Meeting Report 3152 March 20th 2023
Apologies for the evening:
Bob Ahrens, Patsy Johnson, Tom Kelly, Wayne Murphy, Beth Hudman, Mark Smeaton, Anthea John, Leanne Clinch, Shawn Lock,
Guests
Julie Smeaton, Michele Nys, Casey Charman, Joseph Furina,
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This evenings Formalities:
Fines to:
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Toast
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Grace
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Chair
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PP Brian Burt
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PP Colin Bazeley
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PP Ron Lloyd
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Chair for the evening Ron Lloyd opened meeting 3152 and welcomed members and guests. Kathy then called for Those wishing to take a Rotary Spot.
PP Brian Burt: Brian attended the function at Adelaide oval and while he was disappointed with the turnout of members from the club he did acknowledge that we had one of the highest representations with 4 members-himself, Trish Williams, Alan Harris and Shawn Lock. He said Trish arrived in style after he commandeered a wheelchair so she didn’t have to walk from the other side of the oval!
Brian also asked that any members with stocks of Courtesy is contagious stickers available give them to him as he had had a request for some.
Brian is going to attend the Gawler Probus meeting and is taking a card to congratulate them on 40 years. The card was circulated for members to sign.
Mike Williams -Almoner Mike gave an update on Beth and said he believed our collective positive thoughts must have worked because 4 weeks ago he was reporting that Beth was in intensive care in a bad way after her fall but she is now home after spending less than a week instead of the proposed 2-3 weeks in rehab. Beth is hoping to come back to Rotary in about 3 weeks. Margaret said she offered to bring her in a wheelchair but Beth said she is going to walk back in!
PP Steve Barilla Gave a huge thank you to everyone who helped over the weekend. Not just on the days but the lead up to because without people working in the background to prepare we can’t do it. While we made money from both events (a voucher from Drakes paid for the food for Black dog) it is also about our core business of supporting the community.
Update on the wheel – Steve showed photos of the damage and explained what needed doing. Hopefully this will be undertaken soon and in use at meetings.
PP Colin Bazeley -asked for assistance to move 20 bar fridges to DIK base at Edinburgh (see story later in bulletin).
Colin will be attending the Gawler Youth workers meeting tomorrow to present information about our Youth programs to hopefully reach out further to find participants.
After a short break PP Ron introduced Barry for his sergeant’s session. Chocolates went to Guest Joseph and Lance Hatcher. After the usual facebook funnies and singing of Happy Birthday to members. Ron thanked Barry and then introduced guest speaker for the evening Ian Nys to give his autobiography.
Guest speaker member Ian Nys -A little insight into my life
Ian is the son of a Lithuanian father and a Scottish mother. He is the second eldest of 5 siblings- Joy, Ian, Andrea, Jonny and Heather. Ian’s parents met in Australia in 1952 after his dad came to escape the hostilities of his homeland and his mum came as a ten pound pom! Joy was born here, however they returned to Scotland to raise the family. This is where Ian was born in a small town of Leith in Edinburgh. Work was hard to come by and Ian’s dad could only secure work in a hot water bottle factory which did not bring in enough money to support the family, so they decided to return to Australia and call it home. On arrival they lived at Gepps cross for 2 years before being offered a Housing Trust rental in Elizabeth East. This is where the remaining 3 children were born, and his mother remained until age 93 when she recently decided to move into an age care facility not far from the family home.
Ian attended Elizabeth East primary school and then onto Elizabeth Boys Tech. Although Ian enjoyed sports (he played Aussie rules for the local club where his mum was the under 11’s trainer), his mates and break times he didn’t enjoy the actual learning process and homework! He subsequently left high school and started an apprenticeship as a spray painter at Modern Duco Company in Adelaide in 1972. This was a 4 year apprenticeship at Croyden Park Tafe. Ian then worked at different Crash shops to learn and enhance his skill set.
Ian’s parents separated when he was 19 and he decided to have a break for 3 months and visit his uncle in New Zealand. He based himself in Christchurch and worked for Midlands Coachline Crash Shop. Although the experience was great the money was not. He returned to Australia and decided to open his own Auto Speed Shop in Park Tce in Salisbury with partners Mark and Martin. They sold High performance parts, serviced cars, and also opened a small crash shop fitted spoilers and aftermarket kits.
It was during this time Ian met his now wife Michele and he knew immediately she was the one he wanted to Marry. They married in 1980 and in 1981 welcomed their son Michael followed 2 years later by daughter Kelly. The family settled in Evanston Park where they still reside. In 1990 they bought a River Front block on the beautiful River Murray and enjoyed years of water skiing, bonfires, fishing etc with family and friends.
Ian continued in the automotive industry as a Technical Refinishing Representative at SA Auto Care as well as with some of the major companies.
- Dulux refinish- employed as a 2-pack trouble shooter for the state then moved to State training manager where he ran training and pre delivery courses for Toyota, Subaru, Lexus and Holdens
- PPG- bought out the technical business from ICI Dulux in 1999 Gave Ian the opportunity to be based as a paint engineer at Holden’s Elizabeth. He oversaw all aspects of application including defects involved in painting; in 2003 PPG sent him to Detroit to help in the set up of the robotics for Holden’s paint shop
- 2017 employment changed to Valspar Aust. And once again became the Technical Service representative for South Australia, servicing Crash shops again.
In 2018 Ian was diagnosed with MDS (Myeloid Dysplastic Syndrome) this is a form of Leukemia and was given the survival rate of 24 months. The only chance of Survival was a Bone Marrow transplant. Because they make the best donors Ian’s siblings were tested first and his youngest sister Heather was found to be a perfect match.
On the 2nd of August this year Ian will celebrate his 5-year anniversary! He defied all the odds- out of 100 transplants sadly only 30 survive. Ian considers himself lucky to be one of the 30.
They are both happy and healthy retirees now and plan to keep it that way and at the completion of Ian’s story both gave an impassioned plea for everyone to become blood doors citing the importance to everyone.
PP Ron then conveyed his thanks on behalf of everyone and presented Ian with his certificate of appreciation indicating the donation on his behalf to vaccinate 45 children against Polio.
Ron the asked Pres Kathy to close the meeting.
Kathy again thanked Ian for his presentation before giving her wrap up.
Kathy once again informed members that The conclusion of the Rotary conference is at the Adelaide wine centre on 3rd June. Tickets are $100 and Kathy is happy to arrange a table if enough members would like. See Kathy ASAP. Also, the volunteering expo during the day at Bonython Hall, University of Adelaide, Nth Terrace 9am -4:40pm
Reminder next week is committees and board meetings so no guest speaker.
3rd April will be committed to Airshow prep to make sure everything is ready because the 10th is Easter Monday and the show is the 16th.
May 15th is a combined meeting with Gawler Light guest speaker will be Vivienne Goodenough-Heart of the Nation. The meeting will be our normal meeting at Nixon’s.
Kathy then closed meeting 3152 with the four way test.
