Lynn’s Lines
Last week’s talk by Council’s General Manager Warwick Winn was great. I feel better knowing he is at the helm with his very capable hands to sort out Council’s operations. His apparent common sense and persistence and the recent appointment of a new financial director should hopefully reduce Council’s substantial debt.
How wonderful too to hear our 2024 Youth Exchange Scholar Lachie Penglase give his ‘debut’ prepared speech in Japanese and English on his life in Australia and our Club. He will be hosted by the Rotary Club of Ogaki, Gifu, Japan. Lachie also expressed his great appreciation to his wonderful counsellors from our Club Susanna Chung and Gordon Bentley.
Our District has thankfully extended the deadline for submissions on regionalisation by two weeks. This gives us the opportunity to discuss these issues at our Club Assembly on Thursday 9 November and come up with a consensus on how best to respond as a Club and partner with other clubs to attract new and younger members. This is our chance to have our say going forward. Please note the Club Assembly will not be at the Golf Club because of a major function; instead it will be in Club Narooma.
However, I still need everyone’s votes for the new regionalisation positions by Monday evening so I can forward a consensus by Tuesday 31st. I urge everyone to respond to John’s email from Friday regarding this vote (so far I have only received one response).
No meeting this Thursday. The Board will meet on Friday at 5.15pm at the Golf Club There is lots to go over.
THIS WEEK
Wednesday 1 November 6.30pm: Prostate Cancer Support Group at Narooma Golf Club
Thursday 2 November: No dinner meeting
Friday 3 November 5.15pm: Board Meeting in Narooma Golf Club
The Week that Was
Last Week’s talk by ESC General Manager
Last Thursday, Warwick Winn gave some candid insights into the challenges of being Eurobodalla Shire Council’s General Manager. He was appointed 12 months ago. He brought with him strong leadership experience, a strong planning background (he is a planner by profession), and a desire to connect with staff and the community. His experience includes in the UK and New Zealand as well as Australia.
His last gig was as General Manager of Penrith Council where the population is over 500,000. He said Penrith was quite a ‘well off’ Council, whereas Eurobodalla is currently in a precarious position being essentially “broke” with a deficit of $13.5m. “It is critical to address that debt,” he said. Council is trying to avoid the massive rates increases experienced in many other council areas. There are many challenges ahead, including a budget ‘reset’ and unfortunately, he said, “a handbrake on good ideas” that need to be funded. he said community groups have to realise that projects need to be pruned, prioritised and tracked. On housing affordability…Housing affordability in the Eurobodalla” is one of the worst in the state”. “We need to address it if we are going to employ service people.” Need diversity of housing and affordable rentals of adequate quality. Suggests need to have 30% of everything that’s built be affordable, “council has the land”.
Warwick is working on improving the attitude of staff to a more ‘can do’ attitude and be part of the community. He is a strong believer in keeping on going, one step in front of the other to achieve the vision with the team behind you. Council, he said, is keen to be open and transparent.
Out and About
More from the District Conference
The District’s campaign for the ‘Rotary Says NO to Domestic Violence’ initiative and ‘Yes to Positive and Respectful Relationships’ was launched at the District Conference. This awareness raising campaign to be run in conjunction with Police is across Rotary Clubs in Zone 8 – Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. More details next week.
One keynote speaker at the Conference was world champion marathon runner Rob de Castella AO MBE who spoke about the Indigenous Marathon Foundation he established in 2009. When the first four Aboriginal men trained for the New York Marathon in just six months, Rob discovered the programme was more powerful and life-changing than just running 42.2kms.The programme uses running to instil pride and demonstrate the incredible capacity Indigenous Australian men and women have to achieve.
One example followed a call from an officer at a Western Australian correctional centre where all indigenous inmates had been following the progress of one of the programme’s first four participants who had come from the same town as them. They said, “If he can do it – so can we”. Rob helped set up a track within the correctional centre and of the 35 indigenous youth there, 25 ran the equivalent of a full marathon and the other 10 the equivalent of a half marathon. Rob said the feedback on the benefit was amazing.
PDG Phil Armstrong rated the District Conference one of the best District Conferences he had attended for a few years, and he would have been to most over the last 10-15 years. The next District Conference is scheduled for 25-27 October 2024 in Mittagong. Courtesy Moruya bulletin
Coming Up – Joint meeting in Moruya
We have been invited to a joint dinner meeting with RC Moruya and RC Narooma at Moruya Golf Club on Tuesday 21 November 6.30 for 7.00pm. This is to hear an update from the board of Carers’ Accommodation for the new Eurobodalla Regional Hospital (CAERH) and to hear from an exceptional speaker Rotarian Walter Bock who has raised $14.4million over 20 years. 6.30pm. $25pp. This is an additional meeting that week as we already have a meeting planned for Thursday 23rd.
NEXT THURSDAY (9th): Club Assembly
Please note we will meet at Club Narooma instead of the Golf Club because of a big function at Narooma Golf Club.