Presidents Report

Federation Picnic 
Thank you to Kevin Reade, Bruce Fraser and all the Rotarians that helped on the day. Takings were down somewhat on previous years but It was good fun filled day despite the cool weather. Graeme was “defrosting” all day following his trip to Marong in his air conditioned Mini Moke!!!

Our Illustrious Co-President Adrian Schoo 

Then, Kevin reported that we made $2,000 at the gates of Federation Picnic.

Youth Program: Cathie Miller reported on the application of a District’s youth scholarship grant, for a Victory College student. Cathie in consultation with the school has identified a Year 10 student who is eminently suitable for educational assistance.

 

Rochester Presentation

Our commitment to supporting the Rotary Club of Rochester has been by offering to provide a number of evening presentations on different topics. The venues are located at different sites, to encourage a wider community audience. The first one will be delivered by Adrian on Monday 16th September at the local hospital. The topic is “Prevention of sport and work-related injuries, and how to integrate physical activity and exercise to improve or maintain health when having an injury or disease.” Anyone interested is most welcome to attend and to travel with Adrian to Rochester that evening.

 

Guest Speaker

The guest speaker was Rob Stephenson, the Bendigo Head of Campus, La Trobe University. Rob was born in Bridgewater and was educated at Golden Square High School and Senior Secondary. He was an Accounting student at the old BCAE.

He began his address following on from Ted's summary of Rotary's slogans with La Trobe's slogan, "All Kinds of Clever." Indeed, the challenge for La Trobe is to be clever because it is important to try to educate for the skills required for jobs which don't currently exist. The population of Bendigo is predicted to be 200.000 by 2036 and the challenge is to keep our clever people in Bendigo in order for them to attract employers.

The student population of La Trobe has reached almost 5,000. A fifty million expansion has seen new library facilities, a new Health Sciences building and a new "state of the Art" Technology facility. Most of the students are from northern Victoria and southern NSW. It is pleasing to note that 75% of these students stay on and work in regional centres. 44% of students are first in family, 2% are Indigenous and 33% are from low socio-economic backgrounds. It was also pleasing to hear that ATAR concessions are given to students who can demonstrate they have been involved in some community service.

The University offers Research, Teaching, Industry and Projects. New courses are offered in Engineering (Civil, Industrial, Electrical and Mechanical) and Law. Community partnerships are very important as are scholarships and financial support for students from poorer backgrounds. This might be an area where the Rotary Club can support. Rob gave a very comprehensive presentation which created a lot of interest and discussion. Even the Year Nines were attentive!! It would be good to do an Industry visit to La Trobe.
 

Reminders:
•    RI President: Mark Daniel Maloney: - Dinner in Ballarat on 24th September. 
•    Lighting Reef Primary School: - Next day 13th September, Barbara and the Inner Wheel ladies are organised for preparing 200 rounds of Sandwiches. A couple of Rotarians are required to assist.
•    Foundation Dinner: to be held in November 27th hosted by Echuca-Moama Club. Cluster presidents have proposed to organize bus to encourage attendance to this event. Please mark the proposed date in calendars.
•    Rotary Walk to End Polio: Two locations Albert Park Melbourne and Lake Neangar in Eaglehawk on  Saturday 19th October @ 10am.