President's Message

Dear Fellow Rotarians & Friends of the Club,
 
We had another unusual day at the Club on the 12th of February, second in a row. (RE)Launching "Member is the spot light" was very successful and Dan Adler blew the minds of the audience with what "next Thursday" is doing for its clients. I am convinced that every current member should be given that opportunity. Please, note that Dan:
 
  1. Put the presentation and content bar very high but there is no expectation that future presenters comply with such high standards.
  2. Promised $1,000 to Rotary Brisbane for every referral accepted to do business with but there is no expectation for such a commitment.
If a member would like to take the opportunity, please, let me know! I will assign an appropriate meeting on first come first served basis. Members can propose up to three preferred dates and I will try to respect the preference unless someone else was assigned to a date earlier.
Chair on the 12th was Wal Bishop. It was nice to see him back in action after seven weeks of Christmas holiday. Wal welcomed Professor Narelle Haworth as our guest speaker. Narelle is the Director of CARRS-Q, the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety-Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and she introduced us to quite a few problematic issues that autonomous (driverless) cars face or will face. After having Dan explain us how he explores hypes, it was great to hear Narelle telling us how research tries to burst some in regards to obvious shortcomings.  She did get members thinking despite that some of us tend to “know it all” and she received a memento from our Chair the effort and contribution.
As a hands-on example of how CARRS-Q does research I also brought an invitation to Club members to participate in one. So if you have a child who is in high school grade 10, 11 or 12 or graduated in past year 2016/2017 you can participate in a focus group and get a $20 petrol voucher. Let me know if you want to give it a try and I will pass contacts to the CARRS-Q researches that asked me to spread the word.
Some last week's Club business in single sentences: 
  1. Eddie's Van where most of our almost 600 volunteer hours during the past two months come from is featured in Rotary Down Under, page 31.
  2. The Club information folder was sent to QUT Business School for our Ideas Factory.
  3. James Delahunty's Testimonial lunch banner is ready, looks awesome and is due to soon replace the International Women's breakfast one in our signatures.
  4. The International Women's breakfast is coming soon so we may cancel the Club regular meeting on the 26th.
Now a couple in more than one sentence:
 
  1. Last Wednesday I met Michael Evans, PP of Rotary Club of Brisbane Mid-city. The Solomon Islands project he is trying to push forward with the Kyeema Foundation looks promising. My advice to him was to split the required funding in three and speak in person to three of the Cluster Clubs, incl. ours which he already did, to adopt one third each. I personally see an opportunity for a good District grant application where we will have to put forward $3K and ask for another $6K. Furthermore, the direction is well aligned with PE Chris Muir's priorities for next year.
  2. Clean up Australia Day is on the 4th of March. Rotarian Terry Kung proposed that the Club joins in cleaning Hamilton Reach. The instruction is: Go to the "Clean up Australia Day" website, select "Join a clean up site" and then insert the name Hamilton Reach into the right hand search bar!  You then simply click on the "Join" button and provide your personal info to complete registration. I know that Keith and Michael have tested and succeeded in joining so no technology-related excuses, please. :)
On 10 of March 2018 from 18:30 the Rotaract Club of Brisbane Rivercity is holding a "Shine for Shelterbox" cocktail party where all profits from the evening go towards Shelterbox. Tickets are at $90 and a booking website will be up and running soon for interested people. The link will be published on their Facebook page.
 
Next week we have a Board meeting right after our fellowship-dedicated regular meeting. See you on the 19th.
President Daniel
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