President’s Message: What an experience last week’s meeting was, when we entertained our visitors from Christchurch NZ. and who had experienced firsthand, the terrible and heart breaking effects of the numerous earthquakes they have had to endure. The power point presentation was so poignant especially being told how the quakes just tossed 1000 tonne quayside cranes over, and damage to all that property. Also seeing all those containers lining the coast road to keep possible rock falls contained and others being converted into various business uses in Christchurch CBD areas.  It was nice that DG John Gatt and Eileen could make the meeting and officially welcome them to the District. I understand that our guests thoroughly enjoyed their stay with the various hosts, and, all the hospitality afforded to them. On behalf of the club, again thank you for all your helping out. See the photos area for a pic of the team and our hosting members. Last Friday evening, we had our Seriously Pink evening at La Maison where we supped and drank a plenty. The Speakers, Jonathan Lewin and Kerrie Clarke made excellent presentations on various forms of carcinomas within both sexes and treatments. We are extremely lucky within this area to have such expert and highly qualified clinicians to assist us should we have to suffer these complaints. It was also heartening to be advised that through new methods of surgery and drugs the survival rate for most cancers are considerably improving if caught in time. Though we couldn’t achieve a high number of patrons, 46, I think we will be able to provide a cheque of approx. $1000 to the Carer Accommodation. Last week I ventured over to Mulwala to give a presentation to RC of Mulwala/Yarrawonga re John McDonald Medical Scholarship, which I hope was well received enough to gain a donation toward the scheme from them.  On Thursday of this week, I am doing a similar presentation at Wangaratta, Appin Park Rotary meeting.

After last week’s presentation by Matthew Ward, who  qualifies as a Paraplegic Swimmer, hopefully Albury will have an Australian representative in the next Olympics in Rio. His progress since he commenced swimming about four years ago is really phenomenal.  It was great to hear that all his hard work and endeavours are now being recognised by national swimming bodies to enable him to have elite training and development.  Perhaps Roger can arrange to get him back after Christmas to hear how he is getting on, and we can sort out the volume on the laptop by then. We are seeking a minimum  FOUR persons able to volunteer for approximately three hours work on  Sunday 23^rd September 2012 for Albury Graffiti Clean Up Day. This is a joint exercise being arranged by Albury City Council including all the Albury Rotary Clubs and other organisations including the youth of Albury. Could you please see if you are able to volunteer for this function and advise Paul Armstrong of your availability.My thanks to Julie for arranging and hosting a really excellent social evening last Friday at her home. It was a splendid evening, despite the weather, and we were given a presentation and tastings  by Simon Killeen, Wendy’s son.  The wines were excellent, as one would expect, and  I strongly recommend  that you set aside the evening of 14^th February 2013 to taste some more of these wines at the Food and Wine evening at La Maison. Friday evening was also an unusual experience  in that Julie spoke very little the whole night, not by design I hasten to add. I fully expect her to make up for it when her throat and larynx recover, so members …..be warned  !!!  So thanks Julie and all your helpers for such a lovely evening.

President Pete’s Message: Here we are in mid-August, and already  being reminded of Christmas by various Marketing groups . I received Christmas literature from the Cancer Council and Diabetes Victoria already within the last week. Very interesting talk last week from Paul Bell about the great work  Interplast do in regard to treating, in the main, young children with’ cleft palattes’, in Pacific Rim countries, so that they are again taken in , and not ostracised by  their respective villages with different nearby countries to Australia.  Please do not forget that the Club deadline for a ‘priority’ booking re our ‘Seriously Pink Evening’ is drawing rapidly close and let us do justice to all of Nicoles’ hard work in arranging this dinner. The guest Speakers are really experts in their field, and the Border is really lucky to have such specialists within our Region. This also includes Chris Pfeiffer, who was awarded the OAM in the  2012 New Years Honours for his work within the wine industry. Additionally the selected menu is mouth watering, so let’s make it an unforgettable evening and take advantage of  some enjoyable fellowship over an excellent array of food and sumptuous wines.  Steve and myself met up with Roz Walls last week re Albury Councils Christmas Carols, and she made to us some positive  suggestions which will be discussed at this week’s Board meeting. For interest, and marking up of calendars, the Carols are being held this year  on 19^th December , again at QE2 Square.  Naturally we’ll keep you informed. Finally, don’t forget about the District Conference being held in Ballarat next March. Our reliable information is that nearby accommodation to the Conference is filling up fairly fast. I went last year for the first time and it was really excellent. Some excellent Speakers and equally excellent opportunity to meet fellow Rotarians and exchange various points of view.  Also some female members also took advantage to visit a few shops on the Saturday morning, so there is something for everyone.

I hope that you all enjoyed Friday evening’s Changeover Dinner as much as Alison and I.  Thanks again must go to Barry and Julie and Ian for arranging such an enlightening and enjoyable evening as it was so obvious a lot of work went into the evening so that it was a success. Also many thanks to Paul for doing such a great job as MC for the evening, and also to Peter Merkesteyn for that lovely cover design of John McDonald  re last year’s  Club Annual report, as well as report context … thankyou all. Whilst on the ‘thanks’ line, another thankyou to Steve for making sure the club stayed on course during his spell of temporary Presidency during John’s illness. Now is the time to keep looking forward, and get our new programs up and running, develop further into research re Howards ‘Tanzania’ project, and make sure we keep intact all our existing fundraising activities  A busy year for all of us.            President Peter