Secretary Neville was our chairperson for this week's club meeting, and called upon our newest club member, Kevin Egan, to perform invocation and the toast to Rotary. Apologies were received from Helen, Linda, Jo, and Paul. Karin joined the meeting via Zoom.
There was no guest speaker for today's meeting and provided an opportunity to discuss other matters - namely, our wonderful BMC market - our fund raiser that has been going strong for over 40 years and never fails us. We are very lucky.
ANNOUNCEMENTS - President Ron
- Bunnings Community Group Invitation - our club has been invited to attend a community group event hosted by Bunnings on Tuesday 30/4/24 from 11am - 1pm. Details will be placed in the bulletin.
- Shelterbox - BMC has been recognised as the District Club for the Year for contributions to Shelterbox.
- Frankston house - our house has been vacated and is being prepared in readiness for sale. A painter has been engaged to paint the house - and coincidentally, the painter is a former Rotary Exchange student. How the wheels have turned.
- Rotary matching grant - our club was successful is obtaining a matching grant for $5,000
- Arnold Dix - guest speaker at the District Conference, featured on Australian Story, Channel 2, on Monday 15/4/24.
- Club Social Event - Sunday 28/4/24. A board games afternoon is planned for an afternoon of fellowship and fun in the club rooms at Kings Park in East Boundary Road, Bentleigh East. Please advise Marg if planning to attend.
- Southern FM radio - Ron attended Rotary Hour on Southern FM yesterday and spoke about our club and our market.
- Evening club meeting - Wednesday 15/5/24 will be an evening meeting at Cilantro with a buffet dinner. Partners and guests are welcome to attend.
MARKET
- Larry and Peter attended last week's market commenting it was a busy morning. Discussion was around the number of members required for market attendance - commenting 2 people is not feasible. 3 members plus 1 are needed - particularly at the end of the morning to retrieve tables and racks, and pack up.
- One of the toilets was not operational - resulting in long queues for the one remaining toilet. One pedestrian complained bitterly, and volunteered to follow up with council to complain.
- A reminder that stall holders are not permitted to market fresh food as per our lease agreement with council. Only packaged food is permissible.
- Ron encourages members rostered for market duty to engage with the stall holders and visiting pedestrians as good PR.
- Bentleigh Festival - Ron expressed his disappointment the Bentleigh Traders Association did not engage or involve Rotary in the recent Bentleigh Festival, and overlooks our support provided in previous years.
- Car parking - continues to be an issue with the manager at Coles supermarket. However, the car parking issue is beyond our control - despite our efforts to advise stall holders where to park.
ROSTERS - rosters were announced.
Anniversary and birthdays were announced - these also appear in the bulletin.
MEETING CLOSE - Ron closed the meeting withthis year's theme - Create Hope in the World
