RAE Association (Vic) Inc. – Annual General Meeting (AGM) – Royal Australian Engineers Association of Victoria Inc.

On 30th March 2023 the RAE Association conducted its Annual General Meeting which was held at the Ringwood RSL – a number of those attending the AGM arrived early and started the evening with a meal – in fact there were 15 people on the table and a couple of others in the bar area so a good turn up.

This is not the first time that the AGM has been conducted away from the usual venue at the Ringwood East depot with the RSL being the obvious choice due to its location. The reason that the AGM has been switched to an offsite location and held at night was in the hope that we would attract a higher attendance number but more particularly get some serving members of the Regiment to come along – this year we managed to attract a couple of serving sappers in Trevor Mays and Stephen Mullett.

Whilst we always wish for more people to attend to provide support there was a good turn up of members providing valuable backing to the Association and in fact it was the biggest turn out we have had with 38 members (including committee) in attendance. Included was COL Bruce Murray, AM (Colonel Commandant RAE Southern Region) who travelled from Queenscliff and conducted the voting for the committee positions. John Wertheimer (Patron), Austin Byrne (life member) and WO1 Tom Jesser (RSM 22 ER) who attended as a guest. Travelling a long distance were Laurie Young, George Weeks and Alan Hawkins.

Great to see several faces that have not been along for a while.

Along with the normal business associated with any AGM there was the election of office bearers for the 2023 – 2024 year which are as follows;

President; Don Hughes (and Zeus)

Vice President; Vacant

Secretary; Jim Davis

Treasurer; Duncan Howarth

Committee;

Mel Constable

Eric (Jock) Howatt

Margaret Handte

Michael Potts

Mark Shanks

Bruce Murray (as COL COMDT RAE Southern Region)

During his address Don took the opportunity of mentioning 3 people who had received awards namely Eric (Jock) Howatt an RAE Head of Corps Commendation for his work with fund raising for the Royal Children’s Hospital along with community work. Peter Mercoulia was awarded an OAM for his work with the Greek Community and Margaret Handte was awarded the overall and open awards for the Federal Electorate of Deakin for 2022 for her tireless work in supporting veterans.

Jim Davis

Secretary 31st March 2023