PLANNING FOR THE NEXT 12 MONTHS - PE STEVE GIDDENS

President Elect Steve Giddens talked about planning for the next 12 months. Steve is keen to identify a significant and worthwhile local and/or international project which our club (possibly in partnership with other Rotary clubs) can work on developing over the next 12 months. Steve said it may be a project which is completed in one year or it may be a long term project with a five year plan. Tony Austin who is currently in PNG may return with a suggestion for a suitable international project which our club can embrace. To illustrate his point Steve showed Rotarians a Powerpoint presentation about Bruce Farquharson and his wife Rowena from Hamilton who spent six months doing voluntary work in a PNG village called Tapini Goilala.

Anne Adams, Isobel Siebel and Sharon Stark are all keen to see the development of some sort of Garden Expo which is run annually - at perhaps the race course or around Lake Pertobe - with the hope it would develop into a smaller scale version of the Garden Show held in Exhibition Gardens in March every year.

Ian Cairns spoke of three very real problems with high needs which impact on the Warrnambool community (1) Family Violence (2) the ICE drug problem and (3) Homelessness and its various causes. Ian said there is no short term emergency accommodation - once homeless people could access caravan parks or cheap motels but this type of accommodation has dried up.

Isobel Siebel spoke of the need for a better lift in the Capitol Theatre so that the frail elderly, wheelchair bound and disabled can access the same movies as the rest of the community.

Ron Rauert spoke about the conversion of wood burning public BBQs into Electric BBQs which started as a project in the late 70s and there are now 24 Electric BBQs around Lake Pertobe. Ron said he would like to see a Sound Shell built in Warrnambool, possibly down in the Lake Pertobe area.

Steve Giddens wondered if our club could raffle a trailer load of goodies in the lead up to Christmas - move it around shopping centres and have Rotarians selling raffle tickets. 

 

Steve encouraged Rotarians to put their thinking caps on to see if they can come up with any other suggestions.