CLUB MEETING - Wednesday 29 October 2025
Jim Magee was chairperson for today's club meeting at Cilantro. Guests included Gabriela Ammendola, (later inducted as our newest member), and partner Bruno Santi, and Gary Ramage.
CLUB MEMBER INDUCTION
President Grant had the very pleasant duty of inducting our newest club member, Gabriela Ammendola. Gabriela is a commercial and industrial real estate specialist, and mentions she looks forward to serving Rotary and our club. She also mentions she is soon to become a grandmother, and a wedding to her partner is planned for February. Congratulations Gabriela - we look forward to having you onboard.
GUEST SPEAKER - Simone Zmood - Mayor of Glen Eira Council
Our club members had the pleasure of listening to Simone Zmood speak about her role of Mayor and witness her passion for representing the community and citizens of Glen Eira. Simone commenced with her background - advising she grew up in Ormond and has always lived within the immediate surrounding area. She has a family with four children, a business background graduating with a degree in business and marketing, and has worked in large and small organisations and not for profit groups. .Simone was elected to council in 2020, and appointed Mayor in 2024. Glen Eira has a population of 160,000 with diverse backgrounds coming from 160 countries. 20% of the population is Jewish. Simone is passionate about building relationships that include respect, safety and support for all parties. She sees community groups as our greatest strength to create bonds and connections to serve the people, and actively seeks community feedback and promotes connections to build relationships. Simone is proud of Glen Eira's community grants program and the council's community consultation processes that has expanded to an online process for feedback and comment. Simone aims to make Glen Eira a more attractive environment to live, work, visit, play, and learn and she elaborated on areas that could be enhanced. She is pleased the council has adopted a four year plan designed to create more open space for Glen Eira - which is recognised as the council in Victoria with the least amount of open space. Simone finished by answering club member questions. The club thanks Simone for her engaging presentation - there was no doubting Simone's passion for people and serving our local community.
ROSTERS
The rosters for upcoming meetings and market duty were announced.
UPCOMING CLUB MEETINGS
Wednesday 5/11 - will be a breakfast meeting at AILA in Highett. Club members are asked to preorder their breakfast when registering.
Wednesday 12/11 - is an evening dinner at Cilantro. PDG Daryl Moran, a former school teacher, and now historian, will return to the club and speak about the RAAF.
