Our regular Zoom meetings are becoming the “new normal” – we had about 20 members joining us on Zoom, as well as Past President Jo Winwood (RC of Byron Bay) and Steve Garfein (RC of Poulsbo, WA, USA).President Mario Fairlie (picture right) welcomed all members and visitors. Many of you would recall (now Councillor) Darren Taylor, who visited our club at the last physical meeting at the Surf Club? Well, Darren has now been elected and Mario will extend an invitation to him to become an Honorary Member of our club.
Extensive discussions were held in relation to our Project Shed, including the cost of containers we have parked there for storage, the situation regarding the Safety Standard of the currently installed Shelving and racks. (Quite certain that they comply, since the very same shelves are used at Bunnings).
The main topic of the meeting was the adoption of the ‘Friendly Bench’, a community service project which is very successful in the UK (see last week’s bulletin for a prototype design by Des La Rance). PP Jo Winwood, who works with Feros Care, outlined the principal points:
- Loneliness, particularly among older people, is recognised as a major issue. The purpose of the Friendly Bench is to have a meeting point for people to converge
- If the project gets approved, the raising of funds is taken care of from outside of our club. For example, in the UK, substantial government and major philanthropic funds have been made available for these types of project.
- We would manufacture them and sell them on for installation at whatever location.
- Once installed, a third party will take care of ongoing maintenance, ensuring that they are used for their intended purpose (e.g. not for homeless people’s “accommodation” or the like)
PDG Darrell Brown, our resident Architect, advised that we shouldn’t use timber, but instead use recycled plastic, such as is manufactured by REPLAS. He’ll further investigate.
Many members contributed to a very productive discussion on how to make this all come together. This may well become a major segment of work that is being done at our Project Shed. A number of issues need to be sorted out as well. For example, our resident legal expert, Peter Morgan (also a director of the Wheelchair Trust) made it quite clear that the current setup does not permit for funds donated to the Trust to be spent on anything other than wheelchairs and wheelchair related items.
President Mario briefly elaborated on our X-Ray unit project for Pentecost Island, Vanuatu: due to COVID-19, this project now will almost certainly be postponed for a year, since on-site installation must happen in Winter, due to weather and temperature conditions. We are also awaiting feedback from Dr Richard Leona in Vanuatu.
The fact that the meeting went well over time is proof of the strong interest in the subjects discussed, and that running On-Line meetings is a quite viable alternative method to discuss club business, but can have clear advantages. For example, it is unlikely that Jo Winwood would have been able to join us in a regular physical meeting! Which reminds me: Jo is also running the 'Be Someone for Someone' project (see website and separate article below and in last week's bulletin). Have you written your letter yet?