This bulletin relates to the meetings of 12 February.

 

Ray was chairman for the meeting.

 

Guests at the meeting were Emma Greenhalgh and Maggie Shambrook .

 

Howard advised us that they are still looking at the association with Southport Rotary. He has formed a sub committee of himself , James and Dennis to have discussions with the Southport club and these will take place next Friday.

 

Howard has sent out a report with respect to the last board of directors meeting and commands members to read the same. 

 

Dave had nothing to report as treasurer but he did mention that we need to accelerate the sponsor letters for Bare Your Souls for Kidz so that members can get on with contacting sponsors and raising prizes for the day.

 

Kevin advised with respect to Youth Services that he is opening up Contacts with at least three other schools to expand our reach.

 

Dennis had the new AV gear and apologised that he and Letitia are still working out how to make it work efficiently and so we will not be able to do a full test for a couple of weeks

 

Letitia confirmed that the visit to the Canungra Land Warfare centre will now be on 10th April. It will be limited to 30 members and so partners may have to be excluded depending upon support. We will now still have a meeting on 9th April.

 

Douglas reminded people that it is the last quarter of the financial year and perhaps some people may find it appropriate to make donations to the Rotary foundation.

 

Jenny told us that the Chapel had a very good month with lots of weddings and she encouraged us to have a look at the PNL which was circulated with the board of director’s report.

 

Vicki explained some more about the baton relay. The relay will involve numerous Rotary clubs with the final destination of the baton being the Rotary Kokoda Memorial Wall in cascade gardens more details will be provided at a later date but it is envisaged the event will take place on 16th April.  

 

 

Dinner at Chiang Mai Tai followed by a viewing of the Rotary Kokoda Wall and its new lighting system on 5th March.

 

Vocational visit to Canungra Land Warfare centre on either 10th April.

 

Bare Your Souls for Kidz on 23^rd May.

 

Changeover Dinner on 26^th June.

 

Rotary Kokoda Classic. 18^th September subject to GCCC approval. See you there along with another 1000 others hopefully!!

 

 

Emma Greenhalgh and Maggie shambrook were our guest speakers for the day. Emma was representing Q shelter and Maggie was representing Housing for Older Women (how).

 

They told us that there are at least 305,000 women over the age of 45 at the risk of being homeless according to 2016 statistics. Maggie puts this down to a combination of factors including historically the roles of women in the family and workforce and lack of adequate support mechanisms in the community. She said women are generally embarrassed and find it very difficult to seek help. She also pointed out that it is harder for senior people to access employment.

 

Q Shelter does lobbying on behalf of homeless with all levels of government and Emma said that there is a shortage of affordable social housing which currently represent about 3% of available stock of which governments provide 85%.

 

Homeless does not necessarily mean living on the street. Couch surfing with friends or relatives is also considered homeless.

 

Rotary can help with fundraising. An example is Rotary Club of Fortitude Valley which provides financial support to a community based support group in the Valley. Other ways to assist are advocacy, identifying underutilised, unused government land which could be used for housing development, identifying support organisations and providing them with physical support at BOD level or volunteering. Another way is listing rental properties (members) with Social Real Estate companies which provide the same service and all profits go to social housing.

 

 

 

 

No new speakers advised.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NIL