Events

For several years, Roger was the Co-Chair of Our Lady of the Way North Sydney Parish Council. He is a director of the St John’s College Foundation, University of Sydney.

He also works as a volunteer in the Outreach Programme of the Matthew Talbot Hostel, Wooloomooloo.

Until his retirement, Roger held senior legal and commodity marketing positions In CSR Ltd and the Australian Sugar Industry. 

He was also for several years an industry advisor to the Australian Government in various international trade agreement negotiations.

Our District AG,Ward Pollard,wiill visit our Club to discuss the pros and cons of the Southern Sydney District proposed amalgamation with our District,9685.The Southern District is projected to fall below the 1000 number figure which can mean they are too small to be a viable district,All Clubs in our District are entitled to vote on the subject.Interesting to hear what Ward has to say.

Pam was educated and worked in the Blacktown area for most of her adult life, with about 40 of those years

working in the real estate industry as a Valuer and Commercial Asset Manager, in a family business with the most recent 18 years

in her own business.

Recently retired she now has more time to support he Rotary International Projects which have inspired her since joining Rotary some 15 years ago.

The inception of Teacher in a Box was in 2013 after a Rotary visit to the School of St Jude in Tanzania back in 2012 with four members of Rotary in Brisbane joining the Blacktown team for the 3 week tour. Pam and the TIB team have recently revisited Tanzania to follow up  some of the deployments and see first hand the progress and value of the project

TIB was founded by Jeanette Johnstone from Paddington Rotary Club in Qld, after she visited Tanzania and Zanzibar in 2012 and recognised the need for Educational resources without access or reliance on the internet, as the internet is both unreliable and expensive in many parts of the country.

Jeanette was fortunate to meet Patrick Hackett who was volunteering with Computers 4 Learning, another Rotary Project, whereby donated computers are repurposed and sold for a small fee to the Community.

Jeanette then partnered with Patrick and together they took donated laptops, stripped and cleaned them, then uploaded thousands of Educational Videos, lessons, books and associated resources, which then connected to a small router can be shared to as many as 100 other devices i.e. laptops, ipads and smartphones.

The Project continues to grow and thus far has been invaluable to schools in Liberia, Tanzania, Kenya, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines

District 9685 is very proud to be launching a program that will recognise those clubs which have been major donors to the Rotary Foundation over their lifetime.  This is designed to match the recognition programs for personal giving.  The program was really initiated by Harold who raised the concept many months ago.  This has been taken forward and the proposal put together on or behalf by Rob Byrne.  TRF has asked that it be piloted with one district before launching across all ANZ districts so quite rightly D9685 has been selected, to the delight of District Foundation chairs and DG and DGE.

   Crows Nest Rotary, which has been extremely generous over the years, has contributed to date $US96,641.18, so with a club donation of at least $US3359 (presently about $A4736) before say early June this year we would be able to include you as a Silver Major donor at the presentation at the District Changeover on the 6th July.  Please note that the giving in these figures is Club giving only and not Personal giving. 

Our Club Board has agreed to make the necessary donation and Sue will present a cheque to the Foundation during this meeting.

John Friedsam is the General Manager of Divisions at Canteen Australia.  John has specialised in psychooncology service provision and management for the past 16 years.   He is passionate about developing and delivering evidenced based, sustainable supportive care, counselling and group work services to cancer patients and their families.  John has also worked extensively in space of the impact of cancer on families, cancer communications and familial adjustment to cancer - most recently, over the past five years with CanTeen, concentrating his work directly adolescents and young adults who are dealing with a cancer diagnosis, that of a family members, or are bereaved due to a cancer related death.

​

Keri will up-date us on her latest trip to Kenya,where she is helping to finalise the Global Grant for the East Pokot WASH Project at two local schools.

Shelley will be joining us for an up-date on all the work Destiny Rescue has been doing so far this year

Chris Anthony is the Co-Founder of the non-profit - Teachers on Wheels. Chris holds an engineering undergraduate degree and postgraduate in Information Technology and Business. Chris works for Cisco Systems, a multinational company in Sydney. An avid advocate for STEM and Vocational Education. Chris began his STEM mentoring journey in 2001 when he sponsored a group of freshers from an Australian college to take up work experience opportunities. This has now become an annual event with hundreds of students from schools and colleges taking up STEM mentoring opportunities. Today, he will be speaking about a Teachers on Wheels project called Yuva Deepa also known as Young Light.

​

Bruce Robinson is a Charter member of the Rotary Club of Norwest Sunrise. He was previously a member of the Rotary Club of Holroyd. He has been a Rotarian for over 30 years and has held most positions at Rotary Club level including being President of both Clubs he has been a member of.

He became National Treasurer for ROMAC in 2013 and held that position for 4 years retiring in 2017. The position of Treasurer is a Board of Directors position and as such he was involved in the day to day decisions concerning accepting and bringing patients to Australia or New Zealand for life saving surgery as well as formulating plans and implementing them for the ongoing success of ROMAC.

This presentation will explain

·       “What is ROMAC” including a little bit of history

·       How patients are sourced and where they come from

·       Types of illnesses treated

·       Budget and costs of treatment

·       Example of 3 children recently treated

·       Who “owns” ROMAC and how Rotary Clubs and Rotarians can help

​

Royal North Shore Hospital School provides continuity of education for all students from Kindergarten to Year 12 who are patients at Royal North Shore Hospital. The school offers Individual Learning Programs for students who come from metropolitan and country areas, a range of cultural backgrounds and all sectors of schooling. Students remain enrolled at their census school whilst attending our hospital school. While the school is situated on the children's ward, it also caters for older students who may be on the Orthopaedic, Neurosurgical, Psychiatric, Burns or Spinal Wards.

Vanessa is the Principal at Royal North Shore Hospital School and is a leader in Positive Education and Wellbeing. She is passionate about supporting student’s wellbeing by connecting and understanding the context of student lives.  Vanessa will deliver an empowering talk about RNSH School’s innovative approach to supporting their students whilst in hospital. Vanessa and her team have identified a range of strategies that boost positive wellbeing, and that igniting a sense of purpose through authentic engagement greatly increases human connection and belonging.

Vanessa holds a Master of Special Education (Behaviour and Emotional Difficulties) Bachelor of Education, and Diploma of Positive Psychology.

​

7pm Northbridge Golf Club

Steve Matthews was born in the UK in 1953, migrating to Australia in 1985. At the age of fifty-five, Steve sold his business interests to fulfil a lifetime’s ambition to write. Since then, his acclaimed children’s books have been published in Australia, UK, Canada and the USA and his  work in children’s literacy at home and abroad has been acknowledged in the Australian Parliament. The Skinny Girl is Steve’s first novel for adults. It  is based upon real events, fictionalised, to provide a raw and thought provoking look at domestic abuse.

​

Leonie Dillon is a School and Community Ambassador for OzHarvest. She is also an Education Guide delivering school excursions with Sydney Learning Adventures in historic sites in The Rocks. 

Leonie has an education background, teaching Food Technology at Burwood Girls’High School. When her family relocated to the UK in the early 2000s, she honed her presenting skills becoming an Experienced Guide at Kew Gardens, delivering general tours to tourists and later as a Kew Teacher delivering school excursions.

On returning to Australia, Leonie joined the Community Engagement team at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney as the Coordinator of School Programs where her passion for the environment and sustainability grew. This combined with her other passion of food makes Leonie enthusiastic about the work OzHarvest does concerning their new FEAST program rolling out in primary schools across NSW and she relishes sharing this with others. 

Andrew Long heads up the newly formed Rotoracts Club of North Sydney.It will be interesting to see what they are up to.

Two years ago NSW was on the brink of blackouts. Tony will examine what has changed in the past two years and whether NSW is on track for our electricity supply to be reliable, affordable and have low emissions. Is 100% renewables the answer, or are there other more affordable alternatives?

Tony Irwin (FIEAust MIET FAIE CPEng) is a Chartered Engineer, Honorary Associate Professor at the ANU, Technical Director of SMR Nuclear Technology Pty Ltd and Chair of Engineers Australia Sydney Division Nuclear Engineering Panel. Tony worked for British Energy in the UK for more than thirty years commissioning and operating 8 nuclear power reactors.  In 1999, he moved to Australia and joined ANSTO where he provided advice on nuclear issues to the Federal Government. He was subsequently appointed as the first Reactor Manager of ANSTO’s new OPAL research reactor. Tony is now a Consultant.

​