Bulletin 48 RCoBS (Jun 29, 2019)

Week	3-Jul	10-Jul	17-Jul	24-Jul
Location	No	Bridge Hotel	Bridge Hotel	Bridge Hotel
	Meeting	07:00 for 07:30	07:00 for 07:30	07:00 for 07:30
Speaker	Change 0ver 7^th July	Ian Johnson Member Presentation	TBA	TBA
Chair	*	Doug Lougoon	Rob Rosaia	Barb Mitchell
Welcome	*	Chris Rankin	Ian Johnson	Cathie Miller
Set up	*	Brian Hinneberg	Glenn Maloney	Bruce Fraser
Set up	*	Phil Harris	Martin Ruffell	Maurice Woodburn

President’s report

Members and friends are saddened by the passing of Rob Guley’s father and Stan Hendy’s mother. Our thoughts are with you both and your families.

Reminders for the following;

No meeting this week
Changeover at the Lakeview Hotel on Sunday July 7^th
Return to normal with our club meeting on Wednesday July 10^th with Toni and Adrian in the chair.
RecLink BBQ lunch at Cal Gully on Wednesday July 10^th (Bruce and I will be an apology)
I will be in Timor Leste with Mayor Margaret O’Rourke, and BMFC members Heather Ridge and Milton Long. The agenda is very full with a community consultation (60 persons attending) to identify the strategic priorities for the next 3 years (current and planned projects), scholarship review and interviews and for our club the knitting program and distribution of the goods and the usage of the vehicle (and kitchen). It will be a busy but rewarding week.

Jamshod dinners.

For the first time a Ladies Jamshod dinner was held on Saturday night at the Short st Hall. (See photo's further down the bulletin) Convened by Bendigo Community Health Services and facilitated on ground by Kaye Grave, 35 ladies and young girls were in attendance. Thanks to Merrin, Toni, Glenys, Sally, Judy and Dee for taking the time to spend some time with their new found friends. This was an interesting experience as the men were encouraged to stay at home to look after the children. Although there were some language barriers the younger children assisted greatly by acting as interpreters. Another night is planned in 5 weeks and is looked forward to in anticipation. Apparently Toni demonstrated a few good moves during the dancing lessons!!

On Sunday night a men’s Jamshod dinner was held, this time we were guests of Victoria Police at the Bendigo Police Station. Kaye and Taza Catering (Zahir) were blown away by the attendance of nearly 50. We had a fantastic tour of the station, followed by a lovely meal (Dominos were called with backup pizza due to the increased numbers). Undoubtedly this was the best night we have had so far, conversations were loud and varied, lots of laughter, heaps of questions and a level of relaxation not seen before. Congratulations must go to the VicPol team, breaking down biases and prejudices and sometimes unseen barriers. Great to see Sean and Rob Rosaia, Paul, Nick and Neville enjoying themselves once again.

Director’s reports

Toni also has organised some sample jackets for members to try on prior to purchase if required. It is particularly pleasing to see members in the club colours when undertaking activities. It does show that we are a unified team, so if you don’t have a T shirt, jumper or jacket or hat, please see Toni to order one before our next outing.

Last week’s activities

Stan took over the reins and shocked the members when he said he had no anecdotes, jokes or stories, just straight down to business, something to do with the fact that the Presidents report was longer than usual!!

Our guest speaker for the morning was Rick Flood. Known to many locally as a cyclist, Rick has been a career firefighter with the CFA for 35 years. With duties in Geelong, Shepparton and Bendigo, Rick is now the Officer in Charge (Commander, will be his new title in the restructure) in Sunbury. His patch extends out to include Eltham, Point Cook and Hoppers Crossing.

Winter is a challenging time for the team, as house fires are very common, heaters, candles and overloaded wiring are often the causes. As the fire is on the inside, fatalities can occur. Working smoke alarms are an absolute must for all premises as is an up to date Fire Plan. The CFA also works with other Victorian agencies to cover across road accidents, illegal dumping fires as well as their usual run of the mill activities. The illegal dumping and storage of chemicals pose a huge threat to some communities as it is estimated that up to 4 million litres of un-labelled chemicals are stored illegally. Any resulting fire is a potential catastrophe, as seen with the recent Footscray and Epping fires.

With improved facilities, equipment and training, career firefighters are likely to be at the scene of an incident within 6 minutes. This allows for the initial lifesaving processes to be initiated, often before an ambulance arrives.

With hotter and longer summers well and truly with us, the fire season has extended out to November to May. Although there were only 12 Total Fire ban days last season, householders are strongly encouraged not to try to defend their home if is there is a fire. Make sure your insurance is current, valuables, photos and documents are easily accessible. The use of aircraft is now a very important tool as there is a predetermined process for the dispatch of aircraft across the state during the fire season.

A hot topic (with no pun intended) is the new Fire Rescue Victoria legislation recently enacted. The CFA Act of 1958 had not changed, population growth and changes to communities near Melbourne and larger regional centres has meant that new processes and systems had to be developed. The intent of the reform is that large regional cities and Melbourne metropolitan suburbs should not have to rely on a volunteer brigade to attend a fire. Volunteers now often work, well away from the station that they volunteer with and as such cannot get to a fire in the timelines required by the community. As Rick said, it will be a better outcome for all.

As expected there were lots of questions, some curly, but always polite.

For more information go to;

https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/

As this is my last bulletin, I would particularly like to say a big thanks to Bruce for his organisation and management of the bulletin during the year. This is a big task and is relentless in the need to ensure that our members and friends are kept up to date with not only what is happening within our club, but also the Cluster, District and International. Thanks Bruce.

Another thank you is to our weekly chairs, Rob, Doug, Stan and Gerard. Each of you brings a different style and energy to the role. It does require being organised and prepared to stand in front of sometimes an unruly and un- appreciative audience. But it works and works well. Thank you all.

To all our members and friends of the Rotary Club of Bendigo Sandhurst, thank you for making this an enjoyable year. We have fun, do good things and make a difference for many. You can all be proud to wear the Rotary badge.

I wish both Toni and Adrian and the new board all the very best for the 2019-20 Rotary year.

Graeme