News

2013 was the 50th anniversary of the founding of this Branch of ALGWA, and the committee worked on a number of activities throughout the year to celebrate and commemorate the event. Following the State Conference at Euroa, where we had a historical and photographic display, our next event was a luncheon at Geelong on the 13th September, with special guest speaker Priscilla Pescott OAM, former Branch and National President. On the 24th October we had a nibbles and drinks event at the Melbourne Town Hall, courtesy of the City of Melbourne, and our final event for the year was the Bursary Award presentation.

We returned to our beginnings for this function. In 1952 a group of women Councillors met for afternoon tea at the Windsor Hotel and formed the Victorian Women Councillor Committee. Unfortunately the organisation lapsed after two years, primarily because many members lived in the country and aranging meetings was difficult. In 1963 the idea was successfully revived and our branch of ALGWA established. Our Bursary Award on the 27th November was an Afternoon Tea at the historic Windsor Hotel, with Special Guest Speaker Maxine Morand, CEO of the Breast Cancer Network. The Bursary Award Winner for 2013 was Marie Downie of the Baw Baw Shire. More details of this event are in the most recent Newsletter.

Another 50th activity was the publication of a listing of all known office bearers from 1963 to 2013, now available under the ‘What’s New’ heading.

A further publication under the same heading was a listing of all conferences held since the first in 1964, along with some details of them, where records exist. The first few of these summaries have been uploaded; they make interesting reading in places, particularly the 1970s summaries.

Photographs and a brief report of the 2013 Conference are in the September Newsletter.