Hi everyone, how good does it feel to be able to get out and about? Bernie and I are venturing away for a few days this week to catch up with some friends at our fourth attempt. The previous three attempts were derailed due to the various COVID lockdowns/lockouts. We also started on a little Christmas shopping, hoping that this ‘opening up’ does keep progressing so we can enjoy a ‘face to face’ Christmas with our loved ones.

 

Our Club meeting last Friday was our monthly Club Assembly. A point of discussion raised covered the Annual General Meeting on 10 December 2021 and Board positions that need to be filled being President Elect, Secretary, Treasurer and Directors. Please give some serious thought to these, for our Club to continue to be the loved, generous working force that we are in our community.

 

Our Christmas pudding orders are slightly delayed and should arrive in early December. Please advise your friends and family who have ordered, of this little delay due to the great support. We will then arrange for these to be distributed. This is a great result in support for the primary school at Moree East and the literacy program. Thanks for this Bob.

 

The upcoming Mercedes Benz Car Club breakfast at Lane Cove National Park on the morning of 28 November 2021 is under control and sorted. Our Club will be providing a breakfast BBQ of egg and bacon rolls, and some sausages, of course, for the social get together. Please let Garry know of your availability. Thank you, Garry.

 

Please all be advised of a BBQ at Gladesville Bunnings arranged for 15 January 2022. We need a good roll-up of volunteers to share the workload on this day and make it enjoyable for everyone involved. Put this in your diary and let Garry know of your availability for the day.

 

As I advised last Bulletin, a Christmas community event has been arranged by Eliza at Gladesville Bunnings store for charitable/non-profit groups such as our Rotary Club to promote ourselves. This is scheduled for the evening/night of 9  December 2021 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. There will be a spinning wheel with prizes for a gold coin donation as a fund raiser for our Club on the night. We do have some volunteers prepared to help at our stall, however some extras would be good to engage with the visitors and as a possible membership drive.

 

Remember that our Change-Over/Celebration dinner is arranged for 3 December 2021 at Basil’s Seafood Restaurant. This will be a fun night to meet up with our friends and others in our local area in a relaxed and casual place. Please let Garry know of your attendance, or inability to attend, and any guests you may be bringing with you urgently, as this is only a little over two weeks away.

 

The Christmas time Tree of Joy has now been erected at North Ryde Cox’s Road Mall (and is due to be removed on 18 December 2021). Pam has put the tags for the requested gifts on the tree.  This is refilled often. As Pam is needing to do this, we are expecting to start having a rush on presents. Let us all get in the Christmas spirit and help in collecting the gifts when they are returned to the tree and moving these to the storage room. Later in December, help will also be required for sorting and delivering to our local charities. Thanks for your work, Pam.

 

Pam has prepared the Certificates' of Appreciation to be given to our generous supporters in recognition of their wonderful help during this trying year. These will be given to our Club's wonderful supporters this week.

 

Do you all realise that the Rotary Christmas Carols were first held in December 2000, and will turn 21 this year? This event has been a very good fund raiser for the Clubs involved. As I am new to the Rotary Club movement, I found this very interesting! There was a progress meeting held Thursday evening last week (18 November 2021) at T.G. Milner football fields on Vimeria Road, with the Christmas Carol planning committee. The organisation is proceeding at a great pace with the entertainers including dancers and the food providers now arranged/signed up. A great poster/flyer has been produced for advertising of the event.

 

These planning meetings have been very positive, and everyone involved is very keen for the Christmas Carol event to proceed, to help the local community to return to a sense of a normal life. All is progressing well for a fun evening on 19 December. Mandy, Bernie and I, are organizing the volunteers, so let us know if you can help at any time. Our volunteer numbers are to be counted in the final number of people present.