Speakers – District conference attendees

Roger Lescun  opened the session with an overview of the District Conference at the Moonee Valley Race course Facility. It started for some with a 20 km Ride and a Sports day on Thursday. He mentioned the excellent facility and keynote speakers. Steve McKewen spoke on two keynote speakers, Sam Cawthorn and Kim Saville  from the School of St Jude in Tanzania.  Sam was an outstanding motivational speaker and his story can be found at http:/www.samcawthorn.com   The school of St Jude go to www.schoolofstjude.org  Roger Beardwell gave a wrap up on the District debating final, which was held on the Saturday morning after the main keynote speaker Li Cunxin (Mao’s Last Dancer). With an audience of around 600 St Pauls College (our team) were narrowly defeated in an excellent debate ‘Greed is Good” in which they took the negative side. Dennis Hickey covered Raffaela Galati-Brown, OAM, principal Northland College of Arts Technology talking in the Innovation in Vocational Service session and Laura van Zyl a past exchange student from South Africa who has now emigrated to Australia with her family. AG Terry Simmonds reported on a Kenyan Fish Farming project that is being run and funded by the Rotary Club of Mooroopna. The project is being run by one of their club members who has immigrated from the area. Assistance is being given to build 2 fish ponds that will provide work and income with the surplus being put into building new housing.  Ron summed up voting it the best district conference he has attended. Well run, on time excellent venue and speakers. The community Service session with Dr Devinder Chauhan presenting an outstanding presentation on Macular degeneration for the launch of the Macular Degeneration Project by the Rotary club of Yea we very technical but presented in a way that was easily understood.

Next Conference will be held in Ballarat 14-17 March 2013.