National Youth Science Forum NYSF

Sponsored by Rotary, Universities and corporations this is a two-week live-in gathering for Year 11 students. It is a residential course at ANU Canberra for two weeks, with former attendees as staff, as well as Rotarian "Mums, Dads, Aunties and Uncles" to act as mentors, comforters and general overseers. Each District in Australia which participates can only send 12 or 13 students, so it is pretty competitive. The idea is to allow students access to a diversity of science topics which then allows them to make firmer decisions about Year 12 courses and future attendance at Uni. The Universities advertise their own courses and credentials during the NYSF courses. One of the NYSF students a couple of years ago was on a fossil hunt with his group and he turned up a new species of fossil armoured fish which has been named after him - quite a coup. Students practise public speaking, learn leadership skills and have an intense and wonderful two weeks during the January holidays surrounded by science and science teachers of the highest order. Looks VERY good on their CV as well. RCNE sponsored two students, Gary and Daniel, who were both accepted and will go to Canberra for the second of the two 2 week sessions.

Guest speakers

We have a regular treat of great guest speakers. Recent speakers have been Ron Ramsay of the Newcastle Regional Gallery, and Gionni DiGravio, archivist at Newcastle University. Our Gallery has been undergoing many upheavals about where it will be housed, the building and storage of the collection, and the inevitable squabbles and moves to achieve this. There is only a small part of the collection on view at any one time, as is common for all galleries, but the problem for Newcastle is that some of the collection will NEVER be displayed as there is no suitable place in the existing building. The National Gallery is deeply envious of some of the paintings held here and Newcastle has been endowed by generous local citizens - William Bowman, Margaret Olley, Anne Von Bertouch and many others. Some members had to admit they had never stepped foot inside the gallery, a situation soon to be remedied by a "vocational visit" behind the scenes.

Gionni surprised us by telling us the Newcastle University holds the only copy of the building plans for the Town Hall. He is currently spasmodically working through our own Honorary Member Jim Downie's papers. Jim and his family have such a long connection with Newcastle and Mayfield that his papers are an invaluable resource. Gionni reminded us that we should NEVER "clean up" after a family member dies but let an archivist look over his/her papers and possessions first. He also reminded us that material objects are only a fraction of our personal histories and only come alive with the real story of a person when they are connected and narrated. Oral histories are best done by asking a question of the person and then videoing them answering. The movie function on a simple digital camera is perfectly adequate as it captures gesture, movement, facial expression as well as the words.

Rotary Exchange Students , past , present, and future

This last four weeks have been a feast of exchange reunions, farewells, hellos and how are you's. Jette came from Denmark on a visit to former Host Parents, bringing her own daughter. Natalie is into the second half of her exchange in Brazil. Sarah went back to the USA to Michigan with tears and laughs. Sometime in the future she will be back, after she graduates from High School in June 2009 and completes the Dentistry course she wants to do. Izabel Johansson has just arrived from Sweden and gave her first presentation to the club, including a short lesson in spoken Swedish and an up-roariously funny demonstration of mid-Summer rituals. Laura Ferguson will leave Oz and go to Canada in January next year. The District she will be hosted by is on the west coast and extends around Vancouver and into the USA, so she will have a memorable exchange in two countries at once!! The Club has a long long long history of supporting Rotary Youth Exchange. Friendships and bonds of affection and respect spread across the globe and over many years as we have these young people with us in our families for an entire year.

Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Workplace Seminar

This Seminar is for anyone, whether in paid employment or one of our community's volunteer workers.
The Keynote speaker will be Michael Milton,

Skier, cyclist, adventurer, world and Australian record holder, Paralympian, Olympian.... Michael Milton is one of Australia's best-known athletes and despite having only one leg, he is the fastest Australian skier ever. He will be speaking to this seminar very soon after his return from the Beijing Paralympics - a rare privilege.

Download a registration form at www.mentalhealthseminar.com.au
or email mentalhealthseminar@gmail.com.
For more information phone John Gruszynski, 0401 690 208.

"The Producers" at Civic Theatre Wednesday September 17th 2008

Julie Black and her team always present a wonderful show, and this year it is going to be a beauty. The opening night is always the "Charity Night" when a number of organisations are allocated groups of tickets. The deal is that we sell tickets and give back to the Metropolitan Players the cost per ticket they have to pay to use the theatre , then the rest of the funds raised goes to The Rotary Foundation, a win/win deal for everyone. Tickets for the other nights can be booked commercially, but we have some left for that special Charity opening night show when the Players do it for real for the first time, not in rehearsal. Phone number is 02 4968 0567, seats are reserved and our allocation is the Dress Circle upstairs. Wednesday September 17th, curtain up at 8pm, Metropolitain Players are providing champagne and nibbles on arrival (adults only!! for champagne). The stars are well-known top-class local performers - and if you haven't heard them sing before you are in for a treat, they have glorious voices. The show is a well-known and much loved comedy and the Civic Theatre is the perfect setting for a great night out.

Engineering and Science Challenge Regional Competition

Members have been assisting at this all week. Schools enter teams of up to 35 students who are in Year 10. Teams are put into smaller teams and given challenges and the equipment they need to achieve a result. The "Bridge Busting" is the highlight of each day. Using things like balsa wood, sticky tape, pop-sticks and more they attempt to build the lightest weight bridge to take the greatest load. Testing across the bridge is nerve-wracking as the loads are progressively increased, points being scored for each successful pass of the weighted trolley. The winner on Wednesday weighed only 60 grams and survived intact under a load of 5 Kgms. Other teams might create a steerable hovercraft from balsa, pop-sticks, sticky tape and small motors running a remotely steered propeller, or discover how coded messages can be sent using combinations of coloured light flashes. The challenges relate to the everyday problems, compromises and needs of our society such as efficient energy distribution, "Who gets the Water" and so on. Each small team contributes their points scored to their school team total which is added up to the daily grand total.The daily winners go to the Super Challenge in late August and the winners from there go to the National Challenge. Club members love going to the Challenge each year as we enjoy the interaction with these young people.