On Wednesday our Club Captain for February Dave, shared one of his passions with us. Dave has had a long association with the Scout movement in Tasmania. He was a Cub, then a Scout and finally a Scout Leader. The Scout organisation began in 1907 in England and was brought to Australia in 1922. Since its humble beginnings it has spread world wide and is now in 222 countries with over 40 million participants.
Our guest this week were Claire Cameron and Heidi Smith (accompanied by Ross Smith). These two charming young ladies addressed our club about the fabulous jamboree held in January at Cataract Park in NSW. Despite torrential downpour , 12,000 scouts and their leaders came together for friendship, good times and adventures. The girls spoke with clarity and composure and should be congratulated for the quality of their presentation. All members enjoyed this fact filled meeting.

We also had our first Board meeting for the year and it was very pleasing to see the progress that is being made and the plans beginning to form for 2016.

The International Women's Day Breakfast committee continue to work diligently to develop a fabulous event. Our MC   is Mandy Shepherd who is Deputy GM for Theatre North and our 
panel consists of:-

Ella Dixon, CEO Migrant Resource Centre
Carol Bracken, Owner Tamar Valley Hazelnuts and Tasmanian Rural Woman of the Year 2015
Tessa Wynne, Heywire 2015 winner and University student
 
I would urge all members to book a table for this great event. Tickets are $40.00 and you can get them when you go to our website.
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Next week Dave has organised for us to meet at St Giles for our meeting. Please assembly at the front of the school and remember to be prompt and bring $10.00 for your breakfast.

International Women's Day committee will also have a meeting at Cube Aqua at 7.00am.

Next week we have a board meeting on Tuesday and our regular meeting on Wednesday where we will have members of the Launceston Scout Association as our guest speakers. Plus the International Womens' Breakfast Team continue to meet on Thursday and prepare for this great event.

Welcome back to everyone and a very happy New Year! We had our first meeting for 2016 last Wednesday, and already Susan and her committee are hard at work planning for our International Women's Day Breakfast in early March at the Grand Chancellor.
The National Rotary Conference will be held in Deloraine this year in April. All members of Tamar Sunrise are urged to attend this great event as it promises to be both enlightening and entertaining.  We know with our members Danny Gibson and Lou Mason on the organising committee it is sure to be an event that should not be missed.
Next week we have Paul Thomas from Black Dog as our guest speaker and I urge all members to attend. 

Seasons greetings! All at Tamar Sunrise wish our many friends and family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  We are particularly pleased to be able to donate $7,500.00 to the Examiners Empty Stocking Appeal. This was the proceeds from our fabulous Carols in the Park last Sunday. Despite a torrential downpour just before the show went on, the performance was fantastic, highlighting Launceston's talent.
Although the numbers in the audience were down from previous years, Danny Gibson and his wonderful committee should be very proud of the way the event was organised and carried out. A special thank you must go to Travis Hennersey for his wonderful music arrangements. This is a wonderful way to end our year and I would like to thank all who helped ensure that this enormous event was a success.

We also had our end of year final meeting at the Maple Cafe. This was a lovely social event to end our year. It was also a great opportunity to farewell one of our longest members and ex president Marcus Coutney. Marcus has been a fabulous contributor to the club and we wish him well for his future endeavours.

Our meetings resume on January 27 2016 at the Launceston Mecure Hotel. All are welcome to attend. Happy holidays everyone!

This week we were the guests of the Ravenswood Child and Family centre. Lyn Whyllie Watkins took us on a tour and explained the many functions of the centre. We were particularly impressed with their launch into Learning program, hopefully this is another area that we might be able to assist, as literacy in the community has been identified as one of our priorities . 
All came away inspired by the work done by the centre and I feel extremely proud that we too can contribute in a small way.
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The count down to December 20th and our Tamar Sunrise Carols in the Park. Danny and his hard working team are developing a fabulous program and I for one can't wait to be a part of it. It is going to be fabulous.
Next week at our meeting we have a New Year on Royal Information Tent briefing. All are welcome to attend.

This week our Captain, Sarah organised a very special guest to inform us about the wonderful award winning work that Tourism Northern Tasmania do. Sarah ( our November Captain) is the marketing Manager of this non for profit group .Sarah was a very passionate speaker and informed us of the many ways that her work promotes Northern Tasmania to other regions both in Tasmania and other states. She stressed the importance of cycling and in particular the effect that Ritchie Port's visit at the beginning of the year had on the number of cyclists visit the state.

On Wednesday night area 5 and 6 held a forum with two guest speakers. Julian Burgess who spoke about marketing and how to harness the media  and the Rotary Peace fellowship recipient d'Arcy Lunn. d'Arcy was a enthusiastic speaker who was living his life as a gift to the world. For further information about his many and varied charities and organisations please follow him on Facebook.

Next week we are going to the Ravenswood Family and Child Centre for our meeting, members are reminded to check the address and arrive early.

This week our November Captain Sarah planned a "Fun" activity. Our meeting began with a Member's Minute by Jann, who researched the origins of the Members Minute and then shared her reasons for joining our Rotary Club. This was the perfect lead in to our Fun get to know you activity of two truths and a lie. We were divided into groups of three and had to take it in turns to say three things about ourselves, one of which had to be a lie and the others in the group had to guess what was true and what was not. Needless to say a lot of laughter and merriment ensured and we all came away from the meeting with a lot more knowledge about our fellow members. 

On Thursday I had the privilege of seeing our funds at work, I attended one of the Ravenswood Family Centre's Learn to Swim lessons at the Aquatic Centre. Rotarians will remember that our club sponsored this program and it was fabulous to see it working. I have asked for the Centre to send us some photos so that I can share them with you.

On Friday Night Jann Rowlands our Youth Director, organised for us to hold a book stall at the East Tamar Primary School Fair. Despite the rain we all had a fabulous time and the children went away with a wonderful assortment of books. We donated $150.00 dollars to the school and some beautiful picture books to be given to students who could not attend this fun evening.

Next week the fun continues. A reminder about the Group Forum night on Wednesday at the Grand Chancellor and our Board meeting on Thursday and Carols meeting on Friday.

This week we welcomed Gordon Manning, owner of Floats in Kings Meadows as our guest speaker. Gordon's business is floatation therapy . He has a series of flotation tanks and he explained his customers use these tanks for a wide variety of reasons such as recovery and sleep, relaxation, pain relief  and creativity and learning.

The tanks are fully enclosed and are filled with a solution of epsom salts, which Gordon claims are able to improve heart and circulatory health, improve skin, improve nerve function, relax the nervous system, reduce inflammation, reduce stress,
improve oxygen use, improve absorption of nutrients, prevention of migraine headaches and helps in flushing toxins and heavy metals from the cells. 

Any one interested can book online at www.floats.com.au

Our Carols committee continue to meet and are getting ready to launch this years Carols. Please stay tuned for details. 

Susan Dolby also reported back after representing the club at the RYDA workshops held at Symmons Plains last week. Susan was not only impressed with the students who attended but the program in general and urged us all if at all possible to grab the opportunity to attend these valuable workshops that prepare students for driving safely on our roads. Many thanks must go to Annette Viney Northern RYDA Chair,Rotary District 9830 and her team for organising such a fabulous and worthy event.

This week our guest speaker was Colin Anker, Project Officer for Youth Families and Communities for the Red Cross in Launceston. 
Colin spoke about the three main projects that he is involved with, they are save-a-mate, Talk OUT Loud and the Quick Start Breakfast Club.
save-a-mate (SAM) was started by Australian Red Cross in 1997. The save-a-mate program is now available across Australia from urban centres to rural and remote communities.
save-a-mate's purpose is to promote the health and wellbeing of young people by providing education, service and support on key current and emerging health issues, particularly those related to alcohol and other drug use and mental health.
Colin said the this year as part of this program the Red Cross would be running a "safe partying" scheme at the Falls Festival.
Talk OUT Loud program is a series of Mental health workshops to reduce stigma related to this issue. They also encourage young people to seek help and help each other listen.Good Start Breakfast Clubs provide a healthy breakfast and nutrition information for thousands of school kids, who may otherwise go to school hungry, in areas of greatest need around Australia.
Providing a healthy breakfast helps children to achieve their best in the classroom and in the playground.
Breakfast clubs are about more than providing a healthy start to the day. Schools are supported to set up breakfast clubs, to provide a safe and welcoming environment where children can sit down and enjoy a nutritious morning meal with others. It is also a place where caring adults can be role models for healthy eating and good hygiene.
Breakfast clubs are run right around the country, from cities and towns to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Working with communities, Red Cross supports a range of programs to complement and build on the work being done in Good Start Breakfast Clubs.
Nutrition and budgeting workshops for parents, such as FOODCents, hygiene education, as well as school community gardens are just some of the ways Red Cross is building a healthier future with communities.
One of the long-term goals is to support communities to run their own breakfast clubs, ensuring community ownership and control as well as sustainability of the program. In Launceston the Red Cross runs this programme at the Mowbay Heights and Ravenswood Heights primary Schools.

Next week we have a casual meeting where we will take the opportunity to farewell Clark who is relocating to Hobart for work.