QIAN

Brian Chung our colleague and friend – one of the nicest guys you could ever meet passed away peacefully on Friday April 2. His celebration of life was held at Macquarie Park on April 14.

Brian came from humble beginnings growing up as a kid with twin brother Peter in Haymarket helping their dad with his noodle business. He went on to become a great telecommunications engineer who had a very successful career in PMG and Telstra working in Australia and overseas.

Brian had many attributes outside and beyond his professional career. He was super fit, was a black belt and a coach in judo, a mountain climber and sung in the choir which performed at his service. He was a husband to Leila, a dedicated father and grandfather.

Brian was an all-round great person – we will miss him.

Due to the current lockdown restrictions the next QIAN lunch originally scheduled on 19th June at Piato Italian McMahons Point is postponed until Friday 17th July.

We probably wont be at the point of having a crowd of 10-20 gathering indoors at a restaurant by mid-June.

The situation will be reviewed in mid-June.

If lunch doesn’t happen mid-July, then it’ll be cancelled, recognizing following lunch is scheduled in September.

Sad to report John Losco’s passing on 13th December 2019. John was 73.

A service of thanksgiving for his life was held at St Paul’s Anglican Church at Castle Hill on 18th December. There John’s son and three daughters gave moving recollections of his fabulous life as a family man & a business man.

John will be remembered by many Telstra colleagues as firstly an engineer and later executive in Telstra moving on to head long haul fibre startup Nextel and other ventures.

John had a great sense of humour but also drive to do the best deal and to get the best from his work teams. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.

After more years than he cares to recall stretching into the last century Mike Boyle has handed over the reins of QIAN to regular Martin Barker.

Mike explained at the Christmas lunch on 6th December that his personal circumstances made it difficult for him to continue in the role of Chief General Manger and Supremo of the august group. Great thanks were extended to Mike for all his work organising the QIAN lunches at very many venues over decades.

It was not a case of unchain the volunteer with Martin pleased to take on the supremo role and keep QIAN on the rails. Thanks Martin.

TelSoc the newly incorporated Telecommunications Association Inc was set up in June 2013 splitting from the Telecommunications Society of Australia TSA arm of the ASC Australian Computer Society.

The ACS had taken the TSA under its wing in 2007 however some, mainly Melbourne based, telecoms professionals felt strongly that a separate specifically Telecom group was needed. Hence TelSoc was born with the aim to “promote knowledge, understanding and excellence in telecommunications and its applications including the digital economy”.
They run regular networking activities and lectures in all states plus two keynote orations each year. TelSoc also publishes, with Swinburne University, the Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy.

Membership is $100 p.a. which currently includes free access to the excellent daily and weekly industry news CommsWire.

You can check them out at http://telsoc.org/

Telstra has a very active Alumni Program which if you are eligible you can joint here.

Some of the benefits include

• Telstra Alumni Discount. Telstra Alumni are eligible to receive a 10% discount on a home Telstra account.
• Contact Groups. Many online contact groups have been set-up to keep people with a common Telstra past. As an alumni you can set up new groups or join an existing one.
• Alumni Complaint Referral. As an alumni you or a family member of friend can use the internal Telstra complaint referral process when you, or your family or friends, are experiencing an issue with Telstra.