Post on 02-Oct-2020
Bulletin Volume 92 No 8 September 15 2020
Rotary Clubs of Sale www.rotaryclubofsale.org.au
Rotary District 9820 Incorporated
ZOOM MEETING 15TH SEPTEMBER 2020
RC Sale Meeting Notes – Club Meeting 15th September.
15 club members attended along with our special ROMAC guest speaker PDG
Harold Sharp and his wife PDG Gina Growden from RC Crows Nest.
Meeting apologies from Keith Miller, Alan Lewis, Rod Exton, Lyndon & Carmel
Webb, Kerry McMillan and Andrew McDonald. President Philip opened the
meeting with a welcome to all club members and followed with a hearty toast to
Rotary and reciting the four-way test together with club members.
Our guest speaker Rotarian Harold Sharp was then introduced and spoke about
ROMAC – Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children. After technical difficulties
cancelling the audio for his presentation he proceeded to speak on what ROMAC
does and his involvement.
PDG Harold Sharp and PDG Gina Growden
ROMAC is spearheaded by a very small team of five people including Harold. It
involves various Rotary Clubs of Australia and New Zealand providing medical
and surgical expertise to help restore health and dignity to young children from
our Pacific Island neighbours - Timor Leste, PNG, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga
and Vanuatu.
Since March 1988 over 500 children under 15 years of age have been treated in
hospitals in Aust/NZ with an average of between 40- 50 per year and the average
stay is between 6 – 7 days. Various medical ailments are treated from congenital
heart problems, birth defects, fractures, tumours, scoliosis and more. The doctors,
medical staff and Rotarians are all volunteers however some medical evac flights
and hospital stays are very expensive with ward beds from $2,000 to $6,000 per
day in some cases.
The Bosin twins were the first ROMAC case
The patients accompanied by parents or carers, are all from poorer economic
areas and arrive with very little personal items, so an initial shop is done with
them for clothing, shoes, etc. to be purchased. The English language remains a
barrier in most cases and a translator is not always available to assist. The
average cost needed for ROMAC every year to treat between 40 – 50 young
children is approx $750,000 which is fundraised by Rotarians through golf days
and many other social events.
ROMAC is also working in the field training doctors on-site at a lot of these
outlying islands so as to minimise the trauma of young children feeling insecure
on leaving home, for medical treatment in a strange country.
More can be found on this life-saving work by going on-line at romac.org.au and
if you would like to assist with this life-changing and life-saving work, then all
donations are fully tax deductible.
PP Raj Mani is interested in the presentation
Philip then asked for questions to the speaker and there were a couple of
interesting chats regarding lack of Aust govt assistance, the slow-down of
incoming patients, and less Australian doctors training overseas doctors and
surgeons, due to current COVID/quarantine restrictions.
Trevor Watt talks about the cleanup project
After thanking our speaker Harold sincerely for his time, Pres Philip handed the
podium to Trevor Watt who announced this Sunday’s clean up the waterways
project part 1 would be going ahead at 12 noon. Up to 10 volunteers are asked to
meet up at the end of Macintosh drive turnaround and to bring gloves.
Philip spoke next on the club constitution which has finally been drafted for our
club and will be reviewed at a special board meeting next week. There will then
be another special meeting convened for all club members prior to the end of
October to discuss and adopt this new constitution and rules.
Sergeant Mike gives a pastoral report
Sergeant Mike relayed our best wishes to club members currently under medical
supervision - Rod Exton, Lyndon Webb, Laurie’s Smythe and wife Jill. We all
hope they will be back in better health as soon as possible.
Sergeant Mike was in “fine” form (sorry pun !! ) and set about raising more
dollars from club members. From Raj’s magnificent isolation “beard”, Rob
McKimm’s Murray River and Don Ripper’s Lake Tali Karng backdrops, Sandra
and Michael Page both looking very relaxed, to John Cartledge hard at work on
the SEED chicken resort (complete with auto-doors, air conditioning & solar
panels – but no chickens at this stage) There were lots of laughs by all and
culminating in a fine on our President Phillip who is now residing temporarily at
the Lake House, for personally moving all his boxes of wine one by one, and not
using the removalists for this
mammoth task…
Rob McKimm and the mighty Murray River
Don Ripper and Lake Tali Karng
On members fines, if you can “clear the slate” please, your fines tally can be
obtained from our hardworking sergeant’s scribe Neil Ross. If like President
Philip, you require an invoice (and cannot pay your fines in fine wine ), then
Jeanette is willing to provide a special invoice as required.
Adrian Rijs is amused
Jeanette Henwood was in fine form
Upcoming ZOOM meeting dates:
22nd Sept @ 7.30pm – Special Board ZOOM meeting – club constitution
review by all board directors
29th Sept @ 7.30pm – DG Board Meeting discussion with our DG Mark
Humphries.
6th Oct @ 7.30 pm – Monthly Board Meeting – all directors reports to be
submitted prior please.
13th Oct @ 7.30pm – Monthly Club Meeting – at current stage of restrictions
it will be held by ZOOM.
Happy Birthdays to
• Laurie Smyth 25 September
• Lyndon Webb 27 September
• Jeanette Henwood 28 September
In view of the fact that we always recite The 4-Way Test at the start of every
Club meeting, Adrian Rijs thought that the members who are not aware of the
story behind this might appreciate how Rotary International came to adopt this
test in the early 1940s
Many things have changed in Rotary since that time - women make up a large
proportion of the membership is probably the biggest change. However, the need
for truth in organisations has not changed, as demonstrated by leaders of big
organisations like the banks and Rio Tinto.
Story of the 4-Way Test
By Herbert J. Taylor RI President 1954-55
Back in 1932 I was assigned, by the Creditors of the Club Aluminum Company,
the task of saving the company from being closed out as a bankrupt organisation.
The company was a distributor of cookware and other household items. We
found that the company owed its creditors over $400,000 more than its total
assets. It was bankrupt but still alive. At that time we borrowed $6,100 from a
Chicago bank to give us a little cash on which to operate.
While we had a good product, our competitors also had fine cookware with well-
advertised brand names. Our company also had some fine people working for it,
but our competitors also had the same. Our competitors were naturally in much
stronger financial condition than we were.
With tremendous obstacles and handicaps facing us we felt that we must develop
in our organisation something which our competitors would not have in equal
amount. We decided that it should be the character, dependability and service
mindedness of our personnel and, second, to help them become better men and
women as they progressed with our company.
We believed that “in right there is might” and we determined to do our best to
always be right. Our industry, as was true of scores of other industries, had a
code of ethics - but the code was long, almost impossible to memorise and
therefore impractical. We felt that we needed a simple measuring stick of ethics
which everyone in the company could quickly memorise. We also believed that
the proposed test should not tell our people what they must do, but ask them
questions which would make it possible for them to find out whether their
proposed plans, policies, statements or actions were right or wrong.
We had looked in available literature for such a short measuring stick of ethics
but could not find a satisfactory one. One day in July, 1932, I decided to pray
about the matter. That morning I leaned over my desk and asked God to give us
a simple guide to help us think, speak and do that which was right. I immediately
picked up a white card and wrote out The 4-Way Test of the things we think, say
or do as follows:
1. Is it the truth?
2. Is it fair to all concerned?
3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
I placed this little test under the glass top of my desk and determined to try it out
for a few days before talking to anyone else in the company about it. I had a very
discouraging experience. I almost threw it into the wastepaper basket the first
day when I checked everything that passed over my desk with the first question,
“Is it the truth?” I never realised before how far I often was from the truth and
how many untruths appeared in our company literature, letters and advertising.
After about sixty days of faithful constant effort on my part to live up to The 4-
Way Test, I was thoroughly sold on its great worth and at the same time greatly
humiliated, and at times discouraged, with my own performance as president of
the company. I had, however, made sufficient progress in living up to The 4-
Way Test to feel qualified to talk to some of my associates about it. I discussed it
with my four department heads. You may be interested in knowing the religious
faith of these four men. One was a Roman Catholic, the second a Christian
Scientist, the third an Orthodox Jew and the fourth a Presbyterian.
I asked each man whether or not there was anything in The 4-Way Test which
was contrary to the doctrines and ideals of his particular faith. They all four
agreed that truth, justice, friendliness and helpfulness not only coincided with
their religious ideals, but that if constantly applied in business they should result
in greater success and progress. These four men agreed to use The 4-Way Test in
checking proposed plans, policies, statements and advertising of the company.
Later, all employees were asked to memorise and use The 4-Way Test in their
relations with others.
The checking of advertising copy against The 4-Way Test resulted in the
elimination of statements the truth of which could not be proved. All
superlatives such as the words better, best, greatest and finest disappeared from
our advertisements. As a result, the public gradually placed more confidence in
what we stated in our advertisements and bought more of our products.
The constant use of The 4-Way Test caused us to change our policies covering
relations with our competitors. We eliminated all adverse or detrimental
comments on our competitors’ products from our advertisements and literature.
When we found an opportunity to speak well of our competitors we did so. Thus
we gained the confidence and friendship of our competitors.
The application of The 4-Way Test to our relations with our own personnel and
that of our suppliers and customers helped us to win their friendship and
goodwill. We have learned that the friendship and confidence of those with
whom we associate is essential to permanent success in business.
Through over twenty years of sincere effort on the part of our personnel, we have
been making steady progress toward reaching the ideals expressed in The 4-Way
Test. We have been rewarded with a steady increase in sales, profits and
earnings of our personnel. From a bankrupt condition in 1932, our company
within a period of twenty years had paid its debts in full, had paid its
stockholders over one-million dollars in dividends and had a value of over two-
million dollars. All of these rewards have come from a cash investment of only
$6,100, The 4-Way Test and some good hard working people who have faith in
God and high ideals.
Intangible dividends from the use of The 4-Way Test have been even greater than
the financial ones. We have enjoyed a constant increase in the goodwill,
friendship and confidence of our customers, our competitors and the public - and
what is even more valuable, a great improvement in the moral character of our
own personnel.
We have found that you cannot constantly apply The 4-Way Test to all your
relations with others eight hours each day in business without getting into the
habit of doing it in your home, social and community life. You thus become a
better father, a better friend and a better citizen.
Katy Laveck-Foster snapped two cheeky monkeys
From The Comedy Wildlife Photography Award
Any queries re future meetings contact Adrian: Mob. 0408 517 062 (Text or call) Email arijs47@gmail.com
Please send Bulletin contributions to editor Sandra
at sandrah@vic.australis.com.au.
Thanks to all who sent photos and articles.
Articles for next Bulletin need to be submitted by 17th October
Next Rotary ZOOM meeting Tuesday 13th October Last Name First Name Spouse/ Partner
Bradley PP PHF Andrew Amrita
Burgess Lisa Paul
Callinan Gerard Jenny O’Neill
Cartledge PP PHF John Liana
Castle John Pam
Davis Pres PHF Philip Elizabeth
Dyer OAM PP PHF Graeme Alida
Exton PP PHF Rod Gillian
Henwood PP PHF Jeanette
Houghton PHF Sandra
Jeremiah Laurie Helen
Lewis PP PHF Alan Elizabeth
MacRaild OAM PHF Don Meg
Mani PP Raj Tracey
McDonald Andrew Leanne
McKimm PP Robert Kathy
Last Name First Name Spouse/ Partner
McMillan PHF Kerry Don
Miller PHF L. Keith Gwen
O'Brien Danny Vicki
O'Connor Nicole Patrick
Page OAM PP PHF Michael Jan
Petersen Cindy Steve
Pickering PP Ted Margaret
Rijs PP PHF Adrian Louise
Ripper PP PHF Don Jude
Ross PHF Neil Maree
Smith PHF Mike
Smolenaars PP PHF Daniel Norissa
Smyth PP PHF Laurie Jill
Strauss PP David Rachel
Strauss PP Rachel David
Thomas Jenni
Tulloch OAM PP PHF David Judy
Vassiliou Catherine Wayne Gray
Versloot PHF Andy Debbie
Watt PP Trevor Liz
Webb Carmel Lyndon
Webb PP PHF Lyndon Carmel
Wilson Shae Ben