Today is the presidential handover from Mariandy Lennon to Alan Davidson
Last week Immediate Past President Mariandy chaired our 12th virtual meeting. PP Bernadette Mulvey gave the invocation.

Forthcoming Speakers and Events
Jul 13th Li Yan. China in the early days of Covid-19.

Rotary Rangers Walks

July 7th The Deerpark in Powerscourt
Social distancing rules will apply. More details are available from PP Brian George.

Apologies
Former Hon Sec (and now Assistant Hon Sec) Tony Keegan gave apologies for non attendance from PP Tony Gannon, Brian Taylor, PP Ken Hunt, PP Randal Gray, Deirdre Hannon, Rana Al Damin, Delma Sweeney, Simone Nelson and David Horkan..

Attendees
At last week’s virtual meeting there were 22 attendees. Last week we had one Rotarian guest who was Assistant District Governor Mike Connolly who attended our Club Assembly. We had no non-Rotarian visitors.

President’s Announcements
President Mariandy informed us that Council had agreed to support the Tours Rotary Club’s project and Global Grant for the provision of water to a community in Cambodia.

Members wishing to speak
PP Ted Corcoran reminded the meeting that Rotary had supported the new Senator Eileen Kelly from the Travelling Community to take a course in Maynooth which most likely helped her in her campaign to win a seat in the Seanad.

Members with unusual hobbies
As may have been seen in recent weeks in your Dubliner, the editors have endeavoured to spread the net more widely with things to report on. Your present editor let it slip at one of the weekly editorial meetings that he would have to slip away to look after his bees. His fellow editors suggested this might be something to write about, but of course your editor is reluctant to impose his hobby more than in a passing/fleeting way. We can all thank the apis mellerifa, or better known as the ‘honey bee’, for at least 1 in 4 of the mouthfuls of food that we will eat today and each day. But such a high ideal was not in the mind of your editor when he enjoyed his first mouthfuls of fresh honey as a boy, straight from the hive and spread on warm brown bread. Everything has its price and the master enlisted the apprentice to help with the heavy lifting of crates of frames of wax full of honey, the cleaning of the wooden frames and inserting of sweet smelling fresh wax to assist the thousands of bees in each hive to fill them as soon as possible. And to learn about the many diseases that can affect the bees, to practice good hygiene, something that has become more common among the general population recently. And of course to take care when working with the bees, because they sometimes object to having the produce of all their hard work removed from the hive. One does get a great buzz from this hobby, and it is recommended.

Club Assembly
The following is a very brief summary of the detailed Statements of Intent given to the Club Assembly on Monday last by the chairs or convenors of each of the Club Committees, or someone on behalf of, and more details of which were circulated in advance of last week’s meeting:

Community and Vocational – Convenor Kenneth Carroll
(a) Outreach – As Rotarians we wish to give of our time in support of others. One pillar intent of the committee is an idea from Rotarian Dermot Knight to be hosted on a Rotary platform to make use of Rotary members talents. It is to match members time with those who might need assistance with a skill or talent that a member has. Kenneth Carroll will ask Dermot to make a presentation and a summary of the proposal will be made available.
(b) Prison Outreach – Through a fellow member of his committee Kenneth became aware of an organisation, AIGEO, a support system to help those at risk of offending or reoffending. The Rotary involvement would be to support, mentor, give work experience and have our involvement recognised by the wider community.
(c) There will be smaller projects, no less effective in the community as the previous two fairly major projects.

New Generations – Convenor Rana Al Damin (Statement presented by then PE Alan Davidson)
There will be a competition to win a trip through the six founding member countries of the EU which is held every second year. In the absence of Rana, Mary O’Rafferty, a former convenor, reminded that the schools that participate in this competition will have difficulties to overcome due to C-19 restrictions.

International – Convenor Dr Brian O’Boyce (who was working last Monday as he has been from the beginning of the pandemic, and in his absence P.E. Allen presented the statement). The principal project is to support the project of the RC Tours, France in Cambodia. More than 800 people will benefit from this project from very young children to the elderly.

Foundation – Convenor Delma Sweeney, and in her absence Rotarian Roger Owens presented the statement.

(a) The committee hopes to avail of at least two District Grants.
(b) In conjunction with the International Committee, this committee would like to lead a project to apply for a Global Grant from RI.
(c) The Duck Race will be held in September as usual.
(d) To promote the Rotary Charity Foundation, within our own club.
(e) To promote a Peace Scholar.

Membership – Convened by now PE Alexander Kopf
Alexander listed the following as the targets for the coming Rotary year:
(a) To attract new members
(b) Not to lose existing members
(c) To support the work of the club committees.
(d) To find out from recently joined members what attracts members to join and to provide feedback
(e) Member retention.

Before inviting ADG Mike Connolly to respond, PE (and now President) Alan Davidson drew members attention to his recorded speech of welcome which is available to all on the Club’s website.

ADG Mike, who had attended our meeting, said that he hoped we would continue to meet online while we are prevented from meeting face to face. ( It appears that it may be September before the hotel is in a position to welcome us back). Mike suggested that we, in our efforts for community and vocational, coordinate with the District Coordinator that is Willie Maxwell. PE Alan confirmed that we had Willie Maxwell at one of our meetings recently and that he knows Willie personally and will certainly arrange that there is co-ordination with the efforts at District level. Mike also suggested that where we are involved with efforts such as the schools European project that we should look on the parents of the children as possible and potential members of our club. Mike drew our attention to the “Just One Life” project initiated by the RC Wexford and supported by other clubs such as Kildare as something that is worth following up. He wished us success in all our endeavours in the coming year. DG Mike was thanked by PE (now President) Alan.

Then, President Mariandy retook the chair of the meeting to complete her service as President of our club which of course ended on 30th June. All members joined in thanking Mariandy for her service. Mariandy also thanked other outgoing officers, and in particular, outgoing Honorary Secretary Tony Keegan who has served more than once as our Honorary Secretary and has certainly served with distinction for the last five plus years. As a mark of thanks, Mariandy then played on her piano “I will be seeing you” which was warmly applauded. The Club has presented, with thanks, the laptop that Tony has been using as secretary, to Tony to keep.

PP Ted Corcoran also thanked now Assistant HS Tony for his years of service.

Rotarian Frank Bannister also thanked HS Tony for his service and also in his role as proof reader of the weekly Dubliner.

And of course we are fortunate that when one Tony leaves the post of Hon Sec, we have another Tony (McCourt) to replace him. Your editor might have overheard our new Hon Sec say something to the effect
that we will not be seeing as long service from this Tony, but then he is only new to the job…