PP Sergeant Barry introduced Beth as president for the evening who officially opened meeting 3257 and welcomed guest Robyn Heitmann -Guest speaker and Meredith Smith guest of Dr Bruce.

PP Kathy was the only spot this evening and she reported on a couple of changes relating to the treasurer role- signatories needed updating and Jill Merchant has been assisting Kathy with the changeover to “Zero” software. These were approved by the board. 

PP Steve offered to donate $300 to the ‘table fund’ if he could have some assistance of a couple of Rotarians to complete a “little” job on his property. In true Rotarian spirit he didn’t have to wait long for volunteers!  

After some fellowship, Beth introduced Barry for his Sergeants session and Wheel spin before introducing tonight's guest speaker Robyn Heitmann.

Robyn is an Adelaide girl who grew up in Salisbury and has always had an interest in history. Robyn lived in London and Canberra before moving back to Adelaide. 

Robyn became interested in the story of Ann Smith, wife of the founder of Smithfield. She discovered there was a lot to their extraordinary story and has written a book “At the Helm of the Empire” based on her story. 

While she was researching the book she came across “The Strange Death of Mr Buchannan”, a cold case from 1839. Ann took us through the evidence and Rotarians were then asked to decide the verdict- 

The presentation was entertaining and there were many suggestions for the verdict although our own PP Kathy came up with a scenario Robyn hadn’t considered but will be including it next time she presents. 

Chair Beth thanked Robyn for her interesting talk and asked Pres Kyle to present Robyn with her certificate. Robyn was excited to learn that we make a donation on the speakers behalf to vaccinate children against Polio as part of Rotary’s end polio campaign.

Pres Kyle then thanked Nixon’s for catering, Geoff and Bob for looking after the attendance table and Meredith for attending he closed meeting 3257. .