President's Message
 
Dear Members and Friends,
Because we had our meeting last night instead of tonight this report has been delayed by a day.
And I can start with by saying that last night at the Mercure Hotel was definitely our best meeting night since we started this Rotary year in July last year.
 
I have to say I was so pleased with the success last night of our International Women's Day event. We had 3 tables of 8 made up of 6 men and 18 women.
 
The video proved a great success and I can't help but think that if it wasn't for Corvid this event would not have been possible for our club as instead of 24 people we would have been lucky to get more than 4 to an in-person event at Crown Casino.
 
Once again the Mercure Hotel hosted our event at a very high level. They are proving very good supporters for our club.

 
At the meeting, I had the sad task of acknowledging the very sad death of our much-loved member, Marj Hess.
 
 
I can now advise  members in particular that the funeral details have been announced as follows:
 
A Funeral Mass for Mrs. Marjorie Hess will be offered at St Joan of Arc Church, 118 New Street, Brighton on Wednesday 17 March 2021 at 11 am.
 
The Funeral will leave at the conclusion of Mass for Burial at Brighton General Cemetery, North Road, Caulfield South.
 
The Mass will be webcast live. To access the webcast visit the Tribute Page for Marjorie at Tobin Brothers Funerals Website.
 
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Brain Cancer Research at curebraincancer.org.au.
 
Based on the request above I will recommend to our members that we do make the donation as requested.
 
I can report following on from last week's reference relating to the request from Melbourne Rotary Club member Bev Brock to provide a young male and female that can speak at their club's 100 years "Birthday Bash" on 21st April 2021 I have been able to pass on to her the details of the 2 winning students from the recent MUNA who had both accepted the offer.
 
I can advise that next week we are back to our Thursday Zoom meetings at 7.30 pm and request that anyone intending to attend make a special effort to be on time as our Guest Speaker has to move on an 8.00 pm to another meeting.
 
Our Speaker is Giorgio Migliaccio from Destiny Rescue to give us another quick update on their progress on releasing young Asian girls/ladies from being trapped in prostitution in various Asian countries. Clearly, with almost no international travel they have different challenges but their work is still needed and it will be interesting to get an update so please log in to the link below next Thu 18th Mar at 7.30 pm.
 
 
Meeting ID: 831 6835 0688
Passcode: 318309
 
The following week I really urge everyone to get back together again in person at the Mercure Hotel at 6.45 pm when we will be hosting our District Governor, Philip Archer. This is likely to be the only opportunity members will get to see our DG live at our own meeting this rotary year so please join us and make it another good night. 
Have a Great Rotary Week!