Newsletter for the Rotary Club of Greater Geraldton - Issue No.: 782 Issue Date: 29 Apr, 2024

President Lew led off the announcements and advised the meeting that the District Conference was excellent: the venue was very good and the speakers were good with great Rotary content.

Pete Svensson’s highlight was Marcus Akuhata-Brown – a great speaker, a Maori from Gisborne, on the north-east coast of New Zealand.  Pete said “he is the best speaker he has ever heard”.  Marcus spoke about the ceilings of low expectations and gave examples from his life of how he had broken through those ceilings.  You can go here http://www.speakerlink.co.nz/choose-a-speaker/marcus-akuhata-brown/to get a brief glimpse of the fellow. (It was noted that Annie Muir already has Marcus as a Facebook friend)

Hugh commented that the format of the conference was excellent; Friday night cocktail reception, all day Saturday conference with great Rotary content, and Saturday night dinner and dance.  Was particularly good for country people because we had the Sunday to travel home.  As a Scotch College old boy the conference opening with bagpipes brought back memories.  And it was great to see John Inverarity who taught maths at Scotch. 

Clark Scarff commented that the standard of speakers was good and the conference had a great balance and gave a good perspective of what’s happening in our District and internationally.

President Lew mentioned a few of the keynote speakers and particularly singled out Robert Isaacs, Donna Cross, and Andrew Whitehouse.  Andrew Whitehouse spoke about autism and how early identification and diagnosis is critical.

Steve Muir mentioned at the conference, that it was amazing how much great work came out of our donations to the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund (ARHRF).