Simon Latchford is Chief Executive Officer of Visit Sunshine Coast or Sunshine Coast Destination Limited, Board member of Sunshine Coast Major Events Board and Australian Convention Bureau. He is a member of the Australian Institute Of Company Directors MAICD.
Over the past 15 years he has enjoyed playing lead roles influencing and developing positive outcomes and change at regional, State and National level, having operated both in the private and public sectors.
He has held senior positions in the marketing and strategic development of leading destinations such as the Whitsundays, regional Victoria and formerly as the group marketing and destination development manager for Margaret River Tourism in Western Australia.
In March 2017, the Sunshine Coast saw two significant milestones achieved delivering best international visitation figures on record for region and set an all time domestic visitation record. June 2017 saw another all time domestic visitation record achieved for the quarter.
It was almost standing room only at our Breakfast this week on Tuesday morning.
Taking the money from us at the door, was Noel.
There were guests aplenty, the word is getting around, after all, our's is the Club that people want to join, right?
Poor Alan B was left holding the lectern as we all filed in, taking our seats with full breakfast plates and plenty of banter.
It was going to be a rowdy Meeting, Alan was ready. He gave the nod to our fearful Sergeant at Arms, Deb, and with a tinkle of her glass, silence engulfed the room.
A gasp of relief came from Alan B as he winked at Deb. That woman, how does she command such respect, thought Alan B.
Without further ado, it was standing for Grace and the Toast to our great Country. Then, as usual at this time of a Tuesday morning, all eyes and ears were fixed on our latest Royce Abbey Awarded PDG, OAM, Mr Alan S. Where would he be taking us this morning with his International Toast ?
Sure enough, Alan didn't let us down. We were off to another hotspot of the world. This time Rotary District 2452, and the Rotary Club of Beirut, none other than the capital of Lebanon. Once again, Alan's repertoire of statistics stunned the crowd into silence yet again.
It was now time to get the busy morning underway. Firstly, the introduction of the lengthy guest list. Gerry proudly introduced his Tai Chi Instructor and potential Member, Megyn. Gordon brought with him, Gary King, being the lucky winner of the Club's Melbourne Cup Trifecta Ticket.
A big thank you goes to Gary, who was not only present to collect his winnings of $1,000, but to donate $100 back to our Club. Thank you Gary for your generosity. Qualities like that maketh a good Rotarian.
Our Guest Speaker for the morning was Brian Springer, our District's Representative for Shelter Box. Thank you Brian for your informative presentation about this unique Rotary Humanitarian Project.
Some of our members cruised recently to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands on board the Pacific Eden. The cruisers were Merv and Ann, Gerry and Jan, Judy, Sue, and Bernie. It was a personal cruise but had a Rotary flavour.
Our reporter Sue described the trip as a "wonderful experience". Read on for her report of the Rotary experiences. Of course, what else happens on cruise stays on board!
For the first time in its 13-year history, Rotary Day at the UN was held outside of New York.
Rotary Day concluded Geneva Peace Week, during which John Hewko, general secretary of Rotary International, noted the “close and longstanding ties between Rotary and the UN in (their) mutual pursuit of peace and international understanding.”
Our meeting on Tuesday 14 November unanimously approved the change in the club's Locality to “Caloundra, Queensland and the surrounding area".
The change has been submitted to Rotary International for approval. After approval, the wording will be included in the drafting of the next Constitution and Bylaws.
Rotary International's Council on Legislation (CoL) considers and makes changes to the Standard Rotary Club Constitution and Recommended Rotary Club Bylaws. More information here and here. Rotary clubs are obliged to update their Constitution to the latest Standard constitution and review their Bylaws after the decisions of each CoL are known.
This club is incorporated under the Queensland Associations Incorporation Act 1981. That act imposes regulations, administered by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which require many of the provisions in RI’s recommended bylaws (“RRCB”) to be included in the constitution, not the bylaws. Rotary District 9600 has been working since the 2013 CoL to prepare model club documents that are acceptable to both RI and OFT. That work, updated to the 2016 CoL is not yet completed.
The Constitution and Bylaws of the Rotary Club of Caloundra were last adopted in 1998. The Board is working to prepare new documents for consideration by club members as soon as possible in 2018. The existing documents may be viewed here.
The documents considered by the Board meeting on 13 November, including the Minutes of the October meeting, may be reviewed in club documents under the 2017 11 Board folder.
We have a vocational visit to the Smart Centre on Tuesday morning 28 November (details here). If you cannot make that meeting or just want to get a sneak preview, the Rotary Club of Kawana Waters has invited our members, family & friends to join them on the club's fellowship evening this month.
Both visits will be interesting to all business owners on the Sunshine Coast as the smart ideas to be presented expand into action.
Where: Smart Centre, Unit 3/, Unit 3/63 Bulcock St, Caloundra
November is Foundation Month, and time for us to take a look at where we are in our Rotary Foundation: what it’s done, what it’s helping us do now, and how we can move forward.
Last Rotary year, our Foundation received US$304 million in total contributions: that included $140 million to the Annual Fund, $28 million to the Endowment Fund, and $108 million to PolioPlus. All of those gifts are now hard at work, Doing Good in the World: supporting Rotary’s work today and strengthening our organization for tomorrow. The Foundation approved 494 district grants and 1,260 global grants, with a total of $111 million in funding.
As you all know, polio eradication is the number one priority of Rotary and our Foundation. It has been a historic year for polio eradication, with unprecedented new support and fewer cases of polio than ever before. As announced at our Atlanta convention in June, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has increased its commitment to our polio eradication initiative, and will match 2:1 all Rotary contributions up to 50 million dollars, for the next three years. If Rotarians raise $50 million per year, the Gates Foundation will match this with $100 million: resulting in $150 million for polio eradication in each of the three years. In total, more than one billion dollars in new funding for polio were pledged by governments and key donors in Atlanta.
It was a great lead in to the 2017-2018 Rotary year, and Rotarians have been doing an amazing job not only of raising the money to fulfill our commitment, but keeping public awareness of polio high. Our fifth annual World Polio Day, on 24 October, was a great success; our livestream event, broadcast from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle, was our largest ever, with over 149,000 people viewing and Vice-President Dean Rohrs representing Rotary in the program. Another 3,428 World Polio Day events took place around the world. It’s not too late to be a part of it; head over to the End Polio now website to see the recorded video.
In 2016, 37 children were paralysed by the wild poliovirus. So far in 2017, that number stands at 13. We are on our way to zero, and you can follow that journey with the updates that are published every week by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
It’s important to remember that we have to keep doing everything we can do to End Polio Now, not only until the last child is paralyzed, but until eradication is certified by an independent commission. We expect that to happen at least three years from the last time wild poliovirus is found, in a child, a water supply, or anywhere else. Only then will we celebrate the end of polio—and the greatest work yet of Rotary and our Rotary Foundation.
When disaster strikes, Rotary’s project partner ShelterBox works closely with Rotarians and Rotaractors around the world to bring aid to families in their hour of need. The Rotary family provides vital support to ShelterBox through fundraising activities and practical assistance on the ground in the affected areas. Whether helping with logistics and transport, translation and local knowledge or acting as a link with governments and officials, the power of the Rotary network can have a massive impact on ShelterBox’s ability to operate effectively across the globe.
Download the latest Operations Update for just a few examples of how Rotary members and ShelterBox have been working together to save lives and help families and communities devastated by recent conflict and natural disasters.
Shelagh Brennand spoke to us on 22 August - refresh your memory here
She and others are hosting this event. It's a gold coin donation event to The Farm charities and Shelagh and three other hosts will be running a two hour, health and wellness event.
During the event there will be a 20 mins presentation to engage and provide information about stroke, the My health for Life programme where Shelagh can assess high risk factors for stroke and diabetes and refer people to a free program if desired. The other ladies will introduce much easier forms of exercise such as stretch and flow, chair yoga and Tai chi/Qi gong. It will be a fun afternoon so please attend if you are free.
Our meeting on Tuesday 14 November unanimously approved the change in the club's Locality to “Caloundra, Queensland and the surrounding area". 
We have a vocational visit to the Smart Centre on Tuesday morning 28 November (
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The sessions will be held on a Wednesday afternoon between 3 and 5pm at McGrath Real Estate's offices, the availability of which is much appreciated.
Dear fellow Rotarians,
