Chris chaired the meeting and greeted our guests ADG Wendy, Ian from CalPac, and of course Jason Hunt our guest speaker about himself and his role at Woodford Correctional Centre
Jason is very familiar to us as the Labor Candidate for Caloundra for the upcoming State election
A special Hi to Brian and Richard, and our Zoomers Noel, Alan & Merv
Thanks for the photos Irish - some good shots there
PP Bernie delivered the Presidents report
- RYDA setup today - don't forget to register these as make-ups
- Also Wed next week
- Sue has sent out Melbourne Cup invites - please phone/pay venue Pelican Waters Tavern
- Roger's next job is to put the invite on our home page so spread the word
- 24th Oct is World Polio Day
Thought for the day "Don't judge every day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant" Robert Louis Stephenson
Mark did the "3 and a half minutes on Rotary" on the Polio Plus project
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the last countries with wild Polio
There is a US$1500 target for each Club which will be doubled by Rotary International then doubled by the Gates Foundation
Bernie introduced Jason Hunt - He grew up in Caloundra and is currently a corrections officer at Woodford
Jason gave us his life story and invited us to ask any questions about his role as the Labor candidate
He family came from Sydney in 1970 and nto Currumindi in 1973 into a $17,000 house with land package
He attended Currimundi State School and Caloundra State High School where he was school captain
His passions are theatre and performing arts; and ancient and modern history
He left school in 1974 and worked as a kitchen hand, then doing clerical work at the Courthouse
In 1988 he joined the Army, failed as a Morse code operator, but ended up in the Light Horse in armoured vehicles
Jason is not a small man and the cramped conditions created a challenge. His regret is leaving the army, then finding his unit deployed to East Timor
Still, he recounted some interesting experiences, including the impact of giant spiders on driving technique
He then did a B.Edu. with honours, but had trouble finding work as a teacher - even Bamaga on Cape York had no places
He was "down in the dumps" no job, no house, he and his wife living with his parents, wrote his car off
Corrective Services was not exactly a "calling", but the opportunity came up, and he's still there 21 years later
Jason gave us an insight into the system and challenges to make the system the best it can be with minimal resources
Interesting comparison is the USA with 1% of the population "warehoused" in prison, and Scandinavia, which is costly, but effective with low recidivism rate
In Queensland, it costs $180/prisoner/day
Chris thanked Jason - check out Jason 4 Caloundra
Directors
We have Darryl on the hop with the Melbourne Cup function, Golf Day and 100yr Celebration, but there is good progress all round
Deborah noted no meeting on Melbourne Cup Day (it takes time as well as effort to scrub us up)
Pam - thanks all for helping with RYDA - we are half way there
Sgt Ian dished out the dirt