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Chairman Bernie opened the meeting with the usual toast to Rotary International followed by President Roy introducing a vast number of visitors to the club. There were several quips heard from members about there being more visitors than members in attendance today
Visitors:
September is Rotary Youth Services month and many of the guests were associated with this avenue of service. Michael Aziz, Emily Cook and Stephanie Morgan were all sponsored by our club to the National Youth Science Forum. Emily and Stephanie were both successful. Stephanie’s mother Bronwyn also came to the meeting to support her daughter.
Oskar Weinfurther also joined the meeting; he is the son of a Rotarian from Bavaria who is currently travelling Australia during his gap year.
Neville Taylor brought a guest; Anna Cleary, who is a colleague of his from Vic Pol. Ross Luxford, was a visiting Rotarian from RC Frankston Sunrise. James Reade was a guest of Tony Fritsche and came along to support him during his induction. Richard Stone also brought along a guest, Elias Lebbos who is the CEO of Travellers Aid Australia. Finally Grant Godiuo, our GSE candidate was another visitor.
Induction of New Member:
The meeting commenced with the induction of Tony, who will be mentored by Neville Taylor and joining the Youth Services Committee. Tony said that he felt privileged to join our club and looks forward to participating in the club’s activities.
Announcements:
- Anne King. Vocational visit during Vocational Services month. A visit has been organised to the Lost Dog’s Home in North Melbourne. Wednesday 15th October – 5.00pm, and will involve a tour of the Private Veterinary Clinic followed by a tour of the shelter. After the visit dinner will be in a restaurant in North Melbourne (venue to be advised). The visit will be enjoyable for animal lovers and members are encouraged to bring their grandchildren – and to take home a dog if they feel so inclined.
- Anne King, now in her role of On to Conference Organiser, put in a plug for the conference in March next year. Anne pointed out that there are several reasons to attend the conference.
- Firstly Hobart has been voted by Lonely Planet at one of the top 10 best cities in the world to visit.
- Secondly the range of excellent speakers during the conference who will talk on a variety of subjects relating to both Rotary and Non- Rotary matters.
- Thirdly the opportunity to socialise with fellow Rotarians and
- Finally it makes you feel good to be a Rotarian and appreciate the great work of Rotary.
- Tony Thomas advised that the guest speaker for 30th September is a Mormon who will be talking about the religion. There is a possible synergy between the church and Rotary from a charitable perspective.
- Kevin Love advertised the Vic. Pol. Blue Ribbon Ball on the 24th October. He advised that he had a table on hold, but the bookings were filling up fast and he is not sure how long he will be able to hold the table.
- Doug Robertson mentioned that he had been to a Foundation information session with Rob Hines where they learned more about obtaining grants from the Foundation. He also advised that bookings were now open for the PHF Breakfast in November.
- Oskar Weinfurther then told us a little about his travels around Australia. He advised us that he has attended several clubs during his time here. He then proceeded to entertain us by playing a tune on a typical Bavarian instrument, known as a Steirische Harmonika, or more colloquially as a button accordion. The tune was very reminiscent of a Hofbrauhaus experience.
- Chairman Bernie reminded everyone about the working bee on Saturday 18th October at McAuley House. The working bee will entail some painting and tidying up of the garden.
President's Announcements:
President Roy congratulated Justine on her Ultra Marathon performance as he was absent last week. He also announced a 50 year anniversary celebration for Rochester RC coming up and that he would be attending and asked if any other members would like to join him.
Director’s Report:
Neville Taylor provided a brief report on Community Services. There are 11 separate projects being undertaken by the committee this year.
Kevin Love then provided an overview of one of those projects, which is a mentoring program with Lantara (previously known as Hotham Mission). The concept is to provide asylum seekers with mentoring on business and working protocols in Australia.
National Youth Science Forum:
George Mackey introduced each of the sponsored NYSF students and remised about his early experiences at the age of 16 commented about impressed he is with today’s students, their maturity and aspirations at the same age.
- Stephanie talked about her interest in learning about scientific applications in industry. Her ambition is to use her studies to embark in a career in research into health and disease, particularly HIV.
- Michael is also interested in disease and medicine and regularly volunteers at hospitals on weekends to get some exposure to this area.
- Emily has different ambitions to the other two in that she is more interested in becoming involved in animal studies and veterinary practices. She has a passion for Biology and also plays Hockey for Victoria.
Guest Speaker:
Leading Senior Constable Liz Toffoletti is the recipient of our Silk Miller Scholarship to assist with her studies in Adolescence Health – she is the first recipient of the scholarship to undertake a Masters degree in this area.
Liz had previously applied for the scholarship at Grad Diploma level but she missed selection. Following that she was successful as a team member of the GSE team that visited Texas in 2012.
Her talk covered both her GSE visit and her passion for proactive policing and young people.
Proactive policing in the context of young people involves taking a more strategic role and encompasses both victims and offenders.
Some of the aspects she covered were:
- She works with missing young people aged as young as 12 and this starts by working with the parents to understand what is happening in their lives.
- Providing support services to offenders - young people that go missing often reappear at a police station having offended.
- Quoting from Socrates 400BC it is obvious that the generation gap has been around for a long time.
- Liz questions herself by asking “how can I learn so that I can help young people?"
- When she did her Grad Dip it covered areas such as contemporary theories on development issues and mental health
- She is taking 3 electives in areas as diverse as criminology governance, contemporary social problems -drugs, asylum seekers, health and Law enforcement and public health
- One of the possible topics of her thesis will be understanding the influences on police personnel when processing young people – their values, behaviours, attitudes, challenges etc.
Liz then proceeded to recap her GSE experiences:
- Admitted that she never had any real interest in visiting America
- Observed that Texans are just like Australians
- She managed to see a 3D printer which was amazing
- She was hosted by a police officer from Fort Worth Police Department
- Saw the difference in the manner of processing young people and that in the US they have a Teen Court as well as a Truancy Court to try to understand why young people do not go to school.
- There are more horses that people in Texas
- Longhorn cattle are only for show as they don’t taste real good.
Liz answered several questions about incarceration of young people and the role of parents. She is a very impressive person and her talk was very well received by members.
Roy, wearing his Light up Rotary tie, closed the meeting.
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