Meeting Report

Meeting Report 3174 September 4th 2023

Apologies for the evening:

Colin Bazeley, Julie Tekell, Tom Kelly, Anthea John, Mark Forgie, Patsy Johnson, Stan Roulston

Guests: NIL

This evenings Formalities: Fines to:
Toast	Grace	Chair
Michael J	Ron L	Mark Smeaton

PP Barry Stewart introduced the chair for the evening- PP Mark Smeaton. Mark welcomed members and guests, then acknowledged the apologies before introducing asking members who had messages to come forward.

Pres John,

From this week Rotary spots will be kept to 2 minutes each.
Next week there will be no guest speaker. The meeting will be dedicated to a healthy discussion about the Regionalisation project. Please make sure you have read all the emailed documentation so you can participate while being fully informed. This is important decision we are being asked to make and John asks all members attend if possible.

PP Brian Burt

On Friday at the Royal Show the Police Officer of the Year will be announced. The Rotary Club of Unley organises this and Brian has nominated Gary Wills from Gawler.

PP Treasurer Kim Potger

At the Board meeting last week it was decided not to increase the meal price as previously advised so they will stay at $25. If members advise they will not be attending the meeting, there is no charge. This does mean that there will be the reintroduction of $50 per member cub dues per year.
We were given the challenge if we donated $2500 to the New Dawn Project, it would be matched by a Rotarian. This challenge was completed, and all moneys have been forwarded.

PP Ian Sanders

Ian received an email from Gawler council asking for historical information about a Gawler Rotaract project from 1993 involving Ayling and Dwyer Lime Kiln Park. This year the park’s playground and irrigation system will be reviewed and a new design will be developed, for construction in 2024/25. It is understood that the Rotaract Club of Gawler took over the responsibility of the playground equipment and called it Lime Kiln Playground in the mid 1900’s and that on 28 March 1993, it was renamed Ayling & Dwyer Lime Kiln playground. Ian asked that if anyone had information they could speak to him so he can follow up.
Ian visited Stan in hospital this week and says he is not doing very well but he would welcome visitors.

PP Steve Barilla

Asked for volunteers for the Swap Meet. We are cooking Sausages and hot dogs. Will need a small team to set up on Saturday with bulk of volunteers needed Sunday Morning.
This Sunday we are committed to assisting the Ride Against Suicide at Two Wells. Once again we just need to cook and serve Sausage sizzle and keep a tab of how many we sell. Steve asked for small number of Volunteers.
Gawler Athletics club have approached us for help and it has been suggested we organise a quiz night with proceeds back to them. Steve will organise with his committee

PP Chris Edmunds Chris spoke about hospitality and gave a brief history going back to the bible then compared it to Gawler Rotary. Hospitality from the latin Hospitalis means receiving and entertaining guests in a way that makes them feel well taken care of. Chris said in the past we used to meet at members’ homes, and this was the epitome of hospitality. He acknowledged that meeting regularly in the one place on a regular night is convenient, but it would be great to once again visit and met at others homes and asked members to consider it

PP Mike W said his information for the Almoners report was covered by Ian S.

Chair PP Mark. Thanked members for the information in the spots.

After dinner, Chair Mark introduced Barry for his sergeant’s session who conducted the wheel spin with the winning numbers going to Lance (!st prize Cash), Ian N and Gayle (Chocolates).

Sergeant at Arms PP Barry then presented his Bunyip roundup and Facebook funnies.

Chair PP Mark introduced tonight’s guest speaker Gawler Rotarian Wayne Murphy to talk about Building Law.

Around 3.5 thousand years ago the first building laws we published on stone and on display for everyone to see. They were simple:

If a builder builds a house for someone and it falls down and kills the owner, the builder is put to death. If it kills the son of the owner, the son of the builder then the son of the owner shall be put to death. If it kills a slave the builder must give the owner his slave. Plus, in all cases the builder must reconstruct the house at no charge.

Major incidents have resulted in many changes to the Law. Some examples are:

During 1666 the Great Fire of London burned for a week miraculously only causing 6 deaths. However 13500 homes and 86 churches were destroyed. That outcome resulted in King Charles decreeing that the houses had to be rebuilt with more stone than wood and all adjoining walls must be stone.
In April 1975 The Peoples Palace fire 7 people died because the fire exit was locked -the outcome from that was that any fire door needs to be accessible and opened from the inside without a key.
In the 1970’s houses in the Campbeltown council area were built on market garden soil. This soil is not suitable for building on and hoses started cracking badly. During a court case the Judge said they needed to be knocked down and rebuilt with the cost divided between the engineer, council, and architect. Additionally, the law around footings and reinforcing were changed and are now often seen as being over engineered.
April 2002 Riverside Golf club roof collapsed and killed 2 women. Upon investigation it was discovered that the trusses were incorrectly installed and as a result strain on 4 nails caused it to fail. As a result the new law states that before covering the roof all trusses must be inspected.

The name has also changed before 1993 it was the building Act which worked to a degree. In 1994 Minister Laidlaw decreed that the building and planning act be joined together and become Building Law and all new building work must be inspected and approved by Private inspectors. In the past 30 years the Planning side has taken over and overshadowed the building side. In 2016 a new Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act came into force.

Following the presentation members were given the opportunity to ask questions before PP Mark S thanked Wayne for his very informative talk and introduced Pres John to conclude the meeting.

Pres John once again urged all members to come prepared for next weeks meeting having read all the documentation around the regionalisation Project. Then asked members to recite the For Way Test and closed meeting 3174.