14th January Meeting - RACQ Helicopter

Chair
Ian

International Toast
Happy New Year for us but not for all.
We toasted RC Tonga currently being ravaged by Cyclone Ian
Someone had to count the 160 islands that make up Tonga
Rotary in Victoria is active there with development of industry and land care projects

Visitors
Welcome to Angela Miles from RACQ
Bernie & Anna

Apologies
Julianna, Jan, Col, Ron, Pam, the Hanleys & Merv

Makeups
Rotary starts early for some -Mark made up at District Board
Deborah & Noel tried one on but we were a bit suspicious

Presidents Report
Deborah welcomed Angela who she knows from the LNP and Toastmasters
More evidence of women taking over according to Deborah
A reminder of the International Conference - we already have a crew going
ROMAC will be holding its Sunshine Coast Trivia Challenge on Thursday 6th of March 2014.  Bryan Mason OAM will contact us early in the New Year to arrange a time to visit the club
Golf Day needs to be organized
3 USC BBQ’s coming up in Febuary
A Mystery Dinner thing is in the pipeline

Don’t forget - No Rotary next week 21st Jan
but normal Rotary on the 28th plus opening of the Shed that week on Friday 31st
Jarrod and Mark are booked in so only two motorcycles please!

(I hope I got that right)

Speaker
Neil introduced Angela, who gave us a potted history of the helicopter rescue service, starting with Don Moffat as chair and involved Norm Provan who developed this resort. (yes, you are standing in it) 21 years ago
Their black tie fundraising event at Twin Waters had 530 participants and raised $157k
In 1979 Des Scsnlon had started a service
The Bell 206 helicopter was a daytime only operation, but has now been replaced with the VK 117, which is crewed by the pilot, one crew, a doctor and an intensive care paramedic.
 
They do the difficult & remote jobs, an example being the rescue on Mt Coolum this past week.  Their SSC base is Maroochydore, and they have 34 staff plus doctors and paramedics in the North Coast region.
 
This year, there are 1.2m people in the region and they can reach all within one hour.  In July, RACQ came on board and the service merged with Care Flight, covering GC, Toowoomba, SSC and Bundaberg.  They have a $1.8m budget and six aircraft.
 
There were 23 missions in the North Coast area over Xmas/New Year
Angela recounted two separate incidents on Mt Tibrogargan involving 10m and 40m falls and the follow up with the victims.  They can travel 100km out to sea, have a two and a half hour flight capacity, and can be in the air in five minutes.

The service covers 11 Council areas although only nine help with funding.  During the Bundaberg floods, the hangar was used for an evacuation centre.
 
Directors
Mostly about our Imbil trip so too late now - we have already been!