THE PRESIDENT'S REPORT 2004-05

IT GIVES me great pleasure to present the annual report for the Rotary Club of Aspley for the Rotary year 2004-05.

The year was a challenging and a great learning experience for me, quite different from my years as a member. It was an experience which I have enjoyed and which I will also enjoy next year helping President-Elect, Wayne Stanton, when and where I am needed.

One of my learning experiences was to see how some members spend so much of their own quality time, silently conducting Rotary business that many members would not be aware of.

I must say that our most ambitious project for the year was our Parenting Programme. There is a definite need in our community for assistance for parents in crisis. Maybe some new ideas this year will help to enhance this most difficult but worth-while project. One could not count the hours that Alan Sims and his committee gave to RACEPP and I must congratulate Alan for this. Also, I was very proud to see almost 100 per cent attendance of our club on the day of the Expo. We are indeed a club of solidarity.

Our annual fund raising events continued successfully and to inform our new members, these projects were:- the hypermarket raffle, the airport collections, wine sales, Rotary cake sales, Race Day and Golf Day. I should like to thank the guys behind the scenes for the organising of these events namely, in order, are Rex Eton and Wayne Stanton, Daryl Iseppi, Bill Pettigrew and Ray Williams, Michael Daubney, John Hennessy and Brian Sadler, Graham Brighton.

Some of the money raised by these events was used for the tsunami disaster, when we sent $10,000 to the Rotary Club of Colombo, Sri Lanka, which will be used to replace lost or damaged housing. We also sent money again for impregnated bed nets and a container to New Guinea. My thanks to Jeff Shepherd for conducting the Naturalisation Programme again this year and that the expense of the event was near cost neutral.

Trevor Styles and Ray Dempsey gave us some interesting speakers who complemented our Thursday nights and also our awesome Sergeant-at-Arms, Barry Davin who gave us many laughs for our dollars. Thanks guys.

New members were a little scarce this year but we are pleased and fortunate to have inducted Philomena Bateman, Tracey Wyatt and Ian Lloyd. Welcome to the Rotary Club of Aspley.

My greatest grief for the year was our loss of John Watson so quickly to cancer. He was one of our greatest hands-on workers and he will be sadly missed by all of us.

John Thompson, in his thankless task of treasurer has again done a thorough job of balancing the books.

David Winters, was not only the club secretary but also my right-hand man on many occasions and I thank him for his time, especially in between his heavy work commitments.

A special thanks to Ron Day for carrying out the most difficult portfolio of youth service, and last, but not least:

Thanks to my Vice President, Bill Farley, who has produced a newsletter every week without fail, which has been a great effort. We must also not forget that Ray White of Aspley has this year borne the printing costs of our newsletter.

So finally, I must thank again all my club directors who throughout the year made my life easier and to all club members who also did their bit.

I also wish Wayne and his directors a successful and happy year which is about to arrive so quickly.

Mal Newing