PRESIDENT'S POST

Posted by Andrew Crockett
Twenty seven members and guests attended today’s Club meeting at which our guest speaker was Caroline Milburn, the CEO of Ourschool.
 
Caroline began with the interesting historical observation that Victoria was a world leader in establishing compulsory free school education and that 2022 marks the 150th anniversary of the passing of the ground-breaking Education Act 1872 (Vic).  After more than a decade of effort, the Victorian Government wrested control of the colonial school system from religious denominations, and became the first Australian colony (and one of the first jurisdictions in the world) to offer free, secular and compulsory education to its children.
 
The Argus newspaper of 18 December 1872 reported the passing of the Act:[1]
For the first time in this colony, the young will now have an opportunity of acquiring the rudiments of education unmixed with the leaven of sectarianism, and every child, no matter what its parents' circumstances may be, will receive at the hands of the state that key which, rightly used, unlocks whole stores of knowledge, from whose ample treasures the patient and industrious may freely help themselves. If due effect be given to the compulsory clauses, none will grow up in that gross ignorance which is such a fruitful mother of crime, which fills our gaols, and yearly robs honest industry of a large portion of its reward.
 
As a former secondary teacher Caroline decided to set up OurSchool as a not-for-profit organisation to assist secondary schools to establish alumni programs, principally for the purpose of enabling them to tap into the tertiary and vocational contacts and experience of former students and use that resource to inform and encourage current students to broaden their thinking about study and career options.  
 
After spending some time visiting Victorian secondary schools and talking to teachers to ascertain the level of interest in establishing alumni programs, she obtained philanthropic funding to run a pilot to provide advice and support to schools wishing to up these programs.  The pilot was successful and Ourschool has so far assisted 45 of the 300msecondary schools across Victoria to set up alumni programs.
It was a very interesting talk and we were pleased that Assistant Principal Ross Pritchard, who is working on setting up an alumni program at Auburn High School, was able to join the meeting in time to hear Caroline’s talk and speak with her afterwards about the Ourschool program.  
See a fuller report on Caroline’s talk below. 
 
 
Current Rotary Appeals
A reminder about the Rotary Foundation Australia and RAWCS Ukraine relief and national flood appeals. 
 
Mock interviews
The first series of mock job interviews the Club will conduct for students at Auburn High School in 2020 will be held next Wednesday and Thursday mornings.  
Thank you to all the members and friends of the Club who have volunteered to act as interviewers.  
Next week we will be interviewing Year 10 students.  Interviews for Year 9 students will be held later in the year.
Photo: Mock interview guru Geoff Wright with guest speaker Caroline Milburn.
 
Special interest groups
The Bookworms will hold their bi-monthly meeting by Zoom on Monday 11 April and will be discussing the book The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam’ by Douglas Murray.
New members are always welcome to come and observe, and see whether the group might be of interest.  If you are not already a member of the book group and would like to come along on the 11th, please let me know so I can send you the Zoom link.
 
Anzac Day lunch
The Club lunch to be held on Tuesday 26 April will commemorate Anzac Day and our speakers will be Rob Edgell and Jim Dewar from the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia. There will also bring with them a display of some memorabilia so please join us to commemorate the day.
 
District Conference
The District 9800 Conference is being held over the weekend of 22 to 24 April, in Albury.  There are 320 attendees registered so far representing 50 Clubs in the District.  Seventeen members and partners will be attending from our Club. 
If you haven’t booked but would like to come, please let David Pisterman know as soon as possible.  Bookings close on 14 April.
 
Lift the Lid Charity Golf Day
A reminder about the Rotary Club of Glenferrie’s ‘Lift the Lid’ Charity Golf Day at Kingston Heath Golf Club on Tuesday 24 May.
Please refer to recent Club Bulletins for the link if you would like to book either for the golf and the Gala Dinner, or just for the dinner. 
 
Burwood Brickworks 
The Club’s next vocationally themed visit will be to the Burwood Brickworks Shopping Complex on Tuesday 10 May.  The Brickworks is the first retail complex in the world to earn international ‘Living Building’ certification and so it’s sure to be an interesting and informative visit.  
Booking details will be available shortly.
 
Next meeting 
Our meeting next week will be at Kooyong and the speaker will be Adjunct Professor Robert Hess who will talk on the subject of 'The Hidden History of Women's Australian Rules Football’ 
Until then have a productive week and above all stay safe and well.
 
President Andrew
 
 
 
Thought for the Week
Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright died last Wednesday at the age of 84.  Her family experienced first-hand what it was like to live under communist rule when the Russian supported communist party took power in Czechoslovakia in 1948 and her father, an opponent of communism, moved the family to the US.  
 
Albright once said:
 
Take it from someone who fled the Iron Curtain: I know what happens when you give the Russians a green light.
 
In her final opinion piece for the New York Times, published on 23 February 2022, Albright recollected that in early 2000 she became the first senior U.S. official to meet with Vladimir Putin in his new capacity as acting president of Russia. She had hoped the meeting would help her to take his measure and assess what his sudden elevation might mean for U.S.-Russia relations, which had deteriorated amid the war in Chechnya. She said that she was immediately struck by the contrast between Mr. Putin and his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin.  Whereas Yeltsin, she said ‘had cajoled, blustered and flattered, Mr. Putin spoke unemotionally about his determination to resurrect Russia’s economy and quash Chechen rebels.’ Flying home, she recorded her impressions of Putin.  She wrote that ‘he claimed to understand why the Berlin Wall had to fall but had not expected the whole Soviet Union to collapse. He was embarrassed by what happened to his country and determined to restore its greatness.’  
 
She had been reminded of that meeting with Putin as he massed troops on the border of Ukraine. ‘Should he invade’ she predicted, ‘it would be an historic error’. She predicted that an invasion of Ukraine would be very different to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and would instead be a reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s ill-fated occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.