It was good to see a good turnout last week, including our Honorary Member Barry Lea. Our guest speaker Paul Hopgood kept us well entertained on a different angle on divorce.
At last we have some movement, although slow, on moving forward with our Rotary projects. I ask all Rotarians to get behind these projects as they are essential to both fund raisers and fellowship.
Please pass any ideas for the GSE entertainment menu through to Simon Brook, especially anyone with a contact for a boat for an afternoon cruise for our visitors.
Sad news: the "father" of our club (as well as of the Broadbeach club), Bruce Duncan, has peacefully passed away in his sleep, aged 88, at his nursing home in Cairns. We all remember with great fondness Bruce and Ona's frequent visits to our club, and in particular Bruce would every year present his Fellowship Cup to one of our members.
The picture on the left is of Bruce and Ona on the occasion of our club's 20th Anniversay in February 2007. Ona passed away in April 2008.
Our sincere condolences go to their daughter Fiona and the Duncan family.
Doug Lipp (for Tania Laird) was at the door, Neil Thurlow (for Graeme Isaacson) was Chairman and Andy Bell (for himself)was Sergeant.
We had apologies from Tania Laird, Graeme Isaacson, Terry O'Shea and Jason Price.
The meeting started off by conducting the Annual General Meeting in near record time (see separate article about this).
President Paul Seymour greeted all members and visitors David Baguley (incoming District Governor Elect Nominee for 2018/19), Jo Gorman (guest of Andy Bell), Mark Twyfordformer President of RC of Parkwood, guest of Franz Huber) and our Guest Speaker, John Duthie, director of the ETC company.
Ray Higgs brought us up to date on the 'Lutzie' Award in honour of our late member Keith Lutz: Ray and Chris Thurtell had a meeting with Surfers Paradise Life Saving Club. The award, which will be open to 14 - 18 year olds, will be a special Surfboard, valued at some $1,700. It is also planned to provide an appropriate Award Certificate.
Youth Service Director Chris Thurtell reported on the previous weekend's Youth Exchange Camp: all Incoming, Outgoing and Rebound students met. Our Isabelle Franich (France 2014) was also in attendance. Chris also reported that Martina Missarelli's family will be over here in early January 2016 - see separate article about "inofficial" breakfast on 6th January at Domani's on Tedder Avenue, Main Beach.
Wheelchair Trust Chairman Daryl Sanderson had a meeting with an Employment Company about the School for Samoa project of Helensvale High School. It stands to reason that a grant of approx $10,000 will buy the materials (timber etc). Grafton Rotary Club will be saving old bikes for us, but the question is how to transport them? Beaudesert Special School also has bikes, however, in this instance, our old collaborators, the Palen Creek Correctional Centre, will pick them up as they bring their finished wheelchairs back... And Apple Marketing has already contributed some $5,000 from phone calls on their Christmas Appeal for wheelchairs. Well done, Apple Marketing!
Christmas presents for Anglicare: Ian Mayberry urges all members to provide a present, as we have traditionally done for decades, forAnglicare. Note, for 0 - 14 year olds, new and unwrapped.
DGN Darrell Brown reported on a recent review he conducted in his capacity as District Governor Nominee. Of interest: some 30 years ago, approx 40 people were involved. Now there are just 7, and only 14 clubs are prepared to host. Darrell acknowledged that our club's Youth Service Director, Chris Thurtell, will be incoming Youth Exchange Chairman at District level commencing 2016/17. Congratulations, Chris!
President Elect Simon Brook is looking for people who would like to host the inbound GSE Team from Pensylvannia: 11th to 15th May 2016. Contact Simon directly.
Secretary Peter Morgan is trying to find the Blood Pressure machine we "used to have". [Rumors that this has anything to do with the stress of being the chief legal officer of Suncorp are totally fabricated...] However, it would appear that it didn't work properly anyway, so we might as well write it off and perhaps get another one, if we really need one?
Andy started his session early. Like at 7:30 am, catching your Editor on the hop. Thus, contrary to tradition where the reporting is near 100% accurate, this week's may only be about 97%...
First up were Darrell Brown and Ray Higgs: are you wearing Simon Brook's clothes? (No - just that in a misguided attempt to emulate Simon's youth, they elected to wear rust red pants...) Peter Morgan is wearing David Jones socks, whilst Gerald East is wearing Maori socks... Angus Miller and Barry Lea formed a new Top Table: membership is restricted to people wearing white shirts and no socks, and who share the same haircut as they do... Daryl Sanderson had a big win at the Melbourne Cup (yes! he backed the 100:1 shot!) and Mario Fairlie won both the raffles he was in (rumours that he was the only one who had tickets were vigorously denied!). Now, anyone who did not support the best Rugby Union team ever at last Sunday morning's world cup match... and Paul Seymour pays an additional 2 bucks for suggesting that the hardest game of the series was the game against South Effrika... Chris Thurtell was hobnobbing it with Royalty. And just a final report on Mario Fairlie's health status: All A-OK!
"Wenn jemand eine Reise tut, so kann er was verzählen" is the first line of a famous German poem by Matthius Claudius (1740 - 1815). Roughly translated, its meaning is "If one does travel, one can tell a story".
Last week, with some 3 minutes notice, Mario Fairlie jumped into the breach. (Our Exchange Student Martina was unable to do her presentation in time, since she had an exam first thing at her school. She is now on this coming Wednesday 11th November).
Mario has recently traveled all over Europe, firstly visiting a Trade Exhibition of his industry in Amsterdam. The latest in TV broadcasting? "The next generation TV will have 4 times the resolution of the current one (1920 x 1080 pixels)" Mario enthused. It is generally known as "4K", or Ultra High Definition (UHD) will deliver four times the definition, that is 8 Million pixels instead of 2 Million. It will turn the Home Theatre technology inside-out - you already can buy 4K, 65" TV's now, but 88" models are just on the horizon. And apparently, 8K technology will be pretty normal in by the time the 2016 Olympics are broadcast...
But Mario's main theme of the day was his visit to Stuttgart, Germany. And it wasn't to read German poetry, but more like to view German poetry in motion: he visited the Mercedes Benz factory, where every 6 minutes an S-Class Merc comes off the assembly line.[Hmmm, by my reckoning, this translates to some 86,400 cars per annum. And I always thought that the S-Class was, well, sort-of unique. Looks like the 2014 Ford Falcon, with just 9134 put on the road in 2014, is more exclusive... ☺ Ed.] OK, so Henry Ford may have achieved similar numbers, but this is different: every car coming off the line is different to the previous one - all are manufactured to buyer's detailed specifications. And, almost totally automated: perhaps a bit sadly, human error (even German trained tradespersons' skill) has no business anymore: the assembly line is driven by some 1400 robots.
The other major segment of Mario's visit to Stuttgart was his visit to the Mercedes Museum. The building alone is architecturally hugely impressive (see picture on right). You take a lift to the top floor, and then walk down through the generations, ending up at a Mercedes Race Car simulator. Rather than trying to retell Mario's eloquent outline, have a look at a video on Youtube which will walk you through: go to this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-3zIJwVNmY
OK, so it may have taken a while... Better late than never! See Download section on the right hand side - two reports and one Photo Show for your enjoyment!
Very special price: Just $30.00 per person for a super-sumptuous buffet.
Graeme needs to provide the Marriott with numbers. Thus, PLEASE RSVP to Graeme no later than Sunday the 13th of December by e-mail only: business@mainbeachpo.com
Because of Rotarian support, more than four million children who might have been polio victims are walking and playing normally. Since 1985, through Rotary’s efforts, and those of its partners around the world, more than two billion children have received polio vaccines and have been protected. There are currently three countries that are endemic: Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. We must not stop our efforts until we give the children a Polio Free world! THANK YOU FOR HAVING SUPPORTED THE ROTARY FOUNDATION AND ITS EFFORT IN ERADICATING POLIO FROM OUR PLANET.
Circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks his whip. But the really well trained dog is the one who turns his somersault when there is no whip. George Orwell.
Sad news: the "father" of our club (as well as of the Broadbeach club), Bruce Duncan, has peacefully passed away in his sleep, aged 88, at his nursing home in Cairns. We all remember with great fondness Bruce and Ona's frequent visits to our club, and in particular Bruce would every year present his Fellowship Cup to one of our members..jpg)
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