Executive Report May 2024 - Revesby Workers' Club

Dear Members,

We hope you all had an enjoyable Easter and for those who were able to enjoy a lovely 4 day weekend. While the cooler weather has been appreciated, I am sure you will agree that we are not looking forward to those frosty winter months ahead of us.

SCHOOL SUBSIDY PROGRAM

You will recall in our last Executive Report we provided an update on the schools that were fortunate enough to receive funding under our now School Subsidy Program and the projects they were undertaking.

We are happy to report that we held an extremely successful cheque presentation ceremony on Friday, 1 March 2024 that was attended by all recipients where we were able to meet with school representatives and discuss their projects that are currently underway.

In attendance at the morning tea was Vice President Christine Butters, Director Christine Benham and Director/Chair of the Education Committee Linda Downey. Also in attendance was Revesby Workers’ Club staff member Alysha Green who joined the Club in mid- January as the Assistant Manager, Marketing and Community. This event was an opportunity for the school representatives to meet with Alysha as she will be running the school subsidy program next year together with all community related work undertaken at the Club.

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

On Wednesday, 14 February 2024 the Education Committee met to review new applications for the annual Tertiary Scholarship Program.

For 2024 the Club had a huge 37 previous recipients receive their $500 scholarship for ongoing studies providing a total of $18,0=500 to previous recipients. 9 of these recipients are in their final year of studies and we would like to wish them all the very best at the conclusion of 2024 and on the completion of their degree. We would love to stay in touch to see where they land their first job and how they find the workforce as we are humbled to have been able to provide financial support throughout their studies.

Similar to last year, we received a significant number of applications with 8 achieving ATARs of over 90 and of those 8, 5 achieving over 95 which made 2024 an extremely competitive process. The 2024 Scholarship Program awarded 1 male and 1 female with a $3,000 scholarship and 12 applicants with a $500 scholarship totalling $12,000 to new applicants in 2024. These 2024 recipients will receive a further $500 for each subsequent year of their degree upon submission of successful results.

This takes the total of Tertiary Scholarship payments in 2024 to $30,500

An afternoon tea for our scholarship recipients took place on Sunday 7 April 2024, an event has over 60 attendees and was the most widely attended afternoon tea ceremony yet.

A special mention must be given to the recipients of the $3,000 scholarships in 2023:

Kristina La who achieved an ATAR of 97 and will be studying a Bachelor of Engineering at the University of NSW.
Tony Hu who achieved an ATAR of 98.50 and will be studying a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney.

Congratulations to all of our previous and new recipients.

AUDITORIUM RENOVATIONS

Prior to the February Board meeting, our Executive Manager – Food and Beverage, Darren Foots and Executive Manager-– Facilities, Simon Melham took the Board of Directors for a tour of the auditorium renovation site. Boden Construction has worked extremely hard and fast to commence demolition of the old auditorium and function space in preparation to commence building of our new Auditorium and function space. We look forward to welcoming members back to the space for their future functions towards the end of 2024.

While we are aware of the disruptions this may cause throughout the Club in certain areas, we would like to take this opportunity to thank our extremely understanding members. While the opening of the new area seems far away, we hope to be discussing this in the very next Journal which is only around the corner.

HEART OF THE NATION – DEFIBRILLATORS IN THE COMMUNITY

As outlined in our previous Executive Report, Revesby Workers’ Club Ltd provided funding to Heart of the Nation in the 2023 ClubGRANTS scheme to implement several life-saving Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) within the local Community in locations where they can be accessed by community members on a 24/7 basis.

When determining where to place these AEDs, we needed to consider things such as accessibility and a location that is highly populated. In light of this, we are putting a call out to our members and community to determine if any businesses, schools, local churches, or residents would be interested in acting as guardian of an AED.

What is involved

Should we receive expressions of interest, we will select approximately 4 recipients (to fund further defibrillators in future ClubGRANTS programs) and arrange for Heart of the Nation to install an AED for you.

We would ask that you as a “Guardian” of the AED help maintain the integrity of the device noting that a guardian is not responsible for any damage, simply ensuring the AED is well kept and report any damage that may occur so Heart of the Nation can assist you in the maintenance of the device.

Community Responders

Should anyone express interest in housing an AED and want to be further involved, you may wish to become a “Community Responder”. By downloading the Heart of the Nation app, you would be set up to receive alerts when an AED is required nearby and can deliver the life-saving machine to a local in the community and potentially save their life.

How do we get involved

If you are interested in finding out more about the Heart of the Nation program and how you can participate, please contact Alysha Green at alyshag@rwc.org.au.