Rotary Central Melbourne
Zoom meeting, Tuesday 06th October 2020. Chair: Allan Driver
Reporter: Rajesh Chawla
43 members present. President Therese opened the meeting with acknowledgement of the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we meet. Allan proposed the toast to Rotary International. Welcome: Therese welcomed visitors: Bernard Marchingo, Bernett ( RC Echuca/Moama), Dr Marli Watt, and mentees of the RCM Pilot International Student Mentor Program Satya (mentored by Francesco Fedele). Guest Speaker Presentation:
Adele le Roux (RCM member).
“My experience since joining Rotary Central Melbourne” After introduction by Allan, Adele who works in the recruitment industry spoke about the impact of Covid 19 on the industry and job market. Key findings include a drop of 67% of business for the industry across Australia and 72% in Victoria during April/May. She spoke about her challenges she is facing including potential hirers and how employers are adapting to the new challenges in providing safe and secure environment to their employees. Obviously, the most impacted industries include hospitality and travel. Key impact includes, recruitments being put on hold, hours of staff being reduced etc. She believes the recovery on employment front will be slow and there would be fundamental changes to the way businesses employ staff and their working environment. Employers are looking for skilled pool and location is becoming less relevant than pre-Covid days. Hence, the recruitment process will change from face to face interviews etc. to more digital and technology driven processes. Hence, businesses would need to be smart to reach out to the skilled pool sooner than their competitors as candidates will have more choices and work life balances will play a lot larger role for people whilst choosing employment especially in certain industries/roles such as IT. As the economy re-opens, employers would need to be on forefront and get their employment strategies right as working from home, work life balance, work location become more relevant factors and recruitment agencies would have an important role to play between the employer and employee on recruitment front. Adele finished with a thank you to all. Allan opened the floor for questions and after the questions, Allan thanked Adele. Announcements:
⦁ Birthdays were announced and there was no wedding anniversary. - John Elliot referred to the forthcoming Trivia evening on Zoom, Thursday 08th October.
Rob Hines spoke about the fund raisers - Raffle draw is open for this month and encouraged members to buy tickets.
- Allan Seale has crafted outdoor chairs ‘Craftsman in Wood” with Covid Chairs and requested Allan to provide a brief detail. Allan explained how he got into making outdoor chairs for family and thought would be a great idea. These chairs would cost $275 each with $200 going to RCM.
- Rohan Williams spoke about next week’s Guest speaker in “Ben Vasiliou”.
- Nev 2 thanked Allan Seale and spoke about Grant Hocking and how Rotary Foundation helps around the world with forthcoming ‘Rotary Foundation Month” in November.
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- Frank O’Brien spoke about Cooking Dumplings via Zoom last Saturday with Echuca Moama Club.
Pocket Positive:
Mary spoke about the “Bengali Cooling with Puja Ganguli” night last Wednesday was such a success and fund with delicious food. She shared photos from the night. She shared photo of Melissa’s birthday with goodies sent by the club. Inquisition:
Brett Jones spoke about Paul Fowler and his story of life. Paul who grew up Texas, USA and completed his studies at University of Virginia at US Naval Academy. Went on work in submarines and later completed his MBA and worked at BP and moved around the world. He changed his career by taking a challenging assignment in New Zealand managing Forests for a very large company. He took a year break building a Winery before moving to Melbourne to help a friend rescuing a company doing under. His next move to London for two years and then back to Melbourne where he has stayed since. Very interesting story with moves and career changes as he now enjoys being part of RCM on mentoring side with police department here in Melbourne. President Therese thanked all in closing the meeting including announcing next week’s speaker. She acknowledged challenges of Zoom meeting and hoping this is short term only and we will be back to face to face meeting in some form soon. Meeting Closed. | 
