Grenfell Meeting - 13/14 November 2010

The second weekend in November saw the Five Friends converge on Grenfell for a couple of days of planning and bonding. Grenfell, known for bushrangers, gold and being the birthplace of Henry Lawson, is also the centre of Rotary District 9700. This makes it the ideal location for the annual District 9700 executive meeting and AGM with the club presidents. As the District is funding our GSE we thought we would take advantage of their meetings to introduce ourselves.

After a quick lunch at the Loaded Dog Cafe the five of us knuckled down for a few hours of planning, during which we met our team mascot Anim and her joey Lucky. Following her no-show at Griffith and because she managed to buy her team uniform at a “50% off” sale Jo was awarded guardianship of Anim.

Dinner was with the District Executive and their partners at the Railway Hotel. The guest list included more acronyms then you could poke a stick at, there was the DG, the DGE and DGN as well as PDG’s, AG’s, PHF’s and us GSE’ers, just to name a few. Good food and good company made for an enjoyable evening.

Breakfast was a bit hard to come by on the Sunday morning, after a lap of the main street we found the only place open was the Caltex Servo. Expecting a carton of flavoured milk and a packet of chips we were most surprised to find they served a cooked breakfast of bacon and eggs. Despite being double yolkers the eggs proved a bit difficult to eat with 2 forks, an effort which saw Libby take over responsibility for Anim.

Following another planning session it was into our team uniforms and an impromptu fashion parade in the main street for the partners of the district executive. Judging from their reaction we don’t scrub up to bad. It was then into the meeting with the executive and club presidents to give a presentation introducing ourselves.

Thanks go DG Neal Fogarty for the opportunity attend the dinner on Saturday night and present on Sunday. Also thanks to PDG John Egan for taking our official team photos and individual portraits for use in our brochure and presentations.

A good weekend was had, with Grenfell offering up a number of pleasant suprises. Looking forward to our next meeting in Parkes.

Dane

Griffith, NSW - four out five friends

Hi all, another packed weekend of planning and visits to areas of interest, this time hosted by Frank in Griffith, New South Wales.





Naturally a great deal of planning was achieved, including selection of the team mascot, but all work and no play makes for a very dull blog and we were able to fit in some wineries (purchasing a very nice De Bortoli Rose) and an excellent meal a Il Corso. Unfortunately Jo wasn't able to join us due to mechanical troubles and we caught up with Jo over the telephone.





A visit to the Rotary Farmers Markets showcased the range of home grown produce and products from Griffith, including citrus fruits, vegetables, salami, and olive oil.




The variety and quality of produce, meals, and wines showed the influence of the multi-cultural community, including 60% of people who claim Italian lineage .


Evan as regular visitor to Griffith, being the nearest large service centre to my own home town of Lake Cargelligo (130km), I didn't appreciate the extent of the irrigation systems established by the pioneers of the district in the 1920s and 1950s.





The Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area delivers 1376 Gigalitres through 2700km of supply channels to irrigate 120,000 hectares of vineyards, citrus orchards, and rice. The system also provides water to towns and industry (www.mirrigation.com.au).





Our final visit was to the Donald Mackay memorial, erected by the Griffith Rotary Club with the support of the Griffith community.




Donald Mackay was a remarkable individual who made far-reaching contributions to the Griffith community over his lifetime, but is best known for his anti-drug campaign.




His loss to the local community and the circumstances of his life and disappearance have created a parable about the impact of one individual who choses to speak out against crime.

Meeting 1

Hi Team

Hope you all a had a safe trip home following our first weekend meeting.

Thanks again Graeme for the great hospitality! I'll do my best to try to match it for the October meeting in Griffith, and I look forward to showcasing Griffith to you all.

regards

Frank

Selection Weekend - Young

I guess the journey really started for all of us the weekend of the 28th and 29th August as we left our various home ports and arrived enforce on the unexpecting regional town of Young, which is a central point of in the Rotary District 9300, in Central New South Wales.

Nervous nominees from Orange, Parkes, Lake Cargellico, Griffith, Oberon, West Wylong, and Wagga Wagga underwent two days of GRUELLING interviews and presentations and were constanty under scrutiny from ruthless Rotarians from around the district who had the task of selecting two teams of four candidates to travel to Oklahoma and the Philippines.

Dane, Libby, Frank and myself were very, very fortunate enough to be selected  as members of the Philippines team which departs around 24 February 2011 and returning at the end of March 2011.

We have a rigourous pre-trip planning program ahead of us involving catching up one weekend a month at each members home town where we will finalise travel arrangments and develop presentations which will need to be delivered whilst on the exchange.

I think it would be fair to say, that two weeks after being selected we are still somewhat in shock at being chosen for what can only be described as a "once in a lifetime" opportunity!

We hope you enoy following us on this journey as much as we will enjoy making it!

Somewhat shattered after a VERY challenging, but enjoyable weekend!