The first gathering of men interested in learning about (or participating in) the Burnie Men’s Table will take place TOMORROW evening (Tuesday, Sept. 13, 6:30 pm) at the Beach Hotel.
What is a Men’s Table? See earlier posts on our website dated 12 April and 3 August.
To book a place, go to:
Sue Radford and Virginia Stevens have been friends for 48 years.
They jointly formed Flickering Memories in 2014 to mark the passing of their mothers; one from Ovarian Cancer and one from Breast Cancer. The high tea in 2014, attended by 100 people; raised around $5,000 towards helping the McGrath Foundation and Ovarian Cancer Australia. Last year, 380 men and women attended over two days and raised $28,000. In all, $100,000 has been raised in eight years.
See https://www.facebook.com/groups/360207381123566/
At right: Sue and Virginia with Burnie Rotarian Leanne Cullen
Sue said:
— We create “Bags of Hope” to support patients at Burnie Cancer Clinic and Hobart and Launceston Gynaecological Clinics. The bags may contain blankets, colouring-in supplies, water bottles, and food or petrol vouchers.
— This year, the Cancer Clinic asked us to produce emergency packs to aid cancer patients who ‘live rough’, but who still have to face having treatment. We produced 20 packs, plus 20 more for later use.
— After Palliative Care asked us, we made 100 bags to hold syringe driver kits for use throughout Tasmania [A ‘syringe driver’ provides a continuous, subcutaneous infusion of pain relief medication].
— We support Women Can, which conducts research on all women’s gynaeco-logical cancers.
Thus, we are able to support every Tasmanian who is diagnosed with cancer.
– “We don’t say NO” –
On April 12, Burnie Rotary Club posted a news story on this website about the introduction of Men’s Tables in Tasmania. The Rotary Club is now pleased to announce: a Men’s Table will start in Burnie on Tuesday 13th September at The Beach Hotel
The organiser, Ben Hughes, welcomes men to come along to this event and find out what happens at a Men’s Table and why. Ben says:
“The Men’s Table is a national organisation to get men listening, talking, supporting and being supported. Come and have a proper chat over a meal. We have 66 Tables nationally, 4 in Launceston and now we are starting one in Burnie.”
Book here: https://events.humanitix.com/burnie-men-s-table-entree-tues13thsept
The cost ($30) covers a meal and a drink. There are no ongoing fees or membership costs.
For more information please contact Ben Hughes at ben.hughes@themenstable.org or call 0424 99 33 66
Jessica Richmond and Lindsay Ellis are partners in Ellis Richmond Management and Sustainability Consulting firm based in Burnie. Jessica explained that Sustainability affects all businesses. “At ER, we follow the Greenhouse Gas Standards to calculate your emissions.” Those standards divide emissions into Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions.
Scope 1 emissions arise from sources that are directly controlled by your company, e.g., from combustion of fuel in vehicles that your company owns.
Scope 2 emissions arise indirectly from the generation of the energy you buy from a utility provider.
Scope 3 emissions are tricky! They cover all the emissions your company is responsible for outside of its own walls – from the goods you purchase to the disposal of the products you sell! These emissions often account for a huge amount of a company’s overall emissions!
“At ER, we assist companies to properly identify and track their Scope 3 emissions.”
Jessica also explained the concept of Carbon Offsets – a government incentive to encourage people to reduce emissions. For instance, if farmer A stops carbon going into the atmosphere by using a special method, farmer A can register that project and method and they will get a certain quantity of credits which farmer A can sell.
“ER can help you work out what method may be best.”
President Themba presented a cheque for $2,000 to Haydon Smith of the Burnie Surf Lifesaving Club, saying that this was the outcome of a presentation to the Rotary Club in March by Stuart Payne (President of Surf Life Saving Tasmania) and Shane Askew (President of Burnie Surf Lifesaving Club).
Haydon thanked the club and said this money would mean the Surf Club is close to being able to purchase a new IRB (Inflated Rescue Boat) to replace their very old boat. These days, an IRB costs around $19,000 – without the motor!
Nina came to Western Australia from Taiwan* in 2010 for a working holiday. She was paid only $40 per day, but she enjoyed what Australia has to offer, so in 2013-14, she entered Wollongong University and specialised in pure mathematics.
* Taiwan is “a small island – half the area of Tasmania, but with a population close to that of the whole of Australia.”
In 2016, Nina began working for Entura, a company owned by Hydro Tasmania [company sales pitch: “We own. We operate. We consult.”]
In 2017, Nina became a Project Analyst and since 2020 has been Entura’s Delivery Controller. “I’m one person and I want to keep a Team of One!” she said. In this job she oversees the work output of 200 employees – the hours they work and the outputs arising from those hours (to answer queries such as ‘is this work ‘billable’ to a customer or not’?)
To do this, Nina makes use of 1109 data tables with over 12,000 columns and 1.2 trillion cells of data.
Q: Are the Taiwanese worried that what is happening in Ukraine might also happen to them?
A: “Life goes on as normal in Taiwan.” Two-year universal military service exists for 18-year old males and repeats of this training for 1~2 weeks each year are the norm.
In late February, our Guest Speaker was Mr Ben Hughes of Launceston, who is diligently working to set up Men’s Tables in Tasmania – the 55th table in Australia recently began meeting in George Town.
(see https://burnierotary.org.au/a-mens-table-in-burnie/ )
A Men’s Table begins with two or more men wanting to meet. Membership of any Table is capped at twelve; there can be several Tables in any one town. There are only a few simple rules:
Allan Jamieson contacted Ben Hughes last week to find out what Burnie Rotary club could do to help Ben start a Burnie Men’s Table. Ben replied as follows:
https://themenstable.org/
The members of Burnie Rotary club were able to identify several ways in which they could assist Ben in his quest and these will be worked on during the next few weeks.
Chandra focused his talk on his experiences growing up in Sri Lanka.
He told the story behind the country’s flag: The four leaves refer to the four Buddhist virtues of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity; the sword held by the lion reflects the sovereignty of the nation; the green stripe is support for Muslims and the orange for the Tamils (during the long war in Sri Lanka against the Tamil tigers, each tiger wore a cyanide capsule around his/her neck).
The National bird is the Rooster and the Water Lily is the National flower.
Chandra told of the age-old custom of preserving meat in honey; the meat is first dried and then immersed in honey.
The Cabinet of the governing party in Sri Lanka has been a “family affair”, he said.
[Just a few hours after Chandra told us this, the Sri Lanka cabinet resigned in recognition of escalating popular demonstrations against the government. “Only the president’s brother, Prime Minister Mahinda, stayed on as the government grapples with a major economic crisis. Earlier, the President, Mr Rajapaksa, invited opposition parties to join the cabinet.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60975941 ]
At right, Chandra is seen in national dress, with Pres. Themba in his usual winter jacket
Chandra showed us a picture of a huge castle built in the 5th Century on top of a massive rock. “Nobody knows how it was done.”
To reach his secondary school, Chandra had to climb 145 steps each day.
Chandra showed us images of objects he created during his school years. One such object was a tower, similar to the Eiffel Tower, made from finely cut match-sticks – he would split one matchstick into 64 smaller sticks and the tower comprised 25,000 small sticks. If he sneezed, he would have to begin again!
At the Burnie Rotary club meeting on 4th April, Past President John Glen explained how Rotary is helping in Ukraine and adjoining countries.
In Australia, John said, the smart approach is to rely on RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service), which has set up a fund – “Ukrainian Humanitarian Relief Aid” for donations. The current goal is to raise AU$5 million. RAWCS is working in conjunction with the Australian Federation of Ukrainian organisations and Caritas Ukraine. This is the largest tax-deductible effort in Australia aiding Ukraine.
John urged our club, plus other Australians and Australian companies to donate into said fund. Go to <https://rotarydistrict9675.org/Stories/rawcs-ukraine-appeal>
Burnie Rotary Club is extremely appreciative of all the sponsors of our annual Charities Golf Day. Without these good souls, the club could not hope to organise this Day.
THANKS TO EVERYONE LISTED BELOW.
