Our meeting of 7 July
Peter Gillham was our chair for our King-sized Changeover meeting with special guests District Governor Jane Cox and District Governor Elect Stephen Lamont, our own Past President and Assistant Governor Ross Taylor as well as our Rotaractors, Exchange Students and partners, friends and families.
We were delighted that Diana Marshall shared the evening with us and we welcomed Anna Fletcher back from leave of absence.
It was great to see Sue Beretta and we look forward to Sue’s return following her period of leave of absence.
President Bruce presented the Club’s Annual Report for the 2014-2015 Rotary year and thanked his Board and all the members for making his presidential year so successful, enjoyable and productive.
The Club is most grateful for the time and attention given by Past President David Sykes and Past President Tony Alsop to the preparation, printing and binding of the Annual Report.
Past President Peter Gillham received a 30 Year Service Award and a Paul Harris Fellow recognition was bestowed on Past President Graham Thomson who has served this Club and its community with distinction including as a long-standing member of the District Shine On Award committee.
The evening’s highlight was certainly the bestowing upon Past President Adrian Innes of The Avenues of Service Award which recognized the many decades of devoted and self effacing service both within and outside Rotary for which Adrian is reknown.
Adrian’s love and appreciation of his family, his dedication to the service of others, his extraordinary range of practical skills, his energy and genuine modesty make him a true community leader and we are privileged to have him in our Club and to be numbered amongst his friends.
Adrian joins Past District Governor Eddie Loughnan, Past President Bill Pratt, Past President David Beretta, Past President Graeme Fleet and Andrew Thornton as recipients in this Club of this most prestigious award.
The Club was the beneficiary of the funds raised from the sale during the evening of a significant item of AFL memorabilia, very kindly donated by Mark Evans and courtesy of Robert Wheeler in the form of a jacket from the indigenous AFL teams tour of Ireland in 2013.
Our generous sponsors Goodalls Meats and the East Geelong Newsagency donated raffle prizes and we were entertained throughout the evening by the very talented young performers from Geelong High School with support of their teaching staff.
The formal changeover proceeded and we welcomed the new Board comprising:
President: Andrew Rofe
Vice President: Sue Dunlop
President Elect: Janine Koch
Past President: Bruce King
Secretary: Peter Gillham
Treasurer: Michael Carroll
Public Relations Director: Tony Alsop
Membership Director: David Sykes
Rotary Foundation Director: Jonathan Hepner
Service Projects Director: Jenny Acopian
Fundraising Director: Sue Hill
Club Administration: Janine Koch
Program Director: Sue Dunlop
Our newly-installed President Andrew spoke on the new Rotary year theme of "Be A Gift to the World" and we look forward to sharing the year ahead of fun, service and learning with Andrew at the helm.
The evening concluded with Allanah’s marvelous and inspired musical tribute to the Live Aid concerts of 1985 incorporating the talents of our Rotary Family’s youngsters and more colourful tissue paper than had ever been previously assembled.
The night was another great Geelong East event and we are again so appreciative of the skill, talent and imagination of Allanah and of Elaine Valentine in creating the table decorations which were sold to raise funds for Rotary Foundation.
