The April Meet and Mingle saw an impromptu program when our invited guest speaker did not appear.

On extremely short notice, our Vice President, Anne Nelson gave us a resume of how she became a Justice of the Peace by Qualification in Queensland, gaining 99% for the examination she sat. When Anne transferred to Victoria the process for being a JP was much less onerous, the person only having to show that they were of good character.

Anne, who is very community minded, is available at Annabelle Cleeland’s office by appointment to witness documents as a JP for members of the community. Anne also mentioned that she is a marriage celebrant.

Following Anne’s interesting talk, Ray O’Shannessy told us how he became an accountant several decades ago. Ray originally worked for 16 years for Victorian Producers Pty Ltd, organising many cattle and sheep sales in North East Victoria. This entailed long days as the sales had to be manually entered into ledgers, and then the amount realised by the sale had to be paid to the owners.

Ray was persuaded that his accounting skills could be put to more satisfying use by studying to become firstly an accountant, and then a chartered accountant. He joined a local accountancy firm, and later progressed to becoming a partner of that firm.

Thank you to both Anne and Ray for interesting accounts of their working lives.

The guest speaker for May will be Ian Maver of Wangaratta. Ian is a member of U3A Benalla and part of the Australian History, Tech Talks and the Sky’s the Limit groups. Ian will speak about his working life in the Aircraft Industry in Indonesia, Malaysia, United States and the UK. Hope you can come and hear what should be a fascinating talk.

Margaret Jenkins    

At our March Meet and Mingle, following the AGM and election of office bearers, Tom Arnold, the Community Development Officer from Benalla Rural City Council, provided a clear and thoughtfully presented background to the current initiative regarding use of public space in the Fawkner Drive lakeside precinct.  

Our guest speaker for Meet and Mingle on Wednesday April 19th is Sabine Smyth who has been and continues to be a major force behind the rejuvenation of the Benalla Migrant Camp with displays of photos and the history of the Migrant Camp a big part of the history of Benalla.

So come along and listen to Sabine, you will find her most interesting and informative.
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Margaret Jenkins

Our first Meet and Mingle in February was well attended. The Guest Speaker was Charlene Donovan, Community Ambassador, NBN, Local North Eastern Victoria.

Charlene explained the various ways the NBN is supplied to its customers including fixed wire delivery and satellite. She also mentioned that NBN was the wholesaler and customers connected to the NBN through the retailers. A number of questions concerning retailers arose which Charlene offered to come back and talk to those members affected. She suggested that they would need to bring in their mobile data and home data accounts, so that she could help them assess any problems. This will probably happen in the middle of March. Meet and Mingle participants will be sent an Email concerning Charlene’s visit in March.

Meet and Mingle in March will be the venue for U3A Benalla’s Annual General Meeting. This will be held on Wednesday 15th March in the Auditorium of the Benalla Senior’s Centre at 10am.

The guest speaker at the AGM will be Tom Arnold, Community Development Co-ordinator, Benalla Rural City Council. His topic will be the Fawckner Drive Precinct project. Everyone is welcome.

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Margaret Jenkins ​

The guest speaker for Meet and Mingle on Wednesday 15th February from 10 to 12 in the U3A Room is Charlene Donovan from the National Broadband Network (NBN).  Charlene will speak about ‘Connectivity in Benalla’.  I imagine that there will be many questions for her.

A reminder that our Annual General Meeting is held at the March Meet and Mingle meeting, which this year falls on Wednesday March 15th at 10am.  Nomination forms are available from the Secretary, Geraldine Geraldine McCorkell  M: 0408 522 662 Email:  [email protected] and on the website.  

Margaret Jenkins

The November Meet and Mingle held in the Auditorium of the Benalla Senior’s Centre on Wednesday 16th November attracted the largest audience at Meet and Mingle we have seen in 2022.   Anne Nelson, Vice President of U3A Benalla acted as MC for the morning.

Anne introduced Janet Douglas, Convenor of the Recorder group. Janet and the Recorder group played nine songs including a selection of folk songs and a Christmas carol.   The Recorder group, which started in 2018, included descant, treble and tenor recorders in the performance.   Everyone was impressed by the harmony provided by the group.

Following the recorder group, Anne introduced Margaret Jenkins, Convenor of the Singing for Fun group who introduced the three Leaders of Singing for Fun to the audience: Kieran Smith, Brian Greed and Margaret Merriman.   There was a round of applause for Gwen Barnes who has been pianist for the Singing for Fun group for approximately 15 years.

Each Leader had chosen a set of five or six songs which included Danny Boy by Kieran Smith, the Changing of the Guard by Brian Greed and the Holy City by Margaret Merriman.   The audience had a wide range of songs to enjoy.

Anne also introduced Dorothy Webber, Convenor of the Patchwork Group.   Many of the Patch workers had brought along quilts and other items which had been made during 2022.   These were on display on tables along the eastern end of the auditorium.

Morning tea and a chat completed what was a diverse and very entertaining morning.  Our thanks to all who participated. 

Margaret Jenkins

​Eric Nash, Director of the Benalla Art Gallery, was the guest speaker at the October Meet and Mingle. Eric gave us a comprehensive talk on events which had been successfully held at the gallery in the early months of 2022, and also talked about forthcoming events. Some of these are being held in conjunction with the Benalla Festival on the week-end of November 5th and 6th.

It was pleasing that several members of the Benalla public who were not U3A members were able to join us for this Meet and Mingle, which was followed by Be Connected's 'Try One Thing' celebration with speaker Jenny Sawyer and lunch on the verandah.

The November Meet and Mingle will be held on Wednesday 16th November in the main auditorium of the Benalla Senior’s Centre, 18 Fawckner Drive Benalla. There will be a display from the Patchwork group as well as a concert from the Singing for Fun Group and the Recorder Group. Members of the Benalla community, who are not U3A members, are welcome. Please come and enjoy what should be a fun morning. 
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Margaret Jenkins   

At the September Meet and Mingle Brian Greed was the Guest Speaker. Brian spoke on Changes he had seen in Benalla over the past 67 years.

Brian came to Benalla in 1955 for a three-month locum dentist position, and has stayed ever since. During those 67 years he has been involved in several community organisations, many in a senior role.

With respect to the water industry, Brian saw changes from many small towns with their own water distribution systems, to firstly a State Government initiated amalgamation of Water Boards to form the Ovens Region Water Authority.  He was Chairman of this Ovens Region Water Authority for several years. Then there was a locally initiated further amalgamation of Water Boards to form the current North East Water which covers 39 localities across North East Victoria.

Brian, who in the past has been Mayor of Benalla for three terms, also gave us an interesting history of local government amalgamations in the Benalla area. To finish Brian spoke about the history of the Benalla Art Gallery and how a substantial local donation had been instrumental in its construction.

Before Brian spoke, we had a short talk from Adrian Daw, Volunteer Coordinator at Cooinda in Benalla about the need for more volunteers at Cooinda. Anyone interested should contact Adrian at Cooinda on 5761 3300.

The guest speaker at Meet and Mingle on Wednesday 19th October will be Mr Eric Nash, Director of the Benalla Art Gallery. Eric is going to speak on forthcoming events and displays over summer and into 2023 at the Benalla Art Gallery. All welcome.

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Margaret Jenkins 

At the August Meet and Mingle we welcomed Lucy Mitchell-Long, Consumer Engagement and Volunteer Coordinator of Benalla Health, who gave us an interesting talk on Health Literacy.

Lucy gave us two handouts. The first was a list of abbreviations for various health professionals, conditions, places/departments and what you might see on various forms. After these abbreviations Lucy included some common hospital words and a brief explanation of what they meant.

The second handout said that “Questions are the Answer”. It suggested that patients could get more involved with their health care if they knew the right questions to ask. This was followed by ten questions which if asked could supply a better idea to the patient why various treatments were being suggested.

It was good to see that there were quite a few questions from those present to Lucy concerning her presentation. Afterwards we enjoyed tea/coffee in our warm room.

Our guest speaker at the next Meet and Mingle on Wednesday 21 September 2022 at 10am in our U3A room will be Brian Greed. Brian will speak on “Changes in Benalla over the last 67 years” with particular reference to the water industry and local government.

This should be an extremely interesting morning, and I hope to see lots of U3A members there.
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Margaret Jenkins 

At the July Meet and Mingle our guest speaker was James Harrison, who recently moved to Benalla.

​James is a talented musician specialising in playing the Ukulele, but he also brought along other instruments including a banjo, mandolin, violin, harmonica and a ukulele banjo mandolin which is a rare instrument. There were also three tambourines, two of which he lent to ‘helpers’ in the audience to increase the musical sound.

As there were several would be ukulele players in the audience, James started with telling us about the fingering of the ukulele and also gave a brief lesson on how to construct chords.

During the morning James touched on aspects of his life including the fact that he had taught himself the violin during the 2020 lockdown.

After teaching the audience the fundamentals of playing he produced a song book and then led everyone in singing.

Perhaps the highlight of the morning was James playing the harmonica with the aid of a neck brace and the banjo at the same time. 

We all had a great morning, and thank James for sharing his musical ability with us.

​Our guest speaker for Meet and Mingle in August will be Lucy Mitchell-Long from Benalla Health. Lucy will speak on Health Literacy which is a subject we can all probably do with some help on.
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Margaret Jenkins   ​

Claire Birch from Indigo Power, spoke about community energy hubs at Meet and Mingle in June.

“Our purpose is, to enable a society that is powered by 100% renewable energy, in a way that supports and empowers communities,” Claire said.

She said about $160 million paid out of our region alone in electricity bills, was pretty alarming money that could be better paid to local energy providers.

Claire explained that Indigo Power is community owned by shareholders and most of its work is in North Eastern Victoria and southern NSW through 95 energy hubs, including Benalla.

“With your help, we’re building community energy hubs in towns across this area. We’ve partnered with 15 community energy groups, from Albury to Seymour, to deliver clean energy solutions, community energy hubs, and local renewable generation and storage”, she said.

Customers with solar panels generate the energy that other customers can use, or Indigo Power will generate it at its community-owned solar power systems, she said.

Claire explained that even people who don’t have solar panels can be important participants in a community’s energy hub, and be able to have their electricity supplied by Indigo Power.

Indigo Power is a community of energy users and creators. “Join in by signing up to your community energy hub with our electricity plan. Together we can power our region with 100% renewable energy,” she said.

James Harrison, a Ukulele teacher, is our guest speaker at Meet and Mingle on Wednesday 20 July at 10am in our U3A room.  James will outline his experiences as a ukulele teacher and will play a few songs for us. He has even agreed to a little Community Singing if the audience would like that.   So, for a fun filled Wednesday morning, come along to Meet and Mingle on 20 July.   Everyone is welcome.

David Palmer and Margaret Jenkins

At the May Meet and Mingle Tom Amery from Ambulance Victoria gave us instruction on the use of the Defibrillator. Tom came with life like mannequins to illustrate the procedure of resuscitation, and to our surprise had us up and practicing our resuscitation skills with several more mannequins he had brought along.

Tom, who drove from Donnybrook for the presentation, also instructed us in Call Push Shock. During the morning we had a look at the Defibrillator kit which is stored in the main auditorium of the Benalla Senior’s complex near the kitchen.

The idea for this presentation originated from a question at the Convenor’s afternoon in February on how to use the defibrillator.

This Meet and Mingle was full of energy and enthusiasm, as shown by the pictures taken during the morning:

​It is well worth reading Ambulance Victoria's publication Call Push Shock (Frequently Asked Questions).  

The guest speaker at our Meet and Mingle on Wednesday 15 June 2022 will be Claire Birch from Indigo Power. Claire will speak about the Community Energy Hubs which Indigo Power are setting up in North East Victoria. We have invited the U3A Sustainability Group to also attend.


Margaret Jenkins

At the Convenors Meeting held in February 2022 there was a question concerning use of the Defibrillator which is stored in the main Auditorium of the Benalla Senior’s Centre.
 
Following this question we are pleased to announce that we have invited Ambulance Victoria to give us some information about Use of the Defibrillator at our May Meet and Mingle which will be held on Wednesday 18th May 2022 at 10am in our U3A room.
 
In the meantime we have been sent the following information from Ambulance Victoria called Call Push Shock FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) which we are attaching to our website with their permission. The information is available to our Convenors and other U3A Members if required.

Margaret Jenkins 

The degree to which mobility scooter operators embrace the legal concept that they must act as if they are pedestrians, can be carried to extremes, as road rules expert John Weinert discovered recently.
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He told a Meet and Mingle group at U3A (University of the Third Age) in Benalla last week, that while traversing a roundabout in his car, he almost collided head on with a person in a mobility scooter, coming at him from the opposite direction. “I couldn’t see the front of the scooter he was so close to me”.

The explanation from the scooter operator was that as a pedestrian on a road, you must travel facing oncoming traffic and that was the way he believed he should negotiate a roundabout.

Mr Weinert, communications officer for RoadSafe North East based in Yarrawonga, was making one of his first presentations on driving safely since Covid constrained such talks two years ago.

He said the only approach scooter operators should take at roundabouts was to avoid them entirely.

He also said the biggest single thing drivers could do to increase their safety was to always drive with headlights on low beam. “That will greatly increase your visibility to other drivers, as will avoiding driving silver, green and black cars,” he said. “Those colours just blend into the bitumen and are very difficult to see”.

Buy the heaviest car you can handle, because if you are in a small car and collide with say a Land Cruiser, you and your car will come off second best.

If you have a chronic medical condition or disability that is not on your licence and you crash, your insurer will very likely deny liability. “The police or VicRoads don’t care but your insurer will,” he said.

Mr Weinert said the most dangerous manoeuvre of all, was doing a right hand turn, because there could be traffic going in four different directions.

He said it was best to turn right, when traffic was quieter and where there were right hand turn signal arrows, or at least traffic lights. “In a perfect world we would only do left hand turns but it could take us a long time to go anywhere,” he said.

He also spent time on other legalities of using a roundabout, to explain the law that says, those already on a roundabout have right of way. “But don’t carry that to extremes,” Mr Weinert said. “If a vehicle is on the far side of the roundabout, you will not clash with it if you enter the roundabout, when the vehicle is some distance from you”.

​Where merging lanes are encountered, Mr Weinert made the point that a vehicle entering a main road from a merging lane on the left, must give way to vehicles on the main road.

“If they go out of their way, they are doing you a courtesy to let you in easily, so give the other driver a waved acknowledgement,” he said.
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David Palmer

After officiating at the Annual General meeting of U3A, Rosie Koop, executive officer of The Tomorrow Today Foundation, spoke at Meet and Mingle about the achievements of the organisation in the last dozen or so years in lifting educational standards in the city.

Ms Koop said that in 2007, a report called Dropping off the Edge came out which identified Benalla people, young people in particular, as being highly disadvantaged. It said the one thing which could break this disadvantage was education. In 2010 Tomorrow Today decided to do something about this.

Ms Koop described their focus on Early Childhood programs such as the PEEP program, the improved outcomes which have been, statistically as well as anecdotally, evident resulting from this work and the subsequent programs introduced to improve access of young people to work experience. She said that in a 2017 survey, only a bit more than 30 per cent of Benalla students were having work experience. “But then over the next two years, we boosted that [workplace experience involvement] to 90 per cent”. Ms Koop said Tomorrow Today is now supported by a highly productive partnership of 124 local partners. “They run from all schools to recruitment companies, Benalla Health, employers, and Benalla Council”.

After her presentation, Ms Koop met and mingled with U3A members and other guests, including Rural City of Benalla Councillors Danny Claridge, Don Firth and Punarji Gunaratne.

David Palmer

John Weinert from Road Safe North East will be the guest speaker at the April Meet and Mingle which will be held on Wednesday 20 April 2022 at 10am in our U3A room.

John, who formerly worked for Vic Roads, will do a Power Point presentation aimed at the older driver.  This Safe Driver Presentation will include new road rules which have come into law recently and may not have been adequately publicised. John will also incorporate parts of his Mobility Devices Program into his talk.

U3A members will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. It is a great way to keep up to date with the latest road rules. We hope to see many members come along.
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Margaret Jenkins