Guests: Anne Bilyk, Dianne Duke, Graham Ey, Linda Sellers
Attendance: 21 members 5 guests
President Nathan welcomed guests to the meeting.
Paul Harris Fellow - Leonie Kewen
President Nathan provided background to the Paul Harris Fellowship Award which is one of the highest Rotary honours that can be bestowed, recognising outstanding service/accomplishment. On this occasion the Board had deemed that Leonie was a worthy recipient for her stewardship of the Vocational Committee with its various programs and her expert and tireless management of the SA Police Officer of the Year Award. Leonie's PHF was greeted with applause.
Induction - Oleh Bilyk
Oleh transferred to Unley when the Rotary Club of Brownhill Creek folded last year. John Peacham, his neighbour in Highgate for over 20 years, provided a short summary of the Life of Oleh (not to be confused with Riley). He was born in the Ukraine and in May 1949 his family emigrated to South Australia. Following his primary and secondary education in Adelaide schools he went to SA Teachers College and became a chalkie from 1963-71 when he left to set up his financial planning business...which ran until 2013.Oleh joined RC Brownhill Creek 40 years ago and was a ROMAC director among a range of other positions. Oleh has volunteered in a variety of areas throughout his life with soccer important....he is a life member of Soccer SA. He and Anne have a blended family of 6 children and 19 grandchildren......
Nathan inducted Oleh who will be joining the International Committee, with a vocation of Financial Planning, and mentor John Peacham. An enthusiastic welcome ensued.
Proceedings were then interrupted to sing happy birthday to Christina Way. This occasion was the dominant message on Facebook today.
Guest Speaker: Chris Baggoley AO - Reflections of an Australian Chief Medical Officer
David Middleton introduced Chris who graduated alongside Paul Duke with a degree in medicine from the Flinders Medical Centre; they were among the first FMC graduands,. Notably Chris was a qualified vet from Melbourne and Paul a dentist when they enrolled. Chris became a specialised emergency medical officer at FMC, Royal Adelaide Hospital and Ashford. He served as the State's Chief Medical Officer and in 2007 was appointed Chief Executive of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. In 2011 he was appointed by the Australian Government as its Chief Medical Officer. Brendan Murphy, the now famous and quickly aging incumbent, followed Chris in 2016.
A principal role of the Australian CMO is to advise the Federal Government on looming major health issues, particularly as they relate to disease outbreaks and pandemics. However one of his earliest tasks emanated from France where he had to evaluate whether breast implants containing industrial grade silicon were harmful to women. No harm was found. Another well known case was the spread of Hepatitis A through blueberries imported from China by Nannas.
Chris related that when the Bali bombing occurred in Dempasar in 2002 there was little or no capacity within Australia to provide immediate medical aid. The 2004 tsunami that caused widespread devastation to many countries across the region again highlighted Australia's inability to respond effectively to catastrophes in our neighbourhood. PM John Howard then established The National Critical Care and Response Centre in Darwin to mobilise medical teams within a matter of hours, with participants drawn from the NT plus two other rostered States. This was put to good use when Typhoon Haiyan smashed into the Philippines in 2016. The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee is the key decision making committee for health emergencies. It is comprised of all state and territory Chief Health Officers and is chaired by the Australian Chief Medical Officer. Chris was requested by the Foreign Minister to launch a medical emergency team. Within 18 hours a team of 36, with a wide range of medical competencies and logistics, was assembled. The Darwin Centre within 12 hours collected the necessary supplies to be loaded onto planes. The team landed at Taclaban Airport and accomplished 230 operations, of which 30 were major.
Chris then took us on a pandemic journey. The common cold is a corona virus for which there is still no cure. There have been a number of serious virus outbreaks across the globe which have fortunately failed to impact on Australia like SARS, Zika, MERS, Ebola and Swine Flu. After each outbreak the Australian Health Management Plan is updated to document what happened globally and locally and measures employed. When Ebola spread rapidly through West Africa, Chris worked closely with the Federal Health Minister, and the National Security Committee of Cabinet; he consulted WHO extensively. Chris served on one of the WHO's regulatory committees in Geneva. It was determined that Ebola had little chance of establishing itself in Australia because the common means of transmission was through the touching of the dead bodies. But that did not stop the Government installing thermal scanners in airports in 2014 & 2015, and require significant documentation of countries visited by travelers. Another interesting disease during his time as CMO was Middle East Respiratory Syndrome spread by camels, which affected 26 countries. Interestingly the annual Hajj which attracts millions of Muslims to Mecca has not been a super-spreader.
One of Chris's memorable moments was attending the Global Health Security Agency meeting at the White House in 2014 where President Obama provided a brilliant key-note address.
He said it's remarkable that vaccines for coronavirus had been developed so quickly. But much of the developing world has limited access to these which means the virus will bubble along and continue to mutate. The future may well involve each of us having a flu shot and CV shot each year. The anti-vaxers will have plenty to talk about for years to come.
Chris was applauded for his illuminating address.
SPOTS
Valerie Bonython provided further details of the 'Catch a Carp' competition being held at Mannum on Sunday 10 April....we need plenty of volunteers. There will be a follow up next week.
Stephen Baker announced that the annual bowls tournament with Mitcham in 2 weeks time on a Wednesday will be a fun night.....no longer a competition but a get-together with composite bowling. Details will be provided by SB.
Finale
Our guest speaker won the filthy lucre. Trevor volunteered to stand in for Heather at the Thrift Shop next Saturday.
The meeting closed opportunely at 7.55 pm.
Rotary International News
Projects from around the world - published February 2022
United States
While jogging on Memorial Day weekend in 2020, Patrick Shairs discovered a holiday-appropriate spot for a break: the old City Cemetery in his hometown of Franklin, Tennessee. Shairs, a member of the Rotary Club of Downtown Franklin, was dismayed by the multitude of badly stained and unreadable headstones. That fall, the club started a project to restore several historic cemeteries in the area. About a year later, 127 volunteers, including members from other area Rotary clubs and students from local schools, had cleaned 560 headstones and footstones and 140 plot pillars, using brushes and spray bottles filled with a biological solution recommended by a preservation organization. They identified 81 people buried in one cemetery who were not listed in the town’s official burial register, something that would have gone undiscovered if not for their efforts.
Canada
Island Park in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, has been a meeting place for more than 100 years. In 2019, the Rotary Club of Portage La Prairie outlined a strategy for a phased, $150,000 effort to revitalize an area within the popular lakefront park, where the club also sponsored a disc golf course. “The club felt that we could rejuvenate the duck pond to its old glory as well as add new features,” says club member Preston Meier. Since 2020, the club has redesigned and rebuilt a waterfall, added fencing and lighting, and constructed a deck with a pergola for special events. “We wanted a project that we could get our hands dirty in and have our fingerprints on — a little blood, sweat, and tears in addition to the fundraising,”
Meier says. 25 % of the planet’s wetlands are in Canada
England
After a pandemic-induced hiatus, an annual dragon boat race sponsored by the Rotary Club of Skipton lured more than 150 enthusiastic paddlers in September. Thirteen teams — with sobriquets such as the Komodo Dragons, Craven Ravens, and Rainbow Rockets — collected pledges and raised about $17,000 for the competitors’ chosen charities. Club member Andrew Gold noted that the competitions in 2018 and 2019 had raised a combined $30,000. The event was conceived by 2017-18 Club President Mark Ludlam as a tribute to his late father, Brian, a past club president who had arranged a dragon boat race. About half of the club’s 40 members helped steward the 200-meter race.
There are 300,000 dragon boat racers in Europe each year.
India
More than 250 youths from schools and Interact clubs across several Indian states put paint and crayons to paper in a poster competition sponsored by the all-female Rotary Club of Ahmednagar Priyadarshini. The Freedom from Polio art contest stressed the “importance of taking polio drops to help our world get freedom from polio forever,” says Bindu Shirsath, a club member who was among the five judges. The club recruited district PolioPlus committee chairs and tapped Facebook and WhatsApp groups to publicize the inaugural project. “Since it was an online competition, the club did not incur costs except for making the e-certificate for winners and publicizing the results in local newspapers,” Shirsath adds, resulting in an affordable way to conjure creativity with a message.
110 million Indian children immunized over three days in January 2021.
Philippines
Mangroves form an integral part of the coastal ecosystem of the Philippines. They serve as a source of medicines, alcohol, and timber; a haven for coral reef fish; and a buffer against typhoons. In a two-pronged effort to shore up the maritime trees and buttress a fishing village’s ecotourism drive, in November the Rotary Club of Bacolod-Marapara teamed with the Rotary Club of Victorias, the Rotaract Club of Marapara, the Pasil Fisherfolks Association, and other local organizations. They planted some 1,000 mangrove seedlings and provided the fishers with bamboo to construct two cottages in the native style for rental to tourists. “Around the world, mangroves are threatened, but they are important,” says Rolando Corona, president of the Bacolod-Marapara club. “Their protection and restoration should be a high priority.”
80% of Phlippine provinces feature mangroves.
Coffee Chat at Impressa, Unley Shopping Centre
10.30 am on the first Friday of the month is good for a chat with Rotary friends and a caffeine fix! Next one is Friday 4 March 2022
Upcoming Meetings
Tuesday 15 February 2022 6 for 6.30pm Damien on Fisher
Guest Speaker: PDG Bob Cooper Drought Relief
Set-up and Welcome...........Rhonda Hoare & Brenton Judge
Wednesday 23 February 2022 6.30pm Clarence Gardens Bowling Club
A fun bowling night out with our daughter club Mitcham.
Please eat before-hand Supper will be served after bowls. Cost for attendees is $20 (cash please). Flat shoes or bare feet.....no heels
Early: David Middleton & Nathan White | Late: (Pam Trimmer) & Vera Holt
Week 4: 26 February 2022
Early: Stephen Baker & Judi Corcoran | Late: Jason Booth & Rhonda Hoare
Week 5:
Early: Bob Mullins & Wendy Andrews | Late: Jerry Casburn & Paul Duke
Rotarians, who are unable to attend as rostered, please arrange a swap or as a very last resort contact: Pam Trimmer (T) 8293 2612; (M) 0415 238 333; e-mail: pamela.trimmer@bigpond.com
Mitre 10 and Bunnings Barbeques
The Mitre 10 BBQs are the first and third Saturdays of each month. Morning shift 8.30am - 12 noon; afternoon shift 12.00 - 3.30pm, then clean-up.....next one is Saturday 19 February 2022
ALL the Bunnings Mile End Barbeque shifts are from 8am to 5pm
We have been allocated the last Monday of each month.....next one is Monday 28 February 2022
The Tale End.....
Just Practicing
A girl asks her boyfriend to come over Friday night to meet, and have dinner with her parents.
Since this is such a big event, the girl announces to her boyfriend that after dinner, she would like to go out and make love for the first time.
The boy is ecstatic, but he has never had sex before, so he takes a trip to the pharmacist to get some condoms. He tells the pharmacist it's his first time and the pharmacist helps the boy for about an hour. He tells the boy everything there is to know about condoms and sex.
At the register, the pharmacist asks the boy how many condoms he'd like to buy, a 3-pack, 10-pack, or family pack. The boy insists on the family pack because he thinks he will be rather busy, it being his first time and all.
That night, the boy shows up at the girl's parents house and meets his girlfriend at the door. "Oh, I'm so excited for you to meet my parents, come on in!"
The boy goes inside and is taken to the dinner table where the girl's parents are seated. The boy quickly offers to say grace and bows his head. A minute passes, and the boy is still deep in prayer, with his head down.
10 minutes pass, and still no movement from the boy.
Finally, after 20 minutes with his head down, the girlfriend leans over and whispers to the boyfriend, 'I had no idea you were this religious.'
The boy turns, and whispers back, 'I had no idea your father was a pharmacist.'
Paul Harris Fellow - Leonie Kewen
Oleh transferred to Unley when the Rotary Club of Brownhill Creek folded last year. John Peacham, his neighbour in Highgate for over 20 years, provided a short summary of the Life of Oleh (not to be confused with Riley). He was born in the Ukraine and in May 1949 his family emigrated to South Australia. Following his primary and secondary education in Adelaide schools he went to SA Teachers College and became a chalkie from 1963-71 when he left to set up his financial planning business...which ran until 2013.Oleh joined RC Brownhill Creek 40 years ago and was a ROMAC director among a range of other positions. Oleh has volunteered in a variety of areas throughout his life with soccer important....he is a life member of Soccer SA. He and Anne have a blended family of 6 children and 19 grandchildren......
Chris then took us on a pandemic journey. The common cold is a corona virus for which there is still no cure. There have been a number of serious virus outbreaks across the globe which have fortunately failed to impact on Australia like SARS, Zika, MERS, Ebola and Swine Flu. After each outbreak the Australian Health Management Plan is updated to document what happened globally and locally and measures employed. When Ebola spread rapidly through West Africa, Chris worked closely with the Federal Health Minister, and the National Security Committee of Cabinet; he consulted WHO extensively. Chris served on one of the WHO's regulatory committees in Geneva. It was determined that Ebola had little chance of establishing itself in Australia because the common means of transmission was through the touching of the dead bodies. But that did not stop the Government installing thermal scanners in airports in 2014 & 2015, and require significant documentation of countries visited by travelers. Another interesting disease during his time as CMO was Middle East Respiratory Syndrome spread by camels, which affected 26 countries. Interestingly the annual Hajj which attracts millions of Muslims to Mecca has not been a super-spreader. 
While jogging on Memorial Day weekend in 2020, Patrick Shairs discovered a holiday-appropriate spot for a break: the old City Cemetery in his hometown of Franklin, Tennessee. Shairs, a member of the Rotary Club of Downtown Franklin, was dismayed by the multitude of badly stained and unreadable headstones. That fall, the club started a project to restore several historic cemeteries in the area. About a year later, 127 volunteers, including members from other area Rotary clubs and students from local schools, had cleaned 560 headstones and footstones and 140 plot pillars, using brushes and spray bottles filled with a biological solution recommended by a preservation organization. They identified 81 people buried in one cemetery who were not listed in the town’s official burial register, something that would have gone undiscovered if not for their efforts.
Island Park in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, has been a meeting place for more than 100 years. In 2019, the Rotary Club of Portage La Prairie outlined a strategy for a phased, $150,000 effort to revitalize an area within the popular lakefront park, where the club also sponsored a disc golf course. “The club felt that we could rejuvenate the duck pond to its old glory as well as add new features,” says club member Preston Meier. Since 2020, the club has redesigned and rebuilt a waterfall, added fencing and lighting, and constructed a deck with a pergola for special events. “We wanted a project that we could get our hands dirty in and have our fingerprints on — a little blood, sweat, and tears in addition to the fundraising,”
After a pandemic-induced hiatus, an annual dragon boat race sponsored by the Rotary Club of Skipton lured more than 150 enthusiastic paddlers in September. Thirteen teams — with sobriquets such as the Komodo Dragons, Craven Ravens, and Rainbow Rockets — collected pledges and raised about $17,000 for the competitors’ chosen charities. Club member Andrew Gold noted that the competitions in 2018 and 2019 had raised a combined $30,000. The event was conceived by 2017-18 Club President Mark Ludlam as a tribute to his late father, Brian, a past club president who had arranged a dragon boat race. About half of the club’s 40 members helped steward the 200-meter race.
Mangroves form an integral part of the coastal ecosystem of the Philippines. They serve as a source of medicines, alcohol, and timber; a haven for coral reef fish; and a buffer against typhoons. In a two-pronged effort to shore up the maritime trees and buttress a fishing village’s ecotourism drive, in November the Rotary Club of Bacolod-Marapara teamed with the Rotary Club of Victorias, the Rotaract Club of Marapara, the Pasil Fisherfolks Association, and other local organizations. They planted some 1,000 mangrove seedlings and provided the fishers with bamboo to construct two cottages in the native style for rental to tourists. “Around the world, mangroves are threatened, but they are important,” says Rolando Corona, president of the Bacolod-Marapara club. “Their protection and restoration should be a high priority.”
