Our second physical general meeting for 2021 was a happy occasion at the Dock, meeting up with new and old friends and brainstorming activities for the coming months. Several new members gave us potted autobiographies and many great activities were not just proposed but actively set in train. After coffee Greg J took our Clubrunner software for a spin, showing the many features evident on the webpage bearbrassprobus.org. We hope members take the initiative and get inside the engine room of Clubrunner, with Secretary Sue offering instant help on any password/user name issues. Mel reminded that members can nominate now for committee roles for 2021.
Our speaker was our own Julia Fraser, literally an all-singing all-dancing member (except she didn't have time to talk about those aspects of her busy life). She ran through her education and then teaching roles at Fitzroy High, her moves into book writing for migrant kids and curriculum setting at national level, bringing the States in to the three cross-curricula priorities. Then she described her role as lead organiser of Melbourne's Millennium Celebrations including a party for 750,000 on the Yarra banks. Her more serious ventures included missions to China with a team to help China modernise its mental health systems, and assistance in the wake of the terrible Sichuan earthquake that took 70,000 lives and involved 200,000 landslides. Finally she gave us a glimpse of how her loyal and supportive family have backed her throughout, and her new role baby-sitting granddaughter for daughter Nat who is a mother-child psychiatrist. Any one of her dozen themes in this talk could have made a stand-alone talk. Congrats Julia on your wonderful achievements.
After the meeting we headed off to Tap831 for a fine lunch on the second floor remote from the noise and distractions of the ground floor, so we could spend quality time getting to know ourselves.