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Meeting Notes:
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Reported by: Bruce Wallace
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President's Welcome:
President Greg welcomed Wensley Goebel, Betty Newton, our longest serving member Ray Low and our guest speaker Greig Goebel.
Spots:
Brett Watson gave forewarning of our away meeting to Manley Coastguard on the 26th of March. The tour shall take about 45 minutes then we will have a barbecue.
Stuart Ludlow promoted the weekend away to the New South Wales Northern Rivers on the 10th and 11th of March. There are ten starters so far but we need to firm up the numbers. The cost of the Saturday night at the motel is $90.00 and a roadmap will be issued. The convoy shall be led by Stuart with John Robinson at the rear to ensure no one strays.
Alison Hartvigsen introduced Solveig from Iceland who is a Rotary Peace Fellow for the Rotary Foundation. She is in Australia for 18 months and is a social worker specialising in humanitarianism. Solveig shall be working on complex conflict resolution. Alison is her counselor and we should see more of Solveig during her time here in Australia.
Bill Hewitt advice of the passing of Reg Brandis a past guest speaker of the club. Reg spoke to the club on his experience as an athletic supervisor in Olympic Games. Ridge was also involved in the former East Cricket Club and a stalwart of Easts Rugby Club.
Reg was planning to be a part of the London Olympics.
Bill thanks our guest speaker Greg Goebel for coming along tonight and sharing his experience from the recent natural disasters in Queensland. Bill also mentioned the presence of Greg's mother,, Wensley, a widow of one of our local members Russ. Also present was Ray Low, eighty-five years young and Bill reminisced of past members of the club, Ian Young,, Jim Gregory, John Beech, Donna Strangle, Graham Dennis, Rick Firster, Russ Goebel, Clarrie Tanner and Tony Preimonas.
President's Notes:
President Greg has tickets to a theatre night organised by the District. The movie is Marigold Hotel and is screening at 6.45 PM on Thursday, the 23rd of February at Logan.
The Art Show Committee had a meeting last Thursday and everything is progressing well as long as last year's sponsorship is maintained. This year volunteers shall be issued with a shirt.
Our club membership committee has also been meeting and been informed that there is money available through the district for signage to be placed in our clubs area. Suggestions are welcome to where these may be placed.
Sergeant's Session - David Coomber:
Heads and Tails: - John Robinson.
Birthdays: - Wyn Low.
Anniversaries: - .
Raffle: - Betty Newton.
Sergeant-at-arms David provided another entertaining Sergeant's session.
Guest Speaker - Greg Goebel:
Coping with Disasters:
Greg Goebel first joined the Red Cross at nine years of age. The recently retired as CEO of the Red Cross and has followed the commission of inquiry into the recent floods and cyclones with great interest.
He had full praise for the dam engineers.
Greg started in the top job of the Red Cross just prior to Cyclone Larry then went on a steep learning curve in delivering aid to the disaster area. On Christmas Day 2010, Queensland's outback towns were being flooded and residents refused to evacuate, where water flow to the coast at Rockhampton. This was then followed by the flash flooding of Toowoomba where the water flowed into the Lockyer Valley, Ipswich and Brisbane. At the end of the month of January to cyclones hit northern Queensland with Yasi being the most devastating in our time.
This caused enormous pressure on the Red Cross. They engage 1400 volunteers from all over Australia and New Zealand, managed thirty-three evacuation centres which housed twelve thousand people.
Greene stated that there was a changing community opinion that the government and the aid agency groups like the Red Cross and will supply instant help in disasters.
When the cyclone hits an area, transporting volunteers and provisions into that area can be near impossible in the short term. There was an example of one person looking after twelve hundred people in a hall. Also, after an area that has been struck by a disaster, then needs to be door knock of every house in the area is the elderly may hide in cupboards for days.
The after disaster care is paramount when the victims need time to sort out what their future is to be, restore, rebuild, or move on. Decisions made in haste have caused many breakdowns in relationships. The disaster at Grantham shall be an interesting case of study with the whole town being relocated.
Greig has found many types of goods donated for disaster appeals are helpful. Once short term needs are dealt with, cash for victims to purchase items of choice is better.
However, community groups are in a better position to gauge the areas and people of real need. There is a growing trend of 'helplessness' in the community we're more and more people expect instant help and a fair bit more after that.
This was an absorbing address and one could hazard to guess the enormous pressure Greg Goebel was under for those months heading up such an organisation.
President's Closing Remarks:
President Greg thanked Greg for his more than informative address and thanked the members and out guests for their attendance.
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