Jamieson Kirk is the incoming president of The Rotary Club of Sunbury. She spoke with Oliver Lees about her plans for the organisation.
Q1. What is your connection to Sunbury and the Macedon Ranges, and how old are you?
In 2002, we moved to Sunbury to live in our first newly built home on Pugh Court. It was a short walk from Killara Primary School where I started grade 2. I remember we could see our house and dog Baxter from the back fence, and we would call out to him on lunch break.
I also did a lot of growing up around the Macedon Ranges, having dancing classes in Macedon and spending a lot of my time in Gisborne with both Mowbray and Braemar College friends.
I’m 27 years old now and last year my partner Marty and I bought our first home in Sunbury. We are super happy and proud to be here.
Q2. Do you have a favourite part of town?
My favourite coffee in town is a bag of fair-trade beans from Just Planet Roastery & Espresso Bar for my machine at home, but otherwise, my favourite coffee is from Krash and Co who have recently moved to a larger location on Evans Street. My favourite cafe to dine in right now is Kyedon on Ligar Street, and my favourite parks are the Emu Bottom wetlands and the Nook.
Q3. When did you first become involved in the Rotary Club of Sunbury?
The Rotary Club of Sunbury sponsored me to attend the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Conference in November 2019. This was a life-altering experience, and I was strangely exhilarated and inspired to realign my life with my passions afterwards.
Soon after I began attending both Gateway Rotaract (for those under 30) and Sunbury Rotary weekly meetings and was invited to become a member of both.
Being a dual member was a large commitment, but a welcome one during the lockdown, as I looked forward to the online comradery of Zoom meetings. I soon toned it back to focus my energy on just Rotary.
Q4. What plans do you have for the organisation while acting as president?
I plan to continue growing the club by engaging and inviting prospective new members from the local community, particularly young people, local businesses, and retired professionals or anyone with the extra time that’s interested in coming along Tuesday nights to see what we’re all about.
Being club president is a fantastic professional development opportunity for young people and I’m very excited to develop my public speaking and leadership skills.
I plan to ensure our existing members are happy with the club’s direction and their level of engagement in club activities and projects. I love having a pool of life experience and professional knowledge at my fingertips and want to support all members to remain people of action who enjoy getting involved because I enjoy having their views and guidance and will need their support in my year as president.
I plan to engrain the importance of acknowledging Country and the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we meet and live within our club. I also plan to engage the Sunbury Aboriginal Corporation to attend meetings and events and would ultimately love to invite local Indigenous people to be members, or to perform welcome to country ceremonies where appropriate.
I would love to hold community assessments on top concerns for Sunbury, where we outline our areas of service, current fundraising efforts, and projects, and what the club and friends of Rotary deem to be the top concerns for Sunbury. It would be great to get the community more involved in having a say and understanding what Rotary can do for the community.
I plan to focus more on our newest area of service ‘Supporting the Environment’, and welcome any community involvement from schools, businesses and whoever is interested in volunteering funds, time, or project ideas in this space. After all, Paul Harris [the founder of Rotary International] said it best: ‘It’s a changing world, we must be prepared to change with it. The story of Rotary will have to be written again and again.’
