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President’s Report    2018-2019

I have indeed been honoured to be the President of the Corowa Rotary Club for 2018-19. Thank you to the members of the Rotary Club of Corowa for having given to me this opportunity and privilege.

The Rotary Club of Corowa has a very rich and extensive history of volunteer service. To follow in the footsteps of Past President Gary Poidevin OAM, who with the support of all members, had set a very high standard of achievement in service excellence was for me indeed a challenging task. I express my thanks to the Club Board Members and to the Club Membership for your support and advice as we together strived to maintain this Club tradition of excellence in service achievement.

My thanks to all members for the support you have extended to the Corowa Rotary Club. Together we have striven to give service and support to our Community of Corowa and to the wider Rotary World. Community Service in Corowa Rotary comes both with the satisfaction of having successfully completed “the task” but also with the pleasure and enjoyment of working with the other likeminded members of the Corowa Rotary Club.

Corowa Rotary involvement with the Youth Exchange Program was again in 2018-19 a great success. July 2018 brought to Australia and to Corowa a delightful young Frenchman Benoit Turmeau. Benoit was sponsored by Sable Sur Sarthe Rotary Club of Courtillers France. Benoit’s arrival marked the commencement of an exchange year that has been a positive experience in all aspects for our Club. We thank Benoit for the contribution he has made to

the rotary year here in Corowa. We trust that Benoit, on his return to France, will also have great memories of his time with us as an exchange student in 2018-19. In January we said farewell to Debra Everingham on her outbound exchange to Brazil. January also saw the return from Finland of Brydee Lavis. Brydee, having completed her year as an exchange student, enjoyed a wonderfully stimulating exchange experience in Lahti Finland where she had been hosted by three families.

This year the strongly contested Fred Taylor Scholarship was awarded to John Schnelle. Congratulations go to John and we wish him good luck with his studies for Bachelor Economics and Bachelor Accounting - Ag Resources.

We have continued the now annual tradition of providing School Bursaries to all local schools, which are always well received by the schools and the recipients.

It has been great to see all our members participating in the monthly markets. They have become a great social gathering for our membership. The monthly market income facilitates our ability to conduct the Federation Festival Weekend. We are grateful for the time, work and effort, Market Director Graeme Campbell puts into creating a successful monthly market.

The New Year’s Eve Firework Display, at the new venue of RSL Park, was a great success and well received by the many families who came out on a perfect evening to enjoy the spectacle. Our gratitude is extended to the Corowa RSL and Riverlea as our major sponsors of this event.

The Federation Festival Weekend was as in previous years a success. The Tim Fischer Oration with NSW Deputy Police Commissioner Michael Corboy as our guest speaker opened the weekend. The presentation by Deputy

Police Commissioner Michael Corboy was well received by all in attendance and the dinner evening was a well presented event to commence this year’s Federation Festival weekend. The lead role in the Tim Fischer Oration

evening was carried by our now retired Rotarian John Law. Thank you John for the significant contribution and legacy you have given through the establishment of the Tim Fischer Oration.

The B and S Ball was again well patronized which resulted in a financial success. Our thanks go to Rotarian Gary Poidevin OAM and to his band of helpers whose enthusiasm and tireless work ethic inspires and encourages all of us.

In addition to those already mentioned, we have continued to cater for KVE, manned many Race Gates, conducted another very successful Bowelscan promotion, supported the IGA Christmas Giving Tree, partnered with the Baptist Church to conduct the Easter Egg Hunt and successfully coordinated the collection of funds to ensure the New Year’s Eve Fireworks were able to go ahead. District 9790 Ride to Conference began with Graham and Margaret

Brown eleven years ago and they have continued to do an enormous amount of work for this event each year. This year will be their last and they were again ably assisted by Neil Davis as the group rode on a post Conference ride based upon and around Numurkah.

This year would not have been possible without all of you contributing however there are a few Rotarians that have had major roles outside The Board in ensuring our year has run smoothly. Sergeant Ray Terrill manages each week to extricate money from our pocket and we even enjoy the experience. Thank you Ray for the great pleasure club

members have received from the fine sessions you have conducted. The Program Director Graham Brown has consistently and without fuss put together an excellent program across the whole year, thank you Graham.

Bulletin Editor Stephen Apps has also been an exceptional talent in the production of our excellent weekly bulletin, thank you Stephen. 

Membership continues to be a challenge, not only to Rotary Clubs, but to all volunteer organisations. This year we have been saddened to farewell four members. Paul Mowlam due to health problems, Gail and John Law who wished to pursue other interests and recently Eric Sadlowski. Eric has been our secretary for this past year and I have relied heavily on his sound wise counsel. Eric has been a good friend to me and to Rotary. I thank all four for their contribution to our Rotary Club. On a more positive note we have inducted and welcome Sam Dempster as our newest member.

Over the year we have contributed many hours of voluntary community service and what has been most pleasing is that the workload had been shared by all members. We have had good attendance by members and we have all pulled together to achieve an often exhausting but worthwhile program. My thanks to all our members. Thank for your support, friendship, fellowship and good grace.

My final thanks goes to the Board - Vice President Gary Poidevan OAM, Secretary Eric Sadlowski, Treasurer David Potts, President Elect Paul Miegel, Publicity Officer Meredith Miegel, Membership Chair Alan Wilson and Rotary Foundation Norman O’Flaherty. They have all given many hours of their own time to ensure that the year has run smoothly and I have truly appreciated their camaraderie and assistance throughout the year. I know that you will extend to our new President Paul the same level of support next year as we continue our journey to be inspired by and with Rotary.

Bill Bott AM

President Rotary Club of Corowa.

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