2017-2018 6 September
The Rotary Club of Flemington Inc.
Club Number 24401— Chartered 29 April 1987
September is Education & Literacy Month in Rotary More than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate. According to the World Literacy Foundation, one out of five people in the world can’t read or write – that’s approximately 26% of the world’s adult population. https://worldliteracyfoundation.org Research shows that learning to read is one of the most important factors in school and long-term success and that early exposure to books and stories substantially contributes to success in early literacy. There are strong links between literacy, school performance, self-esteem and life chances, with poor literacy skills being linked to lower education, earnings, health and social outcomes. Literacy and education is not just a challenge for developing countries, however. Around 44% of Australian adults lack the liter acy skills r equir ed for ever yday life, making daily tasks difficult. In September 2010, it was estimated up to 2.7 million people over the age of 15 years were unemployed or underemployed because they lacked the required literacy skills. The numbers paint a similar picture in New Zealand where the NZ Government website Skills Highway states that more than one million Kiwis, approximately 40% have low literacy and numeracy skills, while a report by the World literacy Foundation estimated that the social and economic impact of illiteracy to New Zealand is NZ$3 billion a year. The Pacific Islands face their own specific challenges. Following the administration of the Pacific Islands Literacy and Numeracy Assessment in 2012, the literacy and numeracy situation was considered dire with only 3 in every 10 students demonstrating the literacy skills required after 4 and 6 years of primary school {equivalent to the Australian NAPLAN testing}. It is no surprise then that Rotary International’s key Areas of Focus is education and literacy, with a goal to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, greatly reduce gender disparity in education and increase adult literacy. In the September issue of Rotary Down Under a number of projects are showcased illustrating the work being done in Zone 7b & Zone 8. http://digitaledition.rotarydownunder.com.au/#folio=1 Flemington Rotary has their own projects focussing on education and literacy: Internationally, we have supported the Sputnik school in Sri Lanka, the School for Autism in Indonesia, the refugee school in Kassala, Sudan. Locally, we have our 1,000 Stories Project which has already delivered over 600 books to the Moonee Valley Maternal & Child Health nurses for distribution to babies and pre school children. We provide scholarships to students at all local primary and secondary schools; We support the mentoring and education programs at The Helping Hand and The Venny. We work with local elders to assist the Eritrean and Somali communities in education. Do you have a project you wish to pursue? Speak to a Board Member and start the work now.
Meeting Report Wednesday September 6th President Sam welcomed a smaller than usual, but dedicated group, to today’s meeting with apologies received from Paul Perrottet on holiday in Queensland, Anne McMahon and Del King {ill}, Chris Brock, Peter Cribb and Tony McManus {work}, Cody Bettanin {Aspen was unwell}, Vance Hilton and Len Seddon.
Members however have been very active with Make Ups recorded from: Chris, Eliana, Lyn and Lesley at RLI last Sunday; Allan Bruno, Peter Cribb, Jon Temby who moved goods from the warehouse in Braybrook to Airport West last Monday; Del King who attended the Rotary Zone Institute in Darwin last week; Allan, Len and Ted at the Op Shop. Sam then welcomed our Guest Speaker, Ludovic Grosjean, President of Melbourne Rotaract. He then reported: 1. The Blue Moon dinner at hilhellene Restaurant was a reat night with excellent food, lots of fun and camaraderie. 2. Cluster meeting last week the request to log volunteer hours was discussed. The decision was that if you pay to attend, it is not volunteer hour listed eg meetings. Otherwise, everything you do in the name of Rotary is counted so register the make ups and hours. 3. Saturday the club will run a Stroke Awareness booth at Ascot Vale Pharmacy. See Lesley if you can assist. 4. Sunday we are running the BBQ at Debney Park for the EID Festival. Let Ted know if you are available to help. 5. No meeting September 20th—the Spring Equinox, instead we have a Scatter Meeting. Members are asked to attend a meeting at another club that week and be prepared to report back. 6. District Governor Peter Frueh will visit our club on Wednesday 27th. All members and partners are invited to attend and please RSVP additional attendace for catering to Sam. Continuing on the Celebrations Theme for this week: Friday is Literacy Day and also International Iguana Day. Saturday is also V-J Day. Sunday is World Suicide Prevention Day. Members then enjoyed breakfast and fellowship.
DID YOU KNOW? *
Stroke kills more women than breast cancer and more men than prostate cancer.
Time is critical in treating stroke. Time saved = brain saved.
Stroke is always a medical emergency, call 000
A stroke happens every 9 minutes, know the signs of stroke – it may save a life
More than 80% of strokes can be prevented
Around 30% of stroke survivors are under the age of 65
https://strokefoundation.org.au/About-Stroke
Guest Speaker Ludovic Grosjean Ludovic is the President of Melbourne Rotaract and the Principal Consultant of OceanX. http://oceanxgroup.org/ He has a background in engineering and is also an oceanographer and a Mechatronics Engineer speaking French and Spanish. When he was a young by, his Grandfather who was an engineer asked him: “what can you do as an engineer to make a difference?” Ludovic has been in Australia for 5 years, worked previously in New Zealand and Singapore and is of French background. When he first visited Bondi beach, he was horrified to find birds with plastic in their stomachs and round their feet. He discovered that all ocean creatures were exposed to contaminated plastics, which they eat, and also become entangled with.
So in his work, he is trying to focus on what we can do, not we can’t. This has lead to his question; “Can we use technology to save our oceans? He is working on and researching the use of Drone technology for coastal monitoring and cleaning solutions. He then worked us through a process to design a drone. Starting with an AI supercomputer, a 256 Cuda core processor about the size of a slice of bread draws little power and is the same one used in a self driving car, Then being able to data crunch through GPU to detect pollution and identify the source. Ludovic used some great visuals to help the less technically capable members and showed an image of a neural network with lines and connections, and flashing lights showing the strength of some pathways. The neural network then identifies the patterns, mimics brain processes. The machine is capable of learning and improving, with deep learning through trials. The image showed that through learning, stronger pathways are then made through the positive patterns and the weaker pathways reduce. The current Drone is a quadcopter, and using a table of specifications allows selection of the best design for payload; identify number of motors, weight, volts, throttle, watts etc. The current challenges are battery power, capacity and travel time. A 3.3 amp battery only allows for 7.92 minutes of usage/
There are also environment challenges to the drone and its components - humidity, salinity, corrosion. There are also regulations, which limit drone use to non-populated areas and not used beyond the operator’s line of sight. The saying he uses is: “Instead of killing two birds with one stone, we could save two million birds with one drone.� Futurist Thomas Frey has predicted 1 billion drones in world by 2030. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-31/world-of-drones-congress-brisbane-futurist-thomasfrey/8859008 Our ocean are overflowing, filling with trash, there is plastic everywhere, including a plastic continent the size of Texas in the Pacific - is there an efficient way to do that. Could we use autonomous platforms to remove tons of plastic in the ocean? Is there a commercial use?
Could we make use of the currents and gyros to consolidate rubbish in the eddy and collect it? Waves could be a problem is there a solution? In Melbourne, $20 million is spent annually cleaning beaches with nets by hand. Could drones do this work cheaper, easier and more effectively? NASA has just released a technology inspired by Geckos enabling a drone to grab pollution. Another question is: Should we return the environment to its previous state, or is removing rubbish, which has been inhabited, by a marine creature harmful? Marine creatures will inhabit rubbish left there, making it a habitat so removing some items then removes habitats for fish and crabs. Eg when car batteries were dumped into the bay, the acidity of the water changed drawing a different species, so if we remove rubbish we change habitat and remove species. Melbourne Rotaract Club We are a bunch of young professionals and students, and we reshaped the club last year to include more young professionals not just students. Our focus is to ensure that a project is a solution not just a remedy. They use the startup environment model, trying to build a hub of knowledge to constantly monitor and adapt to the problem. The focus was on knowing how to attract new people and grow the club, so they rebranded and publicised. The club is based in the Based in Batman cluster with mentoring through cluster clubs. They are keen to support Rotary clubs with thinking, technology and ideas.
They have a major project planned for October to Clean up the Yarra River facebook.com/rotaract.melb/
http://ludovicgrosjean.com/
Sam’s Scribbles September 6th On Saturday, as part of National Stroke Week, members of the club will be manning {personing?) a stroke awareness booth, at the Ascot Vale Pharmacy.
Stroke is up there among the leading causes of death and disability in Australia, authorities believe that more than 80% of the problems associated with strokes are preventable. Awareness and early intervention are a key factor in reducing the impact. Our guest speaker, Ludovic Grosjean, President of Melbourne Rotaract, addressed us about his current work and passion for using unmanned drone technologies for environmental ocean monitoring. His particular interest is to monitor the rubbish that our society creates, uses and especially discards. These technologies have only recently matured to level where the drones have enough payload, flight time to make them a viable option. And advances in these devices are happening very quickly now. The other part of his brief is integrating the use of high capacity, high speed light weight computers, associated with AI programs to assist with the identification of items of interest. The ocean is a really big space, and its depth and breadth have hardly been plumbed yet. These sort of devices will further our knowledge and understanding of this space. It will be really interesting to see what the advances in AI programming also brings to this area, and ultimately, the undreamed of uses. As a measure of the interest, the World of Drones Congress, had a conference, expo, tournament and outreach event in Brisbane last weekend. They believe that drones will change our world, work places and service delivery. Gotta love the Tournament, a F1 event. Drones have already been proven capable of delivering sausages. Really interesting times. As President of the Melbourne Rotaract, he is carrying over his business management skills to operations of his club. Members will also be assisting with the EID Festival BBQ on Sunday at Debney Park. Flemington Rotary involved in our local community. This week at the Op Shop, Lesley, Len Seddon, Olga Hilton and I placed stickers on another 6 cartons of books for the 1,000 Stories Project. These were delivered to the Hopetoun M&CH Centre for distribution to children and babies. Sunday is also World Suicide Prevention Day. Thursday was World Procrastination Day, but it was put off Sam Nicol President 2017-2018
Rotary International President’s Monthly Message IAN H.S. R ISELEY PRESID ENT 2017-18 September 2017 One of the best parts of any Rotary convention is the sheer diversity of the people you see there. Whether you're heading into a breakout session, exploring the House of Friendship, or sitting down for a bite to eat, you'll meet people from every corner of the world, in all kinds of national attire, speaking just about every language. It's a lot of fun, and it's a big part of what makes Rotary great: that we can be so different and still find ourselves so at home together. That spirit of warm community that is so central to Rotary also defines Toronto, our host city for the 2018 Rotary International Convention.
Toronto is one of my favourite cities. It's a place where half the population is from another country, where over 140 languages are spoken by 2.8 million residents, and where no one ever seems to be too busy to be helpful. In addition to being clean, safe, and friendly, Toronto is a wonderful place to visit, with its attractive Lake Ontario waterfront, great restaurants, one-of-a-kind museums, and interesting neighbourhoods to explore. The 2018 convention already promises to be one of our best ever. Our Convention Committee and Host Organization Committee are hard at work lining up inspiring speakers, great entertainment, fascinating breakout sessions, and a wide variety of activities across the city. There will be something for everyone in Toronto, and Juliet and I encourage you to do what we'll be doing – bring your families along for the fun. If you plan early, your convention experience will be even more affordable: The deadline for discounted early registration (there is an additional discount for registering online) is 15 December. As much as Toronto offers to Rotarians, the true draw is, of course, the convention itself. It's a once-a-year opportunity to recharge your Rotary batteries, to see what the rest of the Rotary world is up to, and to find inspiration for the year ahead. Find out more at riconvention.org – and find Inspiration Around Every Corner at the 2018 Rotary Convention in Toronto.
Celebrating International Literacy Day A child with no formal means of education can teach themselves anything just by reading. Some of the greatest minds in history; such as Abraham Lincoln, Jack London, Abigail Adams, Ray Bradbury and Malcom X; didn’t have the opportunity at a formal education but learned through reading library books. Even today, there are children throughout the world who do not have the luxury of receiving a formal education. Their only hope for education comes through their local library or books given to them. When the concept of literacy comes to mind, what does the average person think of? The ability to write? Or maybe the ability to read books? Each year, International Literacy Day (ILD) aims to showcase the best practices of literacy worldwide and explore new ways of promoting literacy with innovative programs and ideas. Literacy, however, is already on the rise! In countries all around the globe, statistics show the importance of taking literacy into account. Literacy is Increasing Take a country like Brazil. In 2000, around 94 percent of Brazilian youth were literate. In the past sixteen years, that percentage has increased to 99 percent. Five percent may not seem like a lot, but any growth of a literate population is a positive sign for developmental growth. But perhaps you’re looking for a more dramatic shift, and in that case – look to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They’ve increased their literacy rate for youth from 70 percent in 2000 to now 85 percent. Who is the say that exploring the best literacy programs hasn’t led to that shift? International Literacy Day has been around since 1965 and countries all around the world celebrate it. Illiteracy is still common, with countries like Mali hovering at around 19 percent. The Human Development Index used by the UNDP even rates literacy as one of three indicators for measuring development of a society. Having access to education and using that knowledge is what makes celebrating literacy so important. 2017’s ILD Theme This year, the theme is digital literacy. It might seem at first counterintuitive to consider literacy in a digital society. Surely digitalisation precludes understanding how to read and write. But as our society slowly moves into a new digital era, countries need to consider the new challenges and opportunities that brings. Digital Literacy is Changing Our Lives Technology is a tool that can bring literacy to more people in more places. The growth of the e-learning and digital literacy industry means that we can bring books to people who might never have the chance to otherwise read. On the flip side, however, technology brings challenges. The internet presents a massive amount of information growing by the second. As readers, we’re presented with a new test. How do we separate out what to read from what not to read? Literacy has never been more important. In the digital realm and in the physical world, literacy means education. Being able to read translates to the ability to fight for the change you wish to see in the world. Education is the stepping stone to equality and innovation. 2017 is the year to recognise how lucky those of us who have had the opportunity to read are. As you’re celebrating International Literacy Day this September, think about literacy has changed your life. Maybe take a moment to think of a way that you can use technology to bring literacy to others and make sure to watch out of the winners of the International Literacy Prizes! Gabriella Gricius World Literacy Foundation
Have a personal Rotary Membership Plan Based on a story from District 9820's E-Club http://eclublatitude38.org/
Membership of Rotary, like any other activity in life, works better if you have a personal plan about how to get the most out of it. At the beginning of every Rotary year (1 July), or at any other time, why not sit down and plan how you will maximise your membership. In an eClub this is especially important as we don’t have the impetus of a weekly face-to-face meeting to give us a “push along”. Here are some suggestions. You may think of other things you might do.
Run your eye over Rotary Basics to refresh yourself about what Rotary is about. Work through the weekly meetings in your clubs bulletin and make comments to your Club’s Facebook page. Support your Clubs Facebook page and respond to posts already there. Think about sharing posts to your own timeline if you strongly support the content presented. Look at your Club’s projects page on your Club website to see what projects you might become involved in. If your Club does not have a projects page, get involved to improve it. Commit to contributing $A100 to the Rotary Foundation during the year through the Centurion Program. The club can organise this for you. Commit to attending the District Conference. Attending a District Conference creates opportunities. Opportunities to learn, share, build links and get things done. You will never know if you don't go! I just love meeting people and being part of a bigger picture. Make suggestions on how your club can work better. I f you believe your Club can be better, be a driver and not a passenger. Members make the club what it is.
Participate!
http://www.district9820.org/
Registrations are now open with the Early Bird rate effective until 30th November. First time conference attendees have been offered a significant price reduction. http://www.rotaryconference.org.au/register.html
Club, Cluster and District Calendar DATE
EVENT
Location
CONTACT PERSON
SEPTEMBER IS
BASIC EDUCATION AND
LITERACY MONTH
IN ROTARY
Saturday September 9th
Stroke Awareness Booth Know Your Numbers
Ascot Vale Pharmacy 67-69 Union Road, Ascot Vale 10AM—2PM
Lesley McCarthy 0417532259 secretary@rotaryflemington.org.au Lyn Borghoiuts borlyn@tpg.com.au
Sunday September 10th
Community BBQ EID Festival
Debney Park oval Flemington Road, Flemington 10am—2pm
Ted Frank Allan Bruno
Wednesday September 13th
Weekly Meeting
Quest Apartments, Cnr Epsom & Smithfield Roads, Flemington
Lesley McCarthy 0417532259 OR
Tuesday September 19th
Board Meeting 6pm
White Lion, 155 Roden St West Melbourne
Lesley McCarthy 0417532259
Wednesday September 20th
SCATTER MEETING
Visit another club this week
Wednesday September 27th
Weekly Meeting District Governor’s visit
Quest Apartments, Cnr Epsom & Smithfield Roads, Flemington
Lesley McCarthy 0417532259 OR
OCTOBER IS
ECONOMIC & COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT MONTH
IN ROTARY
Wednesday October 4th
Weekly Meeting
Quest Apartments, Cnr Epsom & Smithfield Roads, Flemington
Lesley McCarthy 0417532259 OR
Wednesday October 11th
Weekly Meeting
Quest Apartments, Cnr Epsom & Smithfield Roads, Flemington
Lesley McCarthy 0417532259 OR
Tuesday October 17th
Board Meeting 6pm
White Lion, 155 Roden St West Melbourne
Lesley McCarthy 0417532259
Wednesday October 18th
Weekly Meeting
Quest Apartments, Cnr Epsom & Smithfield Roads, Flemington
Lesley McCarthy 0417532259 OR
Wednesday October 25th
Weekly Meeting
Quest Apartments, Cnr Epsom & Smithfield Roads, Flemington
Lesley McCarthy 0417532259 OR
NOVEMBER IS
FOUNDATION
Wednesday November 1st
Weekly Meeting
Wednesday November 8th
Weekly Meeting
7.30 for 7.45am
Guest Speaker: Sharon Crean Rotary Club of Lavington-Nairobi BeyondWATER
7.30 for 7.45am
Liz Ellis, Westgate Freeway and Western Distributor update
7.30 for 7.45am
Marnie Marin—The Indigo Foundation, Uganda
7.30 for 7.45am Club Forum and Fellowship 7.30 for 7.45am
7.30 for 7.45am
7.30 for 7.45am
MONTH
secretary@rotaryflemington.org.au
secretary@rotaryflemington.org.au
secretary@rotaryflemington.org.au
secretary@rotaryflemington.org.au
secretary@rotaryflemington.org.au
secretary@rotaryflemington.org.au
secretary@rotaryflemington.org.au
secretary@rotaryflemington.org.au
IN ROTARY
Quest Apartments, Cnr Epsom & Smithfield Roads, Flemington
Lesley McCarthy 0417532259 OR
Quest Apartments, Cnr Epsom & Smithfield Roads, Flemington
Lesley McCarthy 0417532259 OR
secretary@rotaryflemington.org.au
secretary@rotaryflemington.org.au
The Rotary Club of Flemington meets for breakfast on a Wednesday morning, 7.30am for a 7.45 start. Meetings conclude by 8.45am. Link to Google Map We meet at the Quest Apartments in the Conference Room, Epsom Road, Flemington near the corner of Smithfield, Racecourse and Ascot Vale Roads.
President: Sam Nicol
RI President: Ian H. S. Riseley
Contact us at: rotaryflemington.org.au/ Flemington Opportunity Shop —444 Racecourse Road, Flemington. Manager: Sam Nicol 0475 866 086 District Governor: Peter Frueh
Assistant Governor, Gateway East: Henry Brockman
Werribee Fit4 Use Store —2/135 Railway Ave, Werribee. Manager—Lorry Rowe 0403 323 512