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Reporter, Allan Driver.
Meeting opened with President Doug Robertson welcoming everyone, including
• Gary Jungwirth, RC Greenvale
• Ms Peggy O’Neal, President Richmond Football Club.
Chair, Bruce McBain invited everyone to toast Rotary International and all breakfast clubs throughout the world.
Announcements
• Kevin Love reminded members about the opportunity to assist with the sausage sizzle at Moomba on Monday 10 March 2014. 10 volunteers required to cover 2 shifts.
• Frank O’Brien reminded members about the opportunity to assist Donations in Kind [DIK] activities in the near future. The first activity is to assist with packing a container for East Timor, and also sorting/packing clothes, at the DIK warehouse (rear Shed 40, 400 Somerville Road, West Footscray) on this coming Thursday, 20 February from 9.00am or any time thereafter. Absolute finish is 4.00pm. Other opportunities will exist in the future and members will be advised.
• President Doug mentioned that the 40 members, partners and friends who attended the very successful BBQ at the Meehan’s last Sunday were well rewarded with great weather and a very relaxing afternoon. Many thanks to the organisers. The club will provide a suitable memento to John and Lorraine in the near future. Doug encouraged members to attend the latest fundraising function at the Tarra Warra winery on Sunday 16th March, 2014.
• Time: Starting at 12.30pm.
• Address: TarraWarra Estate, 311 Healesville-Yarra Glen Rd, Yarra Glen VIC 3775
• Cost: $125pp with all funds raised going to our Club’s Fundraising efforts.
• RSVP: gregcuthbert@fastmail.fm or Tel. 0402 346 032 • Places are quite limited Greg is considering arranging a bus from the City to the winery and returning back to the city after lunch – if this is of interest please let Greg know when you RSVP.
Doug further mentioned the important work carried out over the years through Donations in Kind. Some statistics are:
$ 2.0M raised to pay for freight
$ 3.0M value of the volunteering allocated as Overseas Aid
$32.0M value of materials donated overseas
3.7kilometres – length of containers if stacked end on end
20,000m3 of goods recycled –much of which might have ended up as landfill.
Vocation Talk.
Marjorie Gerlinger broke her duck and presented her first job talk to the club. “How Times Have Changed”
“I started at Baird Publications 25 years ago. It was a niche market family business publishing commercial marine industry magazines and until last year also running exhibitions and conferences for the industry. When I started, my role was office administration and accounting.”
Marjorie told us of the technology changes over the years and how her firm was one of the first to adopt Mac computers and associated publishing equipment, at a huge cost premium over similar equipment today. Her role changed to Production Manager which required her to carry the can for everything that went out the doors – plus managing the company web site. Latterly the accounting activity has returned to her care again, along with the production role.
“During the years, we have rationalized the number of magazines produced monthly. Currently there are no plans to make the magazines totally digital as our readership prefers hard copy, although we do make them available online 3 months after the cover date.”
“I have been able to translate a lot of vocational skills I’ve acquired over the years to my Rotary life. This has enabled me to take up a variety of District roles, something I can highly recommend to anyone wanting to serve Rotary at the next level. There are many roles available from being a member of District committee, committee chairs, District Leadership Team roles and the District Board to mention a few.”
As a final note, the middle son of the owner, who was six when Marjorie started with Baird Publications, is now her boss.
Sergeant’s session
Michael kicked off with a joke to celebrate the years of great jokes by Gerard.
Michael then asked Frank to be the subject of the “Would I lie to You” segment. Frank had about 80% of the members convinced he was being truthful –wrong!
Allan Driver presented his four lines for the epic poem which were:
"At last, salvation and dreams afoot, in bed prone on one hip,
Drifting to lands far away on an old wooden ship,
As a boy, he had stood on the burning deck,
After that he could not remember much more by heck."
Guest Speaker; Peggy O’Neal, President of the Richmond Football Club.
Guest speaker Peggy O'Neil with some tiger cubs.
Peggy commenced her address by indicating that people have been following Richmond for many years with the emphasis on “following”.
Prior to becoming the first female President of an AFL club, Peggy has spent 8 years on the Richmond Board and 4 years involved in the Tigers Community Foundation. Over that time a new administration building was erected together with a new training ground and the foundation received a Federal Government grant to assist the Wurundjeri people, in particular with pre-employment training.
Peggy covered the following points:
• The plans for Richmond have been developed by the Board and this has held the FC in good stead, particularly as there have been some good decisions made over the past 5 years.
• These decisions have been conservative e.g. income budgeting is based on the past 5 year average game attendance.
• There is constant monitoring of the budget performance.
• The club is looking at its strategic direction through to 2018, being mindful of the FC’s constituents and with the 2014 strategy about to end in October 2014.
• Players, new and existing, executive and CEO are assessed as to whether they meet the club’s values.
• A holistic technology upgrade is required and an assessment is currently underway.
• Non-football revenue streams are always a challenge including the question of where does gambling fit. Alternatives to gambling are welcome, however, the FC does not have assets other than the training ground. As such, increase in membership is vital as well as increased attendance at games.
• The AFL system gives all teams a chance to win a premiership through the equalisation policy.
• While Richmond may have not taken advantage of opportunities in the past, that has now changed. The Board members may be passionate about Richmond winning games, however, their job is to work as a management Board and keep the FC on an even keel; and
• Engagement of women at the FC is increasing and is seen to be essential. Aspirational goal is to have 30% women on the Board and as members. It is understandable why women are not in the FC, however over time this has improved with women in human resource roles and indigenous affairs. It is now normal to have women around the club. There were no surprises when Peggy was appointed a Board Chair and recently an additional woman, Ms Kerry Ryan, has been appointed to the Board.
Peggy was asked questions about the AFL Equalisation policy and how the rich club/poor club gaps can be overcome, the NFL system in the USA, the players in general and the dilemma about players complying with the club values and the AFL Players Association and Occupational Health and Safety issues.
Bruce thanked Peggy on behalf of the members.
Meeting closed by President Doug.
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Natalie Duke
