Last Wednesday, 20 October, we highlighted a Club stalwart! A loyal, reliable, and hard-working Rotarian.
What can I tell you about Austen Burleigh that you don’t already know?
He could well be the most well-known member of our Club. He knows every member and more importantly he knows about every member and we all know him as a friend.
Austen joined the Club in 1999 transferring from RC Canberra and today celebrates 22 years.
His classification of BANKING and FINANCE-Banking-Credit Management reflected his 40 years of service with the NAB working in Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, London, Los Angeles and New York.
We know just how active Austen is in Rotary. He served on the Public Issues, Reception, Evening and Community Welfare Committees for many years. Jointly with Barry Murphy he implemented the Club’s partnership with the Brotherhood of St. Laurence. He was an Alternate Director of the East Timor Roofing Co Ltd, he was involved with Homeground’s Elizabeth Street and ”The Nicholson” East Coburg accommodation for the homeless and he has been a willing participant in hands-on initiatives such as Around the Bay, and the DIK Store.
He was Minute Secretary to the Board for three years and led the Club as President in 2011-12. He served on the District 9800 Vocational Service Committee and as District 9800 Assistant Governor Gateway Cluster.
In his Presidential Year he steered the club via the Rotary International “Innovation and Flexibility Pilot Program” to initiate and implement a “Corporate Membership Pilot Program”, just one of 200 clubs world-wide. We now have 6 Corporate members with 13 Designees. The Board, led by Austen, accepted the invitation by District to Sponsor the Rotary E-Club of Melbourne which was officially chartered in March, 2013 and to organise the District 2012-13 Changeover function.
For his continued and invaluable service Austen was honoured by the Club as a Paul Harris Fellow in May 2013.
Now for something you might not know about Austen. He grew up in Warrnambool and was an outstanding junior sportsman playing in representative teams in cricket and football. He went on to play Sub-district Cricket for Hawthorn-East Melbourne and later District Cricket in Brisbane. He has completed two marathons, one being the New York Marathon. There may be Superman, Spiderman and the Hulk, but we have Mr Rotary, Austen Burleigh. He can’t leap tall buildings in a single bound but he knows everything about Rotary structures and procedures, he knows this Club inside and out and he is prepared to share and use this knowledge to help others to make the world a better place. Ever smiling, ever jovial and engaging but always dependable, meticulous and steadfast in everything he does for the Club.
We applaud his energy and enthusiasm for Rotary and this club and we commend his Service Above Self as a role model to all.
Happy Anniversary Austen
