Mike Ellis - Aircraft Crash Investigations Mike Ellis was a RAF baby with a father flying Hurricanes and a mother being an instrument fitter. He and his parents emigrated to New Zealand in 1950 (as £10 Poms) where he grew up to become qualified as a motor engineer. In...

Lyn Atkinson - Giving Grannies Giving Grannies helps families in need - especially those with new-born babies - with essential items. It came about when Lyn and her husband, Neil, who had done voluntary work at the Wesley Mission in Fortitude Valley since 2008 had...

Greg Forster - Membership Growth Greg is a member of Ipswich City, a club that has recently seen its membership climb from around 40 to over 60. He told a story which had the moral that not everyone is motivated by the same things What our club was offering might not...

Dr Marjorie Green - Beyond Blue Her boss, as of the day before, is Julia Gillard but Marjorie’s main purpose in talking to us was to raise awareness about depression and anxiety. She told us that a common question was ‘How do I get someone to seek help if there is...

Sonni Kaiser - Exchange Student Sonni noted that Germany is within Europe, a continent of 740 million people in nearly 50 countries speaking 28 different languages. Germany, itself has 82 million people living in a country which would fit into Australia 20 times! Her...

Kara Gerritsen - The Risk of Heart Disease and Life after a heart attack The Heart Foundation strives to reduce heart attacks. There is one heart attack every 10 minutes in Australia and heart disease is the biggest single killer. The message of the Foundation is...

Judy Mugub - A brief history of Kenmore Judy is the foundation president of the Kenmore Historical Society which has produced a small book about the area. The Kenmore area, including Chapel Hill, Fig Tree Pocket and Pullenvale, really stared in about 1850 when the...

Megumi Ono - District Scholar Megumi Ono or Megoo comes from Hyogo which is relatively near Kyoto. She is hosted by the Rotary Club of Sunnybank Hills. Her counsellor is PDG Anne Brand. By comparison, Hyogo has more twice the population of Brisbane at 5.5m cf 2.3m in...

Dianne Scotte - Rotary Leadership Institute The programme was held over three Sundays and covered a huge amount of information. At its basic, it is a grass roots multi-district level development programme designed to develop potential leaders within Rotary, i.e. all...

Adele and Steve Stoneley - Sri Lankan Adventures   A common theme from Fijian Indians is that India can be a dirty place so Stephen decided that Sri Lanka might be better place ...and so it proved. Adele told us that she was agreeably impressed by Colombo. But...

The Association of Fundraising Professionals has recognized The Rotary Foundation with its annual Award for Outstanding Foundation. The award honors organizations that show philanthropic commitment and leadership through financial support, innovation, encouragement of...

Rowarn Luder - Interplast Interplast is a partnership between Australian and New Zealand Rotary and the Royal Australian College of Surgeons. Whilst similar in nature to ROMAC in that the programme involves plastic surgery, the difference is that ROMAC bring patients...

Milton Dick - Federal Member for Oxley Milton Dick’s electorate covers (in terms of shopping centres for easy reference) Mt Ommaney, Forest Lake, Redbank Plains and Orion at Springfield. It is the third fastest growing electorate in the country. His background may not...

Graeme Stratford - From Russia with LoveAt 17million km2, Russia is 2.2 times the size of Australia and has a population of 145 million. Graeme cruised from St Petersburg to Moscow (roughly equivalent to Brisbane to Townsville) whilst he was journeying in that part of...

Jon Keating - Community Music Tasmanian-born Jon contracted polio at the age of three. This left him crippled and it was not until he reached his tenth birthday that he learnt to walk. But he was a fighter and whilst he was a a home for crippled children, he found a...

Glen Palmer The Nausori Village Fiji Project Glen’s original contacts with Fiji were on an AusAid project with Griffith University but Glen got tired with the constant travel and she and Bob eventually (in 2006) went to live in Suva where she continued in her chosen...

Glen Palmer - Fiji Kindergarten Project Glenn’s original contacts with Fiji were on an OzAid project with Griffith University but Glenn got tired with the constant travel and she and Bob eventually (in 2006) went to live in Suva where she continued in her chosen filed...

  The  Rotary Club of Brisbane Centenary recently made a significant donation to the Welsey Choices Program. The Wesley Hospital Choices Cancer Support Centre, located in the historic Drysllwyn House in Auchenflower, Brisbane, offers a calm, caring and...

Sean Riley - Body Buzz Movements Sean noted the very strong links to movement and an assortment of health issues. In particular, he noted mental health as one area which benefited enormously from people being reasonably active and keeping on moving…..if it could...

The young children were very traumatised by the cyclone and, for several months, the community was making efforts to take them out of the village for an excursion. This happened in December when they went by bus to Suva and visited many key places, such as...

Anne Petrie — Centenary State High School Anna is head of Department of the School of Improvement at the Centenary State High School and is actively looking at programmes which offer new models of learning in the 21st Century. These models particularly target the...

  Donna Bowe and Kerry O’Connor Brisbane City Council Community Development Coordinators The work of Donna and Kerry is strongly relationships based – working to get links within community groups (including Rotary) for reciprocity and mutual benefit. Their roles...

Even if the last case of polio is identified this year, a huge amount of work will remain to ensure that it stays gone. Vaccinations will continue and need to be funded. In the areas where polio still exists, the vaccines contain a weakened live version of the virus....

Ada Filer - President Elect Training.   She described this as an adventure since she was really only filling in for Graham, who, despite fronting up for President three times, has yet to attend a PETS weekend! Ada found it a tad daunting—especially because of her own...

Rev Morgan Batts— On belay to greatness. Morgan comes with an interesting background. His parents married in Toowoomba but his father, a civil engineer, has left a lasting legacy in Surfer’s Paradise with the canals and in Mt. Ommaney where he conceived the original...

Megan Smith—Peace Fellow . Megan briefly described the Peace Fellow programme with some 50-60 students each year across six universities around the world taking a Masters degree in Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies. Megan submitted her last assignment last week...

Kylie Hillard - Unforeseen issues in Data Retention Kylie is a Barrister who specializes in criminal law...which means that she comes up against victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. She is passionate supporter of the rights of those who suffer domestic...

Nev Beckmann—Part two of the Man Behind the Badge Nev started by showing us a photo of his sister - the audacious one and obviously fond of dogs! But it was his career which Nev accepted was a bit of an unusual one within the bank and which he might have suffered a...

Dr David Doyle—Stress avoidance Doctor, amongst other meanings, means teacher and part of David’s presentation was about teaching us ways in which we can manage or even avoid stress. David noted that there were seven keys: Exercise Diet—you run your car on appropriate...

This weeks meeting welcomed Nick Curry (current member) discussing Rotary Council on Legislation. Nick traveled to Chicago representing the zone. Major point for clubs is the meeting flexibility—which is not total since amendments were passed to require at least two...