G. & D.V.V.A.A. Home Page

FROM THE PRESIDENT

MEMBER UPDATE

                                                      
During this unprecedented time the Committee has continued to do what it can to keep the Geelong Vietnam Veterans Ass. going. We have now removed all of our museum items from Osborne House and members have been sorting these items for eventual return to those who donated them, this is a slow process and must be done carefully so as not to create problems.

We were also able to remove some display cabinets from storage and relocate these to the VV Centre in Belmont.

We also removed the large bar fridge, commercial dishwasher and domestic dishwasher from Osborne House and placed these into storage in our container at Ceres. These items will be offered for sale to members in the future.

The Osborne House Sustainability Plan, which we have had some input into through the OPA, will be presented to the Council on 25^th August. If accepted it will be followed by 6 weeks of public consultation and then returned to Council for endorsement. We hope to see some action in the 2021.

We were able to re-open the VV Centre for a time but now due to new COVID restrictions the City of Greater Geelong requires us to close our Vietnam Veterans Belmont Centre once more.                                                                                                 

If you require assistance then please contact one of the following:
Gary Ryan   (Secretary)
Rieny Nieuwenhof   (President)
Open Arms – Veterans & Families Counselling Service – 24/Hr – 1800 011 046

Membership

Our membership co-ordinator has been updating our membership register and provided me with a list of unfinancial members, who I have contacted personally. Membership dues are our only source of income at present and we don’t want to lose any member’s support, especially during these difficult times. Remember being financial entitles you to receive our newsletter, the Fire Support Bulletin and the national VVAA Newsletter Debrief. It is important to know what is going on and the campaigns that are being followed and advocacy taking place in the veteran community.

Keeping in touch:

At the start of the Pandemic we had the Committee members contacting all of our Sub Branch members by phone to see how they were going and we have recently commenced doing that again. So you should get a call checking on your welfare and seeing if there are any needs that we can assist you with.

Veterans Day – 18th August

The City of Greater Geelong will fly the Geelong Vietnam Veterans logo flags throughout Geelong during August and the candle lights on the corner of Moorabool St and Malop St. will be illuminated with the Vietnam Veterans colours from 6pm to 11.pm on the 18^th August.  We thank the CoGG for their acknowledgement and continued support of Vietnam veterans in Geelong.

There will be no public Vietnam Veterans service or march held locally or in Melbourne.
Pres. Rieny and some Committee members will lay a wreath at 11am at our Memorial in North Geelong on the day.  There is a “live streaming” of the service at the Melbourne Shrine at 11am on the day and that is accessed via the Shrine website www.shrine.org.a HYPERLINK “http://www.shrine.org.au/”u

Annual Badge Selling and monthly Pakington St BBQ:

Unfortunately, there will be no Badge selling this year and Pako BBQ’s are also on hold. These two events are our main source of Welfare income for the Sub Branch.

Fortnightly PayDay Lunches/ Ladies Monthly Lunches                                                          

Have been on hold for some months now and we will be looking forward to when we can get together again socially. 

GDVVAA Committee                                                                                             

The Committee held a meeting via ZOOM on the 20th July and discussed a number of ongoing issues, and will continue to meet as necessary.

The Committee extends its greetings to all Geelong & District Vietnam Veterans and their families and trusts all continue to be safe and well.

Rieny Nieuwenhof