Hello everyone.
On Monday, we had a busy night.
Firstly, a belated presentation to Gary Harding, who was thrilled to receive a Business Excellence award for customer service. He was nominated by new ‘Friend of Rotary’, Barry Dunstan (and respected past club member), who was impressed with his work ethic and diligence when ‘on the job’. Gary was delighted to be at a Rotary meeting and appreciates the work Rotary does in
the community.

 

 

 

Next was a very interesting presentation by Jarrod Whittaker, (ABC Gippsland, Chief of Staff), who was introduced to club members by Bryce Eishold. He and Jarrod were work colleagues at the Latrobe Valley (LV) Express for a couple of years.
Jarrod grew up in Newborough, and joined the LV Express as a junior in 2009.
Post tertiary studies in journalism, he accepted a position as a senior journalist in Shepparton, in 2012. He developed itchy feet and travelled to Chile to teach English, and met his future wife. In 2016, he returned to Australia with his
bride and they settled in Newborough. Jarrod took on the role as senior journalist, then editor, at the Express. Just prior to Covid, he made the leap to radio journalism and is a key reporter for ABC in the Gippsland region.
He finds the job challenging but enjoys the variety and adrenaline-rush of having to present live-to-air as a reporter. He has covered key stories such as
the Black Saturday fires, the closure of Hazelwood and floods in Gippsland.
Jarrod acknowledged the changes in media require journalists to be adaptable and very flexible in their work hours. This can be problematic when trying to raise a family.

 

AG Di gave a brief overview of the Regionalisation Pilot Project and the responsibilities President Lyn will have to undertake on behalf of the club. That being the voting for Regional Council members and very soon, the selection of clubs which we would like to be grouped with in the ‘Rotary Community Groups’. The amalgamation of District 9810 and District 9820 is happening
concurrently. The grouping process will probably not be all that different to what we have in our West Gippsland Cluster. It is nice to have an opportunity for input.

 

Update form the ‘Revs and Rubber’ Day at Old Gippstown: I reported it was an excellent day. Nice weather. Big crowd. The egg and bacon sandwich cooked by Rotarians was a great hit with visitors. We raised approximately $400 from the effort. Many thanks to Suzie Maxfield for stepping in for Ross. Bill Connell,
Alan Bishop, Len Cairns, and myself, worked hard and were exhausted at the end of the day. On a positive note, the organisers of the Revs and Rubber, presented an ‘Appreciation’ plaque to the club to say thank you. It will go ‘straight to the pool room’!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Monday we are scheduled to attend the Newborough Bowling Club for a shared night with our Inner Wheel Club of Moe friends. It will be a fun night of activities that we hope everyone will enjoy. Meals will be available at a cost of
$20.00. If you are not able to attend, please let me know as I am organizing final numbers for the bowling club. Senior meals will be available.

 

Just a quick heads up, we have another catering job at Energy Australia (Yallourn) on Thursday 14 September. Alan Bishop is organizing the event together with myself. It will be a very early start and busy cooking session onsite.

 

That’s all for now.
 

President Lyn