Dear fellow members and friends of Surfers Sunrise,
Firstly, a big shout out to Rosie McIntyre... Welcome to the team! Secondly, where are all these amazing guest speakers coming from? This week is no exception, with the Salvation Army talking about their new Turning Point Admission Centre. Thirdly, here are my words of wisdom... The road to success for 99% of people isn't a jump, it's a steady incline from one small win to the next... with a few bumps along the way!
You will no doubt have heard in recent news of the 3 cases of polio in Nigeria, the first in Africa in over 2 years... bummer! A small setback yes, but Rotary are taking charge and releasing funds that will see vaccinations reach every child in the affected area within 120 days to prevent further cases...BOOM! That's what Rotary is about. Our road to success in eradicating polio just got one of those bumps but we are bigger than that and this is a good reminder to support PolioPlus!
After being in Rotary for decades, Richard and his charming wife Sue came down from the Garden City of Toowoomba and joined Surfers Sunrise (of course!). Richard will properly introduce himself this Wednesday. If you would like to get a bit of a pre-view: Download Richard's answer to the 33 Questions in the Download Section on the right!
"I ran for parliament because people said I couldn't do it..." John-Paul Langbroek [lets abbreviate this to JP for the remainder of this article, ok?] opened up. Well, it would appear that the member for Surfers Paradise since 2004 much prefers to discuss just about anything other than his own very impressive personal background. Go to the NLP's website, there is an almost painful absence of news younger than 2 months. Go to his personal webpage, you find only a brief mention about himself (but numerous photos), but plenty about his city, his constituents, his views and goals for Surfers Paradise. But a quick look into Wikipedia reveals that, whilst born in the Netherlands, his family emigrated to Australia when he was only a few months old. Prior to entering politics, JP, who holds an Honours Degree in Dental Science, ran a Dental Practice. [Useful, I'm sure, since getting the opposite members to actually answer a question would be similar to extracting teeth! Ed.]
JP first ran in 2001, when Rob Borbidge resigned after he led the coalition to a landslide defeat, but missed out to Lex Bell, one of the most prominent personalities of the Gold Coast. But in 2004, he won comfortably, and in 2009 became the leader of the recently formed LNP. Since then, an awful lot has happened in State Politics, and this is not the space to cover it...
Currently, he is Shadow Minister for Health & Ambulance Services and the Commonwealth Games. If you want to put the various portfolios into context: Of a $54 Billion annual budget, Health & Services takes some 40% of the cake, with about 80,000 staff, or 1/3rd of the entire public service. Compare that to Tourism, which as 100 staff!
So, why don't we hear more about what's happening? The explanation is quite straight forward: "News depends on ratings. TV News generally have just one, 'highly polished' story per day" he says. For example, when he recently gave a 20 minute Press Conference on Child Safety issues, it didn't get reported at all! Then there is the 'technique' of delaying news (or bringing them forward): An example JP cited was the recent Toowoomba By-Election, which was soundly won by the LNP. But the State Government just happened to release the report into the Barrett Centre closure a solid 3 weeks after it was presented with it, so it would - oh, so conveniently - coincide with the By-Election.
The mark of a Guest Speaker is always the level of interest in Question Time. Well, just as well that JP allowed for half of his time! They came thick and fast! What were the questions? Well, you should have been there!
Paul Seymour was at the door, Ian Mayberry was Chairman... as well as Sergeant.
We had apologies from Jo Gorman, Peter Morgan, Tania Laird, Andy Bell, Larry Murray, Angus Miller.
President Simon Brook welcomed all members and guests Ross Augustine (RC of Frankston Sunrise), Arthur Moorhouse (RC of Nowra), Sarah Cooper and her guest Rosie McIntyre, and our Guest Speaker, John Paul Langbroek MP. The meeting started off with one of the most unusual presentations your Editor has witnessed in almost 30 years of Rotary: our newly elected President was given the boot. Well, you'll just have to go a bit further on to read the full reportage!
Simon further reported on the weekend's major 'Do', the Kokoda Challenge: Secretary Mark Twyford gallantly kept fighting on, despite having pulled a muscle at 15Km, gamely pushed on to 65 Km at 3 am, but was unable to totally complete the 96 Km journey (his team did though). But most commendable: Mark's team raised a fantastic $4,000 in benefit of the youngsters who eventually will be selected to participate in the real Kokoda Challenge, that is to walk the track of the same name. A total of some 350 teams participated. Following on his President's Message in the last bulletin in relation to the Outback Link (see Download Section on the right) as well as the previous week relating to 'Donate for Life': what have you done about it so far? And last but not least: a special Thank You goes to Mario Fairlie, who donated a bottleof Grange Hermitage to the auction at the Australasian Order of Old Bastards luncheon, which raised $1,000. Well done all!
Gerald East foreshadowed that we'll have the usual fundraiser for The Rotary Foundation in November at Runaway Bay Shopping Centre.
Wheelchair Trust Chairman Daryl Sanderson reported confirmed that a 40' container bound for Sri Lanka is on the way. And Daryl's fellow Wheelchair guru Des La Rance has the good news that Tursa Employment advised that they will do an entire 'Flat Pack' school, bound for Thailand's north, forking out some $31,000. Their actual budget is $50,000, but they have to pay wages to the 'Work for the Dole' participants and pay overheads.
Your Editor has seen some unusual things happening in his almost 30 years in Rotary. We have seen Presidents going AWOL after a few short weeks into the term (more than once - Vice President Ian Mayberry, who in his career as VP twice got caught up in such a situation, visibly got the jitters when he first heard about it..! ☺), but never before has a President been given the boot after just three weeks in office! OK, 'given the boot' with a twist: Regular visitor from Nowra, Arthur Moorhouse's better half had severely injured her foot some time ago. Now, the 'Moon Boot' was no longer required, Arthur thought it would certainly become a useful item to be included with a consignment of wheelchairs... Arthur hence presented the boot to an initially puzzled President Simon! Never a boring moment at a Surfers Sunrise breakfast!
Have a guess who paid his dues twice? Yes, one of our newly baked members, Al Sirovs... Franz Huber for whatever (the meeting was too boisterous and the Sergeant's enunciation too feeble to determine what for...) President Simon Brook still can't live down his forgetting Principal Sergeant's Andy's omission from the New Board photo... Adrian Crowe was photographed at the previous Saturday's big Innerwheel District Changeover bash, crawling around the floor, trying to keep a half full wine glass above ground. No! He was not even slightly inebriated! He was just trying to help Franz find the stud of his PHF badge which had fallen off... Richard Smith's wife Sue went for Coffee, and ended up just getting take away... Mark Twyford, how do you even get the motivation to try to run a 96 Km trek at last weekend's Kokoda Challenge?? Still a very credible effort, even though you had to pull out with a torn muscle! Terry O'Shea, you are now the official resident Psychologist for the Richmond Team supporters. C'mon, give some inspiration to your fellow sufferers Gerald East and Angus Miller... And did anyone watch a certain football game last Wednesday night? If you did, pay up! [Your Editor only paid half the fine, since he switched off at half time and went back to read a dissertation on how to handle disappointment... ☺]
"I ran for parliament because people said I couldn't do it..." John-Paul Langbroek 
Your Editor has seen some unusual things happening in his almost 30 years in Rotary. We have seen Presidents going AWOL after a few short weeks into the term (more than once - Vice President Ian Mayberry, who in his career as VP twice got caught up in such a situation, visibly got the jitters when he first heard about it..! ☺), but never before has a President been given the boot after just three weeks in office! OK, 'given the boot' with a twist: Regular visitor from Nowra, Arthur Moorhouse's better half had severely injured her foot some time ago. Now, the 'Moon Boot' was no longer required, Arthur thought it would certainly become a useful item to be included with a consignment of wheelchairs... Arthur hence presented the boot to an initially puzzled President Simon! Never a boring moment at a Surfers Sunrise breakfast!
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Have a guess who paid his dues twice? Yes, one of our newly baked members, Al Sirovs... Franz Huber for whatever (the meeting was too boisterous and the Sergeant's enunciation too feeble to determine what for...) President Simon Brook still can't live down his forgetting Principal Sergeant's Andy's omission from the New Board photo... Adrian Crowe was photographed at the previous Saturday's big Innerwheel District Changeover bash, crawling around the floor, trying to keep a half full wine glass above ground. No! He was not even slightly inebriated! He was just trying to help Franz find the stud of his PHF badge which had fallen off... Richard Smith's wife Sue went for Coffee, and ended up just getting take away... Mark Twyford, how do you even get the motivation to try to run a 96 Km trek at last weekend's Kokoda Challenge?? Still a very credible effort, even though you had to pull out with a torn muscle! Terry O'Shea, you are now the official resident Psychologist for the Richmond Team supporters. C'mon, give some inspiration to your fellow sufferers Gerald East and Angus Miller... And did anyone watch a certain football game last Wednesday night? If you did, pay up! 
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