There are many challenges ahead, but it's worthwhile to reflect on some significant achievements and successes in this first post-Covid year.
The meeting was also notable for three unexpected, but very welcome visitors.
The first was Ugandan Peter Kagwa of the Rotary Club of Kampala-Munyonyo in District 9214. Peter is the Membership and Extension chair for that district and will be the Inter-Country chair next year. It was in this capacity that he attended the meeting.
Peter is the Managing Director of a company called Events Warehouse, who describe themselves as Uganda's leading events management and experiential marketing agency.
Wendy Challis, Babette Gallard and Sarah Barret
The second visitor was Sarah Barret, who is well known in Johannesburg for walking tours of the city. She was a guest of Wendy Challis, herself a professional tour guide. Sarah is part of the Joburg360.com team and you can read all about the tours they offer on their website.
Sarah will be the speaker at the club meeting on 18 January next year and who knows, we might find ourselves walking with her pretty soon.
Last but not least Andy Ostle, husband of club member Nola, came to introduce young Eric Ncube before Eric teed off at the Parkview Golf Club. Eric is one of the beneficiaries of New Dawn's contributions from the various golf days through the SA Golf Development Board and at just 15 years of age is already playing provincial golf.
It's always a source of pride that people take the trouble to visit the club, especially because we meet so early in the morning on a Wednesday.
But back the the club achievements: President Julian highlighted the fact that the New Dawn Google Workspace is now up and running. Gavin Atkins (newly appointed as chairman of Copessa, another of our projects) and Paul Chinn have put a lot of work into getting it established and the aim is to get everybody in the club using it in as short a time as possible.
Also worth a mention is the fact that the club accounts have now migrated onto an online accounting package called Xero, which enables our new accountants to have instant access to the banking information and can therefore draw up financial statements almost instantaneously. The Annual Financial Statements for the year ending June 2022 were produced online and the board has recommended that they be accepted. They'll be posted on the Workspace once signed off by the club Finance Committee.
He also highlighted the ongoing work done by members, most notably Adele Dabbs, Judy Sligcher and Judy Symons in conjunction with Brenda Sakellarides of the NSA (and New Dawn), with painting and renovating the music rooms at the National School of the Arts. This has been a huge undertaking, not made any easier by a promise of a supply of paint that hasn't yet materialised. We live in hope.
Brenda Sakellarides and Paul Kasango
The September World Cleanup Day of the Braamfontein Spruit, organised by Babette Gallard and Paul Chinn, was a triumph both for their organisational abilities and for New Dawn. This is a project that should grow into an ever bigger annual event.
The cleanup was followed by the annual Golf Day from which, although we didn't have as many golfers as in some previous years, especially in pre-Covid times, the club pockets about R70 000 for future projects and undertakings.
President Julian also highlighted the fact that Donate a Loo has been able to install a number of functioning toilets at crèches in and around Gauteng and are planning to do more.
He also put in a plug for the very active new social committee with Ivone Vosloo at the helm, who are organising the end of year Festive Dinner at Marks Park on Saturday, 3 December. Quite a number of people have replied, but please do join New Dawn and bring along as many family members and friends as possible for the final fling of 2022. We want to fill the hall.
Helene Bramwell has set the standard and has already booked and paid for 20 people (yes, you read that correctly) to attend. It's always great fun and for a good cause. It costs R250 per person and for that you get a three course meal on a Christmas theme, with a turkey carving competition and live music thrown in. The Marks Park bar facilities will be available for your own pocket.
Fundraising is a constant challenge, despite the successful Golf Day. The sustainable efforts of the past few months, to whit the Power of Pennies and My School cards, have gotten off the ground, but both need to deliver more and that can only be achieved with more club participation and recruiting family and friends. The more people take part, the more the club gains. Moreover, the bigger the Power of Pennies pot grows, the more the winner pockets, because you stand to win half of what has been contributed every four months.
There are a few more fundraisers in the pipeline, one of which is to gain the maximum income from the framed print that the artist Norman Catherine donated via Jeni Lobel and which is worth at least R20 000. The idea accepted at the board meeting was to try to sell at least 50 tickets at R1000 each, so dig deep. With fewer people participating, your chances of winning increase exponentially.
The artwork will be used as one of the drawcords when Bruce Fordyce comes back as a speaker in the new year when we hope to attract a far larger audience with far deeper pockets.
There will also be a Bridge Drive again on 16 March 2023, this time at the Ferndale Bowling Club, because the previous venue at Orchards has closed down after the Covid lockdowns.
Speaker: The speaker next week is Welcome Witbooi, ex-gangster become movie star (he appeared opposite Eric Fana and Forrest Whittaker in the Hollywood movie The Forgiven), writer, motivational speaker and high achiever, leader and visionary. It's sure to be a very exciting meeting.
A Thought for the Week: Fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim. - George Santayana (1863 - 1952)
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