As scheduled, on Monday night our Directors presented their plans for the year ahead. But before I report on that I wanted mention the tree planting at Portcullis Park Willetton,  so ably organised and implemented by Geoff Geary and his "merry men", on  Sunday, 7 July 2019 in partnership with the City of Canning; to let you know that the sign below has been erected at the site as a permanent reminder of the event; and to say well done to everyone involved.

It's also great to see that we have re-established the practice of writing to our outbound exchange student. Carolyn Mathew. The most recent exchange was between Geoff Patching and Carolyn. To read what each had to say, Click here; and for the email Carolyn sent to the Club Click here.  

As Club Director for International Service, Steve Genoni, points out,  our commitment to Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) is significant and ongoing. Both we and the students benefit from the programme and it's good to see our current inbound student, Johanna, is settling in for her year ahead. She's had her first full week at school; has celebrated her host Mum's birthday; has exchanged Club banners with us (pictured at right); and is very keen to identify a soccer Club she can join. At home Johanna plays at a very high level and she's keen to maintain those skills and get out on the pitch again. Johanna will be our guest speaker next week. 

Emily Fisher (pictured at right) is our next outbound exchange student. She will attend several Club meetings (including a 'dry run" of the presentation she'll give to her host Club)  before she departs in January 2020 to Belgium.

In the meantime, we were very pleased to have Wilfred Dory with us as Simon Cubitt's guest. Wilfred was a member of the Rotary Club of Bull Creek before they returned their charter and many of their members joined us. We would be delighted if Wilfred did decide to rejoin. As Club Director of Membership, Vic Camp, points out, it (membership) is the life blood of our Club and I endorse his appeal to us all to look out for friends and associates with a strong community attitude who would be an asset to Rotary. With that in mind we need to be prepared to explain in a clear, concise way what Rotary is, who we are and what we do; as well as the many social benefits of membership. 

I'm sure we were all impressed to hear the range of plans our Directors have for our Club Good Works. We propose to spend around $60,000 on these. The plans include ongoing support for: The Rotary Foundation; the Sri Lanka Mini Dairy; Shelterbox; Hands Across the World; seven District Youth programmes; Rotary Youth Exchange; and closer to home the Rotary Residential College; Castlereagh School for children with complex communication needs; the Canning Men's Shed; the Willetton Community Garden; and the Willetton Senior High School (WSHS) Interact Club. For the complete list Click here and then on Sheet 1.

We have a comprehensive set of Good Works and it behoves us all to mention and promote them, the Club and Rotary at every opportunity. Club PR man, David Honeychurch, will be doing his bit to get the message out through our website, community radio, social media, and print and online news sources. I ask everyone to please help wherever they can and refer anything newsworthy to David to promote.  

Fund raising is obviously crucial to our ability to execute our Good Works. They will be mostly financed by what we earn from manning the vehicle entrance gates at the Canning Vale Markets every Saturday morning; and from the Willetton Rotary Community Fair (supplemented by our other fund raising activities).

As promised, Simon Cubitt has put a table of ten together for the WSHS Interact Club Quiz Night on Friday 9 August 2019 in the WSHS Performing Arts Centre to raise funds for Mercy Ships and Water For Africa. Thank you to everyone who will be attending. Let's hope you "bring home the bacon".

The next outing for the Club is a guided tour of Optus Stadium on Monday 16 September 2019 which is being planned by Club Director of Vocational Service, Kevin Baruffi and his team. I understand that even if you've been to the stadium for an event, the tour delves much deeper is well worth taking.  

For "Lethal" Leigh's Laughs Click here. It's a particularly Irish joke.

And I couldn't close off without including a couple of Raffle Master Glenn Trim's "Gems" I don't know where he gets them from, but I like the way he's personalised them. 

• Rob Webster walks into a Norwegian seafood store carrying a halibut under his arm. "Do you make fishcakes?" he asked. "Yes we do" replied the fishmonger. "Great" says Rob. "It's his birthday".
• Darlene and I often visit Southlands Shopping Centre. When we need to go from the ground floor to the cinema level, she prefers to use the stairs and I take the escalator. I guess we were raised differently.
• What's the best thing about Switzerland? I don't know either but the flag is a big plus.
• My dog ate all the scrabble tiles. For days he kept leaving little messages around the house.
• One for NBN Geoff. Before you marry a person, you should first make them use a computer with slow internet to see who they really are.
• One for Greg H. People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
• Bonus. I had to sell my vacuum cleaner. It was just collecting dust.