Bulletin 37 RCoBS (Apr 15, 2019)

Week	17-Apr	24-Apr	1-May	8-May
Location	Bridge Hotel	Bridge Hotel	Bridge Hotel	Bridge Hotel
	07:00 for 07:30	07:00 for 07:30	07:00 for 07:30	07:00 for 07:30
Speaker	Matt Emond City Councillor	Tony Lethlean Different Prespectives on Energy	Dennis Bice CEO Be-Bendigo	Julie Hommelhoff Principal Lightning Reef Primary School
Chair	Gerard House	Stan Hendy	Doug Lougoon	Rob Rosaia
Welcome	Ned Upton	Geoff Michell	John Pacher	Nick Christian
Set up	Glenn Maloney	Martin Ruffell	Neville Sharpe	John Harkin
Set up	Judy Miatke	George Waters	Kevin Reade	Paul Kirkpatrick

Chairman Rob again covered for a rather busy Doug Lougoon, who apparently has lots on his plate at the moment.

Our guests today were Matt Parkinson and Lachie Weir from Baptcare.

Matt trumped Rob with his comments about “probably being better on ham radio”.

Congratulations to Toni and Ian on their birthdays.

Rob indicated that Rivalea have donated 30 computers to Tom for “Computers for Congo”. Well done Rivalea and Rob.

Good to see Mark Weragoda back in town on a Wednesday morning-school holidays!

President’s report and activities in the past week.

As reported the Futsal team went down 6-3 to a more experienced and talented team (their 2nd Grand Final win in a row). This was a great effort considering that they only all came together for the start of the season. Coached by Zahir, the team played very fast and attacking football and should be congratulated for their great teamwork and effort to get to the grand final in their first year. We are looking forward to our get together for dinner with the boys and their families in the near future.
The knitted goods have been loaded into the container. Thanks to everyone concerned for a fantastic effort.

Director’s reports (prior to the events)

Cathie-gave a brief report on the Lightning Reef BBQ and how everyone worked together to be able to quickly feed the 200 students and 60 parents.

Kev in his absence also needs a few more for the BBQ roster at the market on Good Friday.

Judy-Thanked members for their support for Wayne and Linda.

Paul K gave an impromptu update on his recent trip to NZ. Upgraded to business, Claire and Paul found themselves with Chloe and Bill Shorten. Unaccustomed as he is in asking probing questions, Paul had engaging and long conversations about all things related to life and politics in general. Chloe did remark, we are not used to talking to people when on the plane!!

I think in political terms Paul; you had a timely “one on one focus group activity”.

Guest Speaker-Matt Parkinson Baptcare

Matt was accompanied by Lachie Weir, who will be handling the day to day activities for the Bendigo Winter Night Shelters project. This is a new project to be conducted over the winter months.(June 1-August 30) It is estimated that there are over 300 homeless and about 30 sleeping rough in Bendigo. Matt did say that there are a million reason’s to why someone is homeless, family breakdown, drugs, alcohol. An increasing concern is the number of women over 50yo, who are finding themselves out of a home.

With only 2 months before it is due to commence they have over 70 volunteers and 15 churches participating. This is a concept developed in the UK (Stable 1) where churches get together to open up their doors to homeless people in their community. In Bendigo this will mean that each church will only have to participate for one night per fortnight. There will be a covered trailer which has all of the sleeping gear and stretchers and it will be transported from venue to venue. Some church halls have full kitchens and showers and toilets which will be utilised. Although there is some red tape: ie sleeping in a church hall, they think they will have a maximum of 10 per night in this first year. As Matt said, not everyone who is sleeping rough is ready for this time of program. Many are already linked to other organisations that provide support on an ongoing basis. There will be an initial screening process, which relates mainly to drugs and alcohol before anyone is accepted. At this stage they will have 7 men and 3 women participating and as one would expect each venue will have the capacity to separate the genders at night. They will be given an evening meal and breakfast. There will be 3 supervisors in each location to ensure that everyone is both comfortable and safe. Bendigo Dry Cleaners will be cleaning the 30 sets of bedding which will be required as part of their support for the project.

This is a great project and deserves support, well done Matt and your team. We are sure that Bruce will be keeping us informed and if any assistance is required.

Graeme