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Welcome to The Rotary Club of Northbridge
Northbridge
We meet Tuesdays at 6:00 PM
Northbridge Golf Club
Sailors Bay Road,
Northbridge, NSW  2063
Australia
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Please send apologies to Helen Gulson before 10:30am each Monday at helen.gulson@ozemail.com.au
Club Service Duty Roster
Club Service Duty Roster
Speakers
Feb 11, 2020
Asylum Seeker Centre
Feb 18, 2020
StreetWork
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Upcoming Events
Bookstall at Plaza
Northbridge Plaza
Feb 16, 2020
 
Club Commitee Evening
Feb 18, 2020
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
 
Club Forum (Visioning) TBC
Mar 03, 2020
 
Pride of Workmanship
Mar 10, 2020
 
View entire list
December - Disease Prevention & Treatment Month
Sponsors
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
Michael Bartok
January 4
 
Brian Robson
January 8
 
Denise Woodward
January 13
 
Sally O'Neill
January 13
 
Chris Switzer
January 16
 
Spouse Birthdays
Angela Keighery
January 24
 
Anniversaries
John Turner
Penny
January 2
 
Peter Hodgson
Audrey Hodgson
January 11
 
Don Landers
Shush Landers
January 12
 
Join Date
Bob Edwards
January 22, 1985
35 years
 
John Turner
January 22, 2002
18 years
 
ClubRunner Mobile
Club Meeting News
 
Welcome
 
President Peter welcomed all members, Penny Turner and guest speaker Ian Law and his colleague Danielle Francis.
 
Toast
 
Eleanor Chevor gave a toast to the Rotary Clubs of Port Macquarie, Port Macquarie Sunrise and Port Macquarie West. All three clubs together established Rotary Park in 1956, and the Astronomical Observatory. They support the local hospital, work in Vanuatu & Nepal, Meals on Wheels and various sporting clubs.
 
Announcements
 
President Peter again asked for volunteers to host some members from Rotary Wellington for a few days during our Rotary Fireworks. The Wellington Rotarians have kindly volunteered to help us with our Fireworks event. Please contact Peter ASAP if you can help.
 
John Turner again spoke about the Friends of Rotary list which he will email to all members.
 
Helen Gulson spoke about, and showed, two devices she recently purchased which can be very useful in case of an emergency, one a key ring and the other something the size of a credit card. Both these items have an accessible USB on which you can store your name, year of birth, emergency contact numbers, allergies, any medications and their dosages, medical history, etc and are clearly labelled so that in an emergency paramedics, doctors, etc can easily access your details. These can be found online and purchased at www.icemergency.com.au and cost around $22 each.
 
Garth Carter reminded members of the upcoming Pride of Workmanship and also asked if anyone would like to nominate someone for a Paul Harris award to contact him. Garth will be sending an email with details.
 
Luke Keighery reported that International Committee has completed sending medical supplies and equipment to Dili, East Timor. He said that a mannequin had been sent to the National Hospital which will be used to train nurses. Luke thanked Derek Matz for his efforts in sourcing this equipment. He said that the club’s old computer and projector had been sent as well for use in training.
 
Luke also reported on the first week’s Super Rugby Tipping competition. Momo Ohtani is leading the competition with all 7 correct picks. It is still not too late to join the competition which only costs $50. Contact Luke if you are interested.
 
Masa Ohtani advised that the Rotary Club of Tokyo had generously made a $1500 donation to our Bushfire Appeal. A formal letter of thanks will be sent to the Club.
 
Kevin Tattrie recommended a musical due to open in August called “Come from Away” about the 3 days following 9/11 when the town of Gander, Newfoundland had to cope with an influx of airline passengers which overnight doubled their population.
 
Peter Antaw received a note from Liz de Rome at Taldumunde thanking us for our support for new garden sheds and for the toiletry items generously donated by members and co-ordinated by Susan Law. The note reads in part –
 
“Thank you for dropping off the toothpaste and toothbrushes. We’ll have them distributed to all the properties so our young people shouldn’t need to purchase toothpaste and toothbrushes in a while.
 
The sheds and shelving have been installed at the Alpha Road and Ben Boyd properties. Please pass our sincere thanks to everyone at the Rotary Club of Northbridge. These lockable garden sheds are storing our gardening tools, camping equipment etc. and will be used for years to come. The Residential Program Coordinator is so excited to have all this storage space and sends her thanks for your generous support.”
 
For your diary –
“Comedy for a Cause” will be held on Thursday, 11 June, 2020 at Northbridge Golf Club. More details to follow.
Guest Speaker - Ian Law - Supplementing our Water Supplies with Recycled Water
 
Bob Edwards introduced guest speaker Ian Law and his colleague, Danielle Francis. Ian is a chemical engineer and has been involved in major water projects in many countries. In 2003 he started his own business, IBL Solutions. Danielle was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and studied in France.
 
Ian spoke about what can be done to secure our potable water supply. He said the amount of water on earth doesn’t change. It is the same as it has always been and just takes different forms. However overuse, contamination and climate change make clean, drinkable water scarce. Ian explained the process of water recycling and explained that purified, recycled water can be returned to dams to augment the natural water supply to give continued potable water. Namibia was the first country in the world to recycle wastewater when it built the first wastewater treatment plant in 1968 and it has been producing clean drinking water ever since.
 
Currently in NSW the Rouse Hill Water Recycling Plan is one of 30 such plants which takes recycled, non-drinking water to new developments for flushing toilets, watering gardens and washing cars.
 
Ian explained that desalination is very expensive and recycling and purifying wastewater is cost effective and energy saving. The main hurdle to the process is within political and municipal circles, and the process needs bi-partisan political support to successfully proceed. He gave details of the Perth Groundwater Replenishment Project as a successful project in the production of recycled drinking water to shore up Perth’s future drinking water supply.
 
Danielle prepared some bottled recycled water for us to try and compare to our drinking water. (There was no difference!)
 
Ian and Danielle finished their presentation with the words of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 - “A nation that fails to plan intelligently for the development and protection of its precious waters will be condemned to wither because of its shortsightedness. The hard lessons of history are clear, written on the deserted sands and ruins of once proud civilizations.”
 
John Turner thanked Ian and Danielle for their presentation and said that bipartisanship is definitely the way to go forward with the recycling of wastewater process.
 
DID YOU KNOW
 
 
The Club was chartered on 5th December 1983 with 24 Charter Members of whom 2 are currently still Active Members of the Club. In the 36 years of the existence of the Club a further 169 people have been inducted into the Club as Active Members. Whilst the membership of Active Members peaked some years at 64, the current Active Membership is 52, which includes the two Charter Members previously mentioned. This means that of the 169 inductees since the chartering of the Club we have lost 117, on average a little over three a year. In recent years the membership of Active members has remained fairly constant in the lower half of the 50s.
YOU CAN READ MORE IN THE CLUB HISTORY https://tinyurl.com/rcnclubhistory
 
 
Smarter that the average "Old Man"....
An old man had a large pond on his property next to the road. The bank around the pond was loaded with fruit trees. One day he decided to go down to the pond to get some fruit, so he grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring it back.
As he neared the pond he heard splashing and laughter. He soon saw that several young women had parked at the side of the road, had climbed the fence and were skinny-dipping in his pond.
He made the women aware of his presence and they all went hurriedly splashing to the deep end. One of them shouted, "We're naked and we're not coming out until you leave!"
The old man frowned and yelled back, "I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond."
Holding the bucket up he said, "I'm just here to feed the alligator."
Old men may not be able to run fast, but they can still think fast!
 
 
If anyone has any jokes or funny stories, feel free to send them to me for the humour section of the Bulletin! Email them to helen.gulson@ozemail.com.au
 
 

 

 
Stories
Rotary Treats 744 School Kids to a Day at the Zoo
The Rotary Clubs of Northbridge (Sydney) and Wellington (NSW) have embarked on a joint project to support the families of drought-affected communities in Western NSW.  There are 744 primary school kids from the Wellington District and they are all being treated to a day at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo including a BBQ lunch. 
 
The project is being run over a 7-week period. Rotarians from Northbridge are driving there to connect with their fellow Rotarians in Wellington and to jointly run the BBQ. Northbridge President, Peter Antaw, said that of the families: “The children are suffering as well, most of them don’t understand the financial and extreme pressures that their parents are going through.”  The families are anxious about their future but there is also much determination to keep their communities alive.
 
Australia is experiencing one of its most severe droughts on record, with areas in NSW facing the prospect of running out of water by mid-2020.
The Burrendong dam is now at 4.5% capacity and dwindling rapidly.
The crisis is severely impacting the Wellington area and so special treats like a visit to the zoo is just not possible for many locals and their families.
 
3000 muesli bars, supplied free by Nestles, as well as 744 sausage sandwiches and a cold drink will be given to the children of the district which includes regional small towns such as Geurie, Mumbil, Stuart Town and Euchareena.
 
The joint project was launched on 11th September and Channel 7 Prime TV attended the Zoo to film the event. ABC Morning Radio interviewed the Presidents.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed their day with most of them citing  the Cheetahs and Meer Cats as their favorites.
 
   
 
Ben Shields (Mayor of Dubbo Regional) and Daryl Thompson (Headmaster of Wellington Primary) also attended the launch. They both congratulated the Rotary Clubs for identifying children as the hidden victims of the drought.  President Greg Hart of Wellington Rotary also thanked Northbridge Rotary and the Rotary Australia Benevolent Society for their very generous contributions to the project, and for driving up from Sydney to help at the BBQ’s. Without Northbridge, Wellington would not have taken on this project.
Rotary Ladies
 
THE 4 - WAY TEST of the things we say or do

1). Is it the TRUTH?

2). Is it FAIR to all concerned?

3). Will it build GOODWILL & BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

4). Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?