FELLOWSHIP Meeting WEDNESDAY Evening
Please note this week is an EVENING MEETING at Bentleigh RSL - details here
It will NOT available on Zoom this week
Edition 246
Monday, 26th January 2026
Last week’s meeting was our first meeting of the year and as Cilantro was closed we had to find an alternative venue. This was at the Boho Lounge & Boutique on Jasper Road , Bentleigh. The meeting was an unstructured social get together, a very pleasant way of catching up with people. We also had two visitors – Lisa Monique and Michael Josem. Lisa has been a guest of the club before. Michael was originally a Melbournite, but has been living in the Isle of Mann (UK) for almost ten years. He has recently seen the light and is returning home to live in Bentleigh.
As Cilantro is still closed this week’s meeting will be at another venue, this time the Bentleigh RSL will be hosting us. The meeting will be in the evening, starting at 1830 and will essentially be social event. (Register your attendance and location HERE)
Club President, 2025-26,
Grant Perry
BOARD MINUTES
A reminder to members that Board Minutes are available for viewing from the Club's website. Note that you must be logged in as a Member in order to gain access.
Access to all documents including Board Minutes can gained here.
The last published Board Minutes were the meeting of November 11, 2025 - HERE.
Ian Ballantine
Roster for the next 2 weeks
Note Market start time is 6.15am
Click on See all Rosters at right for future weeks. Members click here to see your own roster.
This week is fellowship Dinner at Bentleigh RSL - details HERE
Next week, Feb 4, we are back at Cilantro
Our speaker will be Vanessa Jones from Monash Centre Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence - details HERE
Please check the upcoming events on the Club website here
Wheelchairs for Kids always need blankets/rugs to give away with their wheelchairs.
Member Linda O'Brien is inviting any members or friends of our Club who would like to help in this project.
Please contact Linda for more information.
Alannah & Madeline Foundation
Looking for support to provide Buddy Bags for children who have experienced extreme violence HERE
Link to photos from District Changeover July 2025 here
Link to photos from 2025 Conference here
Link to photos from 2024 Conference here
Market report for Sunday 25/01/2026.
Leader: Tim M
BMC: Chris, Helen ,Tim
Moorabbin: George Tissera, Intha Chetty
Holland Foundation: Bryan Lim
Visitors: Charles R,
Cars in the Queue: 4
Overnight Parkers: Nil
Pedestrian Count: 1050
Market Report: thankfully a cooler day than previously, perfect for a market
Gentle start to the day, sold approx. 6-8 casual stall, most of the racks hired. Happy Australia day.
Important message to Market Leaders: New Computer
The iPad is NO LONGER. Entry of Market Report and Try Booking access is now done via new computer in the office. The procedure for its use is in the office.
Note there is a separate story about the defib at the Market here.
This was our first getting together after the holiday break.
As Cilantro is still closed, we tried the Boho Lounge in Jasper Road on the recommendation of Larry Green.
This was a very interesting place as evidenced by the photos. Owner, Zally looked after us. There were about 22 of us in total including member Charles Rener.
We were also joined, once again, by friend of Gabriela, Lisa Monique Lee. Also another new face - at least to our Club, Rotarian Micheal Jasom. Michael has recently returned to Australia (Bentleigh) from the Isle of Man in the UK where he is a member of the Douglas Rotary Club
We had a very relaxed morning of fellowship and look forward to catching up again next Wednesday evening at the Bentleigh RSL - details HERE
Indian developer donates US$50 million to The Rotary Foundation
Declaring that “giving is a duty,” longtime Rotary member Ravishankar Dakoju pledged that he and his wife and fellow club member, Paola Dakoju, would donate approximately US$50 million (4.5 billion Indian rupees) to The Rotary Foundation. Dakoju announced the gift at Rotary’s International Assembly in Orlando, Florida, USA, on 13 January. “Years ago, Paola and I shared a dream: that one day, when we had enough to live with dignity, we would return 85% of our wealth back to society,” said Dakoju, a member of the Rotary Club of Bangalore, Karnataka, India. “My friends, that day has arrived.” Dakoju, who serves as The Rotary Foundation Arch Klumph Society ambassador for Asia, spoke about his belief that philanthropy is a personal responsibility and explained his and Paola’s determination to give away their surplus wealth. “What we keep may serve only our family, nothing beyond that. What we give The Rotary Foundation will serve humanity,” he said.
WORDS Avneet Kaur Bhasin. Rotary Foundation Donor Services Specialist.
It’s all set up online, it’s super easy. And though we don’t see it, we know it’s going to do good.”
In a world full of causes, The Rotary Foundation stands out – not just for what it does, but for how deeply it changes lives. From eradicating polio to empowering women, from building peace to providing clean water, the Foundation’s work touches every corner of the globe.
But behind every successful project is a donor who believed in the power of service – and gave.
Once again we gathered at the Sandringham Yacht Club for a dinner to celebrate the festive season.
Everyone who attended, some 28 members and guests, enjoyed the sumptuous meal and great fellowship. Thanks to Linda who helped organise and provided the beautiful table decorations.
Ho, ho, ho - what a fun time we had at our last club meeting for the year. Larry chaired the meeting that had a good turnout of club members and partners who enjoyed a lovely breakfast prepared by Tony and his team.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
BOARD MEETING - President Grant advised the board approved the following two club donations at the board meeting on Monday 8/12
People involved were employees, Mark and Ben from GESAC, that set everything up, including the marque, BBQ's (by three), food (gluten free sausages, gluten free vegetable hamburgers), bread (white and whole meal), fresh fruit, trestle tables, eskies ( variety of fruit juices), water for RCBMC and rubbish bags - fantastic.
Whilst from serving of the cook items, that were sausages in bread or hamburgers, along with fresh fruit and or a juice, were club members James Magee, Jenny Stone, Margaret Lucas, Margaret Toya, Karin Soster, and of course Gary, and followed by a teacher from St Joseph Primary as he needed to cook 50 sausages for students from his school.
PDG Ian was our chairperson for today's club meeting at Cilantro. Charles joined the meeting via Zoom, and guests included Mark Davies, Gary Ramage, and Bruno Santi.
CLUB ANNOUNCEMENTS - President Grant and others:
Monday 8 December - BMC Board meeting will be held in the boardroom of Neville's office. Board reports required by Secretary Karin by Friday 5/12 - please.
Wednesday 10 December - will be our last club meeting for this year at Cilantro
A number of members visited the Donations in Kind (website HERE) warehouse in Footscray to collect 3 pallets of Lego for re distribution to some worthy causes.
They were Peter and Linda O'Brien, President Grant Perry and Ian Ballantine.
Recipients were Scouts (Geoff Gartly), Vietnam Womens Assoc (Nicky Chung) and a range of local groups including Emerge, Family Life and Glen Eira Support Services.
It should be noted, of course that the Scouts and Vietnam Womens Association paid for their share but at a fraction of retail value thanks to the Club's membership of DIK.
It was a most rewarding day and we are grateful to Colleen D'Offay of DIK for arranging the pick up. Special thanks to Grant as well for providing his truck!
As Editor of the Bulletin and responsible for the Club's website I am asking members to please consider sending me any news about events they may have attended on behalf of the Club or any project that is being undertaken by the Club.
I am very happy to convert your news into a story which will then appear in the Bulletin, but, more importantly, appear on our Website.
This will show any people coming to our Website what our Club is involved in and the projects we support.
So, please take some photographs and put together some words - I will do the rest. Please send me your photos in the highest resolution possible via email or WhatsApp. I will do the cropping etc. Please DO NOT send pics via SMS (MMS). These are next to useless.
Also, don't bother creating the article in Word or similar-just adds work. Just send the words and a few pics. I will do the rest.
This article is intended to help members register themselves and/or a guest to a Club event. Note, your are also expected to register your intention NOT to attend.
If an event is inviting members to register there will be a button with the word: "Members" below "Online Registration". refer image at left.
Note that you need to be already logged in as a member. As venues need to be advised of numbers PRIOR to the event, please register by noon on the day prior unless otherwise stated. If you are not a member, this page will not be of any help. It may still be possible to register for an event as a non member if the event is open to the public.
From the Calendar page here you can subscribe to the Club's event calendar.
This will result in the Club's calendar being added to your existing calendar subscriptions, thus ensuring that as an event is added (or modified) to the Club's calendar, it will appear on your phone, tablet etc. Calendars supported are Outlook, Google and Apple.
Take the link, Subscribe to Calendar, from the Calendar Page.
A point regarding the submission of images for the Bulletin and Website: Members are reminded that images have to meet a minimum size requirement, as has been specified for some time in the section at the bottom of this Bulletin. 820 pixels is the minimum size required with larger being better as this allows for cropping. The submission of images via MMS is NOT preferred as they are too small and of inferior quality. Email or Whatsapp is far superior.
Would any member like to take responsibility for the updating of the Club's Event Calendar? I have created a page of instructions here so it is very easy to take over.
Thank you, Ian Ballantine
I remind members that you are responsible for the information contained in the Club's database. This includes, birthdays, phone numbers, addresses etc etc. Even your own photo. You maintain this via this link.
Additionally, member's birthdays and anniversaries will no longer be listed in the Club Bulletin. This is to protect the privacy of members. This information is still available to members here.
Ian Ballantine
A reminder to members to keep checking the calendar of upcoming events for evening and perhaps, one day, daytime events.
Thank you for being a subscriber to our Weekly Club Bulletin. I try to have it published each week by Tuesday morning.
If you would like to have something included please contact me at editor@rotarybmc.org.au and attach, as separate files, the words and any images (jpg files are fine, minimum width 820 pixels). Please DO NOT send information as pdf files.
Ian Ballantine, Editor.
This Bulletin is sent to:
all current members (both active and honorary) of our Club.
subscribers. If you are a subscriber and wish to unsubscribe, please take the Unsubscibe link at the bottom of this email.
If you have found this Bulletin via the website and are not a subscriber but would like to be, please subscribe below.
Subscribe to Bulletin
Subscribe to our eBulletin and stay up to date on the latest news and events.
Last week’s meeting was our first meeting of the year and as Cilantro was closed we had to find an alternative venue. This was at the Boho Lounge & Boutique on Jasper Road , Bentleigh. The meeting was an unstructured social get together, a very pleasant way of catching up with people. We also had two visitors – Lisa Monique and Michael Josem. Lisa has been a guest of the club before. Michael was originally a Melbournite, but has been living in the Isle of Mann (UK) for almost ten years. He has recently seen the light and is returning home to live in Bentleigh.
This was our first getting together after the holiday break.
Taken from the RI website 
Taken from Rotary Down Under 
Once again we gathered at the Sandringham Yacht Club for a dinner to celebrate the festive season.
Ho, ho, ho - what a fun time we had at our last club meeting for the year. Larry chaired the meeting that had a good turnout of club members and partners who enjoyed a lovely breakfast prepared by Tony and his team. 
This week we had a very important visitor to the Bentleigh Market.
volved were employees, Mark and Ben from GESAC, that set everything up, including the marque, BBQ's (by three), food (gluten free sausages, gluten free vegetable hamburgers), bread (white and whole meal), fresh fruit, trestle tables, eskies ( variety of fruit juices), water for RCBMC and rubbish bags - fantastic.
PDG Ian was our chairperson for today's club meeting at Cilantro. Charles joined the meeting via Zoom, and guests included Mark Davies, Gary Ramage, and Bruno Santi.
A number of members supported Gabriela's Christmas Ball.
As Editor of the Bulletin and responsible for the Club's website I am asking members to please consider sending me any news about events they may have attended on behalf of the Club or any project that is being undertaken by the Club.
