This will be my second last report. It has been a real pleasure and delight to be your President. Other have complained about doing the job. I have enjoyed it with the exception for the need to writing of these reports every week for the Bulletin. [Now now... ☺ Ed.] For me the job has been very gratifying and a privilege and honour to be in the position as 2019-20 President of the Rotary Club of Surfers Sunrise.
Also, all the members and the affiliates has been amazing.
In the last week we have presented “CERTIFICATES OF APPRECIATION” to:
Jed Stanyer & Graeme Stanyer for the assistance in the recycling program “Containers for Change” at Seaquester Quays for the Surfers Sunrise Wheelchair Project.
Alex & Belinda Matthew from AB Crane Hire for providing a crane to lift the 40Foot container onto the truck and off the truck and placing it in the correct spot at the shed at no charge.
Jan Sinclair of Sinclair Containers Sales & Hire for many years provided the Project Shed with Containers as very, very reduced rates. Jan also we to Samoa and travel to Samoa & worked on the House of Hope.
The Project Shed again was a hive of activity. Lots in working going on. Larry had Stephen Robertson from Pimpama High School to pick-up materials for 12 wheelchairs that they are working-on as a school project. The Students will be marked on this as part of their final year. It includes design innovations and the method of construction & manufacture. This should give some great ideas for Des & Larry to consider and include in the next generation of wheelchairs. Also, we have started work on building 11 POD’s and hope that these will be done quickly.
In the meantime, new work benches are being made for the new area. Graeme Isaacson has really been busy sell lots of thing left-over from the reorganisation. The Broadbeach Rotary Club sent a contingent to work on painting the Trusses and as work progresses, they be back for more. We need to find something for the Gold Coast Rotarians to do. I'm sure Des will come up with something.
Finally, Neil Thurlow has come up with a great idea which can support the Club’s fundraising and benefit his bike riding. Franz will give more details below.
Lastly, when you receive the years report, please take the time to read Darrel Brown’s report on Youth. It’s amazing what we do as a Club particularly considering this year with the COVID-19 Pandemic. I realize Charles is all ready to go but before we get too far ahead of ourselves, I still have about 2 weeks to go.
The regular Rotary ZOOM meeting is on at 7:30am Wednesday morning. Look forward to seeing you all there.
Some of our members simply keep under the radar… I wanted to find a picture of Peter on the web – there isn’t anything! How good is it then to get a bit of a deeper insight into the life of one of our Charter Members. Some of us would have known that he currently holds the position of Corporate Solicitor at Suncorp, the largest listed company in Queensland. Some would know that he is a family man through and through. But did we know of his extensive community service, outside of Rotary, with the Catholic Church’s Finance Board, or with the Life Education organisation?
His law career goes back to the early 1980’s, when he was a partner at Rapp Hickey & Morgan on Short Street in Southport. Peter elaborated on multiple projects: One of his major clients, Ron McMaster, was one of the largest Hi-Rise developers on the Gold Coast. A large number of houses in a target area would be bought up (sometimes at outrageous prices, such as a $200,000 house on the land where Bayview Harbour was to be built, for $600,000. Concurrently, public road closures resulted in crown land being converted to freehold. Apartments in the proposed development were sold off the plan, sometimes as far as two years ahead of the completion of construction. 10% deposit would secure a title; the obvious idea was to “flick it on”. Peter recalled one development where there were units that were re-sold as much as 8 times before completion! Profits of as much as $100,000 were realised. And that was before the Capital Gains Tax was introduced. Then, once the building was completed, settlement for all units was to be on the same day! Not just a massive project, also a massive legal job!
On to ‘Family’… He married Helen in their mid twenties and by 1986 there had two boys and a girl, all under the age of 3… Peter recalled with nostalgia when back in those days, the Sergeant would fine him with monotonous regularity for being ‘last in the door’. Well, having to help organising breakfast and getting the kids to school would explain that! Our Club Member/Trophy-Maker Barry Manteit (remember him?) even got him a special trophy ‘Just on Time’… Forward to 2010: the two sons married. Another 10 years on and there are 9 grandchildren! “So when they visit, the house is converted into a child care centre”.
Obviously, Peter enjoyed a high level of respect and trust in his church. In the mid eighties he was invited to join the Surfers Paradise Catholic Church’s Finance Board. Its task is to guide the parish priest and make decision on a wide range of finance aspects, including the decision on what to do if a Church – come Community Centre, such as the one in Surfers Paradise was, is to be renovated or whether a new church complex is to be built. Such was the case when by 1986 the new Catholic Church and primary school was built on 10 Hectares on Fairways Drive, opposite the Golf Course. Contrast this with the Broadbeach/Mermaid Beach Church, sitting on one acre on Hedges Avenue: where a 400 m2 block on the other side of the street sells for about $5 Million, do you sell and build somewhere else or stay? Big deliberations, big decisions, an awful lot of footwork.
Finally to Life Education: Peter’s involvement started in 1985. It was started in 1979 by Ted Noffs (of Safe Injection Rooms fame) started the movement. The principle is simple: Prevention is better than cure. Ted convinced two of Peter’s legal clients, Ron McMaster and Brian Ray to establish a Life Education Centre on the Gold Coast, based on the successful model employed in Sydney. A ‘Peppercorn Lease’ was established on Council Land. At the time, in 1986, in excess of $1 Million of work was performed Pro-bono. Peter joined the Management Committee on establishment in 1987 and 5 years ago was appointed its Chairman. The organisation, which employs some 50 staff, teaches Nutrition and the importance of healthy activity, Cyber Safety, respectful relationships and advises on legal and illegal drugs, including tobacco and alcohol. A staggering number of some 200,000 children are visited by Life Education every year. Funding used to come from the Queensland Government – until Labor came to power, when “the tap was initially turned off”. (Luckily, it has been re-instated in recent years.) Fortunately, a benefactor bequeathed $1.2 Million, which was used to establish a ‘Regular Giving’ scheme. Today, they have some 6,300 donors who regularly contribute.
There was of course much more in Peter’s presentation than can be written up in the limited space of a club bulletin. Hearing his outline emphasises the fact that one of Rotary’s overriding concept is Vocational Excellence and Leadership. There is no doubt that Peter has, in his 33 years of membership, indeed lived up to that premise.
Photo above: Peter showed us ‘Healthy Harold’, the 2nd most recognised mascot after Ronald McDonald.
It was going to happen in April, but COVID came in-between. Angus Miller is again organising a "Guess who is coming to Dinner?" event. This is a great social evening with an air of mystery as neither the guests nor hosts know who is attending, respectively who will host. Gus advises that he has the volunteer hosts already set up, but would like a "reserve host", just in case we get more people participating than we expect. Regardless of whether you are hosting or not, he will need final numbers of attendees so we can make sure that we have enough hosts. Note: it is an 'impromptu, minimal fuss' affair: if you are hosting and you are an accomplished chef and want to show it off: by all means, slave over a hot stove and cook a five course dinner! At the other end of the scale, simply have a bar-be-que or some take-away pizza. Or anything in-between! The principal purpose is to have a great night!
For those who have not attended one of these dinners before: Firstly, you will all gather at a particular address (will remain secret until we get closer to the event) for a drink & nibble. The hosts' addresses for the evening will then be allocated, who will then make their way to that address for the dinner. Each host will have nominated the number of guests they would like, but they will not know who will come to dinner, nor will the guests know who else will be at that given address. The food is provided by the hosts, for which the guests will contribute $15 per person and provide their own drinks[and perhaps have a spare bottle for the hosts too..! Ed]. The menu is entirely at the whim of the host, anything from caviar to take-away Chinese.
Angus needs to know who will be participating by the Sunday, 28th June. Please register your interest directly with Gus Miller viaemail agjpmiller@gmail.com, advising how many people will participate and whether you can be a "Reserve Host".
Our indefatigable printer extraordinaire, Neil Thurlow, is cycling 400 Km in lieu of the usual 'Brissie to the Bay' event, which due to COVID had to be cancelled. This is a fundraiser in support of MS (Multiple Sclerosis). Click here to go directly to his website, or click on the image, or download the full brochure from the Download Section on the right.
Neil will organise something similar to raise funds for our various Rotary projects. Stay tuned!
On Saturday, we had 4 Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Broadbeach at the Project Shed, busily painting trusses destined for Vanuatu. Picture (by Al Sirovs) shows Harold Bush and Neil Jones, with Broadbeach President Dr Graham Sivyer and Uwe Seifert out of the picture...! Thank you, fellows! For those of you who have come in late: The X-Ray Unit for Pentecost Island, Vanuatu is a joint project between the Rotary Clubs of Broadbeach and Surfers Sunrise. Pre-manufacturing has commenced recently at our Project Shed in Arundel.
The discussion revolved around the current monthly theme of International Rotary Fellowships. “Isn’t Rotary supposed to be non-political??” The discussion among the group of young Rotarians started to become, even for young Rotarians, uncommonly heated. “Why is there a LGBTFellowship?”
“Why not?” retorted a former Peace Fellow . “Rotary means business; it is totally non-political, non-denominational and, since about 1987, certainly non-sexist!”
So how come there is a fellowship for Singles but not for Marrieds? Or for that matter Doll Lovers, or Birdwatchers?” “Maaate!!” his colleagues yelled out, “we are not talking about that kind of dolls and birds!” [Yes, quite right, Henrietta, there is no need say anything!]
One of the stouter members joined in: “Ah, I’m more into the epicurean stuff, like Wine, Whyskey, Rum, Beer, Gourmet Cooking, even Bathhouses. I like antique cars, and I like hitching up the caravan to my 4 x 4 truck, then travel into the blue yonder and in the evenings study my rare books. I listen to Jazz, actually any music. And I’m probably the only male in hundreds of miles who makesquilts. My wife is much more into Italian and Latin Culture. And in this context she joined the Magna Graecia fellowship. “The Magna what?” several shouted out. “Well, it is based in Southern Italy, but you can join. Justlook it up.”
“Geez… isn’t there any group I can join where it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg?” I whimpered. “Most definitely!” came the answer. “There is Amateur Radio, Chess, Draughts, Photography, Esperanto or Genealogy. Even very general subjects as the Internet. But don’t be fooled: the group is very active in around 100 countries! And if you are into Eastern board games: Go. Or you might want to become a Magician and if you need calming down, play Bowls or do some Yoga.” So, with almost 90 different Rotary Fellowships worldwide, there truly is something for everyone! Just click on the links!
We had a standard On-Line Zoom meeting. We had an apology from Gerald East.
President Mario Fairlie opened the meeting. He briefely elaborated on the presentation of Certificates of Appreciation to various recipients (refer to last week's bulletin).
After Peter Morgan’s presentation (see separate article above), the meeting progressed to Club Business. Franz urged people to vote for Rotarian of the Year as voting this year is very tight. Director’s reports are required asap, ideally by Sunday night. We are also looking for Guest Speakers for August onwards.
Adrian Crowe and Doug Lipp elaborated on their fundraising projects, Graham Isaacson reported on the progress of selling the flat pack kitchen cabinetry and shelving via Gumtree. The latter has been sold. Charles Thomasson reported on discussions he and Col Laurenson had in relation to shipping wheelchairs to South Africa.
Angus Miller discussed the upcoming ‘Guess who is coming to Dinner?’ event. In view of one of our hosts being interstate on the initially proposed date, it was decided to postpone it for a week to Saturday,4th July 2020. See separate article above.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.H L Mencken, American Journalist.
Gerald's post of the week (see picture right):
People keep asking: Is COVID 19 really that serious? Listen up! Casinos and Churches are closed. If heaven and hell agree on the same thing, it's probably pretty serious!
Diesel Services Queensland and AB Crane Hire recently provided a truck and a huge mobile crane at no charge to lift a 40' container into our Project Shed area at Arundel. Thank you! Click on the links to go to their website.
Some of our members simply keep under the radar… I wanted to find a picture of Peter on the web – there isn’t anything! How good is it then to get a bit of a deeper insight into the life of one of our Charter Members. Some of us would have known that he currently holds the position of Corporate Solicitor at Suncorp, the largest listed company in Queensland. Some would know that he is a family man through and through. But did we know of his extensive community service, outside of Rotary, with the Catholic Church’s Finance Board, or with the Life Education organisation?
On Saturday, we had 4 Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Broadbeach at the Project Shed, busily painting trusses destined for Vanuatu. Picture (by Al Sirovs) shows Harold Bush and Neil Jones, with Broadbeach President Dr Graham Sivyer and Uwe Seifert out of the picture...! Thank you, fellows! For those of you who have come in late: The X-Ray Unit for Pentecost Island, Vanuatu is a joint project between the Rotary Clubs of Broadbeach and Surfers Sunrise. Pre-manufacturing has commenced recently at our Project Shed in Arundel.
The discussion revolved around the current monthly theme of International Rotary Fellowships. “Isn’t Rotary supposed to be non-political??” The discussion among the group of 
Andy's post of the week: (see picture left)
