Happenings at last week’s Meeting
After President Mike had dealt with the Toast and Invocation he modified the sequence of the Meeting (again. Ed) and began his President Report. Firstly he thanked Chris for his talk last week and then explained the change of Meeting formats which has been accepted by the Board. (see below. Ed).
The President then assumed the Chair and read out a lengthy list of apologies. He also welcomed our Guests for the evening: Bill and Judy Degnan, Freda Donaldson, Wanda Fitzgerald, Carol Ross, Elaine Taylor, Sue Viney and Trudy Zeigerink. Ealine Barnard-Brown had also invited Karen who is one of her Blister Pack Recycling Organisers. (Sorry Karen but I was scribbling so fast that I missed your surname. Ed). Mick also introduced our Special Guest Speaker Natalie Clements, who is Trudy and Harry’s daughter in-law, and welcomed her to the lectern.
Natalie used a number of questions she has been asked over the years as the basis for her talk:
- She is not a radiographer, but a physicist in Radiation Oncology;
- Her work employs high energy radiation with a linier accelerator (?? Ed);
- She works as one of the people behind the scenes;
- She has a computer to calculate the treatment plan and the dosage to be used;
- Physicists like her check the actual treatment against the plan every step of the way. (A sort of quality control. Ed);
- She, and her colleagues, also maintain the radiography machines; and
- At this point, Natalie began to explain the aim of using Radiation in treatments. Radiation “breaks” the cell DNA. Some of those cells will repair themselves while others become cancerous. This shows the need for extreme accuracy to achieve the successes they have.
After enthusiastic questions from the Meeting the Chair thanked Natalie for a most interesting and engaging talk.
The Chair now called for the Secretary/Treasurers Report.
Mark announced:
- The District 9815 changeover dinner will be held on the 29th June in Packenham (further details on request. Ed);
- On explaining the new Meeting formats and schedule, we will need Guest Speakers only on the 2nd and 4th weeks. The 1st week will be a social night (venues to be announce well in advance) and the 3rd week is for Committees. A 5th week only occurs in May, this Rotary Year, so maybe there won’t be a meeting;
- Joseph and Darren are put in charge of finding the venues for the Social Week; and
- These details will be in the Bulletin and in hard copy to those who are unable to receive the Bulletin.
The Chair called for Directors Reports.
Charles said that he would be following up with those who have expressed an interest in the Centurian Club.
Adrian announced that there would be a theatre night in the future and then ran through some of the future Guest Speakers he is lining up. He also spoke on how important it is for the Club to re-invigorate the Committees.
Karen spoke about the Recycling Project that she organises. She thanked the Club, and Rotary in general, for the support she receives. Aluminium Recycling is very labour intensive and the more help they can get the better, but it is a labour of love. She also spoke of the special gel cushions that the effort goes into buying, which are used by those doing dialysis. (see below. Ed)
The Lotto was drawn and won by Anne (again!!!) but we skipped the Fines session. (It can get a bit messy, and we didn’t want to scare the Guests. Ed).
Bob made a brief announcement about John. He is in East Malvern and sounded “chipper” but there is Covid in the Hospital so is being careful.
Mick thanked all our Guests and especially Natalie for a very engaging talk. The Meeting ended at 8:05.
Bottles and Can Recycling
A message from Greg:
“….members, family and friends who use the “cash in your containers” scheme with proceeds going to the Rotary Club of Dromana. Simply use our number C2000010586 for the money to go into our Project Account. The depot is at 32 Brasser Ave Dromana
Thanks Greg”
Community House Vegie Donations
A message from Pete:
“Hi everyone, this is the amount of vegetables we donate to the Dromana community house every Wednesday, l would personally like to thank Merv for all the effort he goes to every week to cut, water and pack these for me (Pete) to pick up every Tuesday night after work.
Part of this idea was for me to help more, but unfortunately due to work commitments, has made it very hard, so thank you Merv and Julie, l really appreciate it, and so does the community House, cheers Pete”
Thanks For Donation of Cushions
“Good Morning everyone
Just letting you know that we received the wonderful gel cushions yesterday and we have got them out for the patients already, initial feedback is they are fantastic.
Sitting in the chair for 5 hours is a lot more comfortable.
Thank you so much for thinking of us and our patients in dialysis, it is very much appreciated
Andrea
Andrea Sutton ∙ Nurse Unit Manager
Haemodialysis and Chemotherapy Unit ∙ Rosebud Hospital”
And
“Good afternoon,
To echo Andrea, thank you so much for your incredible donation!
We really appreciate your continuous support, and it was great to see your donation having an immediate impact in the dialysis unit. Please see attached photo.
Thank you again,
Mike
Mike Miller ∙ Fundraising & Community Relations Manager”
And a Final Thought
