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
For this meeting, President Rohan will lead a discussion on the club’s planned activities for the year.
The directors of the Avenues of Service will provide 5-minute presentations on their committees’ progress against plans for the current year and how these achievements contribute to our four strategic pillars - Progressive, Networked, Connected and a Catalyst for getting things done.
President Rohan Williams – Welcome to country and acknowledgement. Welcomed guests.
Chair – Anne King proposed a toast to Rotary International.
Guest Speaker Gary Morton spoke about the importance of bee keeping in his presentation titled Toast and Honey.
Gary mentioned that one in every three mouthfuls of human food is produced by bees. A honey-bee can fly for up to eight kilometres from their colony, and as fast as 20 km per hour, but it would have to fly about three times around the globe to make half a kilogram of honey. Bees are highly productive insects, and keeping a beehive can be a beneficial exercise for almost anyone! The advent of the varroa mite in Australia has brought a new dimension to beekeeping that must be met head-on.
Gary also shared a video he had recorded to demonstrate his bee keeping equipment and apiary. The link to the video is below:
A fascinating presentation was followed by a lively question session, including on native bees, the pesticide problem for bees and city bee-keeping.
Member Announcements:
Campbell Chambers: Invited members to participate in the October club raffle. The raffle would support Lift the Lid Foundation. Lift the Lid on Mental Illness is an Australian Rotary Health Mental Health awareness and fundraising event. Participating is as easy as popping a hat on your head, organising an event at your workplace, and making a donation. All money raised will go towards mental health research.
For more information about Rotary Central Melbourne please visit our website: https://www.rotaryclubcentralmelbourne.org.au/
For more information about Rotary Mental Health campaign please visit: australianrotaryhealth.org.au/support-us/campaigns/lift-the-lid/
Peter Duras: Announced that the BBQ for Grand Final Day on 24th September was a great success with the club raising important funds for club projects.
Eight members from RCM attended the Batman Cluster meeting with DG Amanda Wendt on Monday 14th November. Amanda specifically acknowledged Peter Duras for his 49 years of Rotary service as well as Charter members Tom Callander, Herb Greenwood and Frank O’Brien for their continuous service.
DG Amanda has introduced a new Mentorship Award for support to newer members. RCM proudly has three recipients of the inaugural award – Neville Taylor, Elias Lebbos and Rob Hines.
The notice of RCM’s annual general meeting for 29th November has been circulated to members. Rohan reminded members of the call for nominations for officers and directors for 2023-24.
The board is conducting a member engagement survey over two weeks, commencing 29th November. The outcome of the survey will guide the board’s actions in the second half of this Rotary year.
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.
On behalf of Rotary Central Melbourne's Foundation Committee I would like to invite you to the 30th Annual Paul Harris Breakfast.
This year we are joined by guest speaker Jeroen Weimar who will be speaking on the career transitions he has navigated and the influencing factors behind his changing path.
Prior to his appointment as Chief Executive Officer of the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, Jeroen was Commander of the COVID-19 Response in Victoria, working with a team of clinicians, public health experts and operations specialists to protect the Victorian community. He has also served as Chief Executive Officer for Public Transport Victoria and VicRoads following a career as a town planner.
Along with this we will discuss with Jeroen how Rotary, and its members can contribute to making the 2026 Commonwealth Games the most successful and inclusive games we have seen yet. This is an excellent opportunity to bring along partners and other guests who might either be considering joining Rotary or are interested in listening to our eminent guest speaker dive into the unfolding of his professional path
DATE: Tuesday, 22nd November 2022
TIME: 7.15am for 7:30-9:00am
VENUE: The RACV City Club Level 2, 501 Bourke St Melbourne VIC 3000
