Speak Out December 2019 V2 DIGITAL EDITION

Branch News

Victoria

VIC 2514 members as at October 2019

Member engagement rural event Charmaine Tu, Branch Chair, and Jenny Elliott, Member Engagement Portfolio Leader met with a group of local members, including students, from Bendigo, Shepparton, Maryborough and Castlemaine in October. Our dinner was a chance to celebrate the 70th year of Speech Pathology Australia. There were 16 registrants, three were students and a recent graduate of La Trobe University who now works locally. Little did we know it was also Bendigo Cup day, so there were several ladies in race wear and lovely hats on other tables at the venue! This dinner followed discussion and planning with La Trobe Rural Health School, Bendigo Health, Early Intervention and regional speech pathologists about such an event. Local members of Speech Pathology Australia were interested to have a rural event with the Victorian Branch and discussion has occurred over some time and we were finally able to bring everyone together. Plans to meet at La Trobe Rural Health School were assisted by Dr Teresa Iacono and the admin team and we thank them for their patience. The public holiday resulted in a need to change venue and we had dinner at the National Hotel instead which was a great success. Charmaine and I welcomed all our guests and were able to explain the role of Vic Branch and Member Engagement in particular, as well as share materials from the membership team at National Office. We had a good mix of practitioners from diverse backgrounds and this was an opportunity for professional information sharing by people who often work nearby but rarely meet. Our icebreaker 'Two truths and a dream wish' proved to be very interesting but also funny. Besides our passion for speech pathology, we are a diverse group of people. Who knew that one member has an 11-year-old chicken which had outlived her owner’s expectations (and even laid an egg recently!) when her owner really wants a new staffy pup? Other truths included walking part of the Camino de Santiago trail, being a certified scuba diver, bungee jumping, sky diving, being an amateur beekeeper, finishing a marathon, working in a call centre, having an indoor plant obsession and karaoke-ing in Cambodia. Some of the dream wishes were caravanning around Australia, wanting to go to the Great Barrier reef and living in Switzerland. Our door prize winner was Louise Feiss. A big thank you to all the members who attended and those who sent apologies due to it being Bendigo Cup. Here’s hoping we can have an annual event with the involvement of local members. Jenny Elliott Member Engagement Portfolio Leader

46

December 2019 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

Speak Out