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President Report 2008-09

Rotary Changeover Report 25^th June 2009

It is my very great pleasure to present to you tonight my report on the past 12 months. What a year it has been!

The Foundation Committee under the leadership of Ken Hughes had an outstanding year with one of the absolute highlights of our Club’s year being the visit of the GSE Team from Brazil in October. The Team comprising 5 women and 2 men were hosted by our Club for a week during which, with the assistance of the Macarthur Rotary Clubs they visited Canberra and sites throughout the Macarthur. The culmination of their visit was a combined Macarthur Rotary Clubs Dinner attended by more than 120 people.

This year our RI President D.K.Lee encouraged us to Make Dream Real, especially for children throughout the world, and accordingly we contributed $5000 towards a water tank replacement project in Oro Province PNG. This need came about as a result of the devastation caused by Cyclone Guba in 2007 which destroyed schools, aid posts, village water systems, roads and bridges, as well as taking many lives. Together with contributions from 6 other Clubs in our District, money from the District Designated Fund and a Matching Grant this project will make a real difference to the lives of the people in this province, particularly the children who will now benefit immensely from the availability of clean water.

Service Projects Director Andrew Perrin and his committees were kept very busy throughout the year.  The Board had decided to re-energise our activities within the community with a renewed emphasis on project work. Our Club applied for and received a $5000 grant from Camden Council towards a new initiative, the Senior Citizens Project. Organised by PP Richard Cornhill and with the assistance of a large number of Club members we have completed many projects throughout the year to help a  number of older members of our community who are unable to or do not have the funds to carry out minor repair work around their homes. This project will continue as we believe that further funding applications should receive a positive response from the Council. Richard continues with his ongoing maintenance of the Palliative Care Garden at Camden Hospital and we have also held a couple of working bees on the site this year.

Vocational Services Chair Ian Lane organized 3 Industry Visits, the Beer Shed in Campbelltown, the University Farms in March and the UWS Medical School in May. All three visits were enjoyable, interesting and at times quite amazing, and great opportunities for fellowship. This Committee under Ian’s leadership together with assistance from PE Chris Evans organized a hugely successful Pride of Workmanship Awards night in May where 12 individuals were recognized for their dedication and enthusiasm in their chosen careers. Pride of Workmanship is one of the real highlights of our Rotary year.

Together with the Rotary Club of Narellan we again held a Christmas lunch for more than 50 senior citizens. The Christmas fare, which is served by Rotarians, and the entertainment provided, add up to an excellent time for the seniors and due recognition of their contribution to our community.

Bowelscan, coordinated by the highly motivated PDG John Lee was again hugely successful in raising the awareness of the existence of such a simple test for what is a treatable disease if detected early. In the Macarthur area over 700 kits were sold with just over 400 being returned. All results, positive or negative, are notified to the individual. In all there were six positive results. The continued success of this program is without doubt due to John’s enthusiasm and dedication to a program that can and does save lives.

The Ranfurly book collection continues to grow under the guidance of Graeme Watson and this year with the assistance of PP Roy Kellaway and PP John Saunderson. As at the beginning of June in excess of 22,000 books have been collected and delivered to Ranfurly. This is an amazing result and I congratulate all three members for a fantastic effort.

We supported the U Turn the Wheel program at Camden High, Elderslie High and Macarthur Anglican School. These three days require a great deal of organization and planning and I must thank PP Gary Ireland and Director Andrew Perrin for their significant contributions to these very successful days. Thank you also to the large number of our members who have participated. U Turn the Wheel is a great program for our young future drivers and I am certain that it must have an impact on them when they next get behind the wheel of their car. Hopefully we have contributed to saving the life of at least one young person.

We sponsored two young people to RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards), two to RYPEN (Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment) and two students to the Youth Science Forum at UWS. We also sponsored a team from Camden High School to participate in MUNA (Model United Nations Assembly). I had the pleasure of attending MUNA this year and thoroughly enjoyed hearing the discussions and the arguments put forward by each of the schools who were allocated a country to represent. Camden High represented our Club and Syria with distinction.

We donated funds to all local schools, both primary and high schools, towards their speech night prizes. PE Chris Evans and I were able to attend a number of these speech nights to present awards. A new initiative this year was the introduction of five $500 scholarships for Year 11 students progressing on to Year 12 who are undertaking TAFE courses as a part of their Higher School Certificate. There was one recipient in each of the participating high schools in the area. These scholarships are seen as addressing both the vocational and youth aspects of Rotary and it is our intention to continue them as an annual prize.

We again had a very big year of fund-raising. We started the year with two days at Menangle Park Raceway where, together with all the other Macarthur Rotary Clubs, we raised about $1500 towards our charities.

Our Golf Day in October was a great success with over 120 golfers participating and raising $11000. This year it was decided to specifically support two charities and we chose the St Vincent de Paul Youth Housing Program in Macarthur and Spinal Cord Injuries Australia with the specific beneficiary being local young man Rhys Tappenden. Each received $5500. Great credit for the great success of this day goes to Committee Chair John Jones and his committed team.

Our inaugural Relay for Life became a reality in October under the inspirational leadership of PP Bruce Farquharson and a large team of volunteers. Almost every member of our Club was involved in some capacity to make the event a huge success which showcased with some real significance our Rotary ethos of “Service Above Self”.  To raise $25,000 in the first year was quite an achievement. I believe that this was the birth of a major fundraising event in the Camden community such was the enthusiasm with which it was embraced by all participants. This was fundraising with a real, emotional and for many, a personal motivation and inspiration.

The month of October really stretched our manpower resources with the GSE visit, District Conference, the Golf Day, U Turn the Wheel and the Relay for Life all happening with a few weeks.

We also conducted a number of barbeques throughout the year. The biggest without doubt was the World Youth Day Barbeque at St Thomas More Church in Campbelltown where we cooked for more than 700 pilgrims. This barbeque was coordinated by our Young Rotarians. Following that we operated a barbeque at the opening of the Clarendon Homes Display Village at Elderslie, at Oran Park in December in support of the Multiple Sclerosis Society and in March we conducted a fund-raising barbeque at the opening for the Camden Produce Markets on their new site.

Our major fund-raising activity each year is our Christmas Raffle which this year achieved even greater heights with more than $15,000 being raised. Led by PE Chris Evans as coordinator we spent more hours selling tickets, particularly at Narellan Town Centre, which  resulted in our best ever profit.

Errol Best and David McDonald encouraged us all to dig out all our pre-loved and no longer used items to sell at our Monster Garage Sale in February at the AH & I Hall in Camden. The response here was quite amazing and I still have visions of the hall filled to absolute capacity on the Friday afternoon. This was a great Club effort under inspirational leadership with an end profit of more than $7500.

We manned the Camden Show gates under the leadership of PP Dorothy Johnson-Kelly. This is a huge demand on our resources of manpower and time and is a credit to all members who gave of their time over the weekend. We were able to fill all but a handful of spots on the roster resulting in a good profit for our Club.

Our chocolate wheel at the Camden Produce Markets twice a month continues to be very successful raising over $5000 this year. I thank the teams of members who are involved on rotation in this fundraising activity. Apart from the profit achieved from this activity it also serves to highlight the presence of Rotary within our community.

At the beginning of the year it was decided that, where possible, that every fund-raising activity would have a specific goal. We are often asked by the public where the proceeds of our activities go and with this in mind targets and recipients were set for individual projects.

Throughout the year we raised more than $57,000 (not including the Relay for Life). All money raised plus a small amount of our substantial reserves have been distributed. The recipients, apart from those already mentioned, include

The Rotary Foundation $15000                            Australian Rotary Health $2000

Polio Plus $1500                                                       Interplast $1000

Shelterbox $2400                                                     Angel Flight $2000

Ranfurly $1000                                                         The Sarah Hilt Foundation $1000

Lifeline $1500                                                            Mater Dei $1500

The most significant natural disaster in Australia in living memory, the Victorian bushfires, affected all Australians and many offers of assistance by way of goods and money were forthcoming to assist the many people affected to rebuild their lives. Through a District coordinated fund donated money from Rotary Clubs has been sent to District 9790 for distribution. In that District more than 1600 homes were lost with 161 known fatalities. While the major relief agencies procrastinate Rotary will be out there making a real difference. The Rotary Club of Camden donated $5000 towards the Bushfire Appeal with another $5000 being donated from a fundraising activity by members of Camden Golf Club.

Our Young Rotarian Project continues to strengthen with numbers increasing to nine with the addition of Fiona, Michael and Daniel and the resignation of Paul Mulley who moved out of the area due to work commitments. These young people have become an integral part of our Club and its activities. The Rotary world within Australia, particularly our District, is continuing to look closely at this model we have developed and is seen by many as a way forward in encouraging young people to look at Rotary as the option for community and international service. I am sure the Club joins with me in thanking the Young Rotarian Committee of Rob Mulley, Kevyn Moore, Greg Eagles and Andrew Perrin.

This year we have welcomed five new members into our Club all of whom have contributed greatly with their involvement in our projects and to the fellowship and spirit of Rotary. During the year we also honoured four of our long standing members Vern Baldwin, Gordon Clowes, John Moloney and John Williams by bestowing them with Honorary Membership. The unfortunate passing early in the year of long standing and well respected member Noel Collis saddened us all. The end result of all these membership changes leaves us finishing the year with one less than we started, albeit with a lower average age of member.

During the year we held eight Invitation nights where guests and partners were treated to a range of special guest speakers. We started the year with a Christmas in July night ably organized by Jim Davies and David McDonald and most recently our guest speaker was the inspirational Tania Hayes and her husband Warren. All of these special nights have been a great opportunity to share with our partners and the wider family of Rotary.

This calendar year started as it always does with a great evening of fellowship at Jim Davies’ home. A barbeque, prawns, a few drinks, a great host and excellent company all add up to an enjoyable way to begin the New Year.

We also helped out at the Carrington Fair (we gained a new member here in Jeremy Keight), participated in Clean Up Australia Day, laid a wreath on Anzac Day and joined with the other Rotary Clubs in Macarthur for the Police Officer of the Year Awards in Campbelltown.

Our Public Relations Director Aaron Hodges achieved significant publicity for our Club during the year.  The Club was reported on 36 times in the local papers most of which was due to editorial writing and would not have appeared without Aaron’s dedicated effort. We received wide and low budget publicity and established relationships with journalists and editors at local papers and in radio. Aaron’s achievements in the past 12 months have been exceptional.

On the administrative side we spent a lot of time discussing and updating our Constitution to bring it in to line with current legislations and Rotary International guidelines. I would like to thank PP Alek Jankowski for his assistance and advice as well as Board members PE Chris Evans, Secretary Ross Newport and Treasurer Kevyn Moore for their significant contributions. The new Constitution was adopted by the Club in May. Secretary Ross introduced new systems to streamline our management systems and communication and certainly made my life much easier as a result of his organizational skills.

May I finish by sincerely thanking the Board members for their support, dedication and enthusiasm. You have all, through your efforts, made my time as President of this great Club so much easier. Everyone knew their role and just got the job done. I think it is a real benefit for our Club that just about all Board members are continuing next year, bringing some real continuity. PE Chris Evans, PE Nominee Ross Newport and I have spent considerable time these past months considering and planning the next few years to give stability and a consistency of direction to Camden Rotary.

The support that I have received from all members throughout the year has been fantastic. Thank you for the opportunity to lead such a great Rotary Club and such a fine group of people. Thank you to my official photographer John Lee.  I think I must be the most photographed President in the history of Camden Rotary.

Thank you especially to PP Dorothy for her guidance and assistance throughout the year. Thank you also to all the Committee Chairs for your support and your enthusiasm. There are two senior members of the Club I would also like to thank for their wise and experienced counsel and advice. It was great to have such a depth of knowledge and experience to fall back on if I had any doubts about the way forward.

Finally I would like to thank my wife Judith. When I first mentioned that I was considering taking on the role of President Judith was not all that excited at the prospect. However, from President Elect through to my induction 12 months ago and throughout these past 12 months I can not thank Judith enough for the support and encouragement she has given me. Like me, she has enjoyed the ride, meeting and making a whole group of new friends. This has been a year we will both remember.

Thank you.

Stephen Humphreys, President 2008-2009