Congratulations to Georgia Newton on her graduation from the District 9630 Youth Exchange Program.
Last night at the Graduation Dinner Georgia was one of the three keynote speakers.
The first two speakers used PowerPoint presentations but Georgia was able to convey the highlights of her year in Germany with words, her enthusiasm and passion.

The commitment to the Rotary Youth Exchange Program is for three years.Georgia has now completed two of these.
The first year consists of their application, interviews, selection and training.The second year is their overseas exchange.The third year, which Georgia has just entered, is the give back year. Georgia, along with the rest of her cohort yesterday attended their Debrief Session where they sat with the District 9630 YEP Committee and hold discussions on their year away.Discussions cover everything good, bad and ugly. This allows the committee to make program and training changes as required in specific areas.
The cohort will attend District Conference where they will play a support role in looking after and mentoring our current overseas inbound students.They will also attending the District Interviews for prospective 2016 Outbound students and then attend the September training camp.

The 2014 YEP Rebound Cohort during one of their debrief sessions with District 9630 YEP Chair, PP Wendy Howitt.

Georgia with the complete 2014 Outbound Cohort.

The Taylor Bridge contingent (Minus Charli Newton) paying close attention.

Georgia and her Dad, John Newton post graduation.

The Rotary District 5000 from Hawaii is proud to let us know of a great adventure coming our way.
Two traditional ocean sailing canoes will visit Brisbane in 2015.
The voyage, named “Halama Honua” which translates to “to care for our Earth” departed Hawaii in 2013 and before it is completed it will travel over 47,000 kilometres and visit 85 ports in 26 countries.

An exciting educational trip by a group of Hawaiian sailors will see two of their fleet visit Brisbane later this year.

The Hokule’a was built in Hawaii in 1975. She is 62 feet long and 20 feet wide, and her name is Hawaiian for the star, Acturus.

The Hikianalia was built in Auckland and then sailed to her home in Tahiti in 2012. She is 72 feet long witha beam of 23 feet.
The fleet sailed into Auckland in December 2014 and is currently navigating around their stops “across the ditch”.Arrival dates in Australia are not yet known as the timetable is still a bit fliud. The wind conditions and tides play a large role in the progress.
They got a warm traditional welcome into New Zealand……

………and hopefully they will feel as welcome here.
Check out all of the information and the voyage highlights and progress at 
www.hokulea.com

There is no greater joy for a Rotary Club President, than inducting a new member to the club.
President Ted had the pleasure of inducting Deb Calder into the Rotary Club of Brisbane Taylor Bridge.Deb has been attending off and on but decided not to join until she had completed her Master Degree in Commerce.
Study over – Rotary joined, SNAP.

The members at tonight’s meeting gathered for a picture with the sweet treats sent to us by our past YEP Exchange Student, Junya Nitta from Japan.Chocolate covered rice wafers with almonds, yum!

Tonight President Ted Crowe chaired the clubs first focus meeting for the year.
Many subjects were discussed and a summary will be tabled next week at the Board Meeting for consideration.

The 2014 Rotary Youth Transition Seminar, held in December 2014 was another huge success.

The 2014 RYTS cohort celebrate.
The camp, held over 7 days in December seeks to inform school levers about the challenged they may face in both the short and long term after leaving school.It deals with social issues as well as budgeting and other areas these teens will need to know about.Our club attendee, JAYDEN PAYNTER will be our guest speaker on Tuesday March 17th so come along and learn something about another fabulous Rotary program.

With the holiday season behind us it’s time to get back to the business of ROTARY.

We have already had two joint meetings with Rocks Riverside.The first was at The Oxley Hotel for dinner and the other atClub Oxley for Barefoot Bowls and a BBQ.

Crossing the Brisbane River “Old Style.”
In this picture the Indooroopilly Ferry transports a horse and cart across the Graceville Reachat the site of the not yet built “Walter Taylor Bridge.”

In this later Picture you can see the construction of the Walter Taylor Bridge under construction.