Last Friday evening approximately thirty three of members, partners and guests enjoyed a good evening of food and wine at La Maison in support of our club project of fundraising for the Baby and Parent Unit at Wodonga Hospital. The food was as usual really a delight to consume and Wendy Killeen matched the wines perfectly to the food as well as giving a short précis of the complexion of the wine in question. If it wasn’t for the fact of ‘drink driving’ and I was sitting next to Beth Skirton was also in attendance as a guest then I would have certainly had more than half a glass of Rutherglen Topaque ! What is so great about Wendy is that though her business commitments are really heavy with much inter -state travel, she always tries to do things for the advantage of our Club despite not always being able to come to actual Wednesday meetings. A strong vote of thanks must go to Vicki Gray and Gordon Shaw regarding all the arranging in making the evening a success. Whilst we await final figures, it is estimated that we made approximately $1000 toward the Baby and Parent Unit at Wodonga Hospital, and we have another fundraiser to come in the guise of a Trivial Pursuit Evening at Thurgoona on Valentines Day next year.
Club Meeting 16 October 2013
Guest Speaker – Current Area Governor of Toastmasters and fellow member of Albury Hume, Graham Fuller, gave us an insight into his experiences, challenges and enjoyment experiened since joining Toastmasters …he is now a member of three clubs in the region ! Graham gave us some idea of the many areas in which Toastmastes can be of assistance to the public speakers from an ‘icebreaker’speech to presenting impromptu speeches, keeping to time limits, evaluation and praise by fellow members. Graham then introduced Sue Honey from the ‘yet-to-be-chartered’Wodonga Club. Sue spoke of the benefits and skills attainable through involvement with Toastmasters in such areas as … Table topics Impronptu speeches
Interview skills Leadership Communication Two club meetings are held per month …dinner meetings on occasions …both Sue and Graham indicated anyone was welcome to attend a meeting at anytime.
River of Stories
What can I 
say but the work and the worry was worth it again –Now in its 11th year attended by 29 winning students, parents, school teachers and principals, border mail, our sponsors Commercial Club and Dymocks, Cr Alice Glachan, Cr Patricia Gould (her 11th year of attendance) and Greg Aplin M P who never misses. Thank you to Rotarians to –Julie on one leg, Gordon Shaw, Max and Leonie Blomeley, Dennis Hickey(who never misses) Peter Lee our President and a big thanks to Ian Harrison who took every photo of the winners etc and accompanied by Margaret. Thank you all for that support including 
all those sausage sizzles which go towards the prizes which I really value. We gave out 34 prizes –30 Dymock vouchers to the winners of their school prize, $200 to the winners of each section and 4 of $500 to the winning schools …the funds going to their library for the purchase of books or Hi-tech equipment.
President’s Message
Another busy week for members last week following Wednesday’s meeting. Vicki Gray showed all her Managerial skills re handling staff and put Ian Harrison and Roger Snell the task of showing her their culinary skills with preparing a BBQ for School Students who were attending a Mental Health seminar at the Albury Performing Arts Centre. Whilst all the foods were provided by the Council, it still required skill by Roger and Ian cooking a mixture of snags, rissoles, and chicken burgers. Very little left over anyway. At the end Vicki showed her driving skills by hooking up the trailer to her 1900 ute and drove away to store the trailer. Of course on the Friday evening, various members were engaged with the Midnight Basketball competition at PCYC, and trust that the evening passed away without incident and red cards being shown to participants. On Saturday, Barry Young acted as MC in announcing and presenting various school students with their various prizes from the River of Stories competition. Thankyou also to all members who attended the Albury Library for the presentations, including Julie who also made an appearance. One very good piece of news from the presentations was that we may have secured an additional $500 to $1000 sponsorship from the Commercial Club. Two of their Directors were in attendance and were advising me to write in and one of the attending Directors will propose the additional monies and the
other Director will second the proposal at their respective Board meeting.
Club Meeting 9 October 2013
Membership Services Officer of the Northside Chamber of Commerce, Carrick Gill-Vallance, was our guest speaker last week. Albury Northside Chamber of Commerce is a not-for-profit organisation and operates on a lean budget made possible by its members and Albury City, as the greatest financial supporter. Activities and events are always conducted on a self funded basis. Operations are carried out by three paid staff, overseen by a Board of Directors composed of volunteers. The Chamber meets monthly and is a valuable resource for the local business community. Last financial year it had 64 partners and 424 members with ten new businesses joining per month. The chamber has been rated as No.1 …the largest chamber in regional NSW …with representation on the NSW Business Chamber Regional Council Their initiatives include a Business Directory, ‘Business-afterHours’functions, Chamber Business Awards, held recently …also cross-border involvement with the Wodonga Chamber of Commerce.