Meeting Reports 3203 May 6th, 2024
|
Formalities
|
|
Chair
|
Toast
|
Grace
|
|
PP Kathy Heinrich
|
PP Steve Barilla
|
Grace Barilla
|
Chair Kathy opened meeting 3204 and welcomed members and guests Andrew Eastick and Cindy Johnstone- guests of Bruce; Grace Barilla guest Paul Duke -Guest speaker.
Apologies Anthea John, Brian Burt, Colin Bazeley, Deb Williams, John Lyons, Leanne Clinch, Mike Williams, Shawn Lock, Wayne Murphy.
PP Kathy then invited members who had information to share to come forward.
PE Anthony Barilla
- Reminder Presidents Changeover meeting is set for July 1st and will be at The Pavillion at Trinity College. Invitations and more details in the coming weeks.
PP Kathy there is a new button on the meal selection “No meal required” Please use this if you are attending the meeting but not wanting a meal rather than not replying. This saves Leanne chasing people and helps with organisation.
After Dinner Anthony introduced PP Barry Stewart to present his sergeants session.
Wheel winners were Angela, Tom and Chris. Everyone was amused when Angela’s number was spun 3 times before Chris’s number eventually came up.
PP Barry then presented is entertaining FB funnies and fines session before PP Kathy introduced the guest speaker for the evening fellow Rotarian Paul Duke to speak about Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children [ROMAC] and indicated that tonight’s fines would go to ROMAC.
Paul is a retired Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon. He studied Dentistry and Adelaide Uni and Medicine at Flinders Uni and has been a member of the Rotary Club of Unley for about 4 years. He is currently a member of the South Australian ROMAC committee. He is married to Di, has 2 married daughters, 4 grandsons and 1 granddaughter.
Paul has a strong work ethic and has volunteered overseas many times in Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and Africa.
Paul showed a video to introduce the work of ROMAC.
ROMAC commenced in March 1988 out of the actions of an Australian Rotarian who, with a group of surgeons, visited Lambasa in Fiji. They found the child mortality rate as high as 25% in some places. They quickly identified that lack of medical and surgical facilities and skills for children of the island nations in Oceania, was a major cause. Rotary faced the challenge to assist an 18-year-old Fijian girl whose right leg was threatened if immediate surgery was not performed.
During the next four years, eight children were brought to Australia for major, often lifesaving, surgery. Soon 20 Australian Rotary clubs were caught up in the success of each case and assisted in various ways. ROMAC established five regions representing clubs in the west, east, south, north and centre of the country. [from
https://www.romac.org.au/].
The four objectives of ROMAC are to:
- Provide hope and restore dignity to transform a child’s life
- Provide the best possible surgical and medical expertise
- Engage Rotary and the community at all levels to fund and support the ROMAC cause.
- To maintain and improve the quality of the management process and ensure high quality governance of the ROMAC project
Aid is given to children 15 years and under from Timor Leste, PNG, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Fiji. All patients must be accompanied by a parent or caregiver. ROMAC does not receive any funding/support from the government and rely purely on donations and the support of Rotary Clubs of Australia and New Zealand. Surgeons provide all services free of charge and airfares all expenses, clothing and accommodation are covered by ROMAC. Ronald McDonald House assists by providing accommodation for families while they are in hospital. The WCH Adelaide have made a commitment to assist with 5 surgeries per year.
After the video, Paul explained how Rotarians both individually and as a club could become involved and then took questions from the floor.
PE Anthony thanked Paul and presented him with a certificate of thanks and assured him that ROMAC will be placed on the agenda at the next Board Meeting.
PE Anthony then closed meeting 3204 with the four-way test.
