This Monday …. Hopefully we will have a special appearance by our YEP Anna Henderson, who is still in lock down in Cremona, Italy. The wonders of Zoom allow visitors from all over the world. Dress in Italian style/colours/attributes and you may win the coveted ZOOM certificate.
Also to help us be more effective Zoom members, Kim will provide a short ‘tutorial on some of the features of Zoom meetings.
Last Monday’s meeting
Another interesting Zoom meeting last week. We were joined by PDG Ross Smith, PP Chris Dolley from the Warwick Rotary Club and satelliter Jo Bell. Everyone wore their ‘hat with a story’ and travel tales seemed to be the major theme. It was left to Ross to choose the winner. Despite a strong field of runners up including Julie’s Beer Can hat, Geoff’s very green Irish hat and memorable quote: about Men’s Sheds where old tools still work, and an ancient tale from Peter, Jim Baxter won the coveted certificate for his old ‘ army ‘hat and tale. (see photo below sorry not all had their hats on at screenshot time, Julia)
Thank you to all members for their interesting stories which provided many laughs. Kim and Ann showed off the new Rotary shirt which looked bright and practicable.
We are still waiting for further sizes, but will let you know in the next bulletin if sizes for trying are ready. (see photo below)
Many thanks to Ross for providing a very interesting and sobering presentation on Malaria and the involvement of our rotary District 9640.
Ross told us that the most dangerous animal in the world is the mosquito and particularly the anopheles mosquito which, through malaria , kills around 438,000 people a year… mostly children under 5 and pregnant women in poor, developing countries around the equator. This is a sobering statistic and there is no effective vaccine available YET. Thankfully, Professor Michael Good and his team at the Griffith University Institute for Glycomics are on the verge of a breakthrough through their whole-parasite, blood-stage vaccine candidate, PlasProtecT TM
Prof. Good, an internationally-renowned immunity expert, has tested the vaccine on 11 Queenslanders, including himself, and it was proven to be safe and effective in inducing an immune response. Professor Good is looking for suitable candidates, mainly male between 20-40 to participate in a larger clinical study in Australia. This trial if successful, will be followed by trials in Uganda and Kenya with the vaccine projected to be on the market within five to ten years. Ross says that Prof. Michael and his team are really keen to develop the vaccine as a user friendly, non-refrigerated material. The African researchers on his team believe that carrying Eskies and ice and watching temperatures for the storage of the vaccine (a la the polio vaccine) is not desirable in third world countries. It’s just impractical around the equator as well. So another layer of their development is a dried vaccine to which the nurses/doctors just add water. Needless to say, an oral vaccine is easier than an injectable one but that is another level of difficulty involving stomach acids.
In June, our club will be providing a donation to this wonderful cause which is being promoted by DG Harry’s partner, Shauna.,
Monday 25th May will be a combined Board Meeting via Zoom. I would ask that all members of the both boards be in attendance for this meeting.
Thank you to the members who have paid up their Meeting contribution: $5 per meeting or a round $50 to cover all meetings till the end of June. Some of this money will be put towards the Shelterbox we have sent off to Vanuatu.
To be eligible for the raffle, your contribution must be paid up before the middle of June to our treasurer John Vichie.
Jokes
