From the President's Desk

From the President's Desk

Good Morning fellow Rotarians, friends and enemies,

I do hope you are all very well.   We have a few small issues to address before we break for this long deserved rest and currently we have a flying Minute out there requesting support for theSponsorship of the E-Club in Stockholm. It is progressing now with no cost to us, so we need to be pro-active and help create another Club with 25 members. Surely this is a magnificent way to start 2014 and we must thank Ray, he is just so good at this Secretary role.

I have a proposal for the Board that our e-Club consider the fees for our Team NextGen Members who are students who do not have full time employment pay only $100 per annum; we have 4 currently in this club and possibly a fifth in the wings.  I know this is a cost on the rest of the Membership but in this World I believe you either support Training our Youth or you don't.  My company has just put on our 20th Apprentice since formation and we now have clients in this community asking my Office staff not to send an Apprentice to a job because they won't pay for them.  It is time we in Rotary looked at training younger members of our community in Voluntary Service, please consider this and email your opinion for Thursday night's Board Meeting. We need to know how our Members think, so we don't upset you too often.

The Mount Isa Project will not be re-starting until May, Heather and Ian need a break and the working conditions outdoors in Mt. Isa are very harsh until the end of April, so this is a public note to Ian to keep them here until May. The Project for the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctors Service) can be spread over time and more Projects will come from this approach in many western Queensland towns in the future.

We need to pro-actively think about our RI Foundation grant of $1000, which we need to match and then find a Project located in Central Australia/Western Queensland to achieve great results for 'The Bush'.   We will be planning 'Birdsville 2014' from February on, anyone up to another challenge.  There will be significant changes from last year logistically and it is Tuxedos for real if you want to go to the Cocktail Party of your Life as a Waiter/Waitress/Host/Hostess/Bartender/Cleaner, you know you can do all this dressed in formal wear, as well as laugh, smile and have a great night out.

Gotta fly everyone, have a great day, see you tonight.

Regards

Geoff