Orange Regional Arts Foundation (ORAF) Gives Grand Piano to the City

The Orange Regional Arts Foundation recently gave a Yamaha grand piano, valued at $59 000, to the city of Orange. The piano will be housed at the Orange Regional Conservatorium (ORC). This will really assist those senior students and performers at the conservatorium.

An unveiling was held on Thursday the 26th November when Graham Sattler, the Director of Orange Regional Conservatorium played for us all. It was great to see him engaging the community with his varied repertoire.

Graduation from the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation

What an amazing experience of not only self discovery but also world and state discovery. As you may know I have been on an 18 month course of leadership with the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (APLF). I was sponsored by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. One of the days spent in Canberra involved a trip to Outward Bound our adventure can be view at the ARLF site.
As a part of our course we were required to develop a vision statement, ours is "Communities empowered to create their own vibrant future" and my task specifically is to gain a greater understanding of support for all families. I intend to conduct a survey with the support of Orange City Council to establish the needs of Orange residents. More details on this can be viewed at the Australian Rural Leadership site.
A Symposium was held on Friday 20th November which included guest speakers Professor Peter Shergold, Peter Cosier, Leo D'Angelo Fisher, Darriea Turley and Chris Sarra. Mixed in with our guest speakers were presentations from several course participants on their vision tasks. For more details on these they can be viewed at the ARLP site. Leo D'Angelo makes reference to the days activities and I would recommend you read his article at BRW a leading Business magazine.
I welcome any speaking opportunities to speak further about our vision statement, my vision task or my involvement in the Australian Rural Leadership Program. Contact me at frossiter@bigpond.com

Opening of Yarrawong Children’s Centre

On Monday the 9th November the new extension for the Yarrawong Children’s Centre was opened. Yarrawong Children's Centre is a community-based, not-for-profit, long day care centre that has been offering high quality accredited care since December 1993. The centre caters for children aged between 0 and 5 years. This is a positive, family resource that encourages children to learn and develop through play; where staff encourage exploration in groups and support individuals to learn at their own pace within a safe environment.

The new, council funded, extension allows for a greater separation between age groups and gives the centre 10 extra places to offer the community.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudds visit to Bathurst

Having the opportunity to speak with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Health Minister Nicola Roxon was something I am glad to have been able to do. It is not every day that the Prime Minister comes out to Regional and Rural NSW, in fact it is very rare. The community was able to ask questions relevant to Federal Government and tap into areas of great concern such as health, education, transport, environment and water.

Although this was a great opportunity, it was also frustrating. When viewing and partaking in question time it proved difficult for the Prime Minister at times to answer the relevant questions. Instead time was wasted in finding fault and playing the blame game on others. Questions were asked and answers were needed.

I travelled with other people from Orange because the visit by the Prime Minister did not extend past Bathurst, again this is an unfortunate decision I believe made by the Labor party. It shows those people outside of Bathurst that they are either irrelevant, insignificant or of no value when seeking votes for further elections. Aside from that I would like to think that a positive or several positive outcomes could come from this event.

If the Prime Minister is true to his word along with the Ministers then we (country NSW) can expect some significant changes. One in particular that comes to mind would be the assistance for community service projects which I mentioned. I plan to keep you all updated on this matter and would like to think we could expect a positive outcome.

Looking forward to further contact with the cabinet and discussions and funding to help rural and remote communities.

View the story from the Central Western Daily and there is more... to read

Presentation of Rural Fire Service Awards and Handover of Tankers.

Yesterday, the NSW Rural Fire Service acknowledged the contributions of long time volunteers to local brigades in the Canobolas Zone. The Rural Fire Service is made up of volunteers from all walks of life - men and women who give up their time to protect our community. Although unable to attend, I sincerely wish to congratulate these people for their ongoing efforts.

The RFS is the lead agency in NSW for bush fire fighting. It is also responsible for fires and related emergency incidents within Rural Fire Districts: districts that cover more than 95% of the State! Add to this, the RFS’s role supporting other agencies in emergency situations such as floods, storms and rescue situations and it is easy to see the vital contribution that these people make to our community.

The brigades in the area had additional cause to celebrate as the NSW Government handed over the long awaited tankers and bus to their Blayney, Cabonne, Cowra and Orange operations.

Orange Outstanding Business Awards 2009

Congratulations to the Orange Business Chamber for all their work contributing to the GGU Orange Outstanding Business Awards 2009. The Orange Business Chamber aims to bring Orange businesses closer together and to promote these business to develop a better economy for all businesses.

In a festive dinner dance at the Orange Ex-Services’ Club, awards were given in over a dozen categories. The theme this year was “driving energy efficiency and water conservation in our community.” This was a very well attended evening and everyone had a great time celebrating and dancing.

Winners include:
Retail Small – Skinsational Beauty Therapy
Retail Medium to large – Printflow
Professional Services – Orange Veterinary Hospital
Hard Trade – Jeff Hort Engineering
Soft Trade – Sheeradiance
Tourism, Food, Accommodation – Black Sheep Inn
Manufacturing – Almighty Industries
Agribusiness – Orange Veterinary Hospital
Innovation – Orange Courier Service
New and Emerging Business – Small Acres Cyder
Not For Profit – Orange Credit Union
Energy Efficiency – Mick Fabar Engineering
Water Conservation – Electrolux Home Products
People’s Choice Business – Mission Australia Community Services
People’s Choice Employee - Catherine Bayada

I attended as a representative of Orange City Council and very much enjoyed the entertaining and informative evening: a culmination of outstanding achievements.