Looking Forward

We had an enjoyable meeting on Wednesday night although due to a few apologies (it's assignment crunch time!) we decided not to have club committees but instead talk about projects as a group.

Community Service

* Amanda has to confirm but we have set a tentative date of Nov 22nd to decorate the Children's Surgical Ward for Christmas. It will only take us a few hours at the moment but it will definitely make a different for the children who have to spend time there in the leadup to and over Chrissy.

* The Sherwood Christmas Festival is the week after on Friday 28 November! This is one of our major fundraisers so it'd be great to have all hands on deck! The money this year will probably go to Brisbane Youth Service which works with homeless young people and young families. The festival is a lot of fun and may or may not include a tub of ice-cream and several spoons ;)

* Emily has floated the idea of developing a calendar to raise money for the local community. At this stage members have suggested donating raised funds to the Milpera art and music therapeutic program for refugee students.

* Jen West from Zonta is coming on October 15 to talk to us about their club's work with the Murri Sisters's Safety House.

* Anti-Graffiti will be cancelled in November and December due to other projects in November and the silly season in December! So please consider coming to the ones on the last Sundays of September and October as they will be our last anti-graffiti mornings this year.


International Service
* Jenna finished her bike ride from Bundaberg to Brisbane and she and her two friends raised well over $750 for Polio Plus! Look out for a blog post soon about the ride. Well done Jenna! You're a star :D

* Richard told us that he actually grew up in Malawi in central Africa and he has connections to an orphanage there. He raised the idea of the club fundraising for the orphange there which we all thought was a fantastic idea. We even floated the idea of putting together a trip to visit and do some hands-on work!

* And our friends Valmor and Marcelo from Brazil told us that their club in Brazil is interested in putting together some sort of joint project and everyone at the meeting was very excited about this possibility!

* Emily has been in touch with Ailsa Hay who works in RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service) to talk about opportunities for Rotaractors to join in overseas volunteer work (like my trip to Daru, PNG last year) - people should talk to Emily if interested.

* Meryll let us know that the Rotaract Club of South Brisbane is co-ordinating a collection for the Uplift Project which co-ordinates the collection and donation of second-hand bras for women in Fiji, PNG and the Cook Islands. Second-hand bras don't attract import duty and give women access to a necessary and expensive item. Women often suffer from a fungal infection due to the tropical climate and lack of support. Bring along any second-hand bras you can collect to Meryll who will pass them on to South Brisbane.


Professional Development

* Michelle McDowall of TickTax Australia will be presenting a mini-seminar at the next club meeting (Wed 1 Oct) on tax preparation and services. Michelle is a CPA Accountant and Past President of the Rotary Club of Sumner Park. If you have any specific questions you'd like answered on tax please email Cat at catherinemcdowall [at] hotmail [dot] com who will forward your questions on to Michelle.

* Our recruiting stand at the Engineers expo at UQ was a great success so Anthony and Sharon will co-ordinate setting up similar stands at a UQ market day. Thanks guys!

Club Service

* It's just under two months until our first birthday - everyone's keen to have a barbeque and drinks to celebrate!

* On the last Wednesday in October we will have a club movie night in the auditorium.

* Our Chrissy party will be on Friday 5 December, replacing the meeting on Wednesday 3 December. We will probably be going out to the Steak House at the Regatta for dinner and drinks.

Until next time!

Youth Homelessness

Homelessness seems to be a 'hot topic' in the media at the moment with today's release of the National Youth Commission's Inquiry into Youth Homelessness. In last week's edition of The Satellite Merrin Jagtman's cover story talked about an increasing number of people who are homeless in Brisbane's south-west suburbs. (Merrin is the same journalist who wrote an article about our club in celebration of Rotaract's 40th anniversary.)

The Sunday Mail reported that "more than 100 000 Australians live on the street, a third are under 25, a quarter live in Queensland." [April 9, 2008, p26). The article contained several quotes from Angela Barnes, executive manager of Brisbane Youth Services. She emphasised the importance of meeting basic physical and emotional needs before beginning employment training and job seeking.

The ABC reported a fortnight ago: "As mortgage stress rises across the country, more and more Australian families are reaching crunch point and having their homes repossessed. The aspirational suburbs of Sydney are among the hardest hit.

In the city's south-west, there are reports that working people are moving into homeless shelters because they have failed to meet their loan repayments. Home repossessions for 2008 are already at record highs and are expected to increase further through the year.

Phil Hancock from Brisbane Youth Service will be visiting our club on Thursday May 1 to discuss youth homelessness with us. BYS have been operating for more than 20 years and run a range of services including street outreach, a drop in centre and a health clinic as well as a parenting program for yong parents or parents-to-be who are homeless or at the risk of homelessness. As always, feel free to bring a friend with you. It should be a good night as we learn about youth homelessness and perhaps start thinking how we might be able to do our little bit to help.