A New President for New Dawn

This week and next week will be all about Carol Stier's Induction on Friday, 7th July.
     The invitations have gone out and it promises once again to be a splendid affair; New Dawn is known to be able to throw a good party!
     Carol will be the 9th president of New Dawn for the clubs' 10th year; Jankees Sligcher has been president twice.
     The roll of honour is: Don Lindsay (2009); Peter James-Smith (2009-'10); Graham Donet (2010-'11); Jankees Sligcher (2011-'12); Amina Frense (2012-'13); Joan Donet (2013-'14) Steve du Plessis (2014-'15); Jankees Sligcher (2015-'16); and Mike Vink (2016-'17).

Wear it with pride .. the New Dawn gong

     It's interesting to note that apart from Don and Peter, all the ex-presidents remain members of the club, although it took a lot of arm twisting to get Graham and Steve back!
     Although Carol has not been a member of the club for very long, she is steeped in Rotary history, as her father, Billy Hills, was a past president of the Benoni Rotary club, and Past District Governor; her mother, Myrna, was a founder member of Benoni Aurora and a Past District Governor Anns.
     Her grandfather, Billie Hills, was also a Past District Governor and her great-grandfather, William Hills and his wife Alice were members of the Rotary Club of Benoni!

A chance meeting ... Carol Stier, incoming president of New Dawn, was at the Linder Auditorium last Thursday for a JPO symphony concert. Linda Vink (and I), Debbie Smith (Greg was watching the golf) and Lucille Blumberg were also there.

     There's not a lot of time before the induction on 7th July, so please reply as soon as possible for catering purposes. Members of the club will provide the food again and wine and cool drinks are included in the R250 price tag.
     Members are of course encouraged to bring a bottle or two of wine with.

The official invitation to Carol's induction

     While the rest of us have been planning for Discon and the induction, Jankees and Judy Sligcher were in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Rotary International conference, their second RI conference and are no doubt back inspired to encourage more members to spend a little time and money on the annual convention.
     In the coming years the RI convention will be held in Toronto (2018), followed by Hamburg (2019) and Honolulu (2020).
     We look forward to hearing more about their visit at the meeting on Wednesday, so do come. The main slot this week is going to Paul Kasango, who'll be talking to us about, amongst other things, his experiences studying at the University of Zagreb.

Jankees and Judy Sligcher with some new-found Rotarian friends from Nigeria

     Jankees of course gets handed the baton as District Governor at Discon in Polokwane from Thursday to Sunday.
     Those going to Discon (we seem to be a sizeable contingent of about ten people) have decided to go as Frenchmen and -women for the theme party on Friday night and will wear black berets and red scarves.
   

Black berets and red scarves are the uniform for the Discon evening
of fun. The smouldering look is optional

     Linda and I are going to buy black berets tomorrow morning, and will get a few extras just in case, but if you need one, please phone either of us. They apparently only cost R80.
     A Thought for the Week: If you're going through hell, keep going. - Winston Churchill (1874-1965)