The meeting was opened jointly by the President of the Rotary Club Granville, Mary Ghribian, and the President of the Rotary Club of Carlingford, Trudy Stevenson. A welcome to country was given by Bharathi Rengarajan. President Mary then welcomed everyone, especially those from the Rotary Club of Parramatta Daybreak. This was followed by a toast to Rotary.
The meeting consisted of an extended presentation from each club giving information about the club and its projects and then some fun trivia and concluding comments from Renga Raja Chidambaranathan, who is the Rotary Foundation director for Granville.
A presentation on RC of Granville, supported by Powerpoint, was given by Bharathi. She informed us that the club is in District 9675 and was chartered on 18 July, 1956 with 24 members. In 2023 they have 20 members including the youngest woman president. Nine nationalities are represented, there is a gender balance and the age range is from 20 to 80. The club has had 2 District Governors; Sue Emerett and Ken Nicholls. Fund raising activities include Bunnings’ barbecue, special dinners and raffles.
Granville club has been involved in many local, national and international projects. A major local project was the Girl Guide Hall in East Granville and another was tree planting. The club is promoting Rotary in the community by Partnership with Local Council, engaging the Local Member of Parliament and building relations with media so that activities are reported widely. International projects include medical aid to Sri Lanka and India. Youth projects have included programs to help local youth with preparing for job opportunities and interviews and mental health programs. Granville club has also supported RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards), RYPEN (Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment) and NYSF (National Youth Science Forum).
An important focus of the club is on fellowship and they have organized projects with fun events attached in Jindabyne, Camden and Dural to name just a few. They subscribe to the idea of keeping the member in Rotary and keeping Rotary in the member. They meet once a fortnight rather than weekly, in line with a philosophy of fewer meetings and more projects. They have projects in every avenue of service, including Peace Forums, provision of food hampers and hygiene packs for those in need, women’s health projects and youth projects.
President Trudy Stevenson then addressed the meeting outlining the formation and composition of Rotary Club Carlingford. The club has just celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. It has 44 members drawn from 15 countries and of these members 27% are female. Ages range from 30’s to 80’s. Trudy told us the club has a strong core of health-related professionals, covering medical, dental and audiology and its major fund raising activity is the Market held each Sunday.
Mike Morgan then informed the meeting about the North Rocks Market. The first market, held on 22 May 1983, had 16 stalls and produced an income of $160. The greatest number of stalls at a market has been 215 and the greatest annual income was $209,000 in 2009. The market has had a gross income of over five million dollars, with Next Sense being the major beneficiary. We currently average approximately 40 stalls per market and anticipate an income of $80,000 this year to fund projects.
Two major projects in Vocational Avenue of Service are the 3 year Nursing Scholarship at University of Western Sydney for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander student and the Renwick Scholarship for postgraduate study given to a staff member at Next Sense.
Aaron Kamarajan advised the meeting of Carlingford’s Community projects, focusing on three projects. These were firstly the Parramatta Mission Lunch project at which our club provides 150 meals. A team of 10 volunteers works from 9am to 2pm and the club contributes $2000. Secondly the Eugowra flood relief project in association with Rotary Club of Parkes and lastly the provision in conjunction with RC of Granville of Rapid antigen test kit to community.
Sandra Payne highlighted two Environmental projects, the Clean Up Australia Day at Eric Mobbs Park and the community garden project in Dundas Valley for which we have held our first working bee. Sandra expressed particular interest in Granville’s tree planting and was given enticing detail of their trip to Jindabyne which culminated in an excellent roast dinner. “Too much fun!” said Sandra. But it could be a good model to adapt!
James Addo provided considerable detail on the construction of wells in Ghana that our club has been involved in over several years. Our club was involved with the development of 22 wells in the Volta region. The latest project involves the construction of clean drinking water facilities and micro toilets in the Kona region. Kona is the capital town of the region and has a population of 22,000 people. During rain the water supply in the region gets contaminated. A global grant of $240,000 involving clubs from Canada, 10 US states and our club can help to make a difference in the whole area and potentially affect up to a million people.
A project for providing latrines for houses in Bali has been initiated by Nita and would be conducted in association with Rotary Club of Bali Bersinar. It is planned to obtain a global grant for this.
President Trudy told us of Public Image/Community project for Australia Day that our club runs in conjunction with RC of North Rocks and RC of Beecroft. It includes a Flag Raising Ceremony, various cultural activities including traditional dancing and music from a range of nationalities and a movie screened in the early evening. President Trudy also introduced President-elect Bass Bhaskaran and President-nominee Martha Jabour in significant community projects was also acknowledged.
An exchange of banners between the clubs concluded these information sessions.
A series of trivia questions on Rotary and on World Landmarks presented in Kahoot format (multiple choice with 4 options for each question) resulted in some discussion as groups of approximately 6 Rotarians determined their agreed responses. The winning team got a perfect score and then shared the “Favourites” chocolates that they won. How perfect is that!
Then came even more fun as we celebrated Paul Harris’s 155th birthday (Born on 18 April, 1868) with a birthday cake jointly cut by the 2 presidents, Mary and Trudy.
A reflection and vote of thanks were given by Renga Rajan Chidambaranathan of Granville club. He was pleased to tell us of 2 projects, one to provide 36 dialysis machines to India and the other related to provision of computers for rural students. He thanked those attending, especially those for whom it was their first attendance at a Rotary meeting.