Ann Harvey, Group Account Manager for Tasmania, Lifeblood, Australian Red Cross. ​

Ann Harvey, Regional Partnerships Group Account Manager, is a popular speaker at Rtary clubs around Tasmania, including our own.  Here is a brief account of her presentation to our club.
 
Now is the time to give the gift of life
 
Every week Australian Red Cross Lifeblood needs 31,000 donations nationally to support Australia’s blood supply so we want members of Rotary in Tasmania to join in and make a difference to Australian patients in need.
 
Between 14th December and 10th January Lifeblood Donor Centres in Burnie, Devonport, Hobart and Launceston have around 1300 appointments to fill.
 
75% of those bookings are for plasma donation – plasma can be made into 18 different life changing products which can be used to treat cancer patients and those with auto-immune diseases. Even if you are a new donor, you can make plasma your first donation which will also allow you to donate more frequently.
 
The perfect Christmas gift that doesn’t cost a thing
 
As wonderfully uplifting as the season of giving is, it comes with a certain pressure to put a special gift (and unique and meaningful and personal) under the tree. In short, wrapping up socks can leave some of us feeling like we’ve under-delivered.
 
So, Lifeblood has come up with something wonderful to get you through the season ­— it’s called the Gift of Life.
 
Give the Gift of Life this Christmas
 
Anyone who donates in December will receive a festive card to give to someone special this Christmas saying you gave blood on their behalf. So, that’s one special, unique, meaningful and personal Christmas gift ticked off the list. So long, socks!
 
Book your life-changing gift
 
To check your eligibility and make an appointment to donate download the DonateBlood APP, book via lifeblood.com.au or call 131495.
 

• Join our Lifeblood team - Make sure you join our Rotary Australia District 9830 team when you donate by asking at reception or you can update your team preferences via the DonatebLood APP or online at Join Your Team

 
Want to make a small group booking for your team? Just call 1300886524. Remember whether you donate as a small group or as individuals your donation will count towards our Rotary District 9830 team tally.
 

 

For the first time, our Rotary club celebrate International Women's Day, as the Rotary Club of Tamar Sunrise has done in the north of the state for some years.  We considered making it a celebration of Women in Rotary, but decided as 2020 was the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, we would take that as our theme and offer any proceeds to the Mothers and Babies Malaria Eradication project being managed by PP Jenny Kerrison. Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner AC launched the event and Her Excellency's husband Mr Richard Warner accompanied her.  We invited the Hon. Ruth Forrest MLC to be our keynote speaker and several other Rotary and community dignitaries graced us with their presence and gave inspirational messages.  Music performances were from the Tasmanian Medical Orchestra's string quartet and singer Avalon Teirney, accompanied by Iestyn Parry.  

We were very proud of the promotional poster for the event, featuring many women members f Rotary from the south of the state, as well as our keynote speaker, The Hon Ruth Forrest, who is an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Wynyard.  Thank you to Focal Printing in North Hobart for their sponsorship of the posters and to all the businesses and organisations which displayed one for us.

Thank you to all members of the club who assisted, all presenters, performers and guests.  "Connect Over Canapes" was certainly a night to remember and we are indebted to our generous sponsors, White Lady Funerals, and our MC Jodie Lowe, Rotary Tasmania's Membership Director.  More than $2000 was raised for Rotarians Against Malaria.

Rotary International's President Elect, Holger Knaack, today unveiled the theme for the upcoming Rotary year 2020-21 at the International Assembly.   In that speech, he shared his goals, excitement and the possibilities for his presidential year.

​He said "Rotary is not just a club that you join, it is an invitation to endless opportunities. Therefore, the theme for our year is -- Rotary Opens Opportunities."

* "Opportunities to eradicate polio, to mentor youth, to grow professionally, to get involved in great local and international projects, to improve the environment."
*  "We are people from different backgrounds, different generations languages and cultures. And that diversity makes us great."
*  "Over the next five years, Rotary's new Action Plan will increase our impact, expand our reach, enhance participant engagement, and increase our ability to adapt."
*  "We cannot stand still and be satisfied with everything we have done. We will capture this moment to grow Rotary, making it stronger, more adaptable and even more aligned with our core values."
*  "Every new member changes us a little bit. That person brings a new perspective, new experiences. We will grow stronger as we learn from new members.  We need more women in our clubs and more women in leadership positions."
*  "Rotary's founder Paul Harris reminded us that we have to be revolutionary from time to time. Now is the time to be revolutionary." One way that we will do this is by creating new club models and rethinking what it means to be in Rotary.
*  Holger Knaack stated "I will be proud to continue President Mark Maloney's strong commitment to growing. I want you to think about how we can organically and sustainably grow Rotary, keeping our current members and winning new members."

At the Rotary Club of North Hobart we have lost two members this year and gained two.  Both of our new members have already made big contributions to our club culture.  President Elect Holger would be pleased.  

If you would like to visit the Rotary Club of North Hobart, leave a message on the website and we can organise that.

Rotary calls upon its 35,000 clubs to inspire our members to achieve certain outcomes.  In addition to our unchanging reasons for being, fellowship and "service above self", we now have a vision for Rotary and each Rotary International sets a few priorities for their particular Rotary year.  In Ian Riseley's year we each planted a tree.

This year, President Mark Daniel Maloney has made 2019-20 a year to celebrate the family of Rotary and he asked District Governors and presidents right around the world to offer family-friendly events and to reduce cost and time barriers for members.

I think if Mark and Gay Maloney had walked into any of our meetings this year, they would have been pleased to see our connections to our own vibrant, diverse community and our connections to many communities around the world - most notably Timor L'Este, but also Thailand, Kenya, Bangladesh and Bhutan in terms of our support for major service providers and Germany, Scotland, Ireland, England, the USA, Taiwan, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands as examples of places where individual members of our club have been hosted by Rotary colleagues, either at meetings or at Rotary events.

In North Hobart, we got involved in the Hot August Jazz festival, the New Town Christmas Carols, the Toy and Book Drive for The Smith Family at the request of our neighbour Turnbulls Funerals and we will continue to support Estia, the Greek Festival and hopefully also the local park in North Hobart.  Bethlehem House and Caroline House both know that they can count on us.

We have forged personal links with staff members at local schools - Campbell Street Primary School, Sacred Heart College, Ogilvie High School, New Town High School as well as Springvale Hostel.  We thanked retiring Elizabeth College Head of Science, Dr Deborah Beswick, for her extraordinary leadership of Science and Technology throughout her education career.

The team we sponsored to Model United National Association just happened to make the national finals, giving us another reason to be proud of our support for youth activities.

Several key officers of Hobart City Council have come to meet us and will work with us, both locally and in our international endeavours.

As president, I've visited the Chinese Community Association of Tasmania, the North Hobart Football Clubrooms, the Bowls Club and two different Probus clubs.

We've done a lot of good work quietly and also have been able to fly the flag for Rotary with our banners, brochures and beautifully branded badges.

Our Headset for Dementia project was highlighted by ABC Radio during Dementia Awareness Week and our members who lead Rotarian Action Groups have both had articles published in Rotary Down Under.

Through what we do and who we are we tell the story of Rotary and because we are a worldwide organisation and we can introduce those who need us to trusted partners, we also connect leaders, connect families, connect professionals and connect communities.

,H​
Group 3 President Report for North Hobart

May I start by asking all members of the RCNH to stand and have a stretch.

Rotarians of Group 3, I give you the North Hobart peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, workers and ideas people!
 
At the Rotary Convention in Hamburg, which three members from our club attended, Rotarians were described as ambassadors of peace, love and care.

If you can judge the health of an organisation from the amount of laughter you hear when business is conducted, then North Hobart is surely a healthy club.  Thank you to our 25 active members and three honorary members. I’ve felt greatly supported as your president.   We are slightly down in membership but the good news is we held an Open Night recently and we look forward to inducting a new member soon.

The club has an effective committee system and committee meetings are held during regular Rotary meeting time.  Every member in our club is a doer.  Members really know each other and care for each other.
 
We are fortunate to be rooted in a vibrant community and we can tap into the energy and community pride here.  This year we sponsored the Hot August Jazz festival which led to some good PR for Rotary in their programs, on the ads at the State Cinema and even on the big canvas sign outside the Republic.  Thank you to the Hobart Jazz Club for the collaboration.

We have two new projects, one started and one still to come, that have been adopted as a result of requests from the community. 

You may have heard of the Music for Dementia project.  Following publicity about a Rotary project in Geraldton WA, we were approached by a musician volunteering at a local residential facility and that led to the provision of headsets for identified patients so that staff and volunteers can give them individualised programs of music, which it is hoped will lessen the need for drug therapy.  Thanks to the Roy Fagan Centre for their enthusiastic support.

We also had an approach from the New Town Community Association to join the R C Moonah is providing a BBQ stall at the Carols by Candlelight.  We look forward to good weather.

Talking about collaboration, we recently acquitted a major Compassionate Grant for the Baric family.  Thank you to all clubs that contributed to that, including the Rotaractors.  The manager of that program was Jenny Kerrison and we thank her too.
 
Jenny is well known for her service, in and outside the club.  She is not only national chair of Rotarians Against Malaria, with all that involves including editing their newsletter and organising their national conference, but also a member of the Board of Rotary Australia World Community Service.  She regularly speaks at other clubs and she is the project leader of the signature project of our club, the Mosquito nets in Timor Leste to save the lives of mothers and babies otherwise at risk of malaria. 

Recently Jenny was working in Bangladesh and she saw at first hand the gratitude of the staff at the Kumudini Hospital where Claremont and North Hobart did the physical work to get 250 second hand beds from to Bangladesh in a container.
 
We thank and congratulate Howie Oh who has recently stepped up as national treasurer of RAM.
 
Thank you to the Rotary Foundation for the $2000 grant from District Funds to investigate extension of the Mosquito nets project to West Timor and to Lillian Smith of Claremont club who will be leading a quiz night next year in support of this.
 
In her day job, Lillian is a teacher and North Hobart had the good fortune to sponsor the team Lillian coached which represented Ogilvie High School at Model United Nations Association.  The girls went on to represent Tasmania at the national finals in Canberra.
 
Our club has supported a number of Youth programs so far this year.  Besides MUNA, we had volunteers who participated in Rotary Youth Driver Awareness, Creating My Career and the Southern Youth Forum.  We also invited in the Head of Science at our aligned school during Science Week and were reassured that the school is grateful for the programs Rotary runs that extend their students.
 
I would like to refer to two projects we are working on that have yet to come to fruition:  Food Plant Solutions, which we wish to apply both locally and internationally and a dinner to celebrate International Women’s Day on 7 March next year.  Come and join us again that night.
 
In closing may we thank all members of our club and the members of Moonah club and Sullivan’s Cove who came along to the Afternoon Tea at our member Tanya’s home recently, which raised funds for the Book and Toy appeal being promoted by our neighbour Turnbull’s Funeral.
 
For many years, Turnbull’s has supported our club by providing storage for our barbecue equipment and archives.  We are very grateful for their support and congratulate them on their redevelopment and new policy to connect with community.
 
We also express our appreciation to the manager and staff of the Black Buffalo, who really look after us.  Thanks to Adam, Rachel and all the staff. 

Thanks to all present for the great support of each other, of AG Biddy, of DG Michael and of End Polio Now tonight.

World Polio Day is 24 October.  On Tuesday 22 October, Rotary Club of North Hobart is hosting six neighbouring clubs to the Rotary Tasmania Group 3 Forum.  On that evening we will welcome Tasmania's District 9830 End Polio Now Chair Marion Cooper and will present her with the donation of $1000 from our club and the other money we raise on the evening.  

We recently joined with other Tasmanian Rotarians to raise funds for End Polio Now at a movie night.  Thank you to the members of our club who came along in support.

We also look forward to polio survivor Merv Reed sharing his polio story on Tuesday 5 November. 

Ending polio is one of our core goals and for every dollar we raise the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $2 to the cause.

​Rotary International President Mark Daniel Maloney has called on all clubs to do their part to end polio.   https://endpol.io/regevent

Eradicating polio is a huge Rotary achievement and I am proud that Rotary Club of North Hobart is making the End Polio Now campaign a priority. 
​

Who can resist the smell of sausages and onions sizzling on the barbecue?  Not many people, we hope, as sausage sizzling is one of our regular fundraisers and we are very grateful to our business partner Bunnings for the opportunity to provide sausage services.

Working a shift with a few Rotary colleagues is a very positive experience and it is highly recommended that all available club members take the opportunity to enjoy serving in a small team like this.  Most of our barbecues are on the third Thursday of the month.  

Bunnings provides clear expectations and reminders about safety and agreed procedures.   

Spruiking sausages is a fun part of Rotary service.  Thanks to Bunnings for the partnership.

Last Sunday our club enjoyed wonderful fellowship at the home of Tanya and Peter Dargaville.  Fifty people were present - members and family members of our club, invited guests and also guests from the Rotary Club of Sullivan's Cove and the Rotary Club of Moonah.  We were raising funds for the Smith Family's Toy and Book Appeal for Christmas.

The Dargavilles' home is like an art gallery.  Inwardly it is an artistic triumph and looking out at Mt Wellington is breathtaking.  It was a real honour to be invited into such a special space.

A lot of work goes into such an event.  Big thanks to all the members of our club who came along and contributed to the success of the day.  $1169 was raised for our club's local community service, which is a wonderful result.

The members of our club are indebted to the Dargavilles.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  

Past District Governor Una Hobday describes herself as a proud Rotarian. She is married and has four grown children.  Una was a Registered Nurse and also held a Graduate Diploma in Health Education and a  Graduate Diploma in Professional Management.  She worked in Victoria, WA and Tasmania and retired as the Manager of Adoption Services in Tasmania. 

My Rotary Life

Why did I join Rotary International?

I had been a speaker on the changes to Aged Care to many Rotary Clubs in Perth WA, and I had heard about all the projects clubs were involved in, such as Polio Eradication, the Bali Eye Clinic, pre-school education and wheel chairs for the handicapped.  I decided that If I was asked, I would be privileged to join such a dynamic organisation.
 
A Rotary Club in Perth wanted to charter an all-woman Rotary club.   They approached me and asked if I could help them charter a club of 25 women.  After some work, the Rotary Club of Hollywood began in May 1990.

I was the first woman President in that district.  From there to Charter another Rotary Club in a town I had moved to for a job.

I was the First Woman Assistant Governor, District 9450.

I was the first female District Governor in Australasia - one of 21 women out of 540 Governors internationally, that year 1999- 2000

But why stay in Rotary?

Bali Eye Clinic
A DG came back from a holiday in Bali, being really concerned about the numbers of people that had cataracts in the poorer areas of Bali. He put a proposition to his Rotary Club that they look to providing a mobile van for the purpose of cataract surgery.  The Rotary Foundation assisted with this;

• first a Discovery Grant where a group went to Bali to look at all the political issues and community issues surrounding the idea.
• Then an application for a 4 Heath Grant- Health Hunger and Humanity Grant, which was approved. They bought a Mazda van from a school and the people in the club worked with and engineer in that club to build the inner parts of the van to enable eye surgery to take place.
• They worked with Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital and eye surgeons travelled with the van to educate Balinese surgeons in Cataract surgery. The van parked by a Puscas mas ( heath service) and worked from there.

 Communities were educated, and people came from miles around.
I was a member of that Committee as my first district Committee and helped with the training of nurses in sterilising instruments.
How could you not be moved by seeing an old lady brought by her granddaughter to the clinic and the smile on the old ladies face when she came out of the van and could see her granddaughter for the first time.
Now it is a community owned project. They have a Hospital which now does corneal transplants etc and it was the first hospital that took badly injured Australians in the Bali Bombing. - the power of 1 person to make a difference.

Polio Eradication

• We conducted Polio immunization in Mumbai, protecting 1.5 million children in one day

The Rotary Foundation

• I have an addiction to the Rotary Foundation and all the possibilities there are to assist people in the world.

I am now the International Chair of Food Plant Solutions Rotarian Action Group.  Daily, I think about this . . .3000 children died from malnutrition or malnutrition-related disease while I was asleep last night.  We can change that statistic!  You can hear more about that group when you attend the Rotary Conference this year in Hobart.

During my 29 years in Rotary, I have had an amazing opportunity to do more with my life than I had dreamed possible.  This is a quote from Clem Renoir, a past world president of Rotary International.
​
And I would like to finish with a quote from Winston Churchill;
What is the use of living if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?

Another full and fulfilling meeting.  We had time for a lot of fellowship, which is always appreciated, we had three tables of Rotarians in attendance and two substantial reports as well as our guest speaker.  Plus it was Book List and we shared our list of what we've been reading lately.  Our speaker Jo Matthews is a music therapy volunteer for the Roy Fagan Centre.  Jo spoke eloquently and passionately about the value of music to unlock memories and assist in calming patients who are suffering from dementia.  Chair for the night Jim Colley heads our Community Service committee.  Jim delegated the management of the Dementia project to a subcommittee made up of Murray, Jill and Jenny, who each have professional experience and expertise to offer.

Jo was in a sense preaching to the converted as Rotarians elsewhere have been paving the way to show the value of music to assist in the treatment of dementia.  The Music for Dementia project was pioneered by the Rotary Club of Geraldton-Greenough in Western Australia, which gained national publicity for the cause.  As you can see on the banner in the above picture, they brought Jaycar on board as a sponsor, enabling us to immediately benefit from their good work.

The headsets purchased by our club have now been delivered to the Roy Fagan Centre.  Staff there are enthusiastic and keen to see how this project goes.  We can but wish them luck.