Four intrepid travellers departed Ballarat for Canberra on Friday 20th August, 2010. Club President Jane Auchettl, District Governor Jessie Harman, John Ruyg and Secretary Kath Venters had high expectations of the Australian Rotary Conference and they were not disappointed.
Friday night Jessie had dinner with other District Governors while Jane, John and Kath were hosted at a dinner by the Rotary Club of Canberra South. Saturday was spent at the Hellenic Club in Woden at the Conference; the theme was 'Towards a Stronger Australian Rotary'.
Highlights were hearing about 'cowboy logic' from RI President Ray Klinginsmith. With a fabulous quote 'don't squat with your spurs on' - Ray has a very common sense approach and spoke about three main ideas being: connecting people; sharing ideas and identifying resources.
RI Director Stuart Heal (pictured above in the centre with Kath, Jane, Jessie and John) spoke on Bigger, Better and Bolder Clubs and interestingly he explained that it is what we do as Rotarians that matters not the number of Club members.
Break out sessions saw the Conference divided into 12 discussion groups; those who attended from our Club were in different discussion groups and afterwards we all agreed that our Club is travelling very well.
At the Saturday night dinner Jenny Horton spoke on the Polio Plus program. Jenny is an Australian and a member of the Rotary Club of Kenmore; she is also an Honorary member of the Rotary Club of Islamabad Metropolitan in Pakistan. She is currently working as a volunteer consultant with the World Health Organisation. She is a registered nurse with post graduate studies in community health, child health and international public health.
Jenny was a very inspiring speaker and genuinely thanked Clubs like ours that are contributing to the program. It is incredible to think that polio is now only endemic in 4 countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria (know as the PAIN countries).
After the dinner Jane, Jessie and John went to the Tally Room and Jane made a new friend (in joke)!
Sunday's sessions included a session on focusing on effective service, the Rotary Foundation and Club Visioning. Then it was time for Jane, John and Kath to hit the road and Jessie to return to the airport. A wonderful time was had by all; new ideas; new people to meet and an enormous amount of laughter!
