The 2016-17 Board was:

 

President - Meredith Miegel

Vice President - John Law

President Elect - Gary Poidevin

Secretary - Neil Davis

Treasurer - David Potts

Foundation - Paul Mowlam

Public Relations - Wally Cann

Membership - Graham Brown

Service Projects - Gary Poidevin

Administration - Neils Davis / David Potts

Meredith Miegel became president, our second lady in the job, our International President was John Germ, District Governor was Tony Bramley and our Assistant Governor was Peter Lee.

This year we decided as a Club to take on no more new projects, that involved the club committing large amounts of members time, as we all felt our year was very full and until we grew membership substantially we were not in position to do more.

 

We again concentrated our efforts around the monthly Federation Markets, Federation Festival and KVE catering and the co-ordinating of the community funding of the New Years Eve Fireworks.

The monthly markets in Bangerang Park, continue to improve, although we still seem to have trouble attracting and keeping farmers markets stalls on a regular basis.  Gate takings were down this year due to the very wet year we had, although we didn't miss a market due to rain.  This income funded a very successful Federation Festival, which again included fireworks on the Saturday night.

The New Year’s Eve Fireworks fundraising generated a little under $20,000, which resulted in a 9:30 display for children and a larger show at midnight.  Many thanks must go to the major sponsors Ricky D’s Pizza, Corowa RSL Club and Rivalea for sponsoring the children’s fireworks.  All the feedback was positive and we are hoping to make it bigger and better next year.

The BnS Ball was one again our major fundraiser, numbers were up this year, which resulted in a larger surplus. This event continues to grow and is something the younger members of the community look forward to.

Ride to Conference, now in its ninth year, was again a success with Graham and Margaret Brown and their team from all over the district raising a little under $14,000 for Australian Rotary Health

All up the Club contributed over 2,500 hours of service work to the community.

Corowa High Schools debating team made the final of the Ian Murphy Memorial Debate, but lost to Tallangatta High.

In July we welcomed our inbound exchange student Emma Jepsen from Denmark.  Emma was hosted by four families and had a great time making new friends and seeing new places.  In January we welcomed back Will Robertson from Germany and sent out Sarah Hughes to France.

The Fred Taylor Memorial Scholarship winner this year was Sarah Chandler, who is studying a Bachelor of Disability and Developmental Education (Rehabilitation Counseling) at Flinders University SA. 

We started the year with 25 members, however we lost Craig Overend to work commitments, and Maureen O'Flaherty who moved out of the area.  In November we also lost Chris Erickson, who passed away after a long illness, Chris had been a Rotarian for 47 year, 41 with Corowa.  On a positive note, in May we gained two new members, long time honorary member Bill Both and Eric Sadlowski, bringing our membership to 24 at the end of the year.

The Friends of Rotary program is still trying to gain traction, with former member Oliver Raschke becoming a Friend, however we lost Bron and Nigel Sutton due to a move back to McLean.  Dr Joanne Bellette the High School Principal accepted our offer of Honorary Membership and at the changeover the Club made Chris Erickson's widow Betty a Honorary Member.

As identified in our Strategic Plan the Club was to take on a major project and it was decided it would be the Whitehead Wetlands.  The Club has set aside $10,000 each from last year and this year, with the hope of doing the same at least in future years.  During the year we were also successful in obtaining grants for $70,000 from the Murray Darling Wetlands Working Group Carbon Storage Project and $50,000 from Federation Council from their Stronger Communities Grants. With the co-operation of the Federation Council and the expertise of Sarah Ning and Susanne Watkins from the Murray Darling Wetlands Group this project has started to come to life.  Thanks must also go to John Babbs for his time in drawing plans and preparing budgets for all the work we need to have done.

The club also participated in its usual programs of:

• ·      catering for the military vehicles,
• ·      race gates,
• ·      organising the Giving Tree at Corowa Supa IGA, which saw Christmas Hampers given away to needy families in Corowa,
• ·      Bowel Scan,
• ·      Easter Egg Hunt,
• ·      Clean-up the Highways

The Club also supported Shelterbox and Aqua Box. The Club again contributed to Rotary Foundation, via the contributions made each week by members to Every Rotarian Every Year. Total donations for the year were in excess of $35,000