CLUB BULLETIN 20th APRIL 2020 (Apr 16, 2020)

MEMBERS ISOLATED THOUGHTS

How are you faring in home isolation? This week two members give their perspective from a corporate background and an education background.

JOHN WATSON

This is a very challenging time for everyone, including the Watson’s. We are separated from family members including kids, grand kids and great grand kids and as everyone knows a phone call doesn’t come close to replacing a hug. We are also missing the social interaction with neighbours and friends, including our Rotary friends.

My employer Tassal has its Head Office in Hobart, so no prospect of attendance without being required to self-isolate in Tasmania for 14 days of arrival and virtually no flights anyway. We are having lots of telephone conferences and use of the internet for communication. Board directors come from Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and Queensland and the company’s operations are in each of those states plus marketing in all states and exports. So far Tassal is functioning very much as normal, on the surface, but with lots of challenges. It is a very busy time for directors as this is when we plan for next year’s operations, capital growth and budget. Linda has chosen to withdraw from her part time job at the Numurkah Home Hardware nursery because of the risks involved with contact with the public.

We are however very fortunate to live where we live. We have a large garden with activity sheds for both Linda and me to get some space and separation. Linda loves her garden and her art work which she is attacking with a vengeance. I enjoy shed projects and home maintenance and can always find something to create or finish. We have wonderful neighbours and often shout hello across the street or over the fence, but it’s not the same as sharing Happy Hour on a Friday afternoon.

We also walk with our lovely little Molly every morning and feel blessed with the facilities that Numurkah has for this activity. We are also fortunate with the timing of this thing as the weather has been brilliant for local outdoor activity. We are also fortunate that we can buy almost everything we need in the town – except toilet paper.

Gary Phillips

My day?

Hmmmm.

I have been asked to write a little exposé about my day. Well where do I start?

To arrive at the point I am at now we probably should start about four weeks ago when COVID19 had just been introduced to Australia. I mean COVID19 was about the place before then, but really? People were only just treating COVID19 with the respect that is its due. So it was that about four weeks ago I was well and truly (along with quite a few colleagues) up to pussy’s bow in planning and preparing for “today”. That actually continued right up to the start of term yesterday.

Over the years I’ve had quite a bit of experience of this type of thing. Not the COVID19 thing, rather the planning and preparing thing. More precisely, the planning and preparation of the delivery of teaching and learning material to students electronically—in other words, online. It can take well over fifty hours to do it properly, and that is to fully resource just one subject for delivery online. That reflects the nature of what I do. I do a lot of things online. In fact all material prepared by students is, I insist, submitted electronically. If we are doing a computer based subject, then we should be using the technology to its fullest. So, online delivery is not new to me. But I do know many associates are not in their happy places. Now, getting back to my day.

We use an online system created by Google known as Google Apps For Education (GAFE). Inside this environment (that’s jargon meaning, “platform”. Which is come to think of it is jargon too, oh well) we have created a “classroom” for each timetabled subject taught by each teacher—that is an awful lot of classrooms—which students access and find in the subject’s classroom such gems as assignments, theory and tests. So I have in my classrooms material scheduled to be released by eight o’clock of the morning of the subjects I am timetabled to teach that day. This will happen up to and including the 26^th of June—end of term. I don’t believe I have ever been this organised. It is indeed almost sickening.

I then spend a lot of time in front the computer monitoring the goings on inside an electronic—I hesitate to use the term virtual—school. Fielding questions from students (there were quite a lot yesterday, but things seem to have calmed down today. Most likely because yesterday was a new day and today is just more of the same) and meeting with colleagues. Yep, we still do meetings. They happen on an online platform (notice I’ve switched the jargon). There is no getting away from them—the meetings, not the colleagues. There is a heck of a lot of work from students to read and record keeping to do.

Students seem to be coping well. When you think about it, we are trying to replicate the in-house education with one delivered electronically. We are—if the children are distancing socially—a significant social contact with the outside world. Poor substitute for the playground. But . . .

Well that is my day. Get up, switch on the computer and watching what is going on. Not much really.

Cheers

THIS WEEK

SECRETARY KAY:

Kay received a request from Rumbalara Aboriginal Cooperative to assistance to an elderly couple in Waaia requiring firewood.

Thanks to the members who responded, particularly Allen Canobie and John Watson who sorted the problem.

PRESIDENT LORRAINE:

Lorraine is carrying out tests for Zoom meetings with small groups with the aim to have an online Board Meeting and an online Club Meeting. The tests so far have only had limited success with technical issues for some.

Stay tuned.

ZOOM MEETINGS

I attended two Rotary Zoom meetings this evening (Monday). It is definitely the way to go with current restrictions allowing clubs to mainrain contact and communication.

The first meeting I attended(?) was the Rotary Club of Deniliquin meeting, followed by a test meeting arranged by President Lorraine.

Rotary Club of Deniliquin

On the invitation of AG Chris I attended this meeting with 20 participants. The meeting commenced with a pre-recorded guest speaker Evan Burrell who spoke on banding, public image and publicity. Evan had a Power Point presentation. Very interesting.

This was followed by a club meeting with members expressing their views. It is obvious that the success of these Zoom meetings is reliant on the Host as moderator.

Interesting to see the members drinking, eating and playing with household pets, Chris was it a Sauvignon Blanc or a Chardonnay?

Rotary Club of Numurkah

President Lorraine arranged a "test" meeting with Lorraine as host, Stephen Mills, Jennifer Rodgers and myself attending.

Proved what was possible in a successful meeting.

It was decided that a Board Meeting will be arranged for next Monday at 7pm.

Lorraine will send out notification. On the agenda will be the organisation and set up a Club Meeting the following week.

Many clubs have embraced this technology to maintain contact and communication with members.

To finish, and hopefully bring a smile to your face...

Welfare applications

For those unfamiliar, Welfare payments are made in the US to individuals and families with income below a level. The following quotations are taken from actual letters received by the Welfare Department in applications for support of receiving payments.

I am forwarding my marriage certificate and 6 children. I had seven but one died which was baptized on a half sheet of paper.

I am writing the welfare department to say that my baby was born two years old. When do I get my money?

Mrs. Jones has not had any clothes for two years and has been visited regularly by the clergy.

I cannot get sick pay. I have six children can you tell me why?

I am glad to report that my husband who is missing is dead.

This is my eighth child. What are you going to do about it.

Please find for if my husband is dead. The man I am now living with can't do anything until he knows.

I am very much annoyed to find out that you have branded my son illiterate. This is a dirty lie as I was married a week before he was born.

In answer to your letter, I have given birth to a son weighing 10 lbs. I hope this is satisfactory.

I am forwarding my marriage certificate and my 3 children one of which is a mistake as you can see.

My husband got his project cut off about two weeks ago and I haven't had any relief since.

Unless I get my husband's money pretty soon, I will be forced to lead an immortal life.

You have my changed little boy to a girl, will this make any difference?

I have no children yet, as my husband is a truck driver and works night and day.

I want money as quick as I can get it. I have been in bed with the doctor for two weeks and he doesn't do me any good. If things don't improve, I will have to send for another doctor.

In accordance with your instructions, I have given birth to twins in the enclosed envelope.