Southbank Conversations & Meetup is our club's 'informal meeting' where it gives an opportunity for club members to catch-up (including Rotary Family & Friends) and to also discuss about projects (planned or idea initiation) at the Belgian Beer Cafe, Southbank when we don't have our formal meetings scheduled.

On Tuesday 11th December 2018, Rotarian Drew Vactor and his wife Honorary Member Kandie Vactor from Rotary Club of Tucson, Arizona U.S.A (chartered in 1921) visited our club as they had a stopover in Melbourne while cruising around Australia on Seven Seas Mariner. Their visit to Australia is to celebrate their upcoming 50th wedding anniversary in 2019 and they shared their love story & journey since they met in university (Drew majored in Marketing Management and Kandie majored in Marketing Advertising). Rotarian Drew Vactor presented Rotary Club of Tuscon's club banner to President Amritpal Singh and both Drew & Kandie had an enjoyable make-up meeting before heading back to Seven Seas Mariner to continue their romantic cruise holiday.

Biodata of Drew Vactor(reference from 2014-2015 Tucsotarian Newsletter)

Some members of our Rotary Club know that Drew is a recovering restaurateur, having run a 5 Star/5 Diamond restaurant called The Tack Room for many years.

In 2000, he retired to a world of International travel as a guest lecturer on cruise ships for 6 years.  As a high ranking SCUBA Instructor, he and his wife, Honorary Rotarian Kandie Vactor, have led exotic live-aboard dive boat trips around the world for 15 years while doing web site design as the Owner/Webmaster of 5 Star Web Design (for more information, please visit www.kandive.com).

He created the Rotary Club of Tucson's original website and the original website for our Tucson Classics Car Show. Drew is a Paul Harris Fellow and has served on many Rotary committees including currently on our AV and Contract committees. He has been on our Car Show Leadership Team since its inception. He has also been chair of our Four Way Test Committee, Office Committee, Bylaws Committee and our 5 Year Plan Committee.

In addition, he was on our Board of Directors in 2011-2013.  He was one of the original supporters of eClub One and helped get it started and approved. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Skiing Fellowship of Rotarians (ISFR).

Drew has been a very active member of the Rotary Club of Tucson since 1986. Even with his busy schedule, he has maintained perfect attendance for over 28 years, making up around the world.

We had the honour and privilege to have Past President Martin Taurins and Rotarian Diana Taurins from Rotary Club of Gisborne to talk about their journey with Rotarian Action Group of Multiple Sclerosis Awareness (RAGMSA) and how the formation evolved for the past thirty (30) years on Tuesday, 4th December 2018.

Photo from left to right: Past President Martin Taurins, Rotarian Diana Taurins and our very own Past President Steven Aquilina

Their late son, Past President Jacob Taurins from Rotary Club of Essendon North was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at age 20. Before Jacob was diagnosed, Martin and Diana joined the Rotary Club of Gisborne to give back after thier daughter went to Sweden on a Rotary Youth Exchange. Members from Rotary Club of Gisborne had empathy for Jacob's condition and started a club project, which later became a district-endorsed program. This encouraged Martin and Diana to gather together Rotarians internationally with an interest in finding a cure for the disease and form the Rotarian Action Group for Multiple Sclerosis Awareness (RAGMSA) to help clubs organize projects to assist individuals and families impacted by MS, promote MS awareness and urge Rotarians to work with their local MS societies to get involved.

Martin and Diana vowed to continue this journey and encourages us to volunteer with RAGMSA to take it to greater heights (more information can be found here -  Why the Rotarian Action Group for Multiple Sclerosis Awareness (RAGMSA) was formed).

We like to acknowledge the visiting Guest that came:

• Global Education Solutions
  • Racquel Shroff

Rotary Club of Southbank sponsored Grace Sheehan for this year's 2018 RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award). It is a residential camp unlike any other. Over seven days, participants are immersed in a program centered around  four key themes: Challenge by choice, diversity, community and time out. We give young people aged 18-25 the opportunity to step away from the distractions of their busy lives and provide the space to think about what is important to them.

Grace enjoys playing (netball, swimming) and watching sports (tennis)  She is also passionate about music where most of her family is very musically inclined so it comes pretty naturally. She has been playing the guitar for some years and enjoys traveling to different countries or going on family holidays.

Grace is a community minded teenager who has been in programs around 'social justice and community work' at her school. She went on a cultural immersion in 2017 and stayed in an Aboriginal community for a week to help them out. Not forgetting, Grace was also part of a program called "Building Bridges" where volunteers from different religious schools got together to learn about different religions and close the gap between these stereotypes to empower young people.

We hope that Grace with her family members can come to one of our meetings in 2019 to share her RYLA experience.

Part of our club Constitution dictates that the club is required to hold an annual general meeting within five months after the end of the association's financial year which is by 30th November latest every year. This year's Rotary Club of Southbank's Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on Tuesday 20th November 2018 at the Belgian Beer Cafe, Southbank whereby the election of the 2019-2020 board was conducted. This included the Presidents report (Immediate Past President Liam Jones) and Treasurer's report (Immediate Past Treasurer Amritpal Singh) from 2017-2018.

The following club members were elected to their respective roles for 2019-2020:

• President: Sally Page
• Immediate Past President: Amritpal Singh
• Vice President: Nicholas Kane
• President-Elect: Jasmin Dhillon
• Secretary: Past President Stuart McArthur
• Treasurer: Lilian Ndarukwa
• Director (Club Service): District Governor-Elect Philip Archer
• Director (Foundation): Past President Steven Aquilina
• Director (Community Service): Past President Liam Jones
• Director: Past President Wendy Bennett
   

The club also discussed about meeting frequency and confirmed to continue to meet every Tuesday night (as stated in our club ByLaws) with a combination of formal and informal meetings.

• The focus of having two formal meetings per month will continue as a way of ensuring that we maintain quality meetings with large attendances and high profile guest speakers.
• On intervening weeks, members can continue to meet at the Belgian Beer Café, Southbank to catch up, plan projects and ensure a regularity of meeting experience - this informal meeting is branded asSouthbank Conversations & Meetup.
• Members are encouraged to attend other district functions in addition to their own club commitments.
   

On behalf of the board and club, I'd like to thank the following observers for coming:

• President John Wall (Rotary Club of Melbourne South)
• Hao Teo (Founder & Managing Director of iDibs - Speaker for 26th March 2019)

On Saturday 17th November, District 9800 came together to help take the fight right up to Polio with the very first End Polio Prance. Forty-one (41) Rotarians and Walter the Great (Polio) Dane pranced their way around Albert Park Lake in Melbourne on beautiful morning that raised $103,512.75 give or take a few cents.

Thanks to District & Foundation funds PLUS the matching 2:1 donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we were able to reach and exceed our target. Special thanks to the Rotary Clubs of Albert Park, Caroline Springs, Laverton Point Cook, Malvern, Melbourne South, North Balwyn, Prahran, Southbank, Woodend and Wyndham who all created teams of Prancers for the day and of course to all the individual Prancers and those who sponsored us.

Look out for the event next year on Saturday, 26th October 2019 when we hope to be prancing under the banner of End Polio for the last time.

It was a memorable and fulfilling vocational excursion visiting our club member Rotarian David Jones in South Gippsland to learn about garlic on a cool plus windy Saturday morning on 3rd November 2018. David explained how his wife Kirsten and him embarked this journey being garlic farmers and the obstacles they had to endure. With number of trials and errors, they found their formula and got going with production about eight (8) years ago. He also demonstrated the technology behind the end-to-end process from when garlics are picked from the farm to how it is sorted, quality assured and packaged for delivery. He also explained the variation of garlic which we find in the markets and which ones are of quality for different types of dishes for cooking (mouth watering for sure). 

David pointed out that every year in the South Gippsland region, it hosts the Meeniyan Garlic Festival which has draws many visitors from Victoria, interstate and overseas to celebrate and showcase garlic. The upcoming festival is held on Saturday 16th February 2019 which you can find more information by clicking here. Day ended with lunch at David's daughter (Felicity Jones) shop called 'The Meeniyan Store' which is a cafe and sells local farmers produce to the communities. Rotarian Judy Parslow (club member), Svetlana Beke (former club member and Past President - Rotary Club of Toorak), Rosa Lanteri (friend of Svetlana) and I enjoyed the hospitality of Rotarian David Jones and we hope we pay more visits to South Gippsland in the near future.

Remember to keep the following dates free and to RSVP on our website:

• 6th November - Melbourne Cup (NO MEETING)
• 10th November - Be Real Be You
• 17th November - Prance in the Park for Polio
• 20th November - Annual General Meeting (AGM)
• 28th November - 26th Rotary Foundation Paul Harris Breakfast (event of Rotary Club of Central Melbourne)
• 4th December - Rotarian Action Group of Multiple Sclerosis Awareness (RAGMSA)
• 18th December - Christmas & New Year Eve Celebrations (Theme: "Over the Rainbow")
   

Ignite is a joint project of Rotary Club of Melbourne and Arts Access Victoria. This new partnership between Rotary Club of Melbourne and Arts Access Victoria, the State's leading arts and disability organization which delivers community arts and cultural development programs for more than 2,000 people with a disability, aimed at securing employment outcomes.

Photo: Participating artists from the IGNITE program

It also supports artists with a disability, enables Rotarians to have a greater visibility of their work and provides a potential source of income through acquisition or leasing of high quality artworks. This focus aligns with our wish to be involved in welfare projects which provide vocational opportunities for lesser advantaged groups in our community.

Photo from left: President Robert Fisher (Rotary Club of Melbourne) delivering his speech

Over sixty (60) people attended this special event on Thursday evening 25th October 2018 where President Neville Taylor (Rotary Club of Central Melbourne) and President Amritpal Singh (Rotary Club of Southbank) were in attendance to support President Robert Fisher (Rotary Club of Melbourne) and his club for this newly formed partnership.

For more information, please visit Art Access Victoria (AAV) to learn more about this program.

Shirin Geisel was a German Youth Exchange Student from Germany (sponsored by our club) and during her stay here, she initiated the Oktoberfest festivities which started way back on Tuesday 29th October 2013. Since then, our club has kept this tradition going where it is a night filled with culture, fun and laughter.

We had the fifth (5th) Oktoberfest celebrations on Tuesday night 23rd October 2018 and twenty-six (26) people came along to learn about beers from the Belgian Beer Cafe hosts, Izak & Fraser. It was also a night we celebrated Shahn Griffin's twenty-fifth (25th) birthday who is President Amritpal Singh's brother-in-law to be.

Photo from left to right: Fraser and Izak (Hosts from Belgian Beer Cafe)

As it was the night before World Polio Day and our Major Donor Giver Dinner event (both held on 24th October 2018), we raised $100 through a game of head-and-tails which District Governor Nominee Philip Archer and President Robert Fisher from Rotary Club of Melbourne won a price each. The job of ending polio is not over and we have to keep pushing on till it is fully eradicated from the face of this earth.

We like to acknowledge the visiting Rotarians & Guests that came:

• Rotary Club of Melbourne
  • President Robert Fisher
  • Rtn. John Peberdy
     
• Rotary Club of North Melbourne
  • President Mary Zindilis
  • PP. George Zindilis
  • PP. Neville Page
  • Rtn. Judy Page
  • PP. Andrew Georgiou
  • Amanda Georgiou
     
• Rotary Club of Central Melbourne
  • Rotary Club of Southbank Past President (2016-2017) Stuart Cardell
     
• Rotary Club of Essendon North
  • Rtn. Nathan Phan
     
• Australia Post
  • Jim Chronopoulos
  • Emmanuel Vassos
     
• Bega Foods
  • Konstantinos Papahatzis
     
• North Carlton Canteen
  • Tung Dinh
     
• Destiny Rescue Australia
  • John Wallis (Speaker for 29th January 2019)
     
• University of Melbourne
  • Shahn Griffin (Brother-in-law to be of President Amritpal Singh)

Remember to keep the following dates free and to RSVP on our website:

• 29th October - 2018 Chances Golf Day at Box Hill Golf Club
• 3rd November - Garlic Field Day
• 10th November - Be Real Be You
• 17th November - Prance in the Park for Polio
• 20th November - Annual General Meeting (AGM)
• 28th November - 26th Rotary Foundation Paul Harris Breakfast (event of Rotary Club of Central Melbourne)

On Tuesday 16th October 2018, Rotary Club of Southbank had its second (2nd) face-to-face board meeting where we had a number of observers who came along to discuss on the successful first (1st) quarter that just past and future plans for the remaining 2018-19 year.

Various topics surrounding the five (5) areas of service which includes club administration, membership, community, international and youth was bought up to understand potential opportunities that lies ahead. This includes looking into projects in the new year 2019 such as Y-House Foundation collaboration, Documentary Fundraiser and a potential Global Grant.

We also had the opportunity to hear feedback from members on how we can take the club to greater heights from the success built to date. It is important to understand and take necessary actions to ensure the club is steering for more achievements, positiveness and happiness. On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank the following observers for coming:

• District Governor Nominee Philip Archer (charter member)
• Past President Wendy Bennett (member)
• Kay Ledson (member)
• Jasmin Dhillon (member)
• Suvam Ganguli (Rotary Club of Central Melbourne)

Remember to keep the following dates free and to RSVP on our website:

• 23rd October - Ocktoberfest
• 24th October - End Polio Now Major Giver Dinner
• 25th October - Launch of 'IGNITE' Project - Rotary Club of Melbourne collaboration with Arts Access Victoria
• 29th October - 2018 Chances Golf Day at Box Hill Golf Club
• 3rd November - Garlic Field Day
• 10th November - Be Real Be You
• 17th November - Prance in the Park for Polio
• 20th November - Annual General Meeting (AGM)
• 28th November - 26th Rotary Foundation Paul Harris Breakfast (event of Rotary Club of Central Melbourne)

{Photo: 2018-19 Rotary Club of Southbank Board members being introduced at our changeover lunch on 7th July 2018}

Australia Post Dandenong Letter Centre (DLC) donated five (5) hampers and movie tickets to Rotary Club of Southbank on 19th October 2018 to support the Ray White Southbank's "A little Ray of Giving" program to support and help the unprivileged communities in Southbank and nearby areas. Rotary Club of Southbank is grateful and humbled by Australia Post generosity in helping our communities in need irrespective of geographical areas.

Photo from left to right: Rod Hoober (Manager - Dandenong Letter Centre), President Amritpal Singh, Kim Nguyen (DLC Logistics) and Ravinder Bhal (DLC Logistics) on 19th October 2018.

Australia Post Dandenong Letter Centre (DLC) Yammer Post to signify this memorable event on 19th October 2018