Volume 29 Number 2 - The Friendship Force of the Sunshine Coast Inc. February 2018 Changing the Way You See the World President: Mike McFarlane Vice-President: David Allan Secretary: John Gosney Treasurer: Bill Laws Journey Mentor: Gayle Macready Editor: Tony Sayer International website: www.thefriendshipforce.org FF Sunshine Coast Website: www.friendshipforcesunshinecoast.org.au FF Australia Website: www.friendshipforce-aussie.org.au FF Sunshine Coast email: suncoastff@gmail.com The Friendship Force pledge As a member of the Friendship Force, I recognize that I can make a difference. I recognize that I have a mission. That mission is to be a friend to the people of the world. As I embark on this adventure, I know that others will be watching me. I know that, through my example to my fellow citizens and the people of other countries, the cause of friendship, love and peace can be furthered. I can make a difference Meeting Dates Board Meetings General Meetings Picnic Meetings 6 February 2018 xx March 2018 25 February 2018 Dates For Your Diary 25 February 2018 Picnic Meeting, Golden Beach Tavern President s Musings We certainly celebrated Australia Day in style. The forward planning by the Activities Committee in moving the event from the dam to the cover of the Men s Shed at Mapleton was certainly appreciated and well tested by the showery day. As the wise man said, There is nothing more conducive to enhancing friendship than sheltering from a storm with a crowd under a tarp!! Many people commented that serving morning tea prior to the start of the meeting was a good idea that should be continued. It seemed easier to set up, was conducive to social interaction, and enabled the morning tea hosts to attend all of the meeting. Perhaps we should give that further trialling.
We certainly are grateful to the committee members for producing a fantastic lunch lamingtons, corned beef with white sauce, jacketed potatoes cooked in coals, vegies, damper and Cockie s Joy. Also, thanks to all who helped with serving and setting up. I thought the trivia quiz was fantastic and, having won, was even more impressed with the prize especially the packet of Arnott s Iced VoVos Baked for 150 years a treasured biscuit favourite There s a message here I m telling myself as I grumpily make up protest banners to march on Arnott s. What I ate was not the same as I remembered (50yrs ago) these bikkies are smaller, the VoVo is the wrong colour, the icing is much thinner, the biscuit flavour is that of the Custard Creams, and even the cocky on the packet looks stupid! Everything about iced VoVos had been compromised. These are cheap imitations of what once was my favourite! Contrast this to that which was baked in friendship Merilyn s damper was as good as, if not better than, any I d tasted. Despite Ron s anxiety, his corned meat was spot on the spuds, perfect, and the lammies ah, the memories; impossible now to be unhappy. To heck with Arnott s and the negative protest banners let s spread happy messages that support our friendship force club and its basic ideals. In friendship, Mike McFarlane President Board Meeting 16th January 2018 Board Decisions Carol Harman and Judi Gordon are endorsed as joint Membership Secretaries Robyn McFarlane is endorsed as Publicity Officer The Board will recommend that members support the Conference motion from the Central District to permit urgent motions to be dealt with electronically and will ask the members present at the January general meeting to decide whether or not to support the motion from Perth on the use of FFI domestic journey fees The Secretary and the Journey Mentor will consider the new Ambassador Application form presented by the Northern District Field Representative and make recommendations to the Board regarding its adoption Board Meeting 6th February 2018 Gillian Gosney will be the Host Co-ordinator for the Central Coast domestic journey The club will initially order 250 copies of the new membership brochure with a view to printing more brochures if warranted Remaining general meetings for 2018 will be held at the Mooloolaba State School rather than the Millwell Hall The club will adopt a new Ambassador Application Form designed by the Secretary and the Journey Mentor All club badges (both pin and magnet types) will now cost $25 each. The membership fee for the first year of membership will therefore be $60 including a badge 2
New Morning Tea Time With a change of premises to the Mooloolaba State School, the Board has decided that the meetings will now begin with a morning tea at 9:30am, followed by a prompt start to the formalities at 10am. It would be appreciated if all members could arrive in good time to enjoy the earlier morning tea so that the members on kitchen duty and clean up do not miss the start of the meeting. Please feel free to bring your own special cup if you prefer. Jenny Allan Meet your Board for 2018 Executive President: Mike McFarlane Vice-President: David Allan Secretary: John Gosney Treasurer: Bill Laws Journey Mentor: Gayle Macready Other Office Holders Social Activities: Merrilyn Rundle Membership: Carol Harman & Judi Gordon Publicity: Robyn McFarlane Sunseeker Editor: Tony Sayer Morning Tea: Jenny Allan Raffles: Coral Usher Microphone monitor: John Rundle Dine-outs and Merchandise: Pam Ferguson Flags and Banners: Glen Gordon Website and Data Base: Mike McFarlane David Mike John Bill Gayle Next General Meeting Sunday 25 March 2018, at 9:30 am Mooloolaba State School, 15 Meta St. Enter the parking area from Douglas St General Meetings for 2017 25 Mar, 27 May, 22 July, 23 Sep, 25 Nov Board Meetings for 2017 13 Mar, 10 Apr, 8 May, 12 Jun, 10 Jul, 14 Aug, 11 Sep, 9 Oct, 13 Nov 3
Club Calendar February 2018 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Notes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Board Mee=ng, 2pm 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Dine-out, Golden Beach Tavern, 8 Feb 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Picnic Mee=ng, Golden Beach Tavern March 2018 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Notes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Board Mee=ng, 2pm 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Dine-out, Rivershore Resort, 15 Mar 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 General Mee=ng, Mooloolaba State School Greeters and Morning Tea Helpers Please note that, to allow sufficient set up time, you will need to be at the school hall from 9 am. If you won t be attending please make arrangements for another member to replace you. Will greeters please look after new members and visitors and introduce them to other members to make them feel at home. Morning tea and Greeters Greeters Tom Breitenbach Anne Derksen Morning tea Judy Hill Jack Kruizinga Jackie Lollback Pat Richardson 4
New Location for our General Meetings The decision to shift our General Meetings to Mooloolaba State School means we will have to get used to some changes and maybe the odd teething problem. Parking will be easier, as there is a large parking area at the school. Enter the parking area from Douglas St. The school s kitchen has only a few cups, so we ask you to bring your own mugs along for morning tea. One big advantage of the new location is that it provides audio-visual facilities, enabling us to offer journey coordinators and ambassadors a means for illustrating their planned or recently completed FF journeys with Powerpoint presentations or short movies. Forthcoming FF Journeys INTERNATIONAL JOURNEYS 2018 Inbounds 2018 May 8-14 #14057-3 Winnipeg Canada. Cancelled August #14148 Piracicaba, Brazil September 10-17 #14297 Japanese Language Journey Helen Treston Late October - early November Outbounds 2018 #14037 Tarapoto, Peru Cancelled June 11-18 #14108 Quebec, Canada Jim Macready Quebec HC André Cauchy June 20-27 #14108 North Bay, Canada Jim Macready North Bay HC Marian Beauregard DOMESTIC JOURNEYS 2018 Outbound March 19-26 #14338 Melbourne Coral/Ron Usher Inbound July 27 - August 3 #14339 Central Coast Gillian Gosney INTERNATIONAL JOURNEYS 2019 We have requested mutual Journeys to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Austin, Texas. * * * * * The next Northern Districts meeting is in Cairns on the weekend of 18/19 August. Gayle Macready, Journey Mentor 5
Inbound Journeys Outbound Journeys English Language Journey for Japanese Language Ambassadors 10 to 17 September 2018 # 14297 HC Helen Treston Melbourne 19 to 26 March, 2018 #14338 HC Coral Usher I have had confirmation from Hiroshima that the target of 15 Ambassadors has almost been reached. Allan Roff and his Assistant have met up with me and my Assistant, Anne Green, in Brisbane and we discussed complementary language and sightseeing projects for the journey which will be in North Moreton from 3-10 September and with us on the Sunshine Coast from 10-17 September. Helen Treston Tarapoto, Peru Late October, 2018 #14037 HC Jenny Allan Eleven SC members are going to Melbourne from 19th to 26th March. The Melbourne Host Coordinator has finalised the host/ambassador matching, and the program of events, which has been distributed to the travellers. Ambassadors are advised to contact their hosts and to make their own arrangements to get to a meeting point or to the host s home, as many have pre-journey plans or different aircraft arrival times. With their hosts, all will meet for a welcome dinner on the 19th at a private residence. Myki cards for public transport during the FF journey have been factored in by the host club. Coral Usher Tarapoto has cancelled their journeys to Australia, citing visa costs, health problems and the opportunity to travel to Russia for the World Championship Football. The club also stated that it would warmly welcome Ambassadors from Australia. Jenny Allan Central Coast 27 July to 3 August, 2018 #14339 AC Gillian Gosney Members of the Central Coast club will be visiting us from 27 July to 3 August 2018. The Journey Committee has been formed and our first meeting scheduled. Now we need to start gathering names of prospective hosts, co-hosts and dinner hosts. Gillian Gosney Quebec and North Bay, Canada 11 to 27 June, 2018 #14108 HC Jim Macready Sixteen ambassadors are merrily making travel arrangements. Planning is well in hand by our host co-ordinators and we are all looking forward to a great journey. Problems experienced by our host clubs in finding sufficient hosts seem to have been sorted out. Jim Macready Reminder If you are travelling on a FF Journey with another FF Club, please remember that your application has to be signed by our President. 6
Other Activities Social Events Dine-outs Hi everybody. Not a whole lot to report this month. Our Australian picnic in the bush went off really well. We were very cosy all together under the tarpaulin due to the showery weather, but it all added to the atmosphere of fun and fellowship. There were 49 of us there altogether, including 5 visitors. [Pics on p7] Our next general meeting in March will be at the new venue of Mooloolaba State School, but in the meantime the February picnic meeting is at the Golden Beach Tavern in Caloundra. A glitch in communication saw both Pam and myself choosing the same place for our get-together! How could that happen?! Are we running out of venues here on the Coast? I decided to leave the booking as it stands as the Sunday lunch is extremely popular. The tavern is at the corner of Bowman Road (Caloundra Road) and Baldwin Street Caloundra. Bill Laws has warned us to get there very early by 11:30am as the queue to order lunch is very long by 12midday. Some of us are going to see Chorus Line at the Events Centre at 2pm. I think there are still some seats left if anyone wants to go. Merrilyn March birthdays The next Dine-out is on Thursday 15th March at 11.45am at Rivershore Resort, 99 David Low Way, Diddillibah 54582200. (Just before Erbachers fruit shop.) Please ring Pam to confirm your attendance. Pam Ferguson Have you changed your address? If you change your postal address, phone number, email address, etc, would you please remember to let either the database administrator (Mike McFarlane) or the Sunseeker editor (Tony Sayer) know of the changes. Editor Spuds cooking at the Australia Day picnic Happy Birthday to: Gillian Dwyer Mike Matthews Jan Bell Glenis Ayling Next Sunseeker Please put Sunseeker in the subject line and email contributions to Tony Sayer by Friday 16 Mar. If you neglect to include Sunseeker in the subject line, your email may get overlooked in my busy email Inbox. Editor 7
Australia Day Themed Picnic at Mapleton Men s Shed Coral & Ron really got into the Aussie spirit Sue displayed the new club uniform Chris was a picture of sartorial elegance Merrilyn s team dished up delicious tucker, complete with damper 8