At last week’s meeting, we bid farewell to Francesco Paradisio prior to his departure back to Italy. It has been great having him around and I particularly enjoyed listening to Francesco and Nicolo conversing in Italian. Francesco’s presentation was very interesting and his love for Aussie pies was obvious for all to see. Imagine eating 5 pies from breakfast to lunch! Francesco was full of praise for Kellie and clearly enjoyed his stay in her house. Once again, thank you to Kellie and all other club members who give up their time and homes to our wonderful exchange students. The exchange program is a great thing for the participating students and our local community. It helps us to build deeper engagement with other cultures and brings greater diversity to our regional community.

We had an interesting talk from Glenys from the Border Trust last week. Great to hear that good work that is going on in our local community. Even better to hear the clinging of coins as the donation tin was being passed around. Glenys sent us a note to say how much she enjoyed our meeting so I’ve invited her to come to a meeting as our guest. Hopefully she will take me up on this offer.

A quick update on Rotary Foundation giving (via subs and other giving). Last year as individuals of the Club we gave $3,571 to Foundation. Here we are now less than two months into the new year and we are up to $1,200 already. Well done to you all. Remember that 100% of what you donate to Foundation goes to charity with 50% coming back to our district. Hopefully some of that will be coming back to our own Paying it Forward project. In the last few years foundation has supported our Club with River of Stories and the Brown’s Lagoon Reflection area.

Talking Brown’s Lagoon, we were hoping to have the official opening of the Reflection Area next Sunday – being the day that we chartered and a fitting way to see out our 40^th year but I’ve made the captain’s call (in the absence of our actual captain) that we are not prepared enough to do it in such a tight time frame so it will be postponed for now. It’s better to do it right rather than rushed.

After 15 years as Member for Albury, Greg Aplin has decided that it’s time to leave his job in Parliament. We are so very lucky to have someone of Greg’s calibre and commitment in our club and I am sure that you will all join with me in wishing him the very best for the future. Greg has been a great mentor and friend to me and I look forward to spending more time with him.

Finlay Campbell’s presentation at our meeting last week was fantastic. He is a talented young man who has had some wonderful opportunities to further his interests in the USA. I was fascinated to hear him speak about the internet of things, which enables all sorts of appliances such as fridges, TVs, air conditioners etc to connect to the internet. This is the way of the future and will become more important as time marches on.

I enjoyed attending a meeting at La Maison last Saturday with other Presidents and our Assistant Governors. We engaged in a wide-ranging discussion and reached an agreement that we would like to provide practical assistance to farmers for drought relief. The Rotary Club of Corryong has a trailer that includes a mobile movie theatre, BBQ, chairs and sinks. We are hopeful that clubs will work together to travel to drought affected regions and use our pooled resources to provide some company, support and entertainment for those less fortunate than us

It’s great to be able to report that Murray High School attained 2^nd place in the NSW State Shakespeare Carnival for their rendition of ‘A Mid Summers Night’s Dream’. This was an event to which our club donated $1,000. It’s fantastic to assist these young thespians on their creative journey! Unfortunately for us, Katrine has gone home. She has been a wonderful inbound exchange student who has epitomised what it is to be a young Rotarian. I’m sure we are all looking forward to our next student. I really enjoyed Stacey Franklin’s presentation about Carevan at last week’s meeting. The good that they do for our community is fantastic and the fact that they engage year 9 students to help deliver the services is a masterstroke. When Stacey mentioned that the need for Carevan’s meal service doubles in the cooler months.