An important principle of the governance of Rotary is an orderly and planned succession of Presidents. Being president of a Rotary club is a demanding and at times nearly full-time commitment. Secretaries and treasurers may serve for several years in a row, but it is not fair to expect presidents to do the same. At some point they need to step back to repair their social and professional lives. In addition to this, it is generally considered a good thing within Rotary to have a new club president each year if at all possible. On the other hand, a 1-year term is a short time for a President to bring their visions and plans to fruition through the operation of the club. They need to hit the ground running. Rotary governance provides for this through the succession of presidents. A President is ideally elected about 18 months before taking office, at which point they become President Nominee. One year before taking office they become President Elect, an officer and director of the club. At the end of their term of President, they become Immediate Past President and remain an officer and director of the club. This ensures that Presidents have adequate time as officers of the club to plan for their term of presidency and that the club can benefit from their experience and knowledge for some time after their term ends.

 

In Chinese culture it is considered particularly auspicious to have 5 generations of a family under one roof. In a Rotary club it is considered wonderful to have an elected President Nominee, a President Elect, a President, an Immediate Past President and one or more other past presidents all as active members of the club. With the election of Dan Adler as President Nominee at the December AGM, The Rotary Club of Brisbane once again finds itself in this fortunate position. 

 

Dan will now serve as President Nominee until 1 July 2019 and then serve as President-elect and an officer of the club for 2019-20 prior to serving as president in 2020-21, succeeding Michael Stephens, our current President Elect.  Dan was nominated by PP Keith watts and is Head Honcho at Next Thursday, a Brisbane-based advertising company.  Dan’s election was announced on FaceBook and already one of his clients wants to come and look us over.  Dan looks forward to his year with great enthusiasm.  Here’s what he said on being told the election results:

 

 

Continuing officers and directors for 2019-20 are President PE Michael Stephens, Secretary Mark Williams, Ryan Muller and John Smerdon.  New officers and directors elected are Treasurer Warren Walker, directors PP Keith Watts, Jaqueline de Lacy, Denise Schellbach and Jillanne Myers and Sergeant-at-arms Tony Pilkington.

Kits 4 Kids is a collaboration between the Rotary Club of Townsville and the Veterans Care Association based in Brisbane. Old Army buddies Bruce Scott from Rotary in Townsville and Gary Stone from Veterans Care Association arranged for the participants in the Timor Awakening rehabilitation programme to pack and deliver, in person to each child, a small education kit . The kits themselves are organised by the Rotary Club of Townsville and the costs are covered by various sponsors. The Rotary Club of Brisbane is proud to be the sponsor of a delivery of 2000 kits in September 2018.

The Rotary Club of Brisbane Charity Golf Day was again held in fine sunny weather at the Virginia Golf Club this year on 15^th June, the course was in good condition, and fairways were a bit more forgiving. quality of greens was generally good.  The club’s golf co-ordinator, Andrew Halliday had all the necessary paperwork and sponsors' banners in place, motorised carts all individually named, with the help of John Smerdon selling raffle tickets and myself attending to the registration of players, the pre-game issues of the day were quickly attended to. Breakfast was served, bacon and egg muffin with coffee, and players were briefed on the day, its purpose and method of scoring. The clubs golf co-ordinator then identified where the special prize holes were, advised there was a map of the course on scorecard and then directed the field to the respective start holes.

 

This year we again had a grand raffle as well as our multi draw prize table with some great prizes.

It is important to note that several of our clubs’ members helped with prizes on the day and these include:

 

Rotarian Georgina Bishop for providing two beautiful bangles which would have pleased some players mother, girlfriend or partner when they got home, one was on the raffle table and one was allocated for ladies nearest the pin.  

 

Rotarians: Michael Stephens, John Smerdon, Don O’ Donoghue, Gerald Holtmann, Graeme Whitmore all of these members provided cash donation’s, I sincerely thank them for their generosity and financial support to our day, where practical these cash contributions were paid into a PAF for future use, and finally to Price Line Pharmacy ( James Delehunty) & Jacqueline Page ,for raffle prizes.

 

This year we also received cash donations from persons outside the club, and they included Mr Paul Wall, Mr Derek Morell, & Mr Earl & Marg Ryan, these have been acknowledged by the issue of certificates which have been delivered or posted.

 

 This year we keep the day to a Friday morning, hoping that this would increase the numbers along with a return to Virginia Golf Course. Attendance this year was better, with 59 players finally teeing off, the good thing is that we only had one defection, and mor importantly ten ladies were in the field. The challenge for day was a four-person Ambrose event, with a special double Perrier system of handicaps. This makes the scoring fair as the handicaps for the day are taken on six hidden holes selected by the club.  This was the second time in eight years that I have played and was intending to defend our teams title, but alas it was not to be. Part of last years’ winning team with some new players (two ladies) teamed up, and were close but not quite there, although they took out a few of the major prizes.

 

Most importantly, a good day was had by all and in excess of $8000 was raised for doing good in the world.