President's Message

Well, we did it. We pulled off running the International MUNA Assembly. What a relief. We ended up with 31 students that debated for a total of 9 hours over last Saturday and Sunday. The standard was amazing and the way it looked on the Livestream was also beyond what I thought could be done. Those that saw will know but for those that didn't the screen was set up showing all teams with the flags grouped in their country blocs on the screen together with the main speaker as well as setting out the wording of the resolution being debated and with countries from India and New Zealand there was also a clock that toggled between the 3 time zones


Through the work of Susan Robb our club was able to get 4 teams registered. 2 from Haileybury College (City) and University High. As the Melbourne Rotary Club are in their centenary year and did not have a team we gave them one of our teams from Haileybury College. Naturally, Murphy's Law kicked in and their team won the whole event. I really was pleased though for them as it can be a bit embarrassing when the host club picks their own team as the winner. The Melbourne Rotary Club have advised they want the winning team and me to speak at their club when they come back again next year. This is to be an in-person meeting at the Sofitel. I will get some students to speak at our club next year too.

Talking of speakers, how good was Jemima Montag last week. What an impressive young woman. To complete in a sport like the 20km walk where most of the elite athletes are in their mid-thirties and then still compete against them in only her 3rd race over that distance a the age of only 19 to win the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games is really unique and I am sure with her dedication she is going to perform very well in next year's Olympics in Japan. And as well as that next year she is also to start her Medical degree and since the meeting has spoken to Ida Whiteman and they have already arranged to meet up early next year when she gets back from Altitude Training at the AIS.

Recording of last week meeting can be watched by clicking the following link 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv1pdNQW0FE

On Tuesday I attended a Cluster Meeting to arrange the Australia Day event. It looks like it will be at Batman Park which is right on the Yarra where the Helipad Office is. I liked that as we are the Batman Cluster and our office designed the Helipad Office in 1995. At the moment they are still relying on us to run the BBQ but there is still a lot to work out and not much time to do it in. So I'll keep you in touch.

I received an email from the district to say we needed more info from Simmons College to get our Scholarship Grant paid and Ted obviously got it organized very quickly as I again got advised by them the next day to say that we should get the funds very shortly.

                                                                                                         

I can advise that we have now got confirmation from the Mercure Hotel that they are fine with our plans to meet up in person on Thursday 17th December 2020 for our end of year Christmas Function.

We are also booked to come back on Thursday 21st January 2020 and then continue their in person on a fortnightly basis and we can still meet the other week on Zoom.

As advised we will go back to our normal timing of 6.30 for 6.45 pm start for both these events.

This week our guest speaker is our local Victorian Member of Parliament, Ellen Sandell. Ellen is a member of the Greens and it will be good to listen about her experiences as a member of Parliament

 

This week zoom meeting link is

 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83306594340?pwd=czhBU2dsSUhiZlFpVGxDSFBUeCthdz09

Meeting ID: 833 0659 4340

Passcode: 617816

 

This week's quote is from Will Rogers

"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.."

Have a Great Rotary Week!

Rotary in Harmony Christmas