President’s Report - December 2022

The past month seems to have been packed with events. And even though a bout of Covid 19 meant I was personally out of contact with others for about 10 days, the only major Rotary related event I missed that I had planned to attend was the Rotary District Showcase held in Tamworth on the weekend of 27/28 November.

Before reporting on relevant events it is important to acknowledge the sad passing of Eric Milne and Bruce Carpenter in recent weeks.

Eric joined Sunrise Rotary earlier this year and volunteered a number of times to assist with the Bunnings BBQs. He always made a valuable contribution and was good company for the other volunteers who worked with him. Eric also readily volunteered for other activities in the relatively short time he was a member of our Club and members who knew him well were shocked and saddened at his sudden passing. The Club conveyed the deepest sympathy of our members to Eric’s partner Sharon.

Bruce, who was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Salvation Army, was a member of Sunrise

Rotary from 2005 to 2008 when he and his wife Cheryl first came to Port Macquarie for work roles with the Salvation Army. After 2008, various postings to other parts of Australia and overseas to the Caribbean and London, meant Bruce needed to relinquish his membership of our Club. However when he and Sheryl returned to Port Macquarie Bruce attended our meetings when he could. On Friday 9 December I joined several other Sunrise members at the service to celebrate Bruce’s life. The Club also conveyed the deepest sympathy of our members to Cheryl.

Not really a Rotary related event, but on Friday 18 November I was delighted to attend the graduation ceremony for the first group of medical students to complete their full medical degree at the University of New South Wales Port Macquarie Campus. Having been involved in the establishment of this program, a first in Australia, it was very satisfying to see the achievement of the goal to provide opportunities for people in rural areas to train to become doctors without needing to attend a metropolitan university for any of their studies. And pleasingly, most if not all the graduates have indicated their desire to work in a rural area after they complete their internship.

Due to Covid I wasn’t able to fully participate in the Lighthouse working bee and

Christmas party held on Thursday 1 December. However thanks to Peter Grob we had

excellent equipment and plenty of water to clean the block walls. Malcolm McNeil, David

Lane and Colin Norton assisted with the cleaning of the walls while Fiona Dacombe and

David Currey replaced the missing and damaged reflective tape on a number of the traffic bollards. Thanks to all involved because the spruce up has made a big difference to the overall appearance of the site.

Even though I did manage to sneak a sample of the delicious treats provided for the

Christmas Party, I was disappointed that I needed to miss the main event. However, all

reports indicated the standard traditionally set by our culinary experts for such events was definitely met on this occasion and everyone who attended enjoyed the occasion.

On Sunday 4 December Ian Simpson ran a very successful first session of the 2022/23

STAR program. The several new members who participated had done their research

beforehand and made valuable contributions as well as hopefully benefiting from the input from the longer serving Rotarians who attended. Thanks Ian for a well-planned, informative and enjoyable session enabling participants to learn more about our Club and Rotary generally.

I was pleased to accompany Sandra Hollins, Youth Service Director in representing our Club at the Hastings Education Fund (HEF) Annual Gala Presentation held at Cassegrain

Winery on Monday 5 December. It was a very inspiring evening and made Sandra and me

proud that Sunrise Rotary makes a significant annual financial contribution to HEF. The

appreciation shown by the 38 recipients of the grants awarded to assist them with their

tertiary studies was very heartwarming. It was good to catch up with one of our past

members, Helen Ross and her husband John who are the Patrons of the Hastings Education Fund. It was also inspiring to hear of the generosity of a whole range of other sponsors of HEF and to learn that a number of continuing scholarships are now being offered to assist students in their later years of tertiary education studies.

Another pleasing aspect that Sandra and I both noted was the number of grant recipients who have chosen to undertake their studies in Port Macquarie – at either Charles Sturt University or TAFE.

To further add to my education related experiences over the past few weeks I had the

pleasure of representing our Club at the Nautilus College presentation function on

Wednesday 7 December. This was another inspiring occasion and I was proud to be invited to present the Principal’s Award to the recipient as this is the award for which Sunrise Rotary provides the funding.

Nautilus College is providing a range of opportunities for young people who don’t fit into the general school system and just need a place where they feel they belong, where they can work through their challenges and know it is safe to dream about careers and a valuable future. The staff and all associated with the operation of Nautilus College are to be congratulated for what they are doing to assist these young people to achieve their dreams. It is therefore pleasing that Nautilus is one of our designated schools and that we are contributing in a small way through the donation of the Principal’s Award and this year at least with the funding to enable up to 10 graduating students obtain their white cards – a compulsory requirement for people to work in the construction industry in New South Wales.

An exciting event for our Club took place at the Charles Sturt University Campus on

Thursday 15 December with the launch of the Sunrise Campus Market. Colin Norton and

the Market Committee are to be congratulated with special mention of Helen Palmer for her fabulous work initiating and setting up the booking system for stallholders. David Lane did an excellent job (with Peter Vane’s assistance) setting up the Market page on our website and enabling it to go live by the time of the launch. And we already have a number of bookings!

My final point in this month’s report is to say I am delighted that the AGM held on Friday 9 December went off without a hitch, being very well chaired by Robert Clarke.

Congratulations to Di Hicks, President Elect, for establishing such strong Board membership for 2023-2024. It contains a good balance between experienced Board members and new people taking on a Director role. And I am delighted to have been nominated and elected to be part of the team.

Yours in Rotary

Neil Black