Our Year Ahead with President Gil

On her first night President Gil Padarin-Innes called a Club Assembly enabling members to meet with their Directors & start planning for the new year. Over the next weeks we will look forward to reports back from the Club Directors.
Pres. Gil also took the opportunity to introduce herself to members, recognising she has not been in our club for very long.
Gil was born in Perth & for much of her adult life she worked in the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade. In this capacity she lived in several Australian cities, Darwin, Brisbane, Sydney, Newcastle, Perth & Canberra. She also worked for 3 years or more overseas in Bangkok, Seoul, Brasilia & also at temporary posts in Ho Chi Minh, Nauru & Kiribati.
Whist working in Bangkok she met Keith Innes & now they have a blended family which includes 17 grandchildren & one great-grandson. Gil was encouraged by the Department to study for a degree in International Relations, which she did & she is currently doing her Masters on Humanitarian Assistance hoping to qualify for a place in a PhD program. When success-ful Gil’s thesis will be ‘the future of international volunteering’. This will be interesting as it is the type of support Rotary is engaged in.
Gil & Keith have been in Rotary for six years, joining in Perth & then transferring to Canberra & in retirement joining our Port Macquarie Club. Gil is hoping in her year of Presidency to fulfil Int. Rotary President John Germ’s goal of involving Rotary more with the community. Gil hopes to work with other organi-sations including our sister Rotary Clubs to achieve more together through Rotary Serving Humanity.