This Week - A Business Meeting

 Our first meeting of the year is a Business Meeting and so was our last online meeting of the Old Year!  With just over 6 months to go before the end of the Rotary Year we have to ensure that we complete our year plan and also prepare for the next year with a new president who will have his own ideas.

Next Week

Our Speaker will be well known artist Gordon Froud who is currently Head of the Department of FADA Visula Art at UJ.  I don't know what his subject will be yet but he has an extensive collection of Lewis Carroll works and artifacts so he might talk about Alice in Wonderland.

I am waiting for the Board Meeting to decide what our meetings will be for the rest of the month and beyond.

International: Finland

Rotary members are working with the Finnish Environment Institute to collect, categorise, and measure rubbish in the Baltic Sea. “Scientists have little time for this kind of work,” explains Liisa Stjernberg, a past governor of District 1420 and a member of the Rotary Club of Helsinki City West. Stjernberg, the Finland country coordinator for the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group, leads a group of volunteer members from her district who monitor blue algae blooms, raise funds for research, and promote marine conservation. In September the group enlisted 22 Rotary Youth Exchange students to join a measurement outing off the islands of Suomenlinna. They fished out rubbish including polymer fibers and shock tube detonators used in construction, Stjernberg says. Afterward they took up their oars for another cause: the Rotary-led “Rowing for Herring” longboat regatta, which drew 300 participants.

South Africa

The Rotary Club of Polokwane, northeast of Johannesburg, has given new meaning to the expression “waste not, want not.” The club has helped train more than 550 preschool teachers and caregivers to turn common household waste items — cardboard tubes, plastic sticks, egg cartons, newsprint, and more — into craft projects for children. In 2017, the club teamed up with Shayne Moodie, founder of an initiative called Empty Toy Box Education, to train rural educators to engage children with such projects. Club members collect recyclables and supplies such as glue and scissors, assist with the training, and provide the certificates for teachers. “The early childhood development program has been the most successful, sustainable programme offered by our club in recent years,” says club member Ursula Moodie, who is Shayne’s mother. The programme has reached as many as 17,000 preschoolers, the club estimates.