Speak Out June 2021

Branch News

Vic city lights! The Victorian Branch hosted a welcome event for our members at the Australian Catholic University to mark the start of a new year and welcome the return of face-to-face events. Michelle Smith-Tammeray, Branch Rep for ACU, was our host, and we thank her for the opportunity to use the facility and the spectacular views of the city by night. The Membership Engagement Team arranged the event for Vic Branch; Jenny Elliott, Sarah Draper, Chrissa Stavrou and Sophie Griffin, who is the Vic Branch Vice Chair and social media champion. The event was self-catered and planned as a casual get together for branch reps and members. Thanks to the ACU student reps Nicole Romeii and Halley Nyhus for setup and signage. Other student reps include Kathleen O’Reilly (Melbourne Uni) and Farhana Dewan (La Trobe) Charmaine Tu kicked-off the night with an Acknowledgement of Country in front of thirty-six members from various professional backgrounds: paediatric, adult, education, and health. To encourage interaction, we had an icebreaker activity. People had to find others with various characteristics: workplace, choice of pet, birthdates, to name a few. The winner of the prize was board member Kathryn McKinley. After some networking, eating, and drinking our second activity grouped members into teams with up to four members, including a branch member. The group’s challenge was to list a country and a capital city for each letter of the alphabet, something we struggled with and laughed a lot about. The beautiful view of Melbourne revealed itself as the lights came on. Sue Block, La Trobe rep, and her team won this round. Our final activity was hosted by Sarah Draper of membership engagement, the cricket bat game. We had to guess which side would fall, heads (pointy side) or tails (flat) and losers sat until we were all eliminated except the final winner – Valerie Panayiotou. The night ended at 9pm, and our party broke up. It was great to see so many members in person and hear the conversation between them. Thanks to Charmaine for her inspiration and love of games, and to the Membership Engagement Team for hosting and leading events on the night. We look forward to seeing members at ACU for regular branch meetings on the first Wednesday of each month via Zoom or in person. Jenny Elliott

Victoria

VIC 3053 members as at May 2021

60

Speak Out | June 2021