President Jonas Edner opened the meeting at 6.30pm.
Welcome to our guest speaker,Dean Dell’Oro and guests Susie Davis and Michael Elias.
The meeting was opened by singing the National Anthem to the accompaniment of Ann Bray on her violin.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
What percentage of Antarctica does Australia hold as its territory?
Answer: 42 %. Correctly answered by John Murdoch.
FAMILY AND FRIENDS:
President Jonas announced that his daughter, who recently married at Christ Church in Claremont, is having a second wedding in Greece, and he will be away for that occasion. Congratulations to the happy couple.
BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES: The following birthdays were announced by Susan Watson:
Member’s Birthday
John Thornton 90 years old on 22 August 2025.
Partners’ Birthdays
Sue Jeanes 19 August 2025.
June Wilkie 22 August 2025.
CLUB AND COMMITTEES:
Daffodil Day – David Miller thanked the 24 Club members and their families for helping to sell daffodils at Home Base Subiaco and at Bunnings Claremont over three days. The Council is very grateful for the assistance from the Club.
Business Lunch – John Bolto announced that a flyer would be sent out shortly for distribution by Club members to family, friends and colleagues to attend the Business Lunch on Thursday, 20 November. This year, let’s have as many Club members as possible attending, bringing along a friend or two; you do not have to make up an entire table.
ROTARY MOMENTS:
MetSO concert – Flyers were left on the tables by Ann Bray for the next MetSO concert, to be held at Churchlands Senior High School on Sunday 21 September 2025 at 3pm, buy your tickets now before the concert sells out like it did last time!
SERGEANT SESSION:
The following members were fined by the Sergeant:
· Susan Watson for another letter in The Post, this time speculating on the functionality (or lack thereof) of the Nedlands Council’s new administrator;
· Ken Ilett for coming fourth in the footy tipping but helping Helen who came third this week – what a cunning strategy;
· Craig James for being ranked 374th in all of Australia in the footy tipping;
· At the other end of the spectrum, so to speak, President Jonas for tipping only one correct game for the round and being a front (or is that rear?) runner for the NATA award;
· Michael Bisset for spending two months in Zimbabwe but not bringing us back a rhinoceros;
· Ross Mackellar for successfully selling daffodils like a seasoned street hawker but not wearing his new Rotary shirt as he did so.
GUEST SPEAKER Dean Dell’Oro – introduced by Lindsay Dry (who was amusing as an Old Scotch Boy introducing the Headmaster of the second best school in Perth).
Dean became head of Hale in April 2017 after a stint at Geelong Grammar.
Dean spoke about the children of today being the most connected but disconnected generation. Smart technology was introduced to the market in 2010 and the issues of too much screen time and the almost limitless ability to see anything on the internet started then.
Many children are living in an online parallel universe which is not based on reality. By spending too much time online, children are not spending time with each other, there is less human contact with others and less outside time, which is a huge contributing factor to anxiety.
These days, bullying is almost exclusively conducted online. Hale has been working with parents to combat the issues of having access to smart devices too early in a child’s life.
The initiatives at Hale have been parent-led and the school is working with parents to ask them not to buy their sons smart technology and do not allow access to social media. In 2026, boys in year 8 will not be allowed access to smart technology nor social media. Boys are allowed to have access to phones that can only call or text others.
The programme has been wildly successful, with over 85% of parents approving of the year 8 boys not having access to this technology. Many feeder schools to Hale and other Western Australian schools have asked Hale for advice to implement similar policies and the school has received enquiries from Germany and other overseas countries.
A helpful book for listing out the problems of early access to smart devices and remedies is called ‘The Anxious Generation’ by Jonathan Haidt.
Many thanks to Dean for his interesting and hopeful talk on smart devices for the young.
REMINDER OF NEXT ROSTER:
Monday 25 August 2025
Kevin Jackson Welcoming members and guests.
Ken Ilett Table Duty.
Kent Warburton Registrar 1.
Bruce Fiegert Registrar 2.
Kent Warburton Pass the microphone.
REMINDER OF COMING EVENTS:
Monday 25 August 2025 – Fellowship
Monday 1 September 2025 – Professor Igor Bray AM, Physics of Life
Monday 8 September 2025 - Stephen Satchell, What would I know!
THANKS:
Thanks to the Staff of the Nedlands Golf Club, Sean and Joel, for their service tonight and Chef Zamry for dinner.
WE RECOGNISE OUR VERY GENEROUS SPONSORS:
Lizzi Bee - supplier of flowers.
Dry Kirkness Chartered Accountants (Butler Settineri) – Club Auditors.
Accura Accounting & Advisory Services for providing Xero Accounting software and Sharesight Portfolio reporting software to the Charitable Trust.
Dirk Vanderstruyf from Euroz Hartleys.
MEETING CLOSE:
President Jonas closed the meeting by recognising the Rotary International presidential theme for 2025-26, "Unite for Good"
