First of all…
Pres Adam has called for a Board Meeting at the end of this week’s meeting.
I’d also like to point out that women Rotarians are “Rotary Fellows” too. We should probably change our language away from the traditional salutation “Ladies, Guests and Fellows” to just “Guests and Fellows”… women members in attendance are “Fellows” and women non-members in attendance are “guests”.
Finally, our annual change-over is rapidly approaching. Having been heavily involved in organising the last two, I'd just say that it can be more time-consuming than you might think so thouse involved should start having discussions about the event.
May dates of note….
Arthur’s wife Hillary has a birthday on May 11th.
Tim’s wife Sue has a birthday on May 19th
Tom and his wife have a wedding anniversary on May 20th
Frank S has a birthday on May 26.
Last week’s meeting (May 4th, 2010)…
To kick us off this week, Nev D introduced us to the club guest, Peter. Peter is a police sergeant with the highway patrol in Orange.
There were many thanks said at the start of the evening for everybody’s hard work on Sunday. We had what Pres Adam estimated as an 80% attendance for at least one event this last weekend.
This from Bob P about the golf day:
“Sunday was a great success with over 80 players participating in beautiful golf weather.
15 holes were sponsored and with the Springwood Golf Day raffle contributing $360 we have managed to clear $4945 after all expenses. By far our most successful day so far thanks in a large way to the pre publicity our two uni students, Anne-Louise and Lucy arranged. I believe everyone who participated enjoyed the day and will be back next year with more of their friends. Thanks to all of our club members who helped out on the day, we couldn’t manage without a good member participation.”
Further, this from David W about the Half Marathon:
“It was a record field with some 200 runners participating in both races. Runners came from all over with a couple from Tamworth, Cowra and a number from the Blue Mountains as well as the usual Orange Runners Club and local contingent. The race was held in perfect autumn weather. The new course around the river provided a very flat track with long straight stretches so was mentally quite tough. The winning time in the Half was about 74 mins which is the usual time for winner at this distance. Thanks to all the Rotarians and Family that helped on the day, it was a huge success and we had many favourable comments about the number of volunteers on the course.
Anthony J went through a bunch of mail. One particular letter was from Riding for the Disabled. They’ve provided us with three areas they need work in, as we requested from them: planting plants donated to them from Church’s, trimming branches hanging over sections of their riding trails, and a post & rail fence that needs to be put up. We’ll look at doing some of this on a Saturday arvo in late June.
Peter C tells us that one of the issues coming out of the District Assembly was that many of us should look into a “Working with children” check, particularly for those who work with Rotary school-age projects such as RYLA, NYSF, RYPEN, the Youth Award winner, etc.
Peter C also tells us that the Art Union is now in the final approval phase, though “approval” from whom I’m not sure. Regardless, it’s out of our hands and all we can do is wait until it comes through.
Andrew C gave us one of the longest fine session EVER… he must have raised a small fortune.
Nev then explained to us how he came to meet Peter through St. Pat’s. Peter joined the NSW police in 1994 and has been stationed in Lithgow, Bathurst and Orange.
One of the first stats Peter gave us was that the average career of a NSW police officer is only 10 years. Peter tells us that as a sergeant he has learned more about the behind the scenes work of policing such as when the federal government hands down policies, the issue for the police is how to implement the policy.
Peter then started talking about the four major reasons for highway fatalities are caused by speed, alcohol, seatbelts, and fatigue. Peter talked about how they use road statistics to identify ‘hot spots’ for particular road-rule infringements so they can blitz the area to try to prevent more serious crashes. Peter referred to this as “Proactive Policing”.
Also as part of Proactive Policing” they can use “speed strips” on roads, not to catch individual speeders but to identify how many people speed through a particular area… if there’s a lot, they need to blitz speeding in a particular area. While their blitz campaigns can seem random to the public, there is a reason behind them. Peter said “We don’t just go out and blitz everything (offences). There’s a reason and a method behind everything.”
The police often use RBT’s to educate drivers and screen for fatigue too. For example, asking a driver how long they’ve been on the road for. If it has been for a long time the police will refer the driver to a rest stop. When asked if driving fatigued is illegal, Peter said that it’s not under the highway act (unless you’re a commercial driver) but there is case law were a person can be held liable for causing a crash while fatigued. Peter pointed out that there’s now more social pressure for us to travel further, both socially and professionally.
The last thing Peter talked about was the technology in policing. The big innovations in policing have been the in-car video in protecting officers and making policing more transparent about proving offences. The other has been the speed camera, now with software to recognise license plates from photographs and communicate with other cameras kilometres down the road. There was no doubt from Peter about where he stands on speeding… there should be as many methods of enforcement as possible: “If you’re not doing the wrong thing, then you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Finally, he answered Anthon J’s question about if it’s just a myth that there is a 10% buffer before the police book you for speeding. Anthony explained he was asking on behalf of a “friend”. Peter told us that there’s a 3% error in the radar gun itself, so that much is safe. There’s also up to a 10% error on the car’s speedo, however if you tried to argue this the officer would probably slap a defect notice on your car. So while you’re probably pretty safe at 10%, Peter said that he also probably would bank on it. Peter also stressed not to test that theory on the new “Average speed cameras” like the one between Bathurst and Lithgow which are certain to be more strict as the average speed corrects for minor lapses in speed that one-off measures of speeding need to account for.
Peter was a very, very interesting guest who gave us a window into a world that most of us know little about “behind the scenes”. Sally B gave the vote of thanks and I think all Rotary Fellows really enjoyed the presentation. For Fellows who missed the meeting, you missed a really good one.
This week’s meeting (May 11th, 2010)…
I had a list of our guest speakers for the next few weeks but I can only apologise for not knowing what’s on this week; I’ve lost my list who had arranged for what to happen in the coming weeks. I think it’s our NYSF student this week but that’s only based on a hunch. Could everybody please contact me again about who your guest speakers will be on your nights?
In the coming weeks…
• May 11 – Guest Speaker: Danielle (was to be Felicity Baines, Tourism Manager at the BVIC though this will change); VoT: Sally; Registrar: David N
• May 18 – Guest Speaker: Anthony J; VoT: Andrew C; Registrar: David W
• May 25 – Guest Speaker: Bob P (Dr Peter Miller, headmaster of All Saints’ College; topic: the influence of male role models in the development of teenage boys); VoT: Tim; Registrar: Eric
• June 1 – Guest Speaker: Peter F; VoT: David N; Registrar: Frank
• June 8 – Guest Speaker: Chris B; VoT: David W; Registrar: David S
• June 15 – Guest Speaker: Greg S; VoT: Eric D; Registrar: Nev
• June 22 – Guest Speaker: Karl M; VoT: Frank S; Registrar: Danielle
• June 29 – Adam S / Peter C
