Apologies – Julie Tekell – enroute to Queensland for work - no internet, Barry Stewart – having a flu shot, Mike & Deb Williams – attending 18th birthday for grandson
22 participants + Harrison! Special Welcome to YEP Students past and present - Adrien, Ava and Sara
Mark Smeaton made a toast to Aust and SA for 12 days COVID Free
Steve chaired the meeting and subbed for Barry as Sargeant. Steve welcomed Adrian Le Blanc wearing his Akubra hat, sporting a COVID Moustache and accompanied by a drop bear, Ava and Sara Di Lauro.
Sara reported that she has been cooking, working out in home gym and has returned to school after missing the end of last term. Safari in Apr was cancelled, but will do some travel in June – Cairns, Rockhampton, Ulura and Alice Springs.
Lance welcomed Honorary Member Bob Ahola. Bob said he is travelling well. Still playing golf. His daughter helped with the technology to join us tonight.
Sargeant Session – Barry will be back next week. Fines to ARH.
Demand for UCare has doubled in the recent environment. Appeal to members to support Ucare appeal with either donation of goods or financial contribution to the club electronically and the club will purchase items including canned food. Details were included in the bulletin distributed Sunday night. Handover date is 11 May. Contact Colin Bazeley if you have goods to donate. Colin is happy to collect them. If there is demand we can set up a collection point at the shed on one day. Colin will check with UCare if they still need clothing and will let everyone know. Stan tried to drop some off today and they said they could not accept it as they did not have enough volunteers to sort them.
Anniversary of Induction Wayne Murphy, Ron Lloyd and President Steve. Happy Birthday Kim Potger and Dino Donati.
Adrien reported that there was very little that he can do at the moment. The situation is very bad. The hospitals are flooded with people. Canoeing training is cancelled. Everything is locked down. Can only go out for 1 hour per day to buy food. $200 fine if you break the rules. It has been like this for a month and a half. There is not end to isolation likely soon. The number of deaths is decreasing each day…maybe some things will re-open, but it will be complicated through to at least August.
Steve said that we are happy for Adrien to join us at any meeting. Stan complimented on how Adrien has matured into a young gentleman. Mark Forgie asked about the fast car behind Adrien, who took it from the wall to show us (it was a BMW) & then showed the unique engine block table in the room. Mark has a Ferrari GTO 350 on his wall. A general consensus was German cars were better than Italian, although not all shared this view.
Wayne Murphy has been working had to line up guest speakers for coming weeks. From next week we will have a guest speaker. Mark Smeaton on 11th May, ROMAC on 18th May, and Professor Mark Nottle the following week. It will make the meetings to start to look like normal.
Mark’s cat has been put outside so it did not interfere with the meeting (but it made a last minute appearance and made itself heard). All pets are invited to the meeting next week. Members to introduce them to the meeting. Mark Smeaton wondered how a horse would go. Brian suggested Ian Sander’s Bull could be a problem, but it appears Ian has a black cat which made an appearance tonight.
Steve congratulated Brian and M-l on the new Bulletin format that went out last week and encouraged people to contribute stories for the bulletin. Have a look at the links to the weekly emails.
District Virtual Conference – launch is next week. Conference bags will be distributed to conference registrants.
Mark Smeaton will chair the meeting next week.
Ron Sanders will be farewelled on 16th May at Blinman. Wayne Murphy mentioned that it is traditional that Rotarians conduct a guard of honour. Mark Forgie responded that Matthew and family are conscious of having too many people coming into Blinman, so they want to be good citizens. Ron is leaving Gawler 1130am on Fri 15th May. Family and friends are welcome to make a guard of honour enroute just north of Templers at this time. Mark will confirm next week. This could be a good opportunity for Rotarians to do something without impinging on the family.
Marie-louise asked if members would let her know whether they would like to receive RDU online or hard copy. From next Rotary year the hard copy will be $44 per year and online will be $34 per year (currently it is $40 per year).
Steve thanked Bob Ahola, Adrien and Ava for joining us. Barry will be back next week. See you all next week. The 4-way test was recited
