ISSUE 6 BOB’S JOTTINGS It has been a very busy couple of weeks, RI President Ian Riseley was farewelled by PDG Ian Jackson and DG Bob

Ryan at the Port Macquarie Airport at 6.00am on Tuesday, 1 August – a very successful visit. Margaret and I then

travelled to Dorrigo - had a fantastic Club meeting at Nick Wright’s new home. Nick was a great host as were the

members of the Dorrigo Rotary. The meeting was ably chaired by President Christine Brayne.

Saturday we had our first District Finance and Management Meeting on Saturday, 5

August. Saturday evening we attended the “EPIPHANIES” Musical – absolutely brilliant and a compliment to Rob

McDougal giving back to Australian Rotary Health with funds raised going to Mental Health for Youth. Many of District

9650 Clubs were represented, it was great to see so many travel to support the event and the benefactor Australian

Rotary Health.

Monday to Coonabarabran for another club visit, now there is a club who knows how to promote Rotary and the

community work they do, the Rotary name is every-where. Our thanks to Robert and Rowanne Cox for the tour and

their very generous hospitality.. Coonabarabran Rotarians are “Making A Difference “ within their community.

Tuesday we had the pleasure of attending the Rotary Club of Walcha. A club Margaret and Ii have often visited - they

too are “Making A Difference “ within their community.

Today – Thursday - we had the pleasure of visiting Armidale Central Rotary Club, my goodness they are a very busy

club, many many projects within the City also overseas, very well organised and managed in their endeavours .

It was announced on Wednesday that Barry Rassin of the Bahamas was elected to the position of World President

Elect 2018/2019 (replacing my friend the Late Sam Owori of Uganda)and the World President Nominee for 2019 /2020

will be Mark Daniel Maloney of Alabama USA.

Till next week keep enjoying your Rotary – however if I can be of any assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

Coonabarabran club President, Robert Cox , presenting me with a cheque for my project

Bob,Robert Cox and

Margaret with the two

NYSF successful

students from

Coonabarabran.

BRIEF BIO OF VICE-GOVERNOR IAN JACKSON Ian has been a member of Rotary since 1995 and since moving to Laurieton has been President twice, Treasurer twice and Secretary three times. Ian has just completed a successful year as District Governor for D9650. Ian was Group Study Exchange (GSE) Team Leader in 2006 and D9650 chair in 2007/08 and in 2014.15 served as AG for Cluster 3 and DG Nominee. Ian joined the NSW Police Force – reached the rank of Detective Sergeant – served at Bankstown, 21 Special Squad, Armed Holdup Squad, Drug Squad and saw country service at Goulburn for five years where he joined Apex. Ian joined the Army Reserve in 1973 and for 26 years this was concurrent with his police work. Ian has been married to Barbara for over 40 years and has raised three children and they continue to enjoy their six grandchildren.

*****

AUGUST RI EXCHANGE RATE ONLY

An electronic copy of the invoice has now been emailed to the incumbent club officers. To convert the USD amounts

to local currency, please refer to the exchange rate table below. These rates are for August only. Succeeding months'

exchange rates will be published when they become available.

August RI Exchange Rate ONLY

Local Currency to USD1.00

AUD 1.26

NZD 1.34

PHP 51.00 If you require further assistance, please contact the following finance representatives: Australia, NZ and Pacific Island clubs - Sally Furto at Sally.Furto@rotary.org (+61288949832) Philippine Clubs - Rosalyn Ong at Rosalyn.Ong@rotary.org (+61288949831 or +61478939555)

*****

Great Life Lessons - Always Remember Those Who Serve

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a ten year old boy entered a hotel coffee shop

and sat at a table, the waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

”How much is an ice cream sundae?” he asked. “Fifty cents.” replied the waitress. The little boy pulled

his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it. “Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream.?”

He inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.

“Thirty five cents,” she brusquely replied. The little boy again counted his coins. :”I’ll have the plain

ice cream,” he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away.

The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left.

When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly

beside the empty dish were two nickels and five pennies. You see, he couldn’t afford the Sundae,

because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

***** Community Activity – already commenced RI President’s plan to plant a tree for every Rotarian in the

world Another glorious sunny day in Port Macquarie as our members take on RI President, Ian Riseley's challenge for every club to plant one tree for each Rotarian. What a great opportunity to plant trees on National Tree Day (30/07/17) and make a dent in the challenge by planting trees at Rotary Lodge. More than 20 trees - more than 20 volunteers!

(Courtesy of Port Macquarie Sunrise)

VALE BOB JURY The Rotary Club of Dorrigo is mourning the loss of Bob Jury, who passed away on 27th July at the age of 94. Multiple Past President and Director, Bob was very nearly a foundation member of the Club, having joined on the second meeting after it was chartered in 1953. For the past few years, Bob was a valued honorary member of the Club. Bob came to Australia unaccompanied from Lebanon as a boy. He worked for his uncle in Armidale, eventually becoming a travelling hawker servicing the needs of the cattle and sheep properties outside Armidale when getting into town was a major undertaking, if you had the petrol. Later he ran his own clothing wear shop in Dorrigo with his wife Thelma. They were popular main street identities for upwards of fifty years. Bob’s sons, Paul and Alan live in Sydney and in his later years he spent a lot of time there, making up his missed Dorrigo Rotary meetings at the Bankstown club. A couple of years ago he left Dorrigo and moved full time into a retirement facility in Bankstown. We missed our friendly mate at our meetings and he missed Dorrigo. Bob's generous donation of a quality luggage item as a raffle prize at the annual joint meeting of Dorrigo, North Armidale and Guyra Clubs came to be known as "Bob's Old Bag". Funds raised went to the Rotary Foundation's permanent fund at Bob's insistence. The tradition of Bob's Old Bag continues to this day thanks to members past and present. Bob's funeral service was held on Thursday, 3 August 2017 in Dorrigo.

*****

National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) Weekend 29 / 30 July 2017 at Walcha Judging panel for NYSF plus Julien (YEP from Switzerland in yellow) - worked him hard all day

Taree on Manning students with Paul and Elizabeth Tollis

(Photos courtesy of James Levingstone (Walcha Club) Over the weekend of 29 and 30 July, The National Youth Science Forum committee interviewed students for 26 placements in the program to be held in January 2018 at the Australian National University, Canberra (two sessions) and at the University of Queensland, Brisbane (one session). Congratulations go to our four students from The Armidale School.

Nicholas Jackson Ashini Ekanyake Sambavan Jeyakumar Nicholas Bohlsen (Article and photos courtesy of Armidale North Club)

Operations Update - 9th August 2017

ShelterBox is currently supporting families in the following areas -

• Syria - responding to ongoing conflict (6 years). We are providing emergency shelter and other essential items to displaced persons via Shelter Solutions (shelter kits, relief tents and other essential household items). Due to the security situation in Syria we are operating through local partners that we cannot name to preserve their safety and the safe distribution of aid.

• Iraq - we are supporting people in and around Mosul. We are working with partners and have supported 8000 people since October 2016 with 'sealing off kits' (these are ShelterKits with additional timber that allows families to build, repair or reinforce shelters). Even though Mosul has been liberated from Islamic State this does not mean the area has been made safe or the end of humanitarian need and the need for humanitarian response.

• Lake Chad Basin - this is the poorest area in the world and has been affected by massive displacement of people fleeing Boko Haram violence. Boko Haram are an extremist sect carrying out attacks on the Lake Chad Basin with the aim to carve out an Islamic caliphate (a caliphate is an area under the leadership of an Islamic steward known as a caliph). Methods of attacks include raids on villages, abductions and suicide bomb attacks.

• Cameroon - we are supporting Nigerian refugees with tents, kitchen sets, blankets, jerry cans and school boxes. We have provided 500 ShelterKits and 1320 hygiene kits. Hygiene kits are an exciting addition to our aid. Hygiene kits help women and girls look after their feminine hygiene which has proven to be difficult to do in camp situations and prevented them attending school and participating actively in community life.

• Chad - we are supporting 956 households with blankets, solar lamps, kitchen sets, water carriers, ground sheets and semi-sustainable shelters (in total we are supporting 5700 individuals).

• Somaliland - we have deployed a team last week to deliver 441 boxes. These boxes contain tarpaulins, blankets, mosquito nets, water purifiers, solar lamps, kitchen sets and jerry cans. The ongoing drought is continuing to affect the nomadic population who are being displaced as they move to find water to sustain their livestock. In Somaliland we are partnering with ActionAID. SRT members returned from Somaliland and said it was wonderful to see all our items being used. Before we arrived 1 cooking pot was being used by 3 generations in 1 family and our aid has really changed their lives.

• Uganda - here refugees are fleeing the conflict in South Sudan and crossing the border into northern Uganda. We are currently meeting with NGO's in Uganda to decide what support we can offer.

We are monitoring -

• Venezuela - we are tracking the political crisis to ensure we are ready to assist if needed.

• We are currently in the cyclone and typhoon season and we are monitoring weather in the NW and NE Pacific and Atlantic/Carribean. This weather can result in violent winds and torrential rains causing flooding and landslides.