Recharge for Rotary Hosting and Breakfast

Meeting At Armidale AM. (Notes from Club Bulletin)

This was another great success for our club and we should

all thank Lorraine for organising the hosting, the dinner at

the Royal and a really great breakfast meeting, which I felt

re-energised all of us when listening to our guests’ attitudes

towards Rotary.

Speakers

The Recharge For Rotary bikies, who were obviously

enjoying their journey a great deal, each gave a brief

reflection on the topic of “What turns me on about Rotary”

Ben Paix: Kempsey. Ben has been a GSE student to

Germany with Steve’s cousin Brad, lead by Brian Beesley. -

It’s the opportunity to receive 10 fold on what you give. I

cannot put it in a packet, I cannot tell anyone about it, as

soon as you start doing it the personal rewards from being

in Rotary go far beyond anything you can begin to

describe. It’s until you start giving a little bit, that’s when

you receive so much more.

James Christian: President of Bellingen Rotary Joined

Rotary in 1974. James doesn’t like AM meetings _. He

likes the friendships you make with Rotary. For example,

then you go on to District committees where he is on the

Rotary Youth Exchange committee and the International

Fellowship of Motorcycling Rotary which gives him

friends from all over the world.

Diana Christian: Bellingen. Around 9 years. John Burkey

(an ex-AM member) inducted her. She is on the Youth

Exchange committee with James and is assistant governor

for Cluster 2 – Bellingen, Nambucca, Kempsey,

Macksville, South West Rocks and has thoroughly enjoyed

getting to know those people which is what turns her on

about Rotary.

Adam Sherwell: Coffs Harbour. Member 13 years. Over

the years he has slowly found out about the different

avenues in Rotary and the biggest passion he has

discovered is Friendship Exchanges. His first exchange

was Donald the Diary Farmer from New Zealand which

opened him up to how much fun you can have with hosting

people. Then Group Study Exchange and he was a

member of the committee for 3 years so was involved in

organising the visits when they came to Coffs. The various

forms of hosting is what he loves to do.

Steve Milne: Coffs for 5 years. He also likes hosting

people, talking about where he lives and why his visitors

live where they live. He also likes socialising with his and

nearby clubs. There are never conflicts of interest and he

knows that he can rely on his fellow members for help

when he needs it.

Peter Grob: President of Port Macquarie Sunrise. Rotarian for

7 years. Peter is from Switzerland.

Rotary even lets them in!! (Peter’s words)  His goal is to make fun.

Laughing is the healthiest thing in life. A day without a

laugh is a wasted day. Peter had no idea about Rotary.

When he first saw the Rotary wheel he thought it might be

an engineering club. He has been director of international

twice and is currently the project co-ordinator it RAWCS

for Tanner, Vanuatu. He likes helps those who need it and

especially when they appreciate it. He thinks of Rotary as

his big extended family.

Max Withers: Parramatta (Gloucester before that). Max

talked about the difference between Sydney and country

clubs. Sydney clubs can’t move around like country clubs

because of the masses of traffic. The moving around and

fellowship of the last week has been absolutely fabulous.

Rotarians have all got lovely attitudes. There is so much

goes on with Rotary which you can get entrenched in. You

don’t do it to get reward but you get inner reward because

of the attitudes of the people. All the clubs we have been

to all have lovely attitude.

Ron Barber: Most of Ron’s experience with Rotary is

similar to what went before, except that it happened before

then. He joined in 1970. A scene, from the Recharge for

Rotary trip, of a person swagging along the road reminded

him of a poem:

 Brian Beesley: DG, Gloucester. What turns him on about

Rotary is what we just heard. There are 56 clubs in our

district. Every year they turn out 56 leaders. Every year

the world turns out hundreds of District leaders. Rotary is a great

source of training

(Minor editing by bb)