Fortunately for all of us, the COVID pandemic receded sufficiently for our club to return to near normal activity at the time I took over the presidency from Mathew. Although there was a single occasion when our meeting was cancelled due to Tim Manning, Peter Singh and myself coming down with COVID having been infected at the previous week's meeting.
An early setback was that Sue Lomax, who was to be club secretary, became unwell and needing long term treatment had to stand down from the position. I am profoundly grateful to Simon Keough who promptly volunteered to setp into the role.
At an early meeting of the year, all club activities were reviewed with a need to plan for the coming club year. There were no major changes in direction or alterations to the running of our meeting as a consequence of these discussions.
A club satisfaction survey was undertaken to assess the health of our club and for the most part, the club seemed to be in good shape with a strongly positive result in most of those areas surveyed.
There was an early visit from the DG, Neville Parsons and his wife Patti who attend a combined clubs of Dubbo meeting. At that meeting, he presented the advantages as he saw them of the proposed amalgamation of districts 9650 and 9670 to form 9660, which was ultimately accepted by the membership of both areas and went ahead later in the year.
Along with the change of district went the conversion from Clubrunner to DACdb as our communications portal, a transition that was eventually achieved despite a number of early glitches.
Although during the year, the club has lost some members, there has been a steady recruitment to our number including some women which had been a goal for the year. Corporate membership was trialed and offers made to a number of organisations and businesses. Special overtures were made to those community organisations supported by our club, especially Pink Angels and Leaderlife. Both agreed to join which has further boosted our membership. Several other businesses have also expressed interest and hopefully will come on board in due course.
The club has been involved in several other initiates of note. After overtures from the Rotary club of Terrigal, RCDS joined with the other clubs of Dubbo to bring a consignment of Shelterbags to town. These are a lightweight, durable, and weatherproof swag for the use of those sleeping rough. Orana Support Services agreed to partner with us to store and distribute these to those in need and will keep us updated as to the local response and whether there is further need. I am grateful to Peter Scott who collected and transported these items to Dubbo.
Acting on a suggestion from Karen James, our club contributed to the purchase of a Posey Bed to donate to Dubbo Hospital. Karen recognised the importance of this piece of medical equipment in the care of people with advanced dementia when her father was an inpatient at the hospital during the terminal phase of his illness. The bed is dedicated to his memory.
With the war ongoing in Ukraine, we have been asked to assist in a couple of ways. We were appraoched by a previous exchange student, Jye from Warsaw, to contribute to the purchase of medical equipment which was to be taken across the border into Ukraine by members of his club. Our board was more than happy to make this contribution. As well we have been asked to accept a student, Veronkia, from Ukraine as a one-way youth exchnage for the next year. Despite limited planning time and having already accepted a young woman from Germany, Frederike, as our RYE for 2023 - 24, we have decided to accept this challenge and it is our expectation that members will give her a warm welcome when she arrives.
Tim Manning & I interviewed our first RYE candidate from Dubbo since pre-pandemic, Seamus Walsh, and have recommended that he be given a placement for next year.
Through the work of Dave and Sue Lomax, our club continues to financially support Chumkriel Language School in Cambodia and we receive regular updates as to their progress. The plan has been to continue with this support into the future and possibly one day to arrange a visit back there.
Our other overseas commitment was to support Joe Canalese with his work in Nepal. The club donated an ECG machine for his use in cardiac clinics he was to run in Nepal. Our club salutes Joe for all the work he does for the people of Nepal and please read a more extensive coverage in Colin Knight's report.
Early on in the club year, I had the satisfying task of presenting a cheque of $177,500.00 to Macquarie Homestay, the proceeds of the Tour d'OROC which had been run in March 2022. This money will go to helping fund the next stage of development of MHS, a community project that our club has enthusiastically supported from its inception.
Our first major club activity of the club year was Destination Outback which was a huge success both socially and financially, raising almost $400,000.00. For more information on this event, refer to George Richmond's report. A huge vote of thanks goes to him for his patience over the several years it took to finally get DOB off the ground. George has stood down from the role of DOB director and the hunt for a new leader is in progress. As a result of the funds raised, there were generous donations to quite a number of organisations throughout our city and region. A full list is in George's report.
Another major club activity was the Black Tie Ball held in March. It was an outstanding success thanks to the organising committee whose efforts deserve our collective thanks and congratulations. (Please see Fred Griffiths report). From the money raised a generous donation of $125,000.00 was made to the RFDS support group at the ball.
Our club participated in the Rotary Public Speaking Competition for the first time sending our champion, Isiah Luckensmeyer, to Tamworth for the final in which he triumphed. He gave his dissertation at a club meeting and impressed us all with his delivery and the substance of his talk. We will be running this event again in July.
To complete a successful year, we were able to defend the Geurie Goat against Wellington in a hard fought contest. Our team, despite having to change from an affirmative to a negative position at the last minute, gave a lively and convincing performance to sway the adjudicator on our favour.
Finally, I would like to thank the members of RCDS for giving me their confidence, patience, and support during the year past. Especially, I would like to extend my appreciation to the board who have shown great assistance, corrected me gently when i erred, filled in the gaps in my knowledge and worked diligently to make the year a successful one. To my vice president Tim Manning, who will be taking leave from the club, my thanks for your support and wise counsel, my best wishes for the future with the hope that our contact with you will not be lost.
As well as Tim, Peter Singh has also decided to take leave from the club and his long-term commitment to the club has been substantial, giving generously of his time and expertise over many years. My hope is that this is not a goodbye but more like, till we meet again.
To David Duffy and his in-coming board, I wish that you will enjoy your year in charge and every success in your endeavours.
Tony Geraghty
Club President
