Hello everyone, 

Welcome to the second week of February 2024. I think this year will go by as quickly as the last. Let’s enjoy the wild journey.

Pete and I had the honour of attending the Rotary Youth Exchange welcome home dinner, for our exchange students who have been overseas for 12 months.  One lady is the daughter of Cath and Andrew Colville, Tilly, who spent 12 months in Brazil. What a wonderful time she has had. The exchange students who are here with us in Australia, are having the time of their lives too. We also welcomed 2 new students who are here for the next 12 months.

I would like to comment on the Rotary Youth Leadership awards (RYLA) which were held in January 2024 again. Our two participants will be coming back to the club to give their update on their experience on Friday 22 March 2024. This course is open for young  people who have been out in the workforce for at least 12 months. The feedback that I have had from the leaders and facilitators of the course, have been so positive. Especially about the growth of the participants, and the skills they learned and took onboard in all the scenarios. Well done to all involved.

Summer Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment is being held at the Academy of Sport at Narrabeen on the 17/18/19 of this month. This weekend course is for participants who are attending years 9/10 this year. Marsden High School have put forward two candidates for our club to sponsor to develop their leadership skills. The teachers vote for the students they felt had the potential to be future leaders. The Rotary Club of North Ryde is proud to sponsor both candidates. They too will be invited to present their experiences to the club on Friday 22 March 2024. Developing our youth as potential leaders is such an important community initiative and I congratulate all involved.

Our club had the honour of hearing from one of our local Members of Council, Councillor Bernard Purcell about his life and career in the City of Ryde. Bernard held a fire side chat style talk with us, and I was very interested to hear of his varied career pathway and what lead him to be on council. Thank you, Bernard, for your time.

Thank you to all who were involved with the Bunnings BBQ last Saturday 10 February 2024. Especially to President Elect, Garry Maloney, who organises all these events for the club. We sold over 800 sausages and had the company of many Bluey face painted little ones. We also had a visit from Benji Marshall, who had heard of our sausages and the quality. He bought his young lad down for a snag. Thank you to Bunnings Gladesville for allowing us to do the BBQ with you.

I had to take a short break from my bag lady duties at the BBQ, to attend the DG’s Presidents meeting, on zoom. There are many events planned this year. The most important is being the District Conference being held in Terrigal from 15-16  March 2024. The theme is a beach party for the Gala dinner on the Friday night. This should be interesting. The guest speaker lineup will be something not to be missed. I am very excited to be attending.

Our trivia night is coming up on  Saturday 24  February 2024, there is more info following. Book your table and join in the fun. Thank you to team trivia for all your hard work. More prizes will be welcome. 

The Rotary Learning Institute is holding the next training course online, on the weekend of the 23-25th of February 2024. It is worth the time to learn from our leaders and hear how you can make your club bloom and get more enjoyment out of being involved.
Until next time.