Residents invited to Sunshine Parks Forum on 11 September 2010

Council will be holding a community forum on Saturday 11 September 2010 to discuss a strategy to transform Sunshine’s parks.

The forum will commence at 10am at the Salvation Army Hall, 42 Devonshire Road, Sunshine. Morning tea and refreshments will be served.

The forum offers community members an opportunity to contribute to the exciting plans for the redevelopment of Buckingham Reserve, Tom O’Brien Park and Kevin Wheelahan Gardens. A children’s playground design workshop will also be run by award winning playground designer Ric McConaghy.

Council is committed to improving the appearance of Sunshine, and creating a place in which residents are proud to live. An important part of realising this vision is the implementation of Council’s Creating Better Parks – Open Space and Playground Policy and Plan that will create a substantially improved open space network, consisting of outstanding parks and playgrounds with quality facilities linked by a network of walking and cycling trails.

Since the adoption of the plan in 2008, Council has invested over $2 million in park, playground, bike path and streetscape improvements in the Sunshine area, including the upgrades to HV McKay Memorial Gardens, Ardeer Community Playground, and the Cannon Street pedestrian bridge.

The recently endorsed Council Plan 2010-2014 outlines Council’s strong commitment to rapidly achieving this vision. Over $1.3 million will be invested in park improvements in the Sunshine area in 2010/2011, with more upgrades planned for the coming years.

6th – 12th September

Highlights include……

Sustainable Talks – Worm Farming at Home
Worm Farming at Home – Wednesday 8th September

An Asset Beneath Our Noses
Free tours of Melbournes Water’s Western Treatment Plant – Thursday 9th September

Meet Vasili
Famous Vasili shows you how to grow your own vegetables – Sunday 12th September

Click here for the full program of events

Is this the best choice?

Read more about Melbournes new water storage due to the pipeline here

Stage 2 Water Restrictions

Little Lorikeets

Spring Fair – Saturday 11th September

10 am – 3 pm

Yarraville Guide Hall
More information on Fair Flyer

Occasional Childcare
Open Session

Braybrook and Maribyrnong Occasional Childcare Services will be holding an open session for you and your child to come along and find out about our occasional child care services.

When: Tuesday 21st September 2010

Bookings are essential. Please contact your centre of choice to make a booking.

Free for any new families using the service.

Where:
      

   Braybrook Community Centre                   Maribyrnong Community Centre

                         107 – 139 Churchill Ave                           9 Randall St
                         Braybrook                                             Maribyrnong
                         9334 6600                                            9318 6655

Tai Chi is an ancient Chinese form of gentle physical exercise and is suitable for everyone.

The group is run by a trained Tai Chi teacher. Free transport is available for eligible residents.

Come and try something new at Braybrook; meet people and be active.

Where: Braybrook Community Centre
107-139 Churchill Avenue Braybrook

When: Each Monday
10.30am – 11.30am
Starting 30 August 2010

Cost: FREE
Call 9688 0103 to book transport.

For more information please contact Braybrook Community Centre on 9334 6600 or email braycomm@maribyrnong.vic.gov.au

Have a look at our local groups at http://www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au/Page/Page.asp?Page_id=5967&h=-1&newsletter=true&ID=60&UID=1072

I was listening this morning to a Late Night live podcast
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2010/2952641.htm of an
interview with Frederick Kaufman who has written an article for Harpers
subtitled called The food Bubble: How Wall Street starved millions and got
away with it”.
Another interview here:

http://www.archive.org/details/TheFoodBubble-FrederickKaufman-2010

He warns in the interview that nothing has changed to stop these masters of
the universe creating another food bubble (which appears to be happening
now), nor to stop another GFC. So while

2008 saw food riots, these people were paid, and so it continues, huge fees
and bonuses for being so clever.

Regards,

Pat

Back in the 1970′s, there was a bit of an oil embargo, and suddenly the oil that we took for granted became very expensive. For people in the US, it came as a very rude shock. Up to 1970, the US was the main oil producer in the world, like the way Saudi Arabia is now.

The oil embargo helped bring about a new people movement in the US, where sustainability, low energy, growing your own food came to be thought as a way to change to a low energy world. The shift to the low energy world lasted until the early 80′s. One of the many interesting projects that came out of this was the Master Conserver course http://www.culturalconservers.org/library.php. The course looked at things like:

• Home Buyers checklist
• Heat Loss calculations
• Home Insulation
• Weathersealing and caulking
• Hot water conservation
• Indoor Air Quality
• Energy efficient windows and doors

The list goes on. All the topics had instructional handouts that contain a wealth of knowledge that is difficult to find in books nowadays.

We are fortunate that someone saved all these handouts, scanned them and made them available for our generation. Please save a copy of them so that the valuable information in these handouts can be saved, and more importantly, be used to make our own homes more energy efficient. The address is http://www.culturalconservers.org/library/masterconserver.pdf

Well, a whole year has gone by, and POW is officially a year old. As part of the birthday celebrations, we’re going to have our very first Annual General meeting to elect people for roles of Convenor, Secretary, Treasurer, Events Co-ordinator and Fund raiser. Don’t feel that you could do any of these roles –  the people in these roles at the moment have never done these roles before. You learn as you go along, and maybe help improve it by seeing the role in a different way.

The meeting will be held at De’s home, 28 Fontein St West Footscray, starting at 6.30pm. So, feel welcome to come along and maybe even throw your name into the ring for one of the roles. We’re more than happy to join new members up on the night.

There will be a cake!

The POW Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 25th August 2010 at 28 Fontein St West Footscray.

The elections will be held for the following roles:

CONVENOR – Description

• receive and answer emails addressed to admin@pow.org.au
• receive and respond to correspondence, written and electronic, or forward to someone else to handle where appropriate
• Arrange venues for meetings
• Keep PcM up to date with goings on with POW

SECRETARY – description

Generally administer the organisation’s affairs – unless delegated to someone else, including -

• Maintain hard copy files of correspondence, including copies of emails that are pertinent to POW decisions (any correspondence listed on POW agendas)
• Maintain hard copy records of the Minutes of all Committee and General Meetings and of Annual Reports and forward copies of minutes to PcM Secretary.
• In consultation with Office Bearers prepare and circulate agendas in advance of POW Executive and General Meetings
• Keep minutes of POW Executive and General Meetings, circulate drafts to participants for comment and final versions to be uploaded POW Website
• Receive and process applications for admission to membership and of renewals
• Provide lists of applications for membership for the agendas for Executive meetings
• Maintain a Register of Members of POW
• Maintain contact with external groups that have similar interests to POW
• Arrange the exchange of newsletters with external groups, by email or post
• Forward to the Events Coordinator the details of events proposed by other groups that are of potential interest to PcM members (Events Co-ordinator forwards to PcM)
• Receive and answer emails addressed to info@pow.org.au
• Receive and answer emails addressed to membership@pow.org.au

TREASURER – description

• Maintain hard copy records of all financial transactions
• Prepare periodic and annual financial reports and annual financial statement for lodgement with Consumer Affairs
• Pay accounts
• Prepare and maintain a budget for the management of the organisation’s finances
• Process and bank subscription fees
• Maintain records of rebates due to POW from PcM (e.g. memberships etc)

FUNDRAISER – description

• Work with Treasurer
• Co ordinate ways of raising funds and present them to the POW meetings

EVENTS / PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR – description

• Liaise with all branches of PcM to coordinate the holding of events
• Maintain a Calendar of events and forward to the PIE Editor periodically for publication
• Maintain lists of equipment held by branches of PcM and coordinate its use for events
• Maintain stocks of publicity material (banners, posters, brochures) for use at public events