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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
President Rohan opened the meeting. After the Acknowledgement to Country Chair Roy Garrett toasted Rotary International. President Rohan welcomed guests Kerry Hicks and Patricia Poynton. Roy made the following announcements:
Member’s Birthdays
Darren PARK, 24 Feb
Steve HALLIS, 27 Feb
Partner Birthdays
Maria Fragomeni, partner of Ignacio INCHAUSTI, 24 Feb
Wedding Anniversaries
Russell & Heather ROLLS, together for 55 years, since 24 Feb 1968
Roger & Pippa THORNTON, together for 52 years, since 26 Feb 1971
Date Joined Rotary
Allan DRIVER, Rotarian for 27 years, since 28 Feb 1996
Roy Introduced Past District Governor, Dennis Shore who gave a presentation on the upcoming District Convention in Melbourne on 27 – 31 May. He made the following observations:
Conventions have been part of Rotary since 1910, and we held in USA until June 1924 when a convention was held in Canada. The first convention held outside mainland America was in Belgium in in 1927. The largest convention was held in Osaka, Japan om 2004 with 43,381attendees.
Melbourne last hosted a convention in May 1993 and Sydney held one in 2014. Australia has also hosted conventions in Sydney in 1971 and in Brisbane in 2003.
Melbourne beat London in the bid for the convention in 2016 – 2017, Neville John was Governor, however the event is a collaboration between all 5 District in Victoria.
There are currently 20 members of the convention team in Melbourne, fine tuning the event.
The opening and closing ceremonies will be held at Rod Laver Arena, as will the plenary sessions. The Melbourne Convention Centre will host the House of Friendship and Break sessions as well as various luncheons. The house of friendship is an exciting place to be as it will be a gathering place for Rotarian from around the world and there will be plenty of entertainment to keep everyone occupied.
A shuttlebus will be available from hotels and there will be extra shuttle trams between the two major venues. Public transport will also be free for convention attendees.
There are a number of people involved in the Host Organising Committee (HOC) from all 5 districts, with Mary Barry from RC Melbourne being the Chair of the committee.
Sponsorship opportunities are still available through Murray Verso, who can be contacted via the following link: verson@netspace.net.au
For visitors from interstate and overseas there are a number of tours and experiences which have been organised plus there are a number of events planned for attendees of the convention, including a golf day, visits to the home of the Melbourne Cup in Flemington and an opening dinner at the Melbourne Museum. There will also be home hosted and club hosted events.
Prior to the event there has been significant promotion, particularly at the Rotary Convention in Houston, the International Assembly In Orlando and the Zone Conference in Canberra. There are still opportunities to register to volunteer at the Convention through https://ricon23.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=54179 and now is a good time to register for the conference, before the cost and exchange rate goes up.
Announcements
Campbell announced that the Port Melbourne Bunnings BBQ raised a record $2,300, which in part was thanks to some drinks stocks being used and the donation of 30 loaves of Bread. He also thanked the volunteers on the day.
He also announced the next raffle, which will be drawn at our meeting on 28 March and proceeds will go to Medical Aid for Ukraine, an organisation which supplies much needed medical supplies via Germany.
President Rohan made the following announcements:
On Saturday 25th February there was a working bee at RIMEN and he thanked the volunteers Nev and Bec, Ignacio and Allan Driver. The next opportunity to volunteer will be Saturday March 25th. If any club members has goods to donate contact him and he will give information on collection or delivery of those goods.
There is also an opportunity for members to volunteer at the Melbourne Flower Show to help Travellers Aid to assist people with mobility issues. The Show will be held between 29th March and 1st April.
A raffle will be held for 5 tickets for the Rotary convention (if you have already registered you will get a refund) Entry to the raffle will be via donating amounts to the Rotary Foundation over the next month – one raffle ticket for every $20 donated.
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.
It is that time of the year again when we launch the Christmas Hamper Appeal for 2022. We will be again providing hampers to homeless youth through Steps Outreach Service recipients, and refugee families through the Lentara Uniting Asylum Seeker Project.
Please find attached a flyer containing information about the types of hamper contents that has been recommended. As noted in the flyer, please inform me on my email (beng1@iprimus.com.au) or on 0421 093604, how many hamper bags you need and I will arrange for them to be brought to the in-person meetings. If you are unable to attend meetings please let me know and we will make other arrangements.
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.
