President’s Message
June Ends on a High Note
It was a pleasure to have a large group of Rotarians, partners and friends at our final weekly meeting of the Rotary year, before our Changeover next week.
The wonderful highlights of the meeting included:
· My Induction of Jerestene Saher into Werribee Rotary Club
· My Induction of Lou Dowling as an Honorary Member of the Club
· Jeff Garfield spoke about Lou as ‘The Quiet Achiever’ and outlined many of Lou’s great contributions during his 33 years in the Club. Lou was Secretary for one year, Treasurer for 8 years and is a Paul Harris Fellow. The Club presented Lou with an Honorary Member’s Certificate and an inscribed Rotary Plaque.
Our Guest Speaker was Jeff Garfield who spoke on ‘Werribee – Remember When’. Jeff recounted about growing up on the family’s vegetable farm in Werribee South and the fascinating directions his life was to follow thereafter. Jeff also talked about some of the memorable events during his many years in Werribee Rotary Club.
Following this, Tino Ballan spoke about the many contributions that Jeff has made to the Club since joining 43 years ago. Jeff was President for one year, Secretary for 3 years, Treasurer for 2 years and is a Paul Harris Fellow. Tino presented Jeff with an inscribed Rotary Plaque.
To thank our members for staying the course during a very disrupted year, I presented two Celebration Cakes for us all to share. Vas Samaltanos and Jerestene Saher, our two newest members whom I had inducted during the year, had the honor of cutting the cake.
It was with great pleasure I presented gifts to Ross Smith and Ian Hovey for the outstanding contributions each made to the Club during this very unsettled Rotary year. Ross maintained an excellent communication with members by producing the weekly Bulletin. Ian arranged to have a great range of very interesting speakers at our weekly meetings, both on Zoom and at the ISCW.
· It was a pleasure to have two special visitors join us. Jihan Saher was there to see his daughter Jerestene Inducted into Werribee Rotary Club. In addition, we were very pleased to meet up in person with Andi Barnfield, for the first time. Andi had joined us at our previous two meetings, which had to be held on Zoom.
Changeover next week
I am looking forward to handing over the Presidential Chain of Office to incoming President Graham Roper next Tuesday at the Italian Sports Club of Werribee.
The Changeover Meeting is the highlight of every Rotary year. Graham and I look forward to having all of our members, accompanied by partners and friends, being able to join us for this great celebration evening.
With my very best wishes,
Michael