banner
Upcoming Events
Lunch Meeting
The Brisbane Club
Mar 12, 2018
12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
 
Sandstone Pt Dinner with Ian Risely
Sandstone Point Hotel
Mar 18, 2018
5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
 
Districts 9600, 9630, 9640, Dinner with Ian Risely
Fitzy's Hotel
Mar 19, 2018
6:30 PM – 9:30 PM
 
Rotary Peace Fellow Seminar
May Hancock Auditorium
Mar 24, 2018
10:30 AM – 6:00 PM
 
Lunch Meeting
The Brisbane Club
Mar 26, 2018
12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
 
Lunch Meeting
The Brisbane Club
Apr 02, 2018
12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
 
Lunch Meeting
The Brisbane Club
Apr 09, 2018
12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
 
District 9600 District Conference
Maroochy RSL Events Centre
Apr 20, 2018 6:00 PM –
Apr 22, 2018 12:00 PM
 
Testimonial Luncheon for James Delahunty
Victoria Park Golf Course
Apr 29, 2018
12:00 PM – 3:00 PM
 
Rotaract Rivercity Prof. Development Workshop
May 02, 2018
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
 
Lunch Meeting with Police Commissioner Ian Stewart
United Services Club
May 14, 2018
12:00 PM – 1:45 PM
 
Rotary Club of Brisbane Golf Day
Virginia Golf Course
Jun 15, 2018
6:00 AM – 2:00 PM
 
Burnett Cup - City vs Country in Mundubbera
Mundubbera Golf Club
Aug 18, 2018
12:00 PM – 10:00 PM
 

Meeting Roster

 

12 March 2018

President              D Vankov
Chair                    C Gibson
Minutes                M Williams
Front Desk            J Smerdon/
                           L Marshall

19 March 2018

Meeting Cancelled

26 March 2018

President           D Vankov
Chair                 J Frew
Minutes             C Shepherd
Front Desk        D Schellbach/                        J Smerdon
 

2 April 2018

President              D Vankov
Chair                    P Gresham
Minutes                M Williams
Front Desk           D Schellbach/
                        L Marshall
 

9 April 2018

President              D Vankov
Chair                    P Gresham
Minutes                C Shepherd
Front Desk           J Smerdon/
                         L Marshall
 
Speakers
May 14, 2018 12:45 PM
View entire list
ClubRunner
President's Message
Daniel VANKOV
member photo
Dear Fellow Rotarians & Friends of the Club
 
Chair of our 5th of March regular meeting was Graeme Whitmore. I must admit that I am taking advantage of him when the designated Chair does not show up but I promise to return the favour during his next Presidency. It was a very positive and dynamic meeting. I wish have more meetings as this one. It was a day of celebrating our achievements.
 
At the beginning I made two presentations. The first one went to Mark Williams, our newest Paul Harris Fellow. I had the honour of presenting him with his pin and for me he does not deserve it solely for his contributions towards the Rotary Foundation. It is his great effort for the Club that matters beyond his appointments as Club Administrative Director and designated Executive Secretary. Mark reported 52 volunteer hours in February which made him our most active member for the month. Mark is the person behind our bulletin preparation and minutes writing as well as the Clubrunner platform evaluation and setup. He is also our Peace Fellow mentor. Well done, Mark!
 
The second presentation was the February President's bottle of wine award and it went to a person we hardly saw in February. Some of us do their work quietly and in the background. Even more, when they are not around things tend to start idling. Michael, this is a special way to tell you "Welcome back!"
There are a couple more people at the Club deserving congratulations. First, Rick Tamaschke is nominated for the D9600 2018/19 PolioPlus Committee. I had the impression that Rick wanted to make a step back and reduce his Rotary engagement but apparently I got it wrong. He was preparing for a leap looking for making a step up in his contributions. Rick, I look toward supporting your efforts. Second Keith Watts has done a marvellous job with the International Women's Day Breakfast. I hope the event is the first of a series of annual Rotary Club of Brisbane ones. A total turnout of 41 is a very good achievement and I look towards the Club growing it in the forthcoming years. 195 AUD will go toward PolioPlus as a direct result. Well done, Keith!
 
... And congratulations to the Club itself:
 
  1. The Club got a media representative at the International Women's Day Breakfast. Now we expect to see some coverage in this week New Farm Village News magazine. So anyone living/working in and around New Farm, please, look out for the issue to come out on Thursday.
     
  2. The Club implemented the Ideas Factory with QUT Business School on the 03rd. 23 people showed up and worked in five groups. Keith Watts, Georgina Bishop, Luke Marshall and myself took part in a day of both hard work and enjoyment. We had great insights which I will be sharing with members in the forthcoming weeks. The introduction and the first group video I showed during the meeting on the 5th. If you would like to watch the others, please, do not miss our meetings! I will be showing one per meeting in the weeks to come. Meanwhile, I will also continue working with Dr John Bensley to further utilise the findings for our Club but more information on that shall come later. It is also worth mentioning that we did not miss the opportunity to promote 1) our forthcoming Gold Day 2018 by giving each participant a Rotary-branded golf ball to hopefully use during the event and 2) the Police Commissioner Ian Stewart visit to the Club of the 14th of May. Wal Bishop invited 6 of the Ideas Factory participants to his table on the event. Georgina Bishop drew the names at the end of our Saturday exercise.
Two news items from the District:
 
  1. Rotaract Rivercity is planning their Professional Development Workshop Evening for Wednesday, 2nd of May 2018. I have distributed a sign-up list on the 5th and two members signed up to contribute in person towards the Rotaractors' Professional Development. If you would like to add your name, please, let me know!
     
  2. Tree Planting as per the Rotary International President's call for each Rotarian to plant a tree this Rotary year. We have two choices - District Tree Planting and Cluster Tree Planting, or both.
    • District planting project: There is support of Brisbane City Council to hold a D9600 Tree Planting Event at John Sprent Reserve in Moggill Brisbane on Saturday 28 April. Brisbane City Council will be providing the plants, preparing the planting sites at the park and providing follow up maintenance for the plants. Start planting at 9.00 am and wrap up as close to mid-day as possible.
    • Cluster planting project: Place is Greenslopes/Annerley under the care of Habitat Brisbane, supported by the BCC. Each clubs funds the cost of plants/shrubs, mulch, and stakes for each member of your club, and we turn up in the middle of April (date to be confirmed - before 22nd) to garden. The areas proposed are currently in the Norman Creek Catchment and are maintained by staff and volunteers of Habitat Brisbane.
    • I have distributed a form online to sign up in so I hope we will get a good number of members involved.
We got our first RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) application for the year from Matt Murden. I hope to get some more before the next week Board meeting.
 
Last but not least we had Luke Marshall as our Member in the spot-light. The introduction was done by me with a nice short video for his company. I believe we shall have such for the Club, too, if we want to speak in modern ways to our potential audience. When Luke took over his presentation quickly took shape of fun and informal conversation, very much Luke's style. On the 12th of March we will have Tony Pilkington behind (or in front) the lectern. Come along to hear what he has to tell us!
 
President Daniel
Stories
Meeting Notes, March 5 2018
Graeme Whitmore chaired the meeting and began with Rotary Grace and Toasts to the Queen and Rotary International.
 
President Daniel welcomed members.
Apologies – James Delahunty, Don O'Donoghue, Max Winders, Dan Adler
Pres Daniel advised the Club had a number of things to celebrate.
 
  1. The first was a presentation to Mark Williams, our newest Paul Harris Fellow.
  2. The second one is the February President's bottle of wine award and it shall go to a person we hardly saw in February. Some of us do their work quietly and in the background. Even more, when they are not around things tend to start idling. Michael, this is a special way to tell you "Welcome back!"
  3. Rick Temaske, congratulations for being nominated for the D9600 2018/19 Polio Plus Committee.
  4. Keith, congratulations on the hopefully first of a series of annual Rotary Club of Brisbane International Women's Day Breakfasts. A total turnout of 41 is a very good achievement.
  5. And congratulations to the Club:
  • We got a media representative to the IWD event and we expect to see some coverage in this weeks New Farm Village News magazine.
  • We implemented the Ideas Factory with QUT Business School on the 03rd. 23 people in five groups showed up. Keith Watts, Georgina Bishop, Luke Marshall and myself took part. We had some great insights and I plan showing the results from their work a little bit each week. Meanwhile, I will continue working with Dr John Bensley, to further utilise the findings for our Club but more information on that shall come later.
 
President Daniel pins the PHF badge on Mark Williams
 
Two news items from the District:
  1. Rotaract Rivercity is planning their Professional Development Workshop Evening for Wednesday, 2 May 2018. Please, sign-up on the circulated sheet with your name, e-mail and phone if you would like to contribute in person towards the Rotaractors' Professional Development.
  2. Tree Planting as per the RI President call for each Rotarian to plant a tree. We have two choices - District Tree Planting and Cluster Tree Planting, or both. I will distribute a form online to sign up in.
Today we have Luke Marshall as our Member in the spot-light. A quick reminder from the previous one, Dan Adler: "$1,000 will go towards the Club for each referral to next Thursday."
 
 
Luke Marshall on form and In The Spotlight
 
Spots
  1. Denise reminded everybody that on 14 May the police Commissioner Ian Stewart will be making an important presentation to the club at the UWC
  2. Keith advised that the women's day breakfast produced a surplus of $391 and there were two very informative guest speakers.
  3. Mark Williams reminded members of the importance of doing and notifying make-ups if one cannot attend a meeting. The desired attendance for each club member was 60%. Currently the club is only achieving 55%, which is too low. A valid make up involves attending club meeting of another Rotary Club, attending any RCoB or district event or working bee or a committee or board meeting among other things. Members are asked to advise the reception desk of make-ups or simply send an email to Mark.
 
Luke Marshall gave a presentation on his company, KDM Financial and Estate Planning. This company was born out of the insurance business and evolved into financial and estate planning. Luke made a proposal to members who wished to leave a legacy to the club in their Will, could do so through his company at mates rates. Luke outlined his background which included time in the Navy as a medic, time in Perth where he acquired two investment properties, investing in the share market but buffeted by the GFC, becoming a paramedic and then studying financial planning prior to joining AMP in 2014 and then joining his practice. This was an informative talk by Luke.
 
With no Sergeant and the raffle was won by Michael Stephens.  As there was no pack of cards, Michael will draw his card next week.
 
The president closed the meeting.
Rotary International Women's Day Seminar off to a Strong Start
The Rotary Club of Brisbane held its inaugural Rotary International Women's Day Breakfast Seminar with the theme of "Breaking Down the Barriers" at the United Services Club on the 1st of March. The seminar was well-attended with a total of 41 attendees including our 2 keynote speakers, 14 RCoB members and 7 Rotarians supporting us from other clubs including the Pine Rivers Daybreak, Brisbane Planetarium and Fortitude Valley clubs, one UQ Rotary Peace Fellow and a goodly leavening of guests and other people interested in the theme of the event.
 
 
Keynote Speakers Wendy Protheroe and Julie McDonald OAM (Photo: Lauren Panrucker)
 
The United Services Club turned on a good breakfast and we thank Rotarian Denise Schellbach for organising the venue. The main food for the morning, however, was brain food. This was provided for us in lavish helpings by our two fantastic keynote speakers, Australian Olympic and Commonwealth Games medallist and member of the Commonwealth Games Legacy Commmittee, Julie McDonald OAM and Rotary District 9600 District Governor Elect Wendy Protheroe who has graced and transformed the boardrooms of government, corporate and not-for-profit organisations.
 
 
L-R: Robyn Burridge, Graeme Whitmore, Doris Whitmore and Savina Vankov  (Photo: Lauren Panrucker)
 
Read more...
RCoB Members Help Clean up Australia
Led by Terry Kung, a team of 4 Rotarians from the RCoB took part in the annual Clean Up Australia Day.
 
Terry, Michael Stephens, Luke Marshall and Keith Watts participated at the Hamilton Reach site which was coordinated by Leon Hays, MD of Solar Bins Australia.
 
In the Words of Terry Kung, " We collected quite a bit of rubbish especially along MacArthur Ave.  It was a morning of hard work under strong sun but well worth it."   It was also a good networking opportunity to meet other people who like to put something back into the community and as usual, Membership Chair Keith picked up some strong leads.
 
Read more...
In Rotaract, we see, feel, and act
By Fatima Khurram, Rotaract Club of Faisalabad Janubi, Pakistan
 
Members of the Rotaract club perform community service.
 

Not long ago, a mother of one of our members saw on the news a documentary about a widow struggling to provide for herself and her three adult children living with disabilities. Her house was broken and she had no income to support them.

When word reached us, we called the news channel to ask for contact information so we could visit her. The very next day, a group from my club visited.

Rotaractors in Faisalabad were moved to help a widow they saw on a news report.

We found the mud house with no proper roof and water flowing across the floor everywhere. We promised to bring them groceries every month and help renovate their house. We felt moved by what we saw, and knew we had to act!

So you ask how a group of young adults like us could manage such an expense? We spread the word and found monthly donors who agreed to contribute groceries. One donor contributed greatly to the renovation of the house, up to 400,000 rupees!

Finally, after three months, the house was renovated and we had given almost seven months of groceries. Following that, the widow found permanent income support.

The best part of the experience was seeing our members come together as Rotaractors to See, Feel, and Act. Our duty ends in action. Without it, our efforts are incomplete. Action doesn’t always mean helping directly. But it does mean offering any aid we can to help. This is our belief of what it means to be in Rotaract.

Learn more about how you can get involved in Rotaract

Training the next generation of Rotary leaders

By Marty Helman, past governor of District 7780 and a member of the Rotary Club of Boothbay Harbor, Maine, USA

Training leader Mary Helman carries a flag across stage during the 2018 International Assembly.

I was fortunate enough to serve as a training leader at this year’s International Assembly, an annual training exercise for incoming Rotary leaders. It is a rarified atmosphere. All of us training leaders were well aware of both the privilege and responsibility wrapped up in the invitation to train the next generation of Rotary leaders. 

There were 40 of us selected to serve, one from each Rotary zone and then a few extras for language needs. About a third were there for their second (and usually final) time. Valarie Wafer and her husband, Mark, from Canada were there for a second year. I also knew other Rotarian friends in the group, Rodolfo Bianchi from Guatemala and Stephen Mwanje from Uganda who I’d met through service activities in those countries; Peter Kyle from Washington, D.C. who I’d worked with on Rotary Peace Center matters, and Brian Hall from Louisiana who I’d met during a Friendship Exchange back in 2012-13.

Each of us first-years was paired with a second-year mentor, whose job it was to demystify the process. My mentor Nicki Scott from Chicago answered questions that ranged from how best to master the material to what to wear to avoid strangling oneself with the interpreter equipment.

We received the curriculum and training leader’s guide just after Thanksgiving, and were strongly advised to be familiar and comfortable with all the material well before arriving in San Diego. So now you know how I spent my holidays — and why the Helman Christmas cards never got mailed this year.

I flew to San Diego two days early, so that I would be well over jet lag before our training began. This proved to be a wise decision. From the time we registered and picked up name badges through to the end of the assembly 10 days later, our days were a blur of prepping, setting up, facilitating, and prepping again.

Every day started with a session designed to make good facilitators better, and continued with practice sessions where we were able to use the techniques we were learning, followed by constructive criticism. Every day ended with fellowship in the hospitality suite and (at least for me) a bedtime that recognized the early start we would be making the next day.

Our training was conducted with simultaneous interpretation from Rotary’s phenomenal global communications staff. Sometimes this required double translation: For example, if Japanese, Spanish, and English speakers were all together in a breakout room, the job required translation from Japanese to English and then from English to Spanish (or vice versa).  While the interpreters’ capabilities are impressive, this meant that there was always a slight delay before the question would be “heard” around the room.

This delay required some getting used to, but was well worth it. This year, for the first time, some of the breakout rooms during the assembly itself were bilingual. Preliminary results suggest that the Portuguese, Korean, and Japanese incoming governors were very pleased to be able to interact with classmates from beyond their home countries.

Being a training leader is one of those Rotary opportunities that has to be experienced to be truly understood. But as I think back over the past few weeks, one parallel comes to mind. In the for-profit world, training of this caliber would easily cost thousands of dollars. It comes with both a commitment and a promise. A commitment that Rotary values me as a member, and a promise that I can help create a renewed, invigorated – and inspired – Rotary. May it be so.

Read more about the 2018 International Assembly

Club Officers

President                   Daniel Vankov
Secretary                   Michael Stephens
Treasurer                   Warren Walker
President Elect          Chris Muir
Imm. Past President  Graeme Whitmore
Sergeant-at-arms       Luke Marshall
The Rotary Club of Brisbane Inc.
ABN 75 152 438 499
GPO BOX 2909 Brisbane Qld 4001
District               9600
Club Number   17787

Brisbane City Cluster Assistant Governor

Lisa Bateson

District Governor

John Lane

Rotary International President

Ian Riseley