Last week’s 21st Rotary Melbourne lunch meeting was very well attended to witness the Club’s AGM and the 6th annual update by Honorary Member, Lord Mayor Sally Capp AO on the “State of the City of Melbourne”.
Bernie McIntosh was MC and opened the meeting.
The reflection, initially intended to be delivered by a guest humanoid Robot from Japan named Pepper, was due to technical difficulties, delivered in the traditional way by its author, Past President Robert Fisher. Pepper recovered later in the meeting and led the meeting in singing the National Anthem at the meeting’s conclusion. Pepper's visit was very kindly organised by Hannah Bourke and Caroline Shi of SoftBank Corp.
Members present took great pride in the presentation by Past District 9800 Governor and Rotary Foundation Trustee, Dennis Shaw expressing appreciation to the Club for its continuing strong support for the End Polio Now campaign, and the Award of Diamond Donor status to Rotary Melbourne for accumulated annual contributions to the Rotary Foundation from the Club exceeding US$1 million. This total did not include the generous support given annually to the RI Foundation by individual members. Dennis was accompanied by past District 9800 Governor Murray Verso, and representatives of Rotary International’s regional office in Parramatta.
Congratulations also to President Chris Sotiropoulos for skilfully Chairing Rotary Melbourne’s 103rd Annual General Meeting – see separate report later in this Bulletin.
Congratulations also to the Around the Bay Fundraising team led by Trevor Nink who reported that the Club’s fundraising effort this year has enabled a donation of around $23,000 to the Smith Family’s Learning for Life Program.
President Chris also congratulated Past President Peter Rogers for his election to the Regional Council as Major Fundraising and Grants on the Regional Board as part of the Rotary International Regionalisation Pilot initiative.
Sally Capp was then introduced by Chair of the day Past President Quin Scalzo.
Lord Mayor Sally Capp AO brought her abundant energy and positivity to her 6th Update to the Club on the State of the City of Melbourne. Sally’s report highlighted the challenges facing the City in recovering from the impact of the Covid lockdowns, as well as the social welfare challenges facing many in the city impacted by the housing crisis and the impact of inflation and high interest rates.
Sally’s presentation was packed with interesting accomplishments in this recovery story, including return of international students studying in Melbourne to pre-pandemic levels. Hospitality is booming with success highlighted by the RI Convention as well as major events such as the Australian Open, String Racing Carnival, AFL Grand Final and Formula One Grand Prix. She noted that 9 to 5 work, Monday to Friday is still a thing of the past with the average city based working week being just over 3.5 days and concentrated on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. That said weekend and evening traffic in the city is at record levels and Sally’s hope is that the emerging new “routine” will normalise, enabling small business and the City Council to predict reliably the best times for business and event operations.
To view the 30-minute recording of Sally’s address, click here. To view the 50-minute recording of the full Meeting including the AGM click here.
