I am sure you all along with me, would like to welcome and thank Rob Koehne for taking on the editor’s role of our newsletter. It is a task that not many would undertake and I really appreciate Rob stepping into the role.
On that, as you may well be aware, Dan Edmonds is stepping back from various roles to concentrate on his family and himself for a few months. A very big thank you to Dan for all his extended efforts to the newsletter and many other tasks. We will see him on occasions at events and projects.
I had a meeting with SBA president Simon Jones recently, and it is encouraging to discuss how both groups can collaborate to improve our Rotary club image throughout the Stirling district. More on that in the future.
We will be voting on our Bylaws changes at the next committee meetings night as well as progressing our many tasks we have initiated during the past couple of months. So please, come along and have your vote and say on all that is happening at your club.
Stay safe and well.
Meeting of 30 January, 2023
Following his recent visit to Timor-Leste, RTN Robert Koehne updated the Club on the Global Grant-funded Talitu WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) project.
In 2020, on conclusion of the project, project partner, Plan International, advised that there was a surplus of $10,000. Fortunately, after some negotiation, the Rotary Foundation approved these funds being spent on enhancements to the original project.
The Rotary Club of Dili Lafaek carried out the works, which included rainwater harvesting - tanks, guttering, piping, filters, for drinking, hand-washing and cooking purposes in three schools. In addition, new fittings were installed for public taps and a new tap-stand was built for the community.
The works have been carried out satisfactorily, but now, the Talitu community is responsible for ongoing maintenance of the upgraded system, through a US$0.50 per household, per month levy.
The Rotary Club of Dili Lafaek, founded in 2016, has only 15 members but is able to call on many people to help with its projects. Members of the Club who were involved in our project, President Mario Preto, President-elect, Gomes, Bete Fatima and Mersu Bakhita, impressed with their enthusiasm and desire to help improve the lives of their compatriots, especially those in remote rural areas.
Looking towards the future, Rotary Dili Lafaek would like us to become involved in a new WASH project in Cova Lima municipality in the south-west corner of the country. It is Robert’s view that future involvement by our club in WASH projects in Timor-Leste should be in collaboration with other Rotary clubs, as they were in the Talitu project (the Rotary clubs of Mt. Barker and Murray Bridge joined us for this project).
Meeting of 6 February, 2023
Kevin Williams, Rotary Club of Onkaparinga, gave an amusing presentation on ONKABRIX. The Club’s principal event partner is the Southern Bricks Lego User Group (catchy acronym SBLUG); enthusiastic SBLUG members mount eye-catching and highly-detailed displays of lego for the public to view.
Kevin introduced us to Airtable, a planning software (database/spreadsheet) package, an effective event planner, one which we may care to consider for the three major events we have in mind for 2024.
All ticketing is done on-line, through Trybooking.com. Benefits? No cash is handled, the Club knows how many people will attend and is therefore able to crowd-control effectively.
Promotion is by conventional print and social media, with the emphasis on the latter.
The event has been successful with increasing number of attendees each year - 2,000 expected for 2023.
Kevin urged us to ‘spread the word’, an easy task, given that it is such a fun event.
Next week’s meeting, Monday, 13 February, 2013: Book Launch
Location: The Village Well, 54 Strathalbyn Road, Aldgate
Time: 6.00 pm for 6.30 pm
Book Launch:‘A Macrocosm of Microcosms that is the Pinoak Tiers Retirement Village’
Speakers: Elizabeth Elix and John Gell
Dinner:
Main course: chicken schnitzel, with gravy, rainbow slaw and chips (gf option available) OR butter chicken with rice and pappadams (gf)
Dessert: Eton Mess (gf) OR chocolate sauce pudding with berries and cream
Payment: $30/person to be made to the following account:
Rotary Club of Stirling BSB 105079 A/C 305308540 Ref: Village Well + Surname
Background: Pinoak Tiers Retirement Village was a magnificent Rotary Club of Stirling project, completed forty years ago. Elizabeth Elix and John Gell, Village residents, have unearthed a treasure trove of photographs and records. These form the basis of their book.
THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER. Join us for what promises to be a fascinating evening!
Rotary Club of Onkaparinga: we are also taking the opportunity to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the charter of the Rotary Club of Onkaparinga, a club which was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Stirling. We look forward to catching up with our Onkaparinga colleagues.
Birthing Kit Assembly Day
The Birthing Kit Foundation (Australia) is a humanitarian organisation that provides birthing kits and education in clean birthing practices to women birthing at home in remote regions of the developing world. We work in partnership with the Australian Community and a number of Global Organisations to pack and supply Clean Birth Kits to pregnant women living in rural communities and low-resource settings around the world. To date, 2.4 million Clean Birth Kits have been distributed to women in need. Kits are given to mothers through community outreach programs, supplied to health facilities for use by doctors, midwives and nurses or distributed to traditional birthing attendants. They are designed to support hygienic practices and environments during childbirth in under-resourced settings.
Our International Committee has organised for us to contribute to this important global program by gathering together to assemble 200 birthing kits. We will be doing this on Sunday 26 February at 2:00pm at the home of Mark Higgins.
Please put this date in your diaries and join us for a worthwhile and sociable club activity. Attached is the BKFA Resource Guide and a YouTube video with some information that you will find very interesting.
We are all now more vigilant and suspicious about unsolicited emails. Many know to check that the email address of the sender is legitimate, but...
Can you spot the difference?
citibank.com is not the same as
citibɑnk.com
or how about here?
westpac.com.au not is the same as
westpɑc.com.au
The eagle-eyed will have noticed that the "a"s are not the same! The "a" in the second version of each website address is not a letter, but a symbol in the same way that, for instance, westp@c.com incorporates a symbol. Scammers can set up a completely different (fraudulent) website to the legitimate one using any combination of letters, numbers and symbols they wish. to capture personal details of unsuspecting victims
That is why you should NEVER simply click a link in an unsolicited email even if at first glance it appears legit. Always use your browser to search and type in the correct address to be sure you are accessing the real business website. Also, do not copy and paste the link from the email into the browser address bar...That is the same as clicking the link!
