Cyrius News

Bendigo Bank, Epping Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank, Hunt & Hunt Lawyers and Cyrius Media Group hosted and sponsored a big EOFY community bash at Epping Club on the 5th Wednesday in June. 
The event was attended by 150 guests and the opening remarks were made by Federal Member for Bennelong, John Alexander OAM.  Special guest speaker Rosemary Bishop from 3Bridges Community, presented a new model of strategic partnership and shared value between local community organisations, business and Government agencies. 
The Bendigo Community Bank Branch model exemplifies community engagement and the idea of the event was to promote and encourage more partnerships and interaction between local organisations. 
The Article in the Northern District Times explains...

Today marks one year to the day that the Rotary Club of Ryde launched their new Website.  Cyrius congratulates the Club on all the site has achieved in its first 12 months.

The Website recently won the Rotary District Award for best Website for 2010–11, the Norm Roach Memorial Shield.

It has also attracted a large number of visitors from all over the world.  6,000 people have looked at the Website, which is not bad for a humble little Rotary Club, and they have looked at over 25,000 pages of content.  The numbers are going up all the time, as the site grows in size and stature and continues to be found in Search Engines for more and more keywords.

The Club has benefited in many ways, including attracting guest speakers, volunteers, applicants for various programs and scholarships, and a few enquiries for membership.

Cyrius is proud to have been a part of the Ryde Rotary Website journey and will continue to support the Club to grow and increase its online presence, through the Website and through many social media channels.

Cyrius clients and fellow members of the Ryde Chamber of Commerce were honored with two Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow Awards.

At the recent Ryde Chamber of Commerce event, hosted by John Booth at The Weekly Times, Ryde Rotary President surprised Lorraine and Malcolm Cox with a Paul Harris Fellow award each.

Paul Harris Fellows are awarded to Rotarians and non-Rotarians alike who show outstanding commitment to community service.  Lorraine and Malcolm are ideal recipients, with all the charity and community work they do.  Lorraine and Malcolm's business, Ryde Furniture Freighters, has become very well-known for helping those in need.  They cart furniture for charities and they donate large amounts of furniture left over from their clients' downsizing moves – all at their own expense.

Ryde Rotary has been at the receiving end of Lorraine and Malcolm's generosity, when they offered to cart a shipment of furniture bound for one of our international aid program destinations.

Tony Abboud from Ryde Rotary introduced President Allen Horrell to the Ryde Chamber crowd (a crowd which, for some reason, seemed to be padded out somewhat with a few Rotarians!).  President Allen commenced his presentation with an explanation of the Paul Harris Fellow award and its significance, not only as a recognition of great respect and honour, but that one aspect of the award is that Rotary donates $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation on behalf of the recipient.  This evening, $2,000 was donated and two very surprised recipients were asked to come up and receive their awards. 

Malcolm and Lorraine are two of the nicest, humblest people you could meet.  Cyrius really enjoyed every step of the development process of their two Websites.  They certainly weren't ready for all the accolades and the attention.  There were more than one or two tears from the recipients and from the crowd, as the emotion of such a public recognition of great community service unfolded.

Congratulations Lorraine and Malcolm, on all your amazing support and good work, from the entire Cyrius team.

Photo (L-R):  Malcolm Cox, The Weekly Times Editor John Booth (OAM), Lorraine Cox, Ryde Chamber President Tony Abboud, Ryde Rotary President Allen Horrell

Last night, Hills Schools Industry Partnership hosted a combined Chamber of Commerce event at Epping Club to showcase their services, working with school and business to provide training, experience and opportunity to local youth.  A big crowd of over 200 people attended, to hear a number of speakers presenting on the benefits of working with our youth.

Stefan was the MC for the event and introduced the line up, which included a 20-piece jazz band from Arden High School, Caroline Gardner, from HillSIP, Andrew Hill from AJH Sports, Peter Garrard, Principal of Epping Boys High and Eugene Lau, from Cisco.

By any measure, the event was a great success, drawing so many chambers and organisations together to one event and providing a whole new perspective on schools/industry partnerships.  For more news on the event, please go to Ryde Business Forum's Website.

At a recent Club meeting, fellow Rotarian Stefan Sojka announced the official "go-live" of the Rotary Club of Ryde Website.  The site was produced during the 2009–10 Club year, under the presidency of Rtn Bob Carroll, so Stefan presented him with a memento, a framed home page screen shot print of the site, captured before the presidential change-over.  Current President Allen Horrell (centre) officiated the meeting, and oversaw the launch, as well as Bob's presentation.

The Hills Schools Industry Partnership is an organisation which exists to support students to transition into work and business by encouraging mentoring and interaction with the business community.  On Tuesday 19 October, an event "Building Business and Building Others" is planned, to draw the entire network of Chambers of Commerce, along with other business organisations from around Sydney's North Shore.  Education professionals from all over Sydney will be attending to build links and encourage business to become involved.

Stefan has been invited to speak to the audience about his experiences mentoring students and encouraging professional development within his business.  Several of Cyrius's previous employees have been undergraduates and interns and have gone on to achieve big things in their professional fields.  Stefan will speak on the benefits of both parties in establishing such relationships.

Here is more information about the event.  We look forward to seeing you there.

After 64 years of community service, the Rotary Club of Ryde has leapt into the new world of digital media with gusto.  The new Website is a complete portal of all the Club's activities and promises to be a fantastic PR and membership vehicle for the Club.  Cyrius was involved right from the beginning, working on design, strategy, content and development, adding all the features a busy and vibrant Club requires.  The site has videos, blogs, news, calendar, membership database, a discussion forum and content galore.

We are really proud of the Website and look forward to it growing and evolving over the coming years.  Congratulations, Ryde Rotary, on all your great work – and a fabulous new online presence!  Thank you for trusting Cyrius with the job of creating the site for such an esteemed Club.

(by Allen Horrell) Last Tuesday, Ryde Rotary hosted their annual “Pride of Workmanship” Awards.  Once again we had a great group of five “do-ers” as Maxine was later to describe them, and an equally impressive five sponsors who put these people forward for recognition.

Gladesville Local Area Commander Phil Flogel spoke for Leading Senior Constable Simon Hack, who was appointed to lead a team that went on to arrest hundreds of drug dealers and other wrongdoers making Gladesville a safer community in the process.  It was a tough job but Simon could hack it!

Then Martina Fox introduced Beth Stewart who has given Ryde Hospital the last 33 years of her life as a Pink Lady Volunteer, and has been the President of the Pink Ladies for the last 10, and raised over $26,000 for the Hospital during this time.  What an example of dedication and giving back to her community!

Next up another member of the Ryde Hospital family, Joanne Uttley was praised for her dedication by Site Manager Linda Davidson.  Among many other things she has done in transforming the operations of Ryde Hospital, Joanne got to spend the $26,000 that Beth and her Pink Ladies raised for her.

Maxine said later that “we have a Rolled Gold Health System in this Country” and we should be proud of it.  I think it is actually Gold leaf, it is rolled so thin in places – where would we be without Beth’s $26K, and Ryde Rotary’s many donations to the same hospital over the years?

Toni Scott of the Christian Community Aid Service gave a glowing tribute to their Administration Officer Diane West, who worked with their large team of carers, 80% of whom come from non-English-speaking backgrounds, but do a marvelous job in our community, caring for the less fortunate.  Diane has become an expert in dealing with government agencies and helping them correct their bureaucratic errors where these have a negative impact of her clients.

Then Peter Marcon of the Eastwood LAC gave a spirited account of the work of the Eastwood policing team’s good work and in particular that of Detective Senior Constable Martin Wilson, whom he described as “the last man you would want chasing you if you had done something wrong”.  I can’t think of higher praise for a Police Officer, especially from a commander of the calibre of Peter Marcon.  He also addressed us as a Club, praising the importance of this recognition we give to his officers each year.  In her keynote speech Maxine McKew praised the Eastwood officers for their community policing, café society style!  She also spoke of the society transformation brought about by people who never make it into the History books, and often do vital work without acknowledgment.  But not tonight – that’s our job!

It seems incredible that this Rotary International Vocational Project started right here in our Club, the brainchild of PDG Les Whitcroft, with his slogan “Do it once, Do it right!”  The Club’s thanks go to Burkhart Foertsch who did it right for the Club again this year.

Maxine spoke very well and with heart tonight, and even I have to admit she is better looking than John Howard!

Pictured:  Stefan Sojka with fellow Ryde Rotarian, Allen Horrell, hanging out with Federal Member for Bennelong, Maxine McKew at the recent 2009 Rotary “Pride of Workmanship” Awards