Dr Tim is a consultant and author for the education industry. He started his presentation by taking us through the history of written communication technology and the acceleration of its development from hand made paper and writing to the internet. He celebrated how important and, on the whole, positive it has been. He then moved on to AI and the impact it will have, how rapidly it is developing and the concerns it is raing in the community. Tim was quite positive about its impact on society and what it can and cannpot do. At present it is essentially an incredible data retrieving tool that can manipulate that data to produce a replica of anything you ask for. For example you can ask it to take a story you write and turn it into a play in the style of Shakepeare, change your image into a super model or make you look young. We already use it. AI can take your request on how to get somewhere and AI can then instruct a vehicle to get there. On the flip side of course you can tell it to do something and then claim it was you that did it, a complete falsehood. The internet and various "Apps" have made it readily available to us all eg ChatGBT which has 800 million uses per week.  The of the biggest concerns is that 90 million jobs could be lost. We have all heard how computer programmers and code writers are being made redundant by the thousands at present because AI can do it. However, it is predicted that 170 million jobs could be created in applying AI and making the "spin offs" people come up with using it. The biggest concern at the moment is the ethics of its use. AI cannot think as a human and it cannot yet create, only copy. It is really good at pretending! People who create AI Apps can get it to pretend to be human, write original music, copy people and have that copy do things. How can you tell if what you are sensing is real, not a copy? AI cannot make human judgements, only predict on past data or instructions from who made the AI App. The ethics is all about who controls the AI and who regulates its use. Tim finished with tips for us all: Never upload confidentional data or information on to the internet. Avoid including/giving ID data/information on line. Don't put online anything you wouldn't say out loud in public. (Remember AI doesn't care what it does, it has no human judgement). Tim finished by telling us about his books on the subject. A very interesting and timely presentation. 

   

Chair JimVoss presenting Tim with his glass                                    Dr Tim Kitchen presentingt to the club    

 

Gus entertained us with his impressions of Cuba. It appears that Cuba is a great experience but it suffers from being a bit out of date and poorly run. Much of the hospitality is not quite working with faulty fittings and facilities, often disorganised and "hit and miss" tours. Organization is hap hazard with people in the same tour in different hotels. Gus felt communism was failing as a political system there. He did enjoy using the world's only $3 note. He did not want to discourage us to go but be prepared for anything when you get there.

                                   

President Jim induted  Jacqueline Lane

 

 Mark had a wide experience of working in leadership roles accounting firms before he changed direction to work in local councils. He has held leadership roles an a number of councils prior to becoming the CEO of Mornington Shire Council. He started his presentation defining his ovearching role as the empoyer of all the council staff - he is the only person the shire council appoints. Mark is at the pointy end when comes to dealing with the issues the 11 councillors, ratepayers or general public bring to him.   He then spoke about the areas that he felt were the key issues the council needed to address/continue to address at present. It was interesting that Compliance issues set by the State was at the forefront of much of it especially with goverance, planning permits and customer service. One of his key rerforms is to restucturing and streamline the councils processes to be more efficient and cut costs, for instance in permits of all sorts. (A quiet cheer from Bernie's corner). Mark is focussing on the homelessness issue (Mornington's is the biggest in the state) that needs more assistance from the state and the local community. He then covered some of the issues we often lay before the council - beach eroion, parking, ROADS, public facilities and tourists. He spoke about the issues with the Block and climate change and mentioned the development of the off-shore wind farm support industry to be built in Hastings and the new development at the Emil Gadsen Reserve. We were all impressed witrh the open manner Mark spoke with us and the receptive way he responded to questions. He gave the impression that the management of our Shire is in good hands and that he is always ready to listen to our concerns. He was very complimentary of the role our Club plays in the community which is reassuring.

 Chair Suzie presenting Mark with his Rotary glass

 

 

 

Rosie was a boarder at Genazzano FCJ Girls College in Kew. After school she attended a College that specialized in preparing young ladies for the world. Rosie has spent most of her productive life as an artist and running galleries. She has travelled extensively.

Glenis grew up in Caufield, married and had two children, living a standard life when disaster struck. Her Husband died and she was left to raise to young children. Glenis had strong family support and took a positive approach to life and its challenges. She also had great community support. Joined the Rotary Club of Brighton where she met Mark. They moved to Mt Eliza and they have now transferred to our Club.

Cathryn has an Irish background but an international bent. She trained as a nurse in London  and then moved to South Africa where she worked as a nurse, married and had 6 children. She moved to Australia and worked in Melbourne at the Alfred and other hospitals. An accident at work limited her ability to work as a nurse so she moved into the sales of medical equipment where she excelled with her nursing skills and knowledge of surgical techniques. She was at the forefront of the IVF development and quickly climbed the sales ladder to be the head sales person in a number of companies and medical areas including cardio vascular. Cathryn was awarded Sales person of the Year" three times. Her ability to instruct the surgeons about new equipment and stay at the forefront of her industry meant she was sought after all round the world. She has now retired and brought her considerable skill to our Club. 

 

Chair Carolyn with Rosie and Cathryn. (Apologies to Glenys who escaped befor I got the photo)

 

    AS we all know Ian immigrted to Australia a while ago now and he thought he would give us 4 key differences he has noticed living in England and Australia:

1. Public spaces and amenities are more available and better with more nice touches in Australia

2.  Christmas is obviously different, particularly the food. England has the need for a winter feast to lift the spirits in often a hard winter, whilst the food here marks the gateway to an extensive holiday season of outside fun and liesure. 

3. Driving and road behaviour. Australians follow speed limits and some rules better but the English are better behaved and more polite.

4 . There are things you just miss from England that trigger homesickness for some.

 

Eight members of the Club joined us at our meeting and Charlotte Redey spoke to us about there Club and te projects they were involved with. The are keen to establish a closer working relationship with our Club and we will report on what the are doing regularly. They meet every second Tuesday at a variety of venues and have 20 members and growing. It was fantastic to have them and opens up a new avenue of cooperation in the Rotary family in our area.

           Youth Director Cathryn with the Rotarators

Charlotte in full swing                                                   

BBQ Dates 2026