We had a reasonably good attendance at our meeting on Monday night and it was good to see Bruce Paul in person. (Zoom access to our club meetings is currently not available).

 

Our guest speaker was Ben Allen and he spoke about Life in Erica, with a focus on community ambulance volunteers. Ben has been a paramedic for 14 years and he is presently the senior team leader of the Community Support Group in Erica and Rawson.
Rotarian Bryce Eishold is an Ambulance Community Officer in Erica and Ben explained how important it was to have volunteers available to be first responders at accidents in the area due to the remote location. Part of the 100 hours of training involves driving skills so that volunteers can drive the vehicle
off road. Volunteers need to be available for a monthly roster and live no further than 8kms from the ambulance centre in Erica. There are several similar community ambulance services in Victoria based in remote areas.

 

President Lyn thanked Ben for his presentation to the club. It was also great to have Bryce at the meeting as well. A few random fines were thrown in by Bryce for good measure!

 

Well done to Secretary Kishor who gave an overview of the Regionalisation Pilot Program and the Rotary Community Grouping process. Kishor has sent out a copy of the survey to all members. Please read the questions as they will be discussed at our meeting on Monday night. It is important that everyone has input regarding primary and secondary groupings. The online form will be completed with assistance from AG Di and needs to be completed by the 29 October.

 

As mentioned at our meeting, I was invited by DGN Peter Behm to attend a
fundraising event at Sandown Park with the Rotary Clubs of Springvale City and Noble Park-Dingley on Thursday evening. Over $10,000 was raised which was an outstanding effort. The ‘Books project’ has been an amazing success for
both clubs. The aim of the project was to supply Grade 6 school children with the opportunity to learn more about the world from reading.

 

As I was not available due to travelling to Sandown Park, Helen MacDonald attended the opening of the new skate park in Moe and represented the Rotary Club of Moe. I believe Helen has included a brief report for members about the opening.

 

This week, we have two guest speakers from the Edward Hunter Heritage Bush Reserve Committee of Management: Julie Murray, and Bruce King, who will give a presentation about the ‘Past, Present, and Future of the Reserve’, via Power Point. Len Cairns has been invited to Chair that part of the meeting.

 

The theme for October is Community and Economic Development, and the presentation is an opportunity for us to think about the natural rather than the built environment in our community. Rotary’s 7 th Area of Focus is ‘Supporting
the Environment’ and together with Julie and Bruce, there may be ways which Rotarians can be involved with the Reserve.
The following week (9 October), DG Linda Humphries, and her partner, PDG Mark Humphries, will be visiting our club. AG Di Harrison will be supporting me as we chat about our club.

 

The AFL football grand final is happening on Saturday. May the best team win!

 

That’s all for now.