Vishal was our chairperson for this evening’s club meeting at Cilantro – Wednesday 25 May 2022.  After welcoming everyone, Vishal performed the Acknowledgement of Country, then called upon President Helen to perform the invocation and Peter O’B to perform the Royal toast.  Vishal welcomed guests- Angela Lynch, Leonie Ryan, Anna Mouradian, Helen Parker, Asia Berri, Gary Ramage, Sally from the Healey, Clare O’Brien (BMC RYLA sponsored recipient), and Faye Kirkwood, our guest speaker for this evening’s meeting.
Note that a full album of photographs can be viewed here.
Note that a full album of photographs can be viewed here.
Club Announcements
    Interplast – Paul F briefly mentioned Interplast and outlined what they do, and referred everyone to read the Interplast pamphlet placed on the tables.  Paul will attend a District meeting later this month and will have more to say after the meeting.
    Men’s Mental Health – Tim M now works with the City of Kingston, and invited club members to attend a Virtual Seminar on 16 June 2022 to view a 90 minute presentation on Men’s Habits for Happiness with Dr Tim Sharp – a psychologist and Adjunct Professor at UTS and RMIT .  The seminar is part of Men’s Health Week and hosted by Whitehorse City Council in partnership with other councils – Kingston, Knox, Monash, Maroondah and Yarra Ranges.  A pamphlet was placed on the tables for reference – enquiries can be directed to Tim – Tim.Moran@kingston.vic.gov.au   Attendees need to register either via the QR code on the pamphlet or on the link https://menshabits4happiness.eventbrite.com.au
RYLA – Clare O’Brien
    Clare is this year’s club sponsored recipient to attend the first face to face RYLA program in two years due to Covid. RYLA stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, and is a one week program that covers topics associated with self-development and leadership.  Clare is a policy officer from the Dept of Health, and has attended and met the other attendees in webinars during the past few weeks, and is looking forward to participating in the program.  This year’s RYLA program will be held at Rawson Village in West Gippsland 27/6 – 3/7.  Club members are invited to attend on 29/6 and participate in a workshop and activities.   Further details will be advertised in the club bulletin.
Guest Speaker – Faye Kirkwood – Rotarians for BEES – www.rotariansforbees.org
    Faye is a Rotarian from the Rotary Club of Caulfield with a passion for bees and came to talk about Rotarians for BEES, a project of ESRAG – Environmental Sustainability Rotarian Action Group.  The project mission is to provide protection and sustainability for the current and future health of bees (and other pollinators) in the state of Victoria through ESRAG and the collaborative resources and efforts of Rotary Districts, beekeeping clubs, the Apiary Industry and local, state and federal governments.  Faye explained the importance of bees and the role they play in our world for food production adding pollinators affect 35% of global agricultural land, supporting the production of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide.  The vast majority of pollinators are wild, including over 20,000 species of bees.  Faye displayed a slide that showed the level of bee dependency for crop pollination varying from 10% - 100%.  For example many of our most common fruits and vegetables rely heavily on bee pollination, and  in some cases are 100% reliant on bee pollination. The slide illustrated the message that our food security needs bee security. Faye outlined the strategies that can be done to help develop and maintain a healthy bee population.  People can become bee keepers and maintain hives (these need to be registered with the Dept of Agriculture for monitoring) or simply planting more bee attracting plants to increase the bee population.  A serious threat to bees is a the Varroa mite that has affected the bee population worldwide except Australia which is Varroa Mite free, however, it is felt it is only just a matter of time before it gets here.   Bee hive monitoring is crucial for detecting diseases – a special Purple hive has been created for detecting Varroa mite.  Whilst operating bee hives is a specialist interest activity, everyone can participate through the following steps: plant bee friendly plants, have a water source for the bees with stones, wood etc as stepping stones (as they drown otherwise), do not use pesticides out of doors, buy locally produced honey from registered beekeepers, and contact your council or an Apiarist to relocate a swarm of bees – i.e. do not kill them.  Wheen Bee Foundation is an organisation that has put together charts for the different areas around Melbourne that guide what plants to plant in your area for attracting and increasing the bee population.  These charts are readily available and can be downloaded from the Wheen Bee Foundation website.  Faye’s presentation was very interesting and generated quite a few questions from the floor. ESRAG is open for anyone to join and is USD $30 for an annual subscription and receive newsletters and information.
Rosters - Vishal
    Rosters for the market and next club meeting were announced
Sergeant Session – Tim L
    A very entertaining session from Tim with fines all round – starting with President Helen (for some obscure reason), Greg for being the Master of Cheeses, Tim M for being a Richmond supporter, Carlton, Collingwood, St Kilda and Geelong supporters were fined, and Melbourne supporters would have too, but none were at the meeting! Grant was fined for introducing Monkey Pox, Peter O’B for the shortage of chutney in the shops,  Paul for travelling at 200MPH?? and Anna for ? (not sure what – a bit naughty for the Sergeant to fine a guest - don’t you think?, but our Sergeant spares no-one!).  Tim closed his session by fining the Inner Wheel ladies and any Republicans – Larry mentioned he was happy to pay!.
Meeting Close
    President Helen reminded everyone of the invitation to attend morning tea at South Caulfield Community Garden on Tuesday 31/5 – all club members are welcome.
    It was a lovely evening with wonderful food and fellowship, a terrific guest speaker and presentation, and enjoyed by everyone.  President Helen thanked Faye for her interesting presentation, Greg for organizing the dinner meeting, the front of staff, the head chef (trained in Denmark), and all the budding chef students who are in week 25 in a 30 week course with a further 6 months experience to follow.  
Note that a full album of photographs can be viewed here.