Guest Speaker and Grand-daughter of Roger and Pat Lescun, Jessica Connell, at age 15 was a member of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus in Albury for 5 years specializing in hula-hoops and aerials, then moving to Melbourne for a year before joining ‘Circa’  in 2011 at age 19. Jess says one of her highlights was world premiering “S”, one of five different shows ‘Circa’ performs, at the Brisbane Festival in September 2012.  ‘Circa’ encompases Acrobats as well as Musicians in most performances and has toured internationally since 2006 to 30 countries across six continents. Critics have raved about its shows calling the work “stunning…exquisite… heart-stopping” and “electrically charged”.   Jess mentioned the intensity of circus performing interest  overseas … 500 professional performers in France, 2000 in Canada … 30 in Australia ! The training and rehearsals are a major part of the curriculum with complete satisfaction coming from performing … ‘living-her-dream’ ! Jess presented a short video of a ‘Circa’ performance titled “S”.   ‘Circa’ presented “Sixtyone-in-Sixty Seconds” at the Albury Entertainment Centre last Friday and Saturday nights … a number of members attended.

Guest Speaker, Chief executive officer of the Albury Wodonga Private Hospitals, Doug McRae, presented us with an interesting and informative overview of both hospitals and the supporting Ramsay Foundation established by the late Paul Ramsay. Albury Wodonga Private Hospitals
are one of 151 Hospitals in the world operated by the Ramsay Group, the fifth largest health care provider in the world ! Doug moved to Albury-Wodonga from Coffs Harbour on the NSW mid-north coast, where he was the commercial manager for Ramsay Health Care Baringa Private Hospital.  In relation to the Murray Valley Private in Wodonga rehabilitation is an area that he would like to see grow here … to date the focus has been on oncology, however, he would like to see the focus as much on rehabilitation with a growth to possibly twice what it is now, which will be made possible with the relocation of many services to the new Cancer Centre being built in Albury due to open late in 2015. Albury Wodonga Private Hospitals employ 300 people and have 10.000 admissions annually … Doug outlined the wide range of specialist services available to the region … he mentioned competition was healthy between providers locally and indicated it is still a challenge to encourage doctors/specialists to practice in a regional area. An intake of graduate nursing staff is encouraged. There is also a sound co-operation between public and private hospitals in the border region. In answering a number of questions from members Doug mentioned that superseded equipment from the hospitals is donated to overseas requirements, often through Rotary contacts. Before his move into the health sector, Doug was the general manager of a Coffs Harbour-based construction company, the financial controller of Lindsay Brothers Transport and he has also worked as a financial manager with three New Zealand companies.

As our guest speaker,Co-Manager of Reconnect Communications, Ben Quick, outlined some details of the NBN rollout in the Albury-Wodonga district and anticipated targets. Reconnect  has become a major contributor to the rollout of ADSL in regional NSW/VIC ensuring clients were aware of the service available while helping to connect  ADSL service as quickly as possible. In more recent times, Reconnect has been bringing the Bigpond and Telstra wireless networks to regional NSW & VICTORIA.

Guest Speaker Kathie Heyman joined Albury Northside as Business Manager in February 2014 and was an enthusiastic guest speaker at the meeting supported by Carrick Gill-Vallance, who is well known to the club as a previous guest speaker. Her previous experience includes over 12 years with the chamber movement in the Hunter Region, owner/operator of a small franchise business, client/customer service, business management and consultancy.  Kathie has experience in Strategy, Planning, Economic Development, Project Management, Marketing, Event Management and Grant Writing  … just some of her skills !  At its February meeting Chamber members stated that one of their major challenges for 2014 was finding and retaining skilled staff. With an ageing population, new skill requirements and brain drain to the cities businesses in the Albury region are struggling to attract younger staff and keep staff overall. The Chamber has been working with NSW Business as part of its Advisory Council to start the conversation in regards to training, skill development, staff attraction and retention. In the March 2014 NSW Business Chamber Business Conditions Report its shows regional businesses are struggling. Northside Chamber has 400 individual members supported by 60 business members. Future goals are to grow the business member base, increase assistance and communication with all members, continue to embrace and expand digital IT technology, support home-based businesses and non-profit organisations. Kathie mentioned that Northside worked in conjunction with Albury Central and Wodonga Chamber of Commerce.

Guest Speaker: Our guest speaker was Barie Barolli, CBA Financial Planner Northern Victoria, accompanied by Albury based financial planner, Darrin Skinner and graduate financial planner, Rochelle Stockwell. Barie joined the Commonwealth Bank back in November 1985 and began her Financial Planning role in March 1997.She is passionate in providing people with the high quality, personalised strategic financial advisory services to help them learn more about their options in life, fund the lifestyle they desire for themselves and their families, become more confident and in control of their financial future, and build sustainable wealth to achieve their goals throughout life.Barie specialises in providing family friendly financial advice and services, from providing busy parents with peace of mind by protecting their families to guidanance with transition into retirement and aged care. Barie emphasised the need for planning in the age care market with reference to signifecant changes to occur from 1^st July 2014. Unlike many other financial advisory practices, Commonwealth Financial Planning focuses on providing knowledge and carefully tailored strategies to suit a client’s circumstances throughout life.Barie suggested a three-way approach to understanding Aged Care planning …o   Understand key decisions o   Visit Facilities and identify with family member involved o   Consult a Financial adviser early