Thirty-seven members and guests attended today’s Club meeting by Zoom to hear our speaker Maria Berry from Gathering of Kindness, a project of the Hush Foundation. Other guests at the meeting included Dr Catherine Crock AM, the Chair and Founder of the Hush Foundation; Reg Smith OAM President of the Rotary Club of Melbourne who introduced the speaker; Lili Teichman, Assistant Governor, Riverside; Councillor Di Gillies, and Viviane Chemali, State Vice-President of the Country Women’s Association.
Maria spok
e passionately about her years of lived experience as a nurse and advocate in the aged care system, which began when she acted as advocate for her parents who suffered neglect and abuse while in care. This experience led to her working in the National Older People’s Advocacy Network to improve the care of older people and keep them connected with their communities. It was during this time she made a connection with Dr Cath Crock and the Hush Foundation.
e passionately about her years of lived experience as a nurse and advocate in the aged care system, which began when she acted as advocate for her parents who suffered neglect and abuse while in care. This experience led to her working in the National Older People’s Advocacy Network to improve the care of older people and keep them connected with their communities. It was during this time she made a connection with Dr Cath Crock and the Hush Foundation. 
Dr Crock (right) spoke of the importance of the community discussing what we want of our health care system which is overburdened, particularly during the Covid crisis.
Several members shared their experiences of the aged care system, both negative and positive.
Aged care is an issue of increasing importance in our community and it would be useful to continue a conversation at a later meeting about how the system can be improved.
A more detailed report on Maria’s talk appears elsewhere in this Bulletin.
Rotary Glenferrie Changeover
Tilak and Donna and Pam and I repr
esented the Club at Rotary Glenferrie’s postponed Changeover dinner at Kooyong on 13 July. Guests at the dinner included the Mayor Gary Thomson, John Kennedy MP the State Member for Hawthorn; PD Dale Hoy, PDG Philip Archer, AG Riverside Lili Teichman and PAG Riverside Sandi Fulcher and the President of Rotary Kew, Russell Hoath.
esented the Club at Rotary Glenferrie’s postponed Changeover dinner at Kooyong on 13 July. Guests at the dinner included the Mayor Gary Thomson, John Kennedy MP the State Member for Hawthorn; PD Dale Hoy, PDG Philip Archer, AG Riverside Lili Teichman and PAG Riverside Sandi Fulcher and the President of Rotary Kew, Russell Hoath. The dinner was held in Kooyong’s new function room overlooking the tennis stadium, an excellent venue which I look forward to us using for future Club functions.
Forthcoming events (Covid restrictions permitting)
- 2 August - Current Affairs and Book group meeting from 5:45 pm to 7:00 pm (by Zoom)
- 4 August - Mock interviews at Auburn High School (8:45 am to 11:45 am)
The mock interviews are the culmination of a program developed by the school to give students experience and confidence in applying for jobs and participating in job interviews. We will be interviewing a record number of around 110 Year 9 students. At this stage we have enough volunteer interviewers but if you are not already interviewing, and you are available between 8.45am to 11.45 am on 4 August, please let Geoff know, and he’ll put you on the emergency list in the event one of the rostered interviewers is unable to attend.
- 4 August - Salvo Hawks home game
The Salvo Hawks are playing on their home ground Victoria Road Reserve in East Hawthorn. If you are not involved in the Mock interviews and are free from 12:30 pm and 2:00 pm come and support our team and give David McNamara a helping hand with serving lunch. Please contact David for more details.
- 8 August - Opening of Rotary Centenary Park at Yarra Bank Reserve (12.00 pm to 3.00 p.m.)
- 15 August - President’s Drinks Party (3:30 pm to 6:00 pm)
Members will be notified of any changes to the events due to Covid restrictions.
July Board meeting
The Club’s Board holds its first meeting for the year tonight. There are several important items of business on the agenda, including consideration of the draft report on the results of the members’ strategic planning survey we conducted in June.
Following the Board meeting I’ll send a copy of the report to members. If you are interested in looking at the data behind the report, the full set of responses to the survey is available in the member area of ClubRunner. You will find instructions on how to access the consolidated responses in the survey report.
The Board will also decide on the next steps in the planning process.
Another item on the agenda is the nomination of two new shareholders and directors of the trustee company that manages the Club’s Survey Street Trust Fund.
Our newer Club members may not be familiar with the history of the Survey Street Trust and its role in providing funding for Club service projects. I’ll schedule some time at a forthcoming meeting to talk about the trust and include some information in a Club Bulletin.
I’ll report on the Board meeting at next week’s Club meeting.
Next Club meeting 27 July 2021
I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at next week’s meeting when our speaker will be Associate Professor Tony Walker ASM, CEO of Ambulance Victoria. The meeting will be held via Zoom.
Quote of the Week
This week’s quote by Muhammad Ali will strike a chord with all Rotarians.
Service is the rent I pay for the space I occupy on this earth, and I want to be a good tenant of this earth.