RCB Bulletin 8 June 2026

At last week's meeting we had another small group of attendees which was disappointing as we had a good speaker with a good story to tell.

Chairman David Smyth officially opened the meeting and handed over to President Colleen, who extended a warm welcome to all attendees and highlighted our special guests for the evening: Amanda Frauman, Andrea Barton (daughter of David Smyth), Helen Buxton, Carole Schmoll and Roger Clarke. Colleen also welcomed special guest speaker Tara Oldfield who is an Historian and Author.

Highlights of Meeting Thursday 4 June

 

Secretaries Announcements

1. PP Arthur Hubbard
Arthur spoke about the Final night of Bayspeak. Here is a report and photos from Jo Kwok who attended the event: 
 
Last Tuesday was the fabulous finals for the 2026 Bayspeak Competition! Congratulations to all the amazing students who took part in the preceding heats and in the finals - they all provided inspiring, thought provoking and extremely articulate performances. Last night’s judges had their work cut out for them but a huge hearty congratulations go to:
Junior Division:
Winner: Kristian S St Bedes
Runner up: Lucian H St Bedes
Senior Division:
Winner: Cecilia C Firbank Grammar
Runner up: Isabella A OLSH College
Thank you to all that competed, the schools who participated and the many volunteers that support Bayspeak. This is the competition’s 6th year and is an initiative that is proudly run by the Rotary Clubs of Brighton, Brighton North and Sandringham.
Congratulations to Arthur for his running of the event and a big thanks to the volunteers who helped over the 4 weeks of the competition who included:
Jo Kwok, Pres Colleen d'Offay, Nichole Chong, John Schmoll, David Smyth, Merve Boztepe and James Newbury.
The winners will go on to the District Speaking Competition Final
at Melbourne Girls’ College on June 15. David Smyth will be one of the adjudicators.
 
 
2. PP Julie Avery
Julie spoke about Changeover and encouraged those who haven't booked for this the biggest Rotary night of the year to do so NOW.
See details below on how to book.
 
 
For all bookings for Changeover please use this link:
 
Bayside Education Support Program
We wish to acknowledge the following donors: Anthony Langley, Geoff Shaw, Geoff Cunningham, Rob Pinchbeck, J Allsop, John Schmoll, David Smyth, Seng Goh, and PP Julie Avery.                   

 

Rotarians Overseas
 
Below: Recently, Glenys Hitchen visited Uganda and had lunch
with Anne-Marie and Emma from Yimba Uganda.
Here are some photo highlights of what she experienced.
 
 
Below: Anthony Langley at the Trevi Fountain,
Piazza di Trevi, Rome.
 
 
Below: Graeme and Julia Watson at St Kilda in the North Atlantic.
The location is in the far north of England and off Scotland.
 
 
Below: Wendy Davis was in Venice recently.
 
 
Below: An afternoon with Seytha in Cambodia
Recently Seyha the Rotaract student sponsored by Rotary Club of  Brighton came and took Brendan Kierce for a drive in the countryside. Maria rented a car and driver and although it’s about half an hour from Siem Reap the view over the rice fields was stunning. They stopped at a very special restaurant in the middle of the paddies for a bit of lunch.
Maria thought that Seyha was an amazing photographer. 
 
 
Guest Speaker Tara Oldfield
Tara Oldfield is a communications professional from Melbourne. In 2024 she won a Mander Jones Award for her short historical fiction "Bitter salts". Her journal article examining the life of Kate Rounsefell, fiancé and almost victim of serial killer Frederick Bailey
Deeming, was published in Provenance in 2025. Through Tara's work with archives, she happened upon the files of a fascinating 1930s criminal, inspiring her first novel - "Diamonds, furs and murder: The many crimes of Mona Hayes."
 
Tara spoke about her book "Diamonds, Furs and Murder: The Many Crimes of Mona Hayes" and she helped us discover some of the real-life people and places that inspired her first historical crime novel set in 1930s Melbourne. From jewel thief Mona Hayes to young prison escapee Kenneth Raymond Jones and long term detainee Beatrice Phillips, we met some of Melbourne's lesser known crims and learnt about the time they spent at the now iconic heritage sites of Abbotsford Convent and Pentridge Prison. 
 

 

Sergeant's Session

Sgt John Schmoll

Sarg said to be generous as fines were going towards subsidising the Changeover Event!

1. Pres Colleen & Keiran Cromie: Fined for dobbing on each other with the bread rolls affair. (They were not on the table but placed near where the food was served). Who's idea was that?:
2. Those going on a holiday: Fined for being away from the club;
3. PE David Frauman: Fined for being his birthday at the meeting;
4. Pres Colleen: Fined for forgetting to book for the meeting;
5. Carole Schmoll: Fined for being married to the sergeant;
6. PP Julie Avery: Fined for being the best Travel Agent South of the Equator;
7. Keiran Cromie: Fined for joining the elite African and Antarctica communities;
8. Seng Goh: Fined for telling the Sergeant he didn't have any money and trying to avoid a fine;
9. PP Arthur Hubbard: Fined for running a wonderful Bayspeak again;
10. PP Norm Thomas: Fined for being the first President to invite him onto his board;
11. Geoff Cunningham: Fined for doing an excellent job on the Foundation board;
12. Steve Wolf: Fined for for not booking for the meeting;
13. PP Tom & Helen Buxton: Fined for not booking for the meeting and travelling to Norfolk Island.
 
 
   
With James Newbury's permission we are allowed to reprint from his Parliamentary Statements which mention the Rotary Club of Brighton.
This is the second one made during President Donna's year and it's about Bayspeak and features congratulations to PP Arthur Hubbard amongst others.
 
    
Raffle Results from last Meeting
The raffle was run by Keiran Cromie with help from Andrea Barton. The winners of bottles or wine were Max Martin and
Amanda Frauman.
The Missing Balls Controversy
Before the drawing of the balls Keiran mentioned that a counting of the balls had been done recently and it found that about 5 balls were missing and this was probably for a long period of time. To make up for this Keiran got Andrea to draw out of a box, from tickets which had those missing 5 numbers. Max & Amanda had one each.