director role.
Christmas function will be held at Burnie Gentlemen’s Club on Saturday December 6. Cost
$60 pp. Please each person remember to bring a small gift ( less than $5 value)
No meeting on Monday December 8.
REPORTS
Secretarial – George Austin
 More helpers are needed for the catering at Wynyard National under 12 Athletic Carnival.
David Bennett will take the marquee and BBQ. Please advise George if you can help – even
if it is a negative response.
 DGN Gerard Blizzard has received a request via website seeking donations to assist Denise
Di Noto to come from USA to the March 2015 conference.
Raffle Winners –Liz Kinneir-Tarte, Allan Leeson
Attendance,
20 members present, 2 excused members, 2 make ups, Total 24, = 75%
Partners of Rotarians – 12
-Apologies: Paul Kearney, Robert Bentley, David McCarthy, Adam Coles, Peter
Vincent, Ken Moore, Barrie Crawford
-Make Ups: Ken Moore, Jay Kotay
- Visiting Rotarian – Peter Morgan (Lindisfarne)
Soroptimists – 10 members and 4 guests
Sausage Sizzle, Bruce Clark
The latest roster is:
November 29 – Wayne Licht, Ian Guest, Paul Kearney
December 6 – Jim Forsyth, Allan Jamieson, Robyn Priestley
December 13 – George Austin, Graeme Wood, Doug Forrest
December 20 – John Glen, Graeme Muir, John Packham
December 27 – David Bennett, Elizabeth Kinneir-Tarte, ………………………….?
Guest Speakers – John Glen and David Bennett
John Glen walks regularly in the Himalayas with his brother. This time, David Bennett went with
them on the 14 day 150 km trek over the Rolwaling Course through the Gauri Shankar
Conservation Area in Nepal.
According to local lore, Rolwaling is a "hidden valley" plowed out 1200 years ago and has a special
status such that Buddhist traditions are taken more seriously than elsewhere. Religious festivals
are very frequent, and celebrated with great enthusiasm.
Gauri Shankar, the great peak to the
north, is the most sacred of mountains
for the Sherpas.
John described the trek - the group of
18 included 15 staff and as there were
no facilities for any trekkers, - tents,
fuel, food etc was carried by the porters.
Starting from Kathmandu, there was a 7 hour
drive and an hour walk to the village of KAULE.
John and his brother financed the building of a
school for the children of about 500 people.
This is currently under construction.
Following on to BEDDING where there is the only monastery in
the valley and to NA, over 4100m above sea level where the yaks
thrive, ideally suited to the chilly light air in the stone yak
paddocks.
Continuing on to
BHAKTAPUR –a walled city and living historic monument.
Located about 20 km east of Kathmandu in the Kathmandu
Valley, Bhaktapur is known as the 'City of Devotees', the
'City of Culture', the 'Living Heritage', and 'Nepal's Cultural
Gem'. It is one of the 3 royal cities in the Kathmandu
Valley. Bhaktapur is filled with monuments, most terracotta with carved wood columns, palaces and temples with
elaborate carvings, gilded roofs, open courtyards. The city
is dotted with pagodas and religious shrines.
John makes a routine camera check
The painted hillside rock wall
David Bennett, is his usual way, gave his impressions and highlighted his experiences. (Sorry David – I can’t
give you more space – Ed.)
Note received by President Jim from Simone Gehner, President
Soroptimist International of Burnie, Inc.
Dear Jim,
Thank you for inviting Soroptimist International of Burnie to join in meeting with Burnie Rotary last
evening. It was great to meet the Rotarians and their partners and enjoy a meal and fellowship together. Of
course, Soroptimists and Rotary have close ties with Soroptimism having been borne from the Rotary
movement, and also with our members being like minded in wanting to be part of a service club in our
community.
I personally thoroughly enjoyed John and David's presentation. I touch based briefly with John afterwards
to see how SI Burnie could help with the school he and his brother are building and will certainly follow
that up with him as the project continues.
I hope our clubs can meet together again in the future. I would also love to look at ways SI Burnie and
Burnie Rotary could work together to benefit our community. Perhaps we can come up with a joint
project?
Kind Regards,
Simone Gehner