Rotary meeting 17th Feb 2015
 
 
 
Meeting opened with the beaming President Tom booming out a warm welcome.

Announcements
PP Chris Curtis attended a RAWCS meeting last weekend and got $1,000 from the Pink Umbrella foundation started by a philanthropic lady for his NTT project. He also found another benefactor in medical equipment on a global scale. He indicated that attending this meeting was the rotary equivalent of being a kid in a lolly shop. He added that he will be attending the next one.

PP Ann Smith: Attended the Rotary Leadership Institute and found it beneficial.
The Bobbin Head Classic is on again this year, 29th March. The Rotary Club of Turramurra organisers need volunteers.  Our Club has been asked to assist. PDG Pam Pritchard will forward more details.

Rtn Tania Mace: Advised the Club has received $4,500 from District for the Myanmar Constitutional Workshop Project that was initiated by PPs Roger W and Lindsay M in a brilliant move that will no doubt have a positive outcome for the citizens of Myanmar (Burma) but will possibly have a beneficial ripple effect on emerging democracies).
Tania also reported that the Law Faculty at the UNSW, conveyors of this year's workshop, thanked us for the $5,000 that we donated to this historic occasion.
Detective Michelle Hurley from Chatswood Police has contacted the Club to ask for our assistance with an upcoming event in Chatswood celebrating & recognising Women in Policing. More details next week.
Rtn Jenny May: Attended a Presidents Elect Training preparation meeting last Tuesday night. She has distributed training booklets for the incoming Directors and asked all her team to register for District Assembly to ensure a successful year.
PP Dick Dawes: Hand weeding at Blackmans park the coming Sunday.
President Tom: The second best Marigold Hotel movie coming up, book via Lane Cove Home Page.
Club Administration Business – PP Lindsay May
Banners storage dilemma to be addressed urgently
Recalcitrant recidivists are not "accepting" for dinner in the approved digital fashion

Guest Speaker Dr Bronwen Dalton was introduced by Rtn James Shevlin (CV in previous Rotacove)
Bronwyn commenced with the inspiring statement that Rotary changed her life and that it holds the key to solving the current crisis facing us in education - how to get competitive in numeracy and Asian language, plus cultural understanding. Rotary, through it's amazing youth exchange scheme, has a solution - in fact provides an outstanding solution - in these areas.
Australia is at the bottom of OECD countries in Mathematics. Only 1 in 10 students study math - even engineering students!  Further, Australia is the most monolingual country. Only 8% of students are doing a language. Asian immigrant kids contribute largely to this. This is causing ghettoisation in schools.
Other areas of concern: Many teachers graduate from school with no HSC Maths. Low pre-school attendance; 54% of Aboriginals get the HSC although Rotary is also active in this area.
Bronwyn Went to Sth Korea on a Rotary Exchange. Following that, upon graduation, she returns annually. Changes in working personnel population altered dramatically annually at a phenomenal pace of change. Within five years schoolgirl labour in factories had been replaced by robots that allowed the girls to go to university, the mothers who replaced them return to their homes to provide a stable family platform and the imported labour that replaced them were themselves replaced by robots.

Impact of Rotary Youth Exchange is priceless for  a young person.
The student returns with language skills and a stronger inter- cultural understanding. The Colombo plan is good but nowhere near as good. We Need to prove the value of the Rotary Exchange system. Jenny Macklin is a graduate as are many big players. Rotary needs to convince our Government’s key decision makers that we really to harness this system nationally. Rotary made Bronwen’s career possible and many others as well.
Questions:
Sth Korea Went from 3rd to 1st world country in one century (as did Ireland) and Japan from 2nd to 1st world.
In Australian High Schools, Japanese was the No 1 language in 1992, now it is French. Our country needs to be stronger in Asian language studies. Rotary exchange is a good answer to bridging the educational gap.
Are Asian children are more force fed in educational ambitions by parents? Yes
Does this affect the children's ability to display initiative as adults? Yes. Australia will be able to export executives soon as initiative and decision-making skills are going to be in great demand.
Did Rotary change your life? Yes.
Will Australia be the poor white trash in Asia? Bronwen’s response was very diplomatic.
China will hit wall of high salary so innovation will triumph. Australia is good at that. We just need more modelling on engagement.
Funding innovation here? No
Sth Korea threatened by Nth Korea? Nth Korea economy is currently unsustainable. Sth Korea has Nth Korea fatigue; it will be too expensive to re-unite. Nth had massive famine. 2 million people died, many handicapped from starvation. Infrastructure sold off to pay hills. Many Chinese products made in Nth Korea due to their ability to supply cheap labour.

Rtn Tania Mace thanked the Speaker & presented Bronwen with a Gro-tree certificate. Rotary thinly spread for volunteers these days and we are ageing. Not a good recipe for continuing the youth exchange scheme. [Scribe: Hopefully, clever recruiting and making our meetings more relevant to gen X, Y or the next one will change that].

Sergeant’s Session
  • Robyn B is a great greeter
  • Tom T for buying Valentine’s Day chocolates for all the ladies at LCBC
  • Chris C came back from RAWCS seminar with $1,000
  • Sergeant John C imposed a Self-fine for long hair, winning the bet and displacing John P as the club's beta male [Scribe: that's an alpha beta winner].
  • John P sprung a leak in the Hayman Island resort and was forced to endure a prolonged stay no doubt [Scribe: Most people claim the earth moves but John insists that the ceiling fell in]
  • Lindsay M: Mrs Gruschka's ceiling came down on her. She was a recalcitrant body corporate member who got the opposite to a come-uppance
Next week’s Speaker Feb 24 Dr Catherine Renshaw will apprise us of the Myanmar workshop that she attended following her outline of the event prior to leaving.

President Tom closed a most convivial and informative meeting.
Scribe: PP Phil Wade, (Edited version to print)