This year will probably go down as the one where we had the most number of Presidents.  After much preparation, the year started with Greg Wood as President.  For personal reasons, Greg resigned from the club in September 2022.  PP Jim Sawyer was president for the December quarter, PP Cliff Heath was president for the March quarter, with Jim resuming for the June quarter.  Next year we may have the quarterly President system, with Jim continuing for the September quarter, and others taking quarterly turns as President. But if there is someone who wishes to take on the President role, please let me know.  The following year (2024-2025) looks to be back to the normal system, with Peter Mentha in line to be President that year. We look forward to this.

In spite of the issues with Presidency, I believe that the club has had a successful year, particularly financially.  More of this shortly.

 

In terms of membership (refer also to Paul Atack’s – Membership Director – report), we gained two members so far, and lost Di Hardy (health issues), Martin Hardy (transfer back to Melbourne on account of Di’s health issues), in addition to Greg Wood.  We are fortunate to have gained Geoff Covey and Peter Newell during the year.

 

Weekly meetings have been varied, with most interesting programs and guest speakers well organised by Maggie and her team. We even had a visitor all the way from Putney (in the UK) to join us one night.

 

The major club event was the Hole-in-One, this year under the leadership of Mike Toone.  This was well organised, with the weather co-operating as well (only one half day was lost).  Mike will separately report, but the thanks of the club go to him and the team.  In summary, the income for the event was $111,922 (against a budget of $90,000), with the expenses being $29,434 (against a budget of $33,000), making for a net contribution of $82,488 (against a budget of $57,000).  Well done team.

 

Barbeques were held as well, under the leadership of John Jehu and Cliff Heath.  The income for the year to date has been $14,397 (budget $18,000), with expenses being $$6,462 (budget $10,350, making a net contribution of $7,935 (budget of $7,650).  Many thanks to them and to all persons who assisted.  The issue for the club is to find someone to take over leadership of barbeque fundraising, as neither of the two named persons wish to continue in this role.  The challenge for our club, and it would appear society in general, is to get the next generation to do more with volunteering and leadership.

 

The District Governor, Kathy Rivett, visited our club during the year, and left us with some challenges. The theme for the year was “Imagine Rotary”.

 

The treasurer makes a full report after the end of the financial year at the AGM. He has been heard requesting that money be paid to worthy causes, as the club is quite financial after the Hole-in-One and barbeques (year to date details above).

At the time of writing, the recipients of the Dumesny Award and Paul Harris Fellow Recognition are not known to me, but will be revealed on changeover night, and their details will be listed separately in this report. Congratulation to the awardees, and I have no doubt that they are well deserved.

 

I would like to record my thanks to all those who have contributed to the club in the last year, and to those who have given me encouragement in difficult times. In particular, I would like to thank the secretary, Collin Brinkmann, for his consistently high standard of service to the club, Cliff Heath for being willing to act as President for part of the year after completing a two year stint during the difficult Covid years, Ray Welsford for unofficially mentoring me, and to all board members for jobs well done.  

 

Many thanks for the support from my wife Christine.

 

Jim Sawyer

President 2022-2023