Guest Speaker - Dr. Nerida James - Naturopath

• Nerida practised in Emerald for 14 years but now lives on an acre in Ferny Creek and has three consulting rooms and a big dispensary.  She deals in natural medicine.
• Ian Wakefield’s daughter is also a naturopath.
• Nerida also has a Bachelor of Chiropractic so has a double degree and deals in herbal medicine rather than drugs
• Homeopathy administers small doses of a substance e.g. belladonna can be administered for high fever and throbbing pain in drop doses, as higher doses cause high fever and throbbing pain.
• She mentioned that 108 clinical trials have been done on homeopathy and the practice was f0unded in Germany
• Pillules or little drops are also good for children and animals.
• Nerida advocates natural pain killers.
• A year ago, Nerida had a double hip replacement at the same time meaning only one lot of surgery, drugs and downtime.  Day 2 she fainted due to low pressure because of the drugs prescribed.  Day 3 she took magnesium, curcumin and palm oil which don’t cause constipation. Drugs knock patients around.
• She  now has zero pain and great hip movement.
• Naturopaths and GPs are not opposed, and she works with medical doctors.
• She referred to a book entitled “Eat Right for your Blood Type”: Blood type O should eat meat whereas Type A should have a diet with little meat and lots of plant-based food. Her practice can tailor-make a diet to suit your body.
• Neida endorses the Mediterranean diet of fish, salads and some wine.
• Nerida handed out a healthy eating plan CLICK HERE
• There is the ancient principle known as the acid/alkaline principle.  If your diet is too acidic you can get arthritis, gout, migraines etc. a more alkaline diet settles a patient down. Too much takeaway food is being consumed by our younger people.  80% of the diet should be alkaline food and 20% more acid food.
• Nerida practises massage, chiropractic manipulation and Bowen Therapy.  Women are more prone to osteoporosis after menopause, as fewer hormones lead to less calcium absorption.
• Nerida handed out a brochure on her clinic where iridology and acupuncture are also practised.
• Iridology is iris diagnosis, a diagnostic skill developed in the 1800s by medical doctors. It looks at changes in the iris e.g. a mark at 8 o’clock is indicative of a gallbladder problem.
• Headaches if persistent can be caused by food intolerances, a pinched nerve in the neck, hormone imbalance or post menopause.
• Iridology helps to locate the causative factor: why are you not sleeping, what’s the underlying cause?
• Hair analysis is a new diagnostic technique and very inexpensive hair analysis is not for DNA testing; follicles are checked for your nutritional balance.
• She has a skin ointment which can treat several skin conditions, such as eczema and psoriasis it contains 19 natural ingredients and free samples are given at the clinic.
• Nerida treats menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes with herbs.

Committee Reports

• December 1991 became a Rotaractor
• 2 July 2002 became a Rotarian
• 11 October 2007 resigned
• Received a Paul Harris Fellow in 2009 in the hope that she would re-join Rotary
• It worked! 21 June 2011 Emma rejoined
• has been a Rotarian for 19 years and with the Rotaract service totals 30 years’ involvement.
• portfolios held include youth, membership, community at least twice, and Vice- President and Secretary to Marcus last year.
• 2016-17 was Club President, the year that Shalini, John Henderson and Sangeeta joined.
• The outstanding conference in Geelong was held, where we dressed up as the First Rotary Club in Outer Space, another conference when we should’ve won for being best dressed but did not again, according to Marcus - with 37 members we solidified our membership.
• Following the storm in 2021, Emma led the logistics for the Help The Hills Committee. helped to raise $100,000 for the storm relief effort
• She was also part of the Conference Committee last year and was instrumental in making Ken’s conference the best ever and was one of the vocalists who performed
• Our first ever Earlyact Club is in its infancy at Emma’s school.
• Emma was inspired by Ken and expressed some interest before Christmas in being District Governor.... and Ken gave great encouragement.
• Emma was interviewed for the role last Saturday She 5 pm. on Saturday, Emma received a phone call from DG Ian Ballantine that she had been successful and would be the 2026-27 DG.
• Throughout this time, Emma has been Assistant Principal and is the current Principal at Emerald Primary School and is now in charge of 29 principals in the region.
• She is now tackling the issue of diversity and inclusion in Rotary.

• Emma has to get over the emotion of it all and thanked Marcus who is also a great mate.
• Much to husband James’ disappointment, has never changed her name from Green, hence the showing of the “Kermit the frog” animation featuring Emma’s face instead of Kermit’s
• She resigned from Rotary to be a mum and still is a mum
• But she was inspired by Ken
• We are in a period of change; regionalisation and merger are 2 different districts.  I will be following Colin Byron and Peter Behm and there will be 80 Clubs after the merger - our District will be bigger and better.
• her challenge: how do we bring 80 clubs together and increase membership which across the District is in decline but not in our club. we’ll share best practice around the District.
• She is a big fan of when things are changing, the extra challenge of the unknown is appealing the interview room on Saturday was welcoming and warm and 4 men and 4 women interviewed her.
• Some questions were quite probing - the night before while putting her presentation together, Marcus advised to put in lots of photos
• Emma’s Vision: we are custodians, caretakers and changemakers, we need to spread the love and ingenuity from our place to others. We don’t want to lose the good work we do.
• “Treasuring our Trees” - some logs are now at EPS.
• The youth programs, Earlyact, Interact and Rotaract - if we can stream their strength, that will help make Rotary great. The show must always go on.
• Emma had a great experience on Saturday
• in times of doubt Emma will rely on all the supporting emails she has received. conceded that she stands on others’ shoulders.
• Being a member of Emma Rotary Club is a dream come true. :)

• Guest speaker Nerida,
• former exchange student Zoe for attending on her last night in Australia
• Rowan for chairing the meeting
• Hendo’ for his Fines session
• Lorna for the apologies and
• Emma for her presentation.