Presidents Report

The week that has just passed showed the true spirit and energy of our Club and what it is to be people of action.
We started the week with a fantastic, combined meeting with the Rotary Club of Epping where we enjoyed shared fellowship and the opportunity to listen to our most entertaining and engaging speaker Kenneth Howard present an Antiques Roadshow. A big thank you to Alex and Neville from Club Services for organising this Collaborative event.   
Thursday night saw half a dozen interested Club members and partners attend an International Service, information session on the NTA Donors visit to Flores in West Timor planned for November 2022.  This meeting, which including linking in via Zoom with other interested Clubs and external parties, gave us all the opportunity to find out more about the trip in terms of costs, logistics and importantly the itinerary which detailed ways to see what NTA does on the ground and how our donated funds are put to good use.
On Friday, the Community Services team, consisting of Colin S, Neville, Adrian, George,
John C continued the work they started the previous Friday to repair the roof on a container and install shelving at Michele Rocheta’s - Goods Rescued and Rehomed. This is a big job, and more work will take place this coming Friday (26/08) - if you are able, and have time, please considering volunteering as your energy and support would be most appreciated.
On Saturday afternoon, our potential new Club members undertook their Rotary 101 training with Carol and the Membership team. This means we are now well placed to move forward with progressing their applications and inducting them into the Club. So, stay tuned for updates. 
After a two-year absence due to COVID, the Club was able to hold its annual Trivia Night fundraising event. Cherrybrook Community Centre was jam packed on Saturday night as 246 participants (our largest participant numbers to date) from the local community, Rotary, Rotaract, Probus and Lions Clubs, as well as members from the Homicide Victims Support Group came together to raise funds for Grace’s Place at Doonside – the new facility being commissioned by the HVSG. We had a fabulous night and will be donating $7,000 to this truly worthy cause. A big shout out to the dynamic duo of Andrew and Max – what would we do without you, and to the Fundraising Committee’s, Trivia Night team and the Club members (including potential members), partners, and families who all lent a hand – well done one and all.
And if you thought that was enough – you’re wrong! Because on Sunday Community Services were in action again from dawn to dusk, this time assisting the P&C at West Pennant Hills Public School to run the BBQ at their Family Fun Fair.  This was a long day, especially with heavy heads from the night before, but an enormously worthwhile event with which to be involved. So, thank you to: Colin S, David, Neville, Keith, Tony C, Andrew, Keith, Andrew, Douglas, George, Adrian, John T, Edwina, Carol and potential new members: Michele Rocheta, Vince Delpopolo and Kaye Carter.
         
Monday this week also saw Community Services in action once again assisting an older local couple relocate furniture and homewares as they move into retirement living as well as working collaboratively with the Rotary Club of Beecroft to rehome their large supply of books.   
 And that’s the buzz for the week. Hopefully the meeting free night on 22/08 has given you all time to recharge your batteries so that you are ready to join in for our Zoom meeting next Monday 29/08/2022 where we’ll be hearing about the potential Zone 8 Regionalisation trial and as a Club deciding how we will vote in this ballot in early September.
 
Until then, stay safe and well. Janelle

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Euroglossine bee, just 4mm long, blowing an amazingly large nectar bubble. Credit: Aussie Bee

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Trivia Night Wrap Up

We had a “full house” last Saturday night with an excess of 240 people playing trivia at the Cherrybrook Community Centre.
Feedback received from friends, neighbours and the community groups in attendance were all very positive - lots of fun, great atmosphere and most of all, that the cause we were supporting resonated very strongly with them and hence encouraged their support and involvement, delivering us a new revenue record.
Steve Sim our sensational quizmaster, who has donated his services every year (from about 2008 and before our time) was accompanied this year by Michael Parsons (President Hunter’s Hill Rotary). Between them they provided a very professional, entertaining and informative trivia night.
Apart from Steve and Michael we need to acknowledge the support of the following:
  A:  Community groups, who occupied twenty seven of the thirty tables (the other three comprised three independent groups of friends and                   neighbours):

• Graces Place & Homicide Victims Support Group
• West Pennant Hills Lions
• Thornleigh Probus
• Normanhurst Probus
• Cherrybrook Combined Probus
• West Pennant Hills & District Probus
• Carlingford Men’s Probus
• Beecroft Men’s Probus
• Carlingford Rotary
• Hills Rotaract
• West Pennant Hills & Cherrybrook Rotary Club

 
 B: Local business that donated the various prizes for our raffle:

• Martellis Fruit Basket
• Jojoba Beauty Pack (value $280)
• Hills Motor Repairs Car Service (to value of $250)
• Hills Motor Repairs Car Service (to value of $250)
• Tramontina Set of 8 Steak Knifes & Forks (value $200)
• Next Generation Hair (to value of $100) Plus Hair Products (valued at $100)

And those that supported our Trivia Night:

• Springfield House, Dural with a dozen bottles of wine, and
• Total Print Control, Castle Hill, undertook all our printing

 
 C: Hornsby Council who waived the hall hire fee, as we were raising funds for a very worthy cause. 
 D: At the end of the supper break, Grace’s Place auctioned an exclusive bottle of wine (St Hugo 1998), adding $350.00 to the night. 
 E: Our club sponsors:

Cherrybrook Pharmacy	Shop 8 132 Shepherds Drive Cherrybrook	9484 3765	​Home - PharmaSave (cherrybrookpharmacy.com.au)​
Hills Storage	36 Mid Dural Road Galston	9653 1122	Self Storage Galston, Hornsby, Berowra & Berrilee | Hills Self Storage​
The Dental Touch	Room 6, Thorby's Arcade Thompson's Corner	9884 4349	The Dental Touch
Ray White Rashna Govekar Mitchell Hann	1 Hillcrest Road ​Pennant Hills	0415 141 123 0424 484 119	​rasha.govekar@raywhite.com mitchell.hann@raywhite.com
Yellow Brick Road	99 Showground Road ​Castle Hill	0418 431 157	​Mortgage Brokers near Castle Hill - Yellow Brick Road (ybr.com.au)

 E: Finally, the support and encouragement of our club members, what a great team effort from everyone, in particular our twenty-four volunteers, with specific roles, namely our MC, door (table allocation), cash sales, EFT sales, scorers, supper and photographers. Then, we had all those people that assisted with setting up and packing up at the end of the night. 
All proceeds raised will be donated to Grace’s Place & Homicide Victims Support Group (HVSG). This group was founded by the parents of Anita Cobby and Ebony Simpson in June 1993. They provide counselling and support for family members who have been affected by homicide. Grace’s Place will be a world first residential trauma recovery centre is nearing completion and will be operated by HVSG.
 We implemented a very basic business model about seven years ago, when we were attracting closer to 100 people to our annual trivia nights. We recognised that support came mainly from retirees and we needed to:

• Focus on Probus Clubs to increase our numbers, albeit Rotary and Lion clubs are also well represented with retiree’s
• Reduce the costs/exclude the revenue streams to simply an entry fee ($20.00pp, which we have maintained since 2008) and a single raffle, thus providing the option of purchasing additional raffle tickets to support the nominated cause
• By only charging $20.00pp to attract mainly the retiree market we also saw this as a quasi-community project, providing a fun night for a very affordable price

Whilst it has taken a number of years we have finally achieved our goal of a “full house”, and then some, as we had to decline a few late requests. This is reflected in the door and raffle revenues, both of which exceed previous years.
 
Our Treasurer has crunched the numbers and we provide the following synopsis:

Revenue
Door	$4,800
Raffle	$2,485
Wine	$350
Gross	$7,635
Expenses	$753
Square Com	$24
	$777
Profit	$6,858

​Thanks again for your support; we are so fortunate to be part of this club.
 
Andrew & Max

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Project Photos at Michele's
Photos from Colin S. & Neville

Night Photos (40 off)

West Pennant Hills Public School Biennial Fete

Articles

Know Your Member - Anna Vass reports on a trip to Budapest

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Humour

The odd joke, or three ... contributed by Carol

Bigamy is having one wife too many
... for many, monogamy is the same thing.

Did you hear about the transgender who was locked up for male fraud?
 
A fair haired woman arrived at work one cold winter morning wearing one glove.
... because the weather man said “it's going to be cold, but on the other hand it might be warm”.
 
Winters are fierce in Minnesota where he lives, so the owner of a construction project felt he was doing a good deed when he bought earmuffs for his foreman. 
Noticing, however, that the foreman wasn't wearing the earmuffs even on the bitterest day, the project manager asked, "Didn't you like the muffs?" 
The Foreman said, "They're a thing of beauty." 
"Why don't you wear them?" The Project Manager said. 
The Foreman explained, "I was wearing them the first day, and somebody offered to buy me lunch, but I didn't hear him! 
Never again, never again!”
 
Once somebody stole our car. I asked my wife if she saw who it was. She said "No, but I got the licence number”.
 
There was this preacher who was an avid golfer. Every chance he could get, he could be found on the golf course swinging away. 
It was an obsession. One Sunday was a picture perfect day for golfing. The sun was out, no clouds in the sky, and the temperature was just right. 
The preacher was in a quandary as to what to do, and shortly, the urge to play golf overcame him. 
He called an assistant to tell him that he was sick and could not do church, packed the car up, and drove three hours to a golf course where no one would recognise him. 
Happily, he began to play the course. An angel up above was watching the preacher and was quite perturbed. 
He went to God and said, "Look at the preacher. He should be punished for what he is doing." God nodded in agreement. 
The preacher teed up on the first hole. He swung at the ball, and it sailed effortlessly through the air and landed right in the cup three hundred and fifty yards away. A picture perfect hole-in-one. He was amazed and excited. 
The angel was a little shocked. He turned to God and said, "Begging Your pardon, but I thought you were going to punish him." 
God smiled. "Think about it -- who can he tell? ... and who would believe him, anyway?”
 
The Sunday School teacher was describing how Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.
Little Johnny interrupted with the announcement: "My Mum looked back once while she was driving, and she turned into a telephone pole!”
​

Small business is having a hard time ...   contributed by Jim

It is with great sadness that I have to mention the loss of a few further local businesses around town:

• The bra manufacturer has gone bust.
• The specialist in submersibles has gone under.
• The manufacturer of food blenders has gone into liquidation.
• A dog kennel has had to call in the retrievers.
• The Heinz factory has been canned as they couldn't ketchup with orders.
• The suppliers of paper for origami enthusiasts have folded.
• The tarmac-laying company has reached the end of the road.
• The bread company has run out of dough.
• The clock manufacturer has had to wind down and gone cuckoo.
• The Chinese has been taken away.
• The shoe shop has had to put their foot down and give their staff the boot.
• The laundrette has been taken to the cleaners.
• The pet shop has gone to the dogs.
• The butchers had the chop.
• The wallpaper shops have taken a pasting.
•  The florists are now pushing up the daisies.
•  The fish 'n' chip shop has been battered.
• ​ and ... finally, the bread man is toast.

​Why English is hard to learn contributed by Cawas

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