We had 15 in attendance for this meeting, including Honorary Member Uwe, Guest Speaker Rob Brown from Hope Island Club and Guest Andrew Pooch.
Chef Kouma again presented a great meal with a Chinese influence. Thanks again Kouma for keeping us well fed.
It was good to welcome our Guest Andrew who is in the process of relocating to Broadbeach and hopefully Andrew will attend a few other meetings in the future.
The Lucky Door winner was the ’lucky’ Peter Tomlinson.
We acknowledged the passing of ‘Aussie’ Joe Bugner who had been an interesting Guest Speaker at our Club a number of years ago.
The possibility of convening a Meeting on the night of Melbourne Cup was discussed and most members agreed that this would be possible. We noted unfortunately that Chef Kouma is not available on that night, so we will have to make other catering arrangements.
We also discussed the Christmas Party and I am happy to advise that there has been a booking made at Esprit de Vie Mermaid Waters for Tuesday 16 December 2025 at 6pm for drinks on the Roof followed by a 2 course Dinner in the Restaurant. The cost for the night is still to be determined.
Our Guest Speaker – Rob Brown from Hope Island Club –our Rotary Community Group 4 Leader provided us with an overview of where the Regionalisation Pilot is up to.
A number of Objectives were discussed including the concept of Club Revitalisation – Increase in member retention – Grow Membership – Reduce member dues.
There have been some issues with the Pilot to date with some Rotary Community Groups going well while most not going well at all and leaders of the project on our Zone have been replaced.
The Role of the Community Group Leader is to – create more and significant opportunities for clubs to better work together to positively impact the community – create larger scale partnerships with government, large corporates, other Non-Government Organisations and stakeholders – with no formal authority the Community Group Leader will inspire and mentor clubs to expand their community impact, increase the satisfaction of members and grow their clubs.
Rob answered questions on his role and the way forward and we all await and see if there will be a reduction in our fees. We thanked Rob for his presentation.
Next meeting on 16 September is our Fellowship Meeting and Vice President Noel will be in the Chair as we will be away in our caravan at a Northern Zone RV Fellowship Muster at Alstonville.
Wishing everyone a great week and it would be even better if the SUNS win!
Yours in Rotary,
Neil
