Events

Good morning Members

Our last formal meeting for 2025 will be a lunchtime meeting at the Commonwealth Club on Monday 1 December 2025  We will hear from our outgoing Youth Exchange Student Lily who many of you have met at other meetings. She will be heading off to Brazil for a year in mid January 2026 and will speak about herself, her thoughts about the exchange and what she hopes to achieve.

I encourage members too come along to hear from Lily and to celebrate the end of the year with colleagues.

Venue - Commonwealth Club and as I  advised at the last meeting at the Commonwealth Club members now need to register by COB Thursday 2025. Registration will no longer be available on Friday as the Commonweklth Club has advised it needs to have the numbers to enable Friday for catering purposes.

If anyone has problems registering, please send me an email and I will register you.

Regards

Alison

Dear Members

Our Christmas Party will be on Wednesday 17 December 2025 and this year we are joining with the RC of Murrumbidgee to have a joint celebration at the Hellenic Club in Woden with a cost of just $50 per person. This includes a wonderful meal and you can purchase your own drinks from the bar. Tbi should be a lovely evening and provide the opportunty to join and celebrate Christmas with a fellow Rotary Club.

The Murrumbidgee Club has requested that we register a week berfore the event to facilitate catering arrangements so could you please register by Wednesday 10 December 2025.  Please make you payment to the RCC account so that we can transfer funds to the Murrumbidgee Club before the event.

Regards 

Alison

Secreytary Helen has sent everyone an email regarding our first get together.

Our first gathering for the year will be held on Monday 19 January at 12pm-ish. This will be a casual picnic/BBQ to be held at Nara Park (on the lake shore opposite the Hyatt).

If you are able to come along, look for other members to find where we are, and bring along your food and drink and stories of your holidays. Also a good idea to bring a picnic rug or chairs, and of course a hat.

This is a good time to re-connect with friends, and have some well deserved fellowship.

Can you register by COB Friday so we have n idea of who will be attending

Regrds

Alison

Come and join your fellow members for an informal get together at Poppy's Cafe at the War Memorial on Monday 9 February 2026.

Please register by COB Thursday 2026 so Helen can make a booking for those attending.

Regards

Alison

On Monday 16 February Honorary Associate Professor Peter Taylor will speak to us about the proposal to list Canberra as the first International Wetlands City in Australia. This proposal will protect and publicise the extent of wetlands associated with the city of Canberra as the 'Bush Capital' and provide another important promotional area  for tourism for the city while protecting the environment.

Professor Taylor is attached to the Fenner School at the ANU where he supports students and provides guidance for those interested in a career working in the environment area of the Public Service, or with the environment in general. He was a senior executive in the Australian Pubic Service working in Environment and has since worked with Honours Students with their midterm reviews and the Indigenous Protected Areas through the protected areas in the National Reserve System.

This meeting will be at lunchtime at the Commonwealth Club on Monday 16 February.

Please register as soon as possible (and by COBN Thursday) as numbers will be given to the Commonwealth Club on Friday morning.

Dear Members

Our next meeting will be at the Jamieson Southern Cross Club in Belconnen with guest speaker Peter Kain from the Rotary Club of Belconnen. Peter will talk to the Club about Rotary's involvement with the Jamieson markets. Our Club assists with the markets and this wioll be a good opportunity to hear more about the markets and how we can help further.

Please register by COB THursday 19 February so we can get numbers for booking a table. Members will pay for their own meals at the Club.Thanks in advance to  Paul Street for making the booking arrangement for us.

Regards to all

Alison

Dear Members

His Excellency Mr Ernesto CESPEDES OROPEZA Mexican Ambassador to Australia will be our lunch guest next Monday 2 March 2026. His Excellency should prove to be a very interesting guest speaker given events affecting Mexico these days so it would be great to have a good turn out of members and any guests members might like to invite along.

We will meet at the Commonwealth Club so can you please register by COB Thursday 26 February  so that I can advise the Club about numbers we require for catering.

Regards

Alison

Dear Members

You will have received an email from Secretary Helen regardingm the meeting next Wednesday evening with guest speaker Gemma Sisia.

Members will be joining the RC of Murrumbidgee on Wednesday 11 March at 5.30 for 6.00pm at the Canberra Deakin Football Club.  

 Gemma Sisia opened The School of St Jude in Tanzania in 2002 with just one teacher and a handful of sponsored students. RCC, along with many other Australian Rotary clubs, has been supporting Gemma and the school of St Jude for many years, and it will be wonderful to hear from her just how successful the school is and what is in store in the future.

Today the school has grown into three thriving campuses educating 1,800 bright young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, providing everything they need to succeed - education, wellbeing support, and pathways to higher study.

An extraordinary 97% of St Jude’s secondary graduates progress to higher education, many supported through the Beyond St Jude’s program, which also helps thousands of government school students each year through graduate volunteer teachers.

Gemma's topic will be - From a bold idea to a life-changing movement and thriving school. Come and hear how education is transforming lives in Tanzania.  

Wednesday 11 March 2026 at the Canberra Deakin Football Club,  3 Grose St Deakin 5:30 for 6:00 pm. Meal is $30 per person and drinks at your own cost. 

Book now with Ross Power on 0418 628 935 or rossgenepower@yahoo.com and Booking closes Friday 7 March.

Can members please register with our Clubrunner registration so that we can provide Ross with the list of our members who will be attending. Can you please register by 4.00pm on Friday as Ross has requested all book,ings be done by Friday 6 March.

Dear Members

Our guest speaker for Monday 16 March 2026 is our former President Shawn Wilson who will speak to the Club about his year in Palau. It is lovely to have Shawn back with us and he will give us a fascinating look at one of our Pacific neighbours and the work that he did while there. Our meeting will be at the Commonwealth Club.

Can you please register by COB Thursday 12 March 2026 so that I can advise the Commonwealth Club of numbers for catering purposes.

Regards

Alison

Dear members

Monday 23 March - The Club will have an informal gathering at the Southern Cross Yacht Club at Lotus Bay, 1 Mariner Pl, Yarralumla. This will be a great opportunity to catch up with friends at a lovely venue and enjoy the Autumn weather with a serving of fish and chips. Please note that this will be downstairs at the Yacht Club and not in the restaurant.

Can you please register by COB Thursday 19 March 2026 so we can arrange to book a table.

Regards

Alison

Dear members

Our guest speaker for Monday 30 March is Jonathon Kobus, Branch Manager of VisitCanberra.

Jonathon leads the Canberra and region tourism industry to create and implement a range of  marketing and development programs which aim to increase the economic return from domestic and international visitation. Before joining VisitCanberra Jonathon was senior manager for trade and investment programs in the ACT Government promoting Canberra as a place to invest and do business as well as connecting Canberra businesses with opportunities in international markets.

He was awarded the Public Serbice Medal for outstanding public service to Canberra and region tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jonathon will reflect on the tourism induustry in Canberra and how we are progressing post COVID and in the challenging global circumstances now facing tourism.

The meeting is at the Commonwealth Club and can members please register by COB on Thursday 26 March to enable the Commonwealth Club to arrange catering needs for Monday.

Regards

Alison

Dear Members

Phil Domaschenz will be our guest on Monday to update us on the work of the Nusa Tengara Association (NTA), a Canberra based charity that is helping poor farming communities in eastern Indonesia. The RCC is a  supportor of NTA and its activities as being complementary to the Club's objectives.

His career has included Senior Ranger for Canberra Nature Park, Manager for Ashmore Reef National Nature Reserve and Project Management Specialist for the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program in Indonesia. For the past decade he has been the Executive Officer for NTA and was made a Paul Harirs Fellow for his work in managing Rotary funded projects in Indonesia. He will be accompanied by Heath McMichael, a Director of NTA. 

Can you please register to attend by COB Thursday 9 April so that catering needs can be conveyed to the Commonwealth Club for action on Friday.

Regards

Alison

Dear Members

Club member Stephen Utik will speak to the Club about Nara and the long standing and important relationship between the Rotary Club of Canberra and the Rotary of Nara. Next year will see a significant celebation by the Nara Club and one of the issues to be addressed will be possible attendance by our Club at that event.

Can members please register by COB Thursday 16 April  to assist  catering needs for the Commonwealth Club.

This is very much the time of year when we see people travel out of Canberra and as we have several members away at the moment, could all those members who are here and able to attend please do so to ensure our speakers have a good audience.

Regards

Alison

Dear Members

The guest speaker for our next meeting on 4 May will be Dr Oliver Landwehr, First Counsellor of the Delegation of the EU to Australia. Dr Landwehr will speak to the Club about Australia/Europesn relations and the Free Trade Agreement that Australia and the EU have recently signed. This should be a very interesting session given the global state of affairs and the realisation of the Agreement after the number of years it has tsken to be finalised.

Can members please register by COB Thursday so that I can advise the Commonwealth Club of our numbers for catering purposes. Also if you would like to bring a guest to this session please feel free to do so and let me know for the numbers count.

Regards

Alison

Dear Members

It was suggested at Monday's meeting that we have an informal get together at the Arboretum cafe on Monday 11 May 2026. for lunch

Could those interested please register by COB Friday so we can book a table at the cafe.

Regards

Alison

Dear members

Our guest speaker for M onday 18 May 2026 is Professor Greg Fealy, emeritus professor of Indonesian politics in the Department of Political and Social Change at The Australian National University. 

He gained his PhD from Monash University in 1998 and has spent more than three decades specialising in the study of Indonesian politics and particularly Islamic parties and movements.  He has published extensively on these subjects, including four authored or co-authored books, six co-edited books and many scholarly and media articles. 

From 1997 to 1999 he was an Indonesia analyst at the Office of National Assessments.  He has been a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and the Indonesian International Islamic University (UIII) in Jakarta.  He was chair of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Australia-Indonesia Institute from 2017 to 2024. He received the Medal of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2022 for his services to Australia-Indonesia relations and higher education.

Ptofessor Fealy will be our guest at the Commonwealth Club  and can you please register by COB Thursday 14 May. If you can't register, then please send me an email if you would like to come to the meeting.

We need numbers by then as the Commonwealth Club arranges catering requirements for our Monday lunches on Friday.

Regards

Alison Russell-French OAM PH

Dear Members 

Our guest speakers for Monday 25 May will be our exchange students Sage and Calix.

Sage will report on his exchange time in Finland and Calix about his exchange  time in Australia. Our exchgange program is one of our very important projects and i encourage members to come along to hear and support both students.

The meeting will be at the Commonwelth Club and registration is required by COB Thursday 21 May.

Please note the following:

(1) please advise me by email (alisonrf@iinet.net.au) if you have any dietary requirements or issues to assist the chef with meals.

(2)  When you register please make sure you press SAVE on the registration page and that you receive a confirmnation for your registration 

(3) A reminder that if you don't register by the due date you will be welcome to attend the meeting but there will be no guarantee of a meal for you.

Regards

Alison Russell-French OAM PH