Opening:
President Roy opened the meeting with a welcome to guests, Cecilia Neil and Ivy Bao, together with guest speakers, Darren Eger and Marcus Maguire. There were no visiting Rotarians. President Roy then handed over to the chairman of the day, George Mackey who proposed a toast to Rotary.
Club Announcements:
- Roger Thornton reminded members of the club’s Change-over Dinner to be held on 26 June. He prompted members to act now and enrol for this event.
- Alan Seale spoke, briefly, about the IFTA dinner on 2 July and indicated that he would like to see as many members attending as possible.
- Alan Seale spoke about the VicPol mentoring program and indicated that Mentor numbers were expanding to 16 in the future. Presently, he was looking for one more mentor to volunteer.
Presidents Announcements:
- President Roy urged directors, who have not yet done so, to submit their annual reports.
- President Roy indicated that the humanitarian trip to Laos next year is fully subscribed.
Direvctors Report: Youth Committee.
George Mackey presented his report on the recent MUNA [Model United Nations] program. There were 62 students participating (including three exchange students) formed into thirty teams. The winning team was from Mc Robertson Girls High presenting the North Korean perspective. The standard – presentation and performance – was high, with the students working hard but also managing to have lots having fun, both with their costumes and in their interactions. The event was a great success.District 9800 is sending two teams to the MUNA National Championships in Canberra, this year, instead of the usual one team.
George presented some photos from MUNA (as well as holiday snaps of Mik Wells, central Australia, and Tony Thomas, UK).
Sergeant’s Session:
Bernie Gerlinger congratulated both Richard on his 52nd wedding anniversary and Stella on her first, before telling the weekly joke, in his inimitable style.
Guest Speakers:
Darren Eger and Marcus Maguire have been in business for 20 years (CineBird). They are specialists in UAV (Unmanned Ariel Vehicle) technology deploying various types of photographic equipment. The passion for flight combined with cinematography brought them together.
While the use of these vehicles is tightly regulated, particularly in Australia, their usefulness is expanding to where UAVs are now being used in quite diverse fields including agriculture and surveying, first aid, logistics, construction and asset management, search and rescue, Film and TV etc.
Darren and Marcus provided some excellent video examples of the work these vehicles are able to do.
Like all technologies UAV’s have their strengths and limitations. Strengths include, cost effectiveness, safety (unmanned), can be used in confined spaces (both inside and outside), transportable and can carry a variety of imaging systems. The limitations include, range and endurance (8 to 20 minutes depending on the size of the payload), limited payload, can’t fly in wet weather (at the moment), live feed is problematic (at the moment) and they need to be flown within line of sight of the operator (Australian regulations).
The Republic of Kiribati is amongst the poorest nations in the world. Apart from international aid, its economy is largely dependent on fishing and fishing licences issued to countries such as Japan, Taiwan and Korea, remittances from I-Kiribati working overseas or on the ships, and some tourism on the Outer Islands.
