This week's meeting will be at Blackburn Bowls Club
President's Message
Hello all and welcome back from your break.
As previously mentioned, our Club is currently migratory. The first two meetings of the year will be at the Blackburn Bowls Club, on Pakenham Street in Blackburn. We’ll have our first speaker for the year and will get our catering provided by King Chooks in Blackburn. It’ll be a few salads, charcoal chicken, chips and some roast veggies. We should be able to cater for most dietary requirements or preferences – I could certainly do with fewer chips than I’ve been eating recently – but if you have specific allergies or intolerances, please register as soon as possible so we can ensure we have you covered.
If the change in venue is going to present transport problems for you, please reach out to me or another member of the club to assist you. It’s critical that members can continue to attend meetings when they want to.
Over the last several weeks, I’ve received several good suggestions for meeting places and caterers going forward. We are looking at some sporting and bowls clubs, a few pubs and clubs and a hotel and event space. Some of these will prove unviable – distance, cost or another reason – but we’re going to be considering all our options and will be using the next several weeks to narrow these and come to a consensus as quickly as we can.
As for catering, while restaurants come with their own menus and kitchens, any of the bowls or sporting clubs would likely mean organising a caterer, and some of you have also shared the names and contacts of some private caterers as well. Cost, consistent availability throughout the year and menu and dietary options will be the factors we’ll be looking at there. My plan is to get a formal working group or subcommittee in charge of this quite quickly. I’ve had at least one club member who is neither a committee chair nor board member reach out to ask about being involved, and I think that’s excellent.
The venue and caterer we choose may also require us to look at the way the meetings run, particularly if keeping food hot becomes a concern. I believe we’re okay for the next three meetings, I believe we can find a solution that works for everybody, and I also believe this is a great opportunity to visit some interesting places and try some new dining options as we work our way through some options.
So, I hope I see you at the meeting on Wednesday at Blackburn Bowls Club, where our speaker will be Sarah Stancombe, a bell ringer in Melbourne. It’s a chance to see some familiar faces in a new setting.
Cheers and see you Wednesday, and don't forget the President's BBQ in two weeks' time -- register and pay if you haven't quite got around to it yet.
On Saturday 20th December, ten members of the Rotary Club of Nunawading, two members of the Rotary Club of Lilydale and 4 friends of Rotary worked to load a 40-foot container with 13 second-hand playgrounds.
The playgrounds were mainly sourced from local City Councils. The councils tend to replace these playgrounds every 15-20 years – some much sooner. The playgrounds are mostly still quite safe and serviceable.
Rotary helps to give these a second life. This container is bound for Sri Lanka where local Rotarians will arrange for them to be re-installed and bring joy to hundreds of local children.
Following on from the Bendigo Bank, Blackburn South branch staff members presentation at our 10th December 2025 club meeting, the offer was made to have a club stand at the bank during January 2026.
Thanks to Harvey Lane, Bob Davis and Ken Smith for assisting with the presentation of the stand.
It's a special time of year, so I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a merry Christmas and happy holidays. I also thought it was also a good time to give an update and thank you for all of the exciting things that have happened in the last part of 2025!
Since returning to Melbourne after finishing my Masters, I've been very busy! I started my DPhil (PhD) in October and got straight to work learning important techniques that I'll use during the next three years and beyond. I also went through matriculation (again!) although you are only allowed to officially matriculate once, so my friend did an unofficial ceremony for me :)
My parents then arrived in Oxford for my graduation ceremony for my Masters, which was absolutely brilliant. Some of my friends who have now left Oxford came back to graduate on the same day, so celebrating a year I'm very proud of with them and with my parents was magical.
I then flew to USA for the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, which confused me, because I didn't know Christmas came in October too!!! It was such an incredible experience, being one of twenty thousand neuroscientists attending and learning about the most cutting-edge work all around the world. I met some of my scientific heroes, visited labs at Berkeley and Stanford, filled in my perspective on where my DPhil work fits in compared to everything else, and schemed lots about how I can make the best scientific contribution over the next few years.
Since returning to Oxford, I have been laying the foundations for some exciting, novel experiments in the new year. I've managed to use one of the connections I made at the conference to get my hands on the latest and greatest light-sensitive protein for this work, so hopefully that will arrive soon as a late Christmas present! I'm feeling very thankful and know that I made the right decision by choosing my lab at Oxford, my supervisor is brilliant scientifically and as a person too. These upcoming experiments will help me decide where I focus my efforts in the future, so I can't wait to get started!
Thank you all for your support - after all, I wouldn't get to do half of these incredible things if not for the opportunities that I have been lucky enough to have over the past year and a half. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a lovely holiday, surrounded by beautiful people that make you feel like yourself!
