David Munro provides a report to the club on his experience of being the Rotary of Campbelltown President in the year 1975-76.
I was privileged to be President in RCC 10th year At that time I had a Secretary Don Watkins who kept me on the straight and narrow. He was a great righthand man.
We had 4 committees: Community, Vocational, International, Project and Interact committees, along with Club Service. During that period of time directors only held one position for 1 year and moved on to another committee the next year.
By the end of that year, we had 55 Male members with 10 of these members still remaining in the Club. There were 8 inductions in that year and we re-inducted Peter Rumbelow (? reason for this).
Some of the features of that year included:
MARDI GRAS, where our club sponsored numerous clubs and organisations, such as guides, boy scouts, gymnastic clubs etc, to assist them to showcase their club and also to raise money. In the early days there was a parade/procession from the Campbelltown Council buildings along Montacute Rd turning at LNE Rd to the Campbelltown Oval which was known in those days as the Darley Road Oval. Imagine such an event 46 years ago being held with a police escort to hold up traffic these days. There were numerous stalls, attractions, and eventually these were held at night along with a fireworks display.
AUCTION & JUMBLE SALE This was an annual event held on the Darley Rd Oval. Goods and items were transported by truck to the oval. In those days we shared Council property in Benjamin St Newton with a small storage shed. The goods were loaded on to trucks supplied by Eric Webb and Albert Sommariva. In the early days charter President Richard Fereday conducted the auction and the several others auctioneers followed on after Rchard.
That year we raised $2985.25 with net $2693.91 Looking back over the figures for that year The auction and Jumble sale was our only recorded fund raiser for the year.
We sponsored Asian Nurses in Australia under the capable hands of Kevin Robinson and Barry Donaldson.
One of the highlights of this year was our 10th Birthday anniversary with 19 invited guests including the chartering DG Lionel Catt and St Peter’s RC president Fred Stewart who was affectionately known as “Father Fred”. He really helped our Club in many ways in establishing our foundations Our Charter President, Richard Fereday came from St Peters club St Peters was our sponsoring Rotary Club.
Fred presented the club with a President’s collar- a second version is now in use.
A Club sponsored ROTARACT CLUB was getting underway at Modbury High School
Through the Rotary Foundation Mark Kerrigan spent some time away.
Partner’s nights were known as Ladies nights and were usually well attended.
We had 4 assemblies in that year. We met at the Reservoir Hotel and very good cooperation with the Dents who were the managers, and we had a very popular waitress known as BARB, who was there for many years. I am unsure when we shifted to the AFC as accommodation was getting tight at the Reservoir Hotel (not known as the Rez in those days). I suppose that my memories of that year, showed that fellowship and activities that include our partners and children, were very important and made Campbelltown a great club to be associated with. I certainly enjoyed my time as President. Time marches on and nothing stays the same with gradual change and adaptation.