16 Sep 2022 (Sep 12, 2022)

Hello Fellow Rotarians and friends,

We received wonderful news from PDG Lindsay May that our club has been successful in achieving a Rotary Citation for 2021-22. Congratulations to all club members for this achievement and a special thank you to Past President Peter Mason for leading the club through what was a challenging period due to the impact of the pandemic.

Last week’s guest speaker was Past President of Rotary Club of Epping and the Interim Chair for SchoolAid, Narelle Barker, AM. She spoke very passionately about SchoolAid - a national schools based network encouraging philanthropy amongst young people. Schools can register their cause or campaign with the SchoolAid fundraising platform to enable young people to raise money for the charitable causes they care about. Since 1999, more than $6 million has been raised for various causes around the world. I encourage you to visit the website and help promote it among schools where possible. The organization helps create Kids Ambassador Teams (KAT) who go out and talk to schools and other organisations. It would be great to provide opportunity to these kids to speak at our club. Apart from public speaking, the program also enables students to learn very important skills such as time management and project management.

One of the several things that came out of the Members Satisfaction Survey was the desire to mix up the meeting times and incorporate an evening meeting which may be easier to join for members with work commitments. Bob Selinger has sent out an email to all members asking what day and time might suit and based on the feedback we will look to hold an evening meeting at an appropriate frequency.

A reminder to everyone that there will be no meeting on 16 September. The following week - 23 September 2022 - is the date for the official visit of our District Governor Mina Howard to our club. We will be holding our club meeting at Dunmore Lang College with a hot breakfast available. Please remember to inform Garry whether you will be attending. It will be great to have as many members as possible attend on the day to welcome Mina and have the opportunity to interact with her.

We plan to have a working session on North Ryde eFun Run at this Club Assembly. In preparation for the meeting, our members would have received a survey from Pam Wood seeking their views. It only takes 5-7 minutes to complete the survey. Please try and complete the survey by Sunday 18 September so that your views and ideas can form the basis for our working session.

The Carols' Committee meeting was held on Thursday 8 September. The meeting was open to all members of both North Ryde and Macquarie Park Clubs and many of us joined together for a meal before the meeting. Good chance for fellowship.. Planning is well advanced with a large number of sponsors confirmed (but we need more), entertainers and stall holders committed. We are still looking for volunteers so please consider how you can assist. We need people to put up banners and posters in late November; people to set up and pull down on the day and people to be available as little jobs crop up on the day. Remember if you know of an organisation or individual who could be a possible sponsor then speak to Mandy and give them a sponsorship package.

Bernie and Peter attended the Community Needs Assessment event organized by Rotary Club of Ryde recently. There was a lot of good discussion around various community needs and we hope to work with other Rotary Clubs in Ryde area to understand how our club can get involved. Please see the story later in the bulletin.

I thank everyone in the Club for their commitment, energy and contribution towards making a difference.

Sandeep Rathi

Rotary Club of North Ryde

President 2022-2023

Rotary District 9685

Email: sandeeprathi.au@gmail.com

Mobile: 0481 008 303

https://www.northryderotary.com/

https://www.facebook.com/northryderotary/

Upcoming events:

For our upcoming Zoom Club meetings and assembly, here is the connection details:

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87821656014?pwd=S1I0T1hBVDVXSVB4OFhTL2p1cFhhdz09

Meeting ID: 878 2165 6014

Passcode: 2113

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the country on which we meet, the Wallumattagal people of the Eora Nation. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

Ripple Effect

Community Needs meeting at North Ryde RSL, 17 August 2022

This was a joint meeting organised by Ryde Council for all Rotary clubs in our area. Twenty four people attended including our Bernie and Peter Mason.

Tanya from the council was the MC.

The council raised several needs for discussion and are looking for solutions or help to address the needs identified.

There are 129,123 people, with a mean age of 37. 49% of whom were born overseas. 44.6% live in apartments with many being isolated. 41.5% rent their accommodation.

The City of Ryde website has statistics pre covid and the impacts of the above demographics, including wage levels.

One of the challenges is the use of open spaces. Even though council does implement the building in of greenspace and community space in high rise buildings, these are not being utilised by the occupants. The question was posed - could we think of a way to engage them?

The State Government is pushing council for more high rise living, creating problems for council in how it can address the social problems which arise.

Another challenge identified was the mix of faiths living in the same buildings. Council feels this is good, but the residents are not mixing or socialising because they don’t speak the same language. Council will release a social impact statement. There is an online help line for NDIS and ESL, but people do not understand how to access this.

Solutions suggested

Lady and men’s sheds or workshops
ESL social language discussion groups
Getting ladies together with young children
Local get together in a park
Little projects for each club, or one big one between many groups
LAC Police officer to address the criminal aspect of boredom amongst youth with nothing to do
PCYC groups to be established
Social sport groups. Youth Vs Police
Council is redoing LEPs, local environmental plans
Maybe establish a community garden - there is one at Macquarie Park already
Green space use
Council would like to build a Youth emergency Health Centre
Maybe a Rotary/Rotaract banner to be put in prominent green zones in these apartment areas to encourage residents to join community groups

Council will collate all ideas, .

There were other problems identified. Too many procedures and protocols which are confusing. Perhaps Rotary could fast track these in collaboration with council. John Dodd suggested a collaboration committee be set up to consider how to cut all the red tape to get the emergency health centre for youth established, by Rotary clubs of our area. It was also suggested that a Corporate Social Impact fund involving all corporates in our area could be established. This was felt to be difficult but not impossible.

Lots to think about. It will be interesting to see what action can follow.

2021-2022 Rotary Citation

RC North Sydney Sunrise -
Life at Greenway Kirribilli – 20 September 2022 – Chris Ireland

What is the role of Social Housing in Kirribilli, and why should we care? Internationally acclaimed photographer Christopher Ireland gives us an insight into the circumstances that lead people to Social Housing.

Exploring the stories of some of the Greenway Residents, Chris questions a widely held myth that people bring circumstances upon themselves, presenting a complex, intimate and personal account of life as told by his subjects. Chris’s project aims to increase the connections between all members of this great community through his photography and storytelling.

President of the Greenway Tenants Group Bryce Gunn will be in attendance.

Chris is a Sydney based commercial photographer and artist. As well as shooting ad campaigns for Uber, Telstra, Canon, Samsung and The Australian Defence Force, Chris uses photographic exhibitions to raise our social awareness of emotionally sensitive issues.

The meeting will be held at Piato Restaurant 123 Blues Point Road, McMahons Point at 7:00 am for 7:15 a.m. start. We finish promptly at 8:30 a.m. At about 7:30 a.m., Chris will talk for about 30 minutes, followed by questions and breakfast is served during the talk.

RC North Sydney Sunrise - Invitation to Dinner Meeting

67 Union Street, McMahons Point

The Rotary Club of North Sydney Sunrise, cordially invites members and friends to our quarterly dinner at the Laurel Leaf Bistro, McMahons Point

This is a relatively new Bistro, opened in early 2021 by Ms Anna Con. Anna provides contemporary Greek food with an Aussie twist.

Wednesday 28 September 2022

6.30 for 7.00 pm

$55 pp (Pay Rotary Club A/C 032298 790098)

Menu:
Entre: Spanakopita

Main: Salmon OR Backstrap Lamb Souvlakia with salad (alternate)

Coffee & a truffle chocs
BYO

Please RSVP with choice of Main or dietary requirements to Andrew Young 0412306030 or aaya09@gmail.com by 21 Sep .

Bunnings BBQ proceeds to RDA

Bunnings BBQ sign that Ron Marton, from Riding for the Disabled Marsfield had printed and has donated to our Rotary Club

Train to End Polio

Monday 24 October is WORLD POLIO DAY. Ending Polio is the

number one priority of both Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation. Each Club is asked to make a commitment to contribute US$1,500 ($2,175). Over the past four years we have conducted the All Stations challenge train ride to End Polio. Over those four years we have raised in Greater Sydney over $450,000 to ending Polio before the Gates Match. This year more than ever we need your commitment and support.

To get the train timetable ask a Club member as it has been emailed to them. Even if you are not on a trainline, PLEASE do your bit by joining us and riding with us for a station or two. It is a great Fellowship day, a great PUBLIC IMAGE Day and it puts the Rotary Brand out there in front of the public.

Start planning your fundraising for this event. Go to https://raise.rotary.org/ and start you online fundraiser. Or, go to https://raise.rotary.org/dave-anderson/challenge and support the page that is already on the site.

If a Rotarian contributes via this site, the member’s Club gets the credit. If a non-Rotarian contributes, then the District gets the credit. The donor email address is the identifying link to your Club or District.

The plan this year is to raise $200,000. Please do your bit to ensure that your Club meets its commitment to ENDING POLIO. Please look to sponsorship of Dave and myself. $1 per station from an individual or even $10 per station from Clubs together with your individual member sponsorship can help you achieve your Club commitment. Also if you have not already done so, please go to www.rotary.org and go to Rotary Club Central and put your goal in place for Ending Polio. 100% of Clubs that did not put a Goal in place last Rotary year, did not give to ending polio.

Dave and I look forward to meeting all of you on the train on MONDAY 24 October. It is a big day if you want to ride the full 181 stations with us, starting at Cronulla ay 4:30AM. PLEASE COME and join us. And as a famous Rotarian from the 1960’s (Joe the gadget man) used to say “Don’t forget to bring you money with you?” Cheque or proof of bank transfer would also be good.

Yours in Rotary service

Mark Anderson

Senior Coordinator | Fund Development

Rotary Foundation

"If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” — Martin Luther King