Charlie's Chat 16th September

Tonight we welcomed Jim Brennan from Rural Australians for Refugees, Graham Fountain from Remembrance Parks Central Victoria and Rotarians.

The Club has many activities on the go at present. Please let Peter T know your attendance to the following events booked in:

Rotary Club of Eaglehawk Trivia Night on 4th October, 7pm, at Bendigo Showgrounds - $20 per person - two tables of 10 have been booked - now we need to fill them.  Friends of Rotary are attending and looking at one table filled.

Joint movie nights with Eaglehawk - "Diana" (starring Naomi Watts) $20/person includes coffee and cake - 10th OCTOBER

Movie night "Captain Phillips" (starring Tom Hanks) $20/person including Coffee & Cake - 24TH OCTOBER

The Alan Rohde Award trophy is being presented on Sunday to Liam Collins (Winner B&F U/16 Bendigo League) and Dylan Clohesy (coaching). A date will be organised in the future for the cheque presentation at a Club meeting.

A cheque was presented to Jim Brennan. The funds were raised from meal purchases at the Bendigo Stadium night held recently.

Our guest Speaker, Graham Fountain, gave a very interesting talk.  His past experience in the CFA, ending as CFA Deputy Chief Officer in 2007 to taking up the role of CEO of the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) to name just a couple. He is now CEO of Remembrance Parks Central Victoria commencing in this role in June 2012 His appointment to this role was with a clear organisational change mandate building off his extensive change management experience across a range of organisations and sectors.  He reflected on the challenges of "stock", "sales" and "forecasting" in his role. We learnt about new ways to bury our loved ones (or perhaps not so loved), the arrival of customers in the back of utes, quick changes to homemade coffins, the regulations for burial and cremation and also the changes taking place across Australia.

His visit was organised as part of our commitment to provide $1,000 to the restoration (or more apt "resurrection") of the little chapel at the Kangaroo Flat Cemetery.  We will also have the opportunity of working bees on the beautification process (another description for "painting").

30th September will be a BBQ meeting open to Rotarians, partners, Friends of Rotary and children.  $10 per adult and free for the kiddies.

Wednesday 9th October, Bendigo-Sandhurst are organising a night at the Bendigo Stadium, as a cluster night, for Disaster Aid Australia. Darren Mayne is guest speaker on the night.

A big thank you to Noel, Roger and Bob for the trip up the highway to Echuca for the NQR BBQ.  Echuca-Moama Rotary Club will forgive us!

The swindle is just that - $530 in the kitty to be won.

A note from Rob - when we have meetings away from the Club please advise Rob if you attend for recording purposes - you can also log on to the website and register this.

Lunch in Macedon at Olive Jones is set down for Sunday 6th October or 20th - for 20 participants we will enjoy Pizza and Turkish Grill - please let Charlie know one way or the other your attendance asap. $25 per head, all you can eat, $10 for kids.

Best wishes to Kaylyn as she goes into surgery this week - hope it goes well. Also our thoughts are with John following a negative health report for his Mum.

Until next week, have a great week.

Charlie Bovalino - President