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Guest Speaker Report Wednesday 9 February 2011 by PP Kevin Freund (reporter) Our Guest Speaker, introduced by Terry Rohan, was Roger Norman, impressively dressed in white overalls (a first for our club) from the Rotary Club of Turramurra, whose aim was to inform and encourage our club to consider implementing a successful project his club launched 3 years ago, The Graffiti Removal Project.
Roger emphasised the many
benefits of the project, being a real hands-on project,
with minimal organizational and administration work
involved after set-up, being suitable for small and
large clubs as only 2, 3, or 4 members are required at a
time, with techniques and procedures involved being
simple and commonsense. Club activity is seen very
regularly in your suburb, and the local community will
greatly appreciate your work. The nature of the work
gets you closer and well known to your local businesses,
providing the opportunity to communicate and work with
your Council and local Chamber of Commerce. The
potential for new membership is limitless in the longer
term, with you as a club and individually getting to
know your community better (guest speakers and
involvement in local events). Promotes personal
satisfaction as results of work undertaken is
immediately seen, and the perfect situation to get to
know other members better and have fun together. The general process involves, prioritising sites to be cleaned on the proposed day, appointing a Team Leader, who will obtain verbal consent from tenants or owners, then analysing the site requirements to remove graffiti e.g. surfaces, access etc., organise two other helpers in team to participate in task , complete the site preparation sheet, and colour match and obtain paint. On the day, the team leader is responsible for all aspects of each site undertaken, arranging for the equipment and materials to be taken to sites, taking before and after photographs of the graffitied area (to send to Council), cleaning graffiti from site as appropriate, taking occasional photographs of team members at work to show at meetings, reporting back to tenant/owner when each site cleaned, finalising information on site preparation sheet to allow later statistical reporting to Council, and returning the equipment and materials to the storage area.
The results for the club
have been significant since starting with a backlog,
after only 15 months all the old graffiti was removed,
and now there is noticeably less graffiti in Turramurra.
The local community has been full of praise with many
comments and thanks extended to the club. Roger concluded his talk, asking members of our club to take the next step and consider getting together and discussing the implementation of the project in our area, and providing his full support and assistance with all matters.
Roger responded to many
questions from members and was thanked by Charles Pitt.
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