If you would like to visit our meeting, please contact us by email on rotaryclubcentralmelbourne@gmail.com or phone 0455-858-996 and request log-in details.
The meeting will commence at 7:40am and conclude no later than 8:45.
Online meetings are scheduled on the last Tuesday of each month. Members can use the following Zoom link to attend these meetings. For security reasons, the password for the Zoom meetings will be circulated in a separate email closer to the date of the next online meeting
Assoc Prof Michael Brown: The James Webb Space Telescope and the Galaxies
Michael is an observational astronomer whose research interests include the evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and the growth of galaxies over cosmic time. This research is undertaken in collaboration with Monash University PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and colleagues from around the world. Michael is best known for his measurements of galaxy growth over cosmic time and how galaxies populate dark matter halos.
Michael is a passionate and effective communicator who is interested in a broad range of astronomy, science philosophy and science policy topics, including Australia’s role in global space research and discovery.
He is a family man and has managed to transfer school run responsibilities for their children to Mrs Brown in order to present to us. We thank them all.
Murray Anderson, Assistant Governor Batman Cluster
Nicholas Oei, Global Scholar and international student mentee
Members’ announcements:
Peter Duras advised that Caprice has once again been generous with their support, on this occasion a donation of swimming goggles. If you have an association with a swimming club or association, please contact Peter.
Millie Swann reported on the success of the reconnection dinners last Saturday, 20 August. Her hard work in organising the dinners was recognised by members. She reminded members of the proposed family event on Sunday, 11 September.
Guest speaker: Susie Cole, Chair RIMERN, Past President RC Prahran Rotary Inner Melbourne Emergency Relief Network (RIMERN) is a Rotary project established in 2021 by the Rotary Club of Prahran and now supported by 15 clubs, including Rotary Central Melbourne. RIMERN assists people coming out of homelessness, domestic violence, refugee displacement, jail, loss of homes owing to disaster or crisis. These people are clients of member welfare agencies who are helping them settle into homes. RIMERN helps to fit them out.
RIMERN operates every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday and now has core volunteer groups who are familiar with the work to be done. However casual volunteers are always welcome, including non-Rotarians. Accommodation for clients is “styled” in order to create a comfortable home environment. As most clients are in younger age brackets, RIMERN seeks donations of furniture and furnishings to suit these age groups.
Susie highlighted four key benefits of RIMERN.
It is a community service for people in need.
It is beneficial to the environment as it saves unwanted furniture from landfill.
Membership of Rotary clubs can benefit from its appeal to non-Rotarian volunteers.
Outstanding public relations for Rotary and clubs whose members are seen as people of action.
Susie outlined plans for the next steps in RIMERN’s growth. These included the acquisition of a van with hydraulic lift, more regular volunteers, effective links to government and philanthropy and the appointment of salaried staff.
After listening to Susie’s energetic presentation, it’s easy to see why RIMERN has been so successful after only one year. She has combined drive with vision and she was able to convey that enthusiasm to members and visitors. More information can be obtained by calling 1300-924-123 or emailing volunteers@rimern.org.au
Rotary Down Under are inviting all members to submit written articles about special parts of Victoria that are known to them – to be used for promotion of Victoria for visitors to the Rotary International Convention in May ’23.
Our Succession Plan Committee will be meeting on October 3rd to consider candidates for President Nominee role. Two members of the club are invited to join the Committee for this process.
On Tuesday August 23rd, after the club meeting, a small delegation headed to Wilson’s storage to present a Certificate of Appreciation to Terry and the staff. President Rohan made a short speech and handed over the plaque.
For years our club has maintained a storage facility which has cost over $2,000 per year. After some diligent research Peter Duras identified that Wilson’s storage in South Melbourne is a sponsor of another Rotary club. Peter approached Terry Gleeson at Wilson’s to enquire about possible sponsorship and without hesitation they provided us with two lockups at their Montague Street location with an annual value of $4,500, at no charge. They also offered us free use of the Wilson’s van during weekdays. This extremely generous offer was rapidly accepted and we have now moved all our financial records, club history paraphernalia and Sausage Sizzle supplies to the new location. Thanks to Roger Thornton and Pippa for sorting and rationalising everything. The monies saved will now be available for club community projects.
After two years of Covid delays, the Garden DesignFest Organising Committee, from the three Rotary clubs of Kew, Brighton North and Central Melbourne, was finally able to put on display a range of gorgeous gardens over the past two weekends. And apart from the weather, everything went off without a hitch. We bravely embraced 21st Century technology, taking payments via Squares in all the gardens (thank you Rob for training a large number of technically challenged Rotarians from all three Rotary clubs). We watched the skies with trepidation leading up to the first weekend, with 13 gardens on display in Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula. But Saturday turned out to be a fine sunny day and on Sunday the storms stayed away until evening. The weather was less kind the next weekend for the 20 country gardens, with two gardens closed on the Sunday due to torrential rain the previous day. On Sunday morning in some gardens the rain lashed down, the winds howled and volunteers hung on to the shelters to prevent them from blowing away. Not surprisingly, attendance figures were less than expected in those gardens badly affected.
All the gardens on show were interesting, some were really impressive. A standout garden at 9 Barnsbury Road, Deepdene impressed by its sheer size, with huge old trees set around a magnificent old home. In Brighton, another historical garden at 23 Asling Street featured 100 year old trees and vegetables in gardens beds throughout. On the second weekend, the four gardens at Euroa were magnificent, exemplified by The Falls with its waterfall, enclosed espalier orchard and scenic lake. Garden DesignFest cannot happen without volunteers to organise the event, buy and sell raffle tickets and staff the gardens over the two weekends. I wish to acknowledge and thank all of you who helped, in particular those who accepted the added responsibility of being a Garden Captain.
Garden DesignFest has two key objectives – to give people the opportunity to look at wonderful gardens and, in the process, raise money for charity. Just seeing the smiling faces on visitors confirms success of the first objective. We are still in the process of finalising numbers prior to distributing funds, firstly two our headline charity Youth Suicide Awareness and then to the Rotary clubs. However, I am delighted to advise that over the two weekends Garden DesignFest raised, in total, over $100,000 for distribution to charities.
The Rotary Club of Kew, the Rotary Club of Brighton North and Rotary Central Melbourne sincerely thank our generous sponsors who have made the 2022 Garden DesignFest possible.
All proceeds from the Garden DesignFest go to community projects run by the participating Rotary Clubs.
Click here for further information on metropolitan and regional gardens open during the festival.
Rotary International Positive Peace (Provisional) invites you to attend a special guest event featuring:
Guest Speaker : Ken Masson - President of Rotary World Disability Advocacy will speak about his Club's work and his experience, working as a long-time supporter and advocate for people with disabilities.
Belonging Matters is holding it conference virtually this year from the 5th-9th September. The conference is called Purpose Matters!
We thought that the Rotary Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee and other Rotarians might be interested in the conference, especially the morning on community and belonging, employment and relationships.
We would like to offer Rotary 5 complimentary tickets! If you would like to attend or invite a key Rotarian, please let us know and we will pass on details about how to access the complimentary tickets.
Registered delegates can attend all sessions or just the sessions they choose. They will also be able to access recordings of the presentation for a short time after the conference.
The conference will be exploring the question of meaning, purpose and social inclusion. It will focus on people with a disability but many of our speakers will be taking a broader focus on inclusion.
With approximately 30 speakers from all over the world, each morning we will focus on an area of life, for example:
