Rotary Club of Canberra Burley Griffin News Notes 1st September 2026
From the Captain's Desk:
Notes from Canberra Burley Griffin Rotary Board and general planning meeting 27th August 2026
Our chair for the month, Astrida opened the meeting with an acknowledgement of country and followed with a toast to the Rotary club of Esperance, WA, outlining their achievements and their focus on assisting the youth and the elderly in their community. She then welcomed our guest for the day, Deb Hawker, the recently appointed Mentor for South Canberra Rotary clubs.
Neil then introduced the experiment of a lunchtime business meeting for the club involving the whole membership, not just the executive team. Secretary John took us through the minutes of the last meeting and discussed matters arising.
These included:
A discussion of the recent trip to Burragai with the Queanbeyan high school teachers and students and an update on our contribution to assisting that scheme for disengaged, disadvantaged and “at risk” students;
a discussion of preparations for the UN Peace day ceremony on 21 September which would be chaired by Gary Davis and Meryam Farouk (a Uni Canberra student who is an intern from UN Information Centre);
preparations for our stall at the Candle festival in October;
an update from Astrida on the “working with vulnerable people” documentation required and whether or not we need to also get New South Wales certification;
an update that our nominee for the NYSF had withdrawn and so we won’t be sponsoring any student for that event in January. Next year, perhaps we will approach a different school (e.g. Erindale College).
The report from Treasurer Ross confirmed that the accounts were basically in good shape and everything is on budget so far this year with few departures or discrepancies. An interesting statistic was that average of 9.71 members per meeting. This led to the subsequent discussion about ways of expanding and diversifying membership of this club. Deb Hawker made a number of very interesting suggestions about how we can bring in new members based on Tuggeranong Club‘s experience. This was followed by Michael suggestion that we collaborate with the Canberra Multi Cultural community about candidates from there who might be interested in joining this club? The Executive now has a number of very positive credible pathways to bringing in new and diverse members, to be elaborated and rolled out asap.
Astrida close the meeting promptly at 1:30 pm.
Have a great week!
President Neil.
Michael's trip to Coffs Harbour
Rotary Club of Coffs Harbour City 40th Anniversary Dinner
On the 22nd August I attended the 40th anniversary dinner of my old club the Rotary Club of Coffs Harbour City. There were about 80 people present including at least a dozen members from my years at the cub. I joined 6 months after the charter. The most significant project of the club was to establish the Coffs Bunker Cartoon Gallery. This now houses a collection of thousands of original cartoons from Australians leading cartoonists. The location is within a converted World War 2 communications bunker that sits under part of City Hill. The club conducts an annual Cartoon Award Ceremony, and this is how they have been able to build their collection of cartoons. Recently a display of Holden cars has been incorporated into an extended part of the gallery which has proven to be a great success. It turns out that the local former Holden dealer Geoff King had a large collection of cars just sitting in sheds. If you were impressed with the Canberra Holden display, you will need to get in your EV and make your way to Coffs Harbour as you would be very impressed with what is on offer both Holdens and Cartoons.
It was interesting to note that the club has recently attracted about 6 or 7 younger members and on Saturday the first female President was inducted. The club has also maintained involvement with the Rotary Youth Exchange sometimes sharing hosting duties with a neighbouring club. How good would it be if we could emulate both several younger members and reactivate the Rotary Youth Exchange program in our club.
The oldest member Bernard Dowling turns 99 in a couple of months, and he looked as fit as I remember him from the 90’s.
Visit Hay to present scholarships to Indigenous students
Hay War Memorial High School
10 December
UN Human Rights Day with Zonta Canberra remembering victims of domestic violence.
Peace Bell
Next meeting
Our next meeting will be held at the Red Shed cafe on Thursday 3rd September as the Golf Club is chock a block.
If you have not already done so, please respond to Eric’s invitation by 11 am on Tuesday.
Duty Roster
Date:
Chair:
Guest speaker:
Member to propose Toast to Rotary, thank guest speaker, and write up for Bulletin:
3 September
Eric takes the chair
Red Shed social lunch as the golf club is unavailable. Membership drive discussion. Keith update.
The Red Shed is a cozy cafe in a large rowing training building on Black Mountain penninsular with access from the lake side road on the western side of the Lake. See you there at 12.30pm.
10 September
Eric
Guest speaker - Pat Wright - The smartest Palnts and Animals
Bill
17September
Eric
TBA
21 September
Club get together at the World Peace day commemorations at the Peace Bell details will be discussed in coming weeks.
Neil and Astrida.
24th September
No meeting
If you cannot perform your allocated duty, please arrange a replacement and advise the Acting President for that meeting (listed above). Please advise the Bulletin Editor of any planned absences to avoid being rostered on while away.
This Bulletin is the creation of Bill and Stephen who work late into Sunday night to ensure it is sent on Monday morning. So please send any contributions by beer o'clock Sunday to andrews79@iinet.net.au
