2011 AGM & DINNER – Saturday 27th August at Moama Bowling Club

The CMPA Annual Dinner ventured north to the picturesque towns of Echuca Moama, where guests networked with industry peers at numerous activities. Gavin Moreira, CMPA Administration Officer reviews a fantastic weekend.

ALL the advertising was around having an enjoyable weekend away of fun filled activities. The CMPA Annual Dinner weekend turned out to be exactly that, with fantastic early spring sunshine putting the icing on the cake.

The weekend commenced with a battle royal on the fields of Semoz Paintball, just outside of Moama. It was here that a group of 15 quarry members and associates dressed in camouflage overalls and supplied with safety helmets and a range of protective gear as well as the important air-powered paintball markers took to playing the extreme sport of paintball.

The challenge was to survive a few hours on the field with very little cover and without getting hit by small gelatine capsules called paintballs. Immense enjoyment was had by some, others endured moments of pain as they were pelted by bullets to various parts of their bodies. A great event and even better talking point for the night ahead.

The culmination of twelve months of planning and hard work by the Secretariat evolved into a wonderful night, where 200 Members and their guests gathered on Saturday August 27 at the Moama Bowling Club in Moama for the eleventh Annual Dinner.

The evening commenced with pre-dinner drinks in The Pavilion; this allowed guests to meet and greet friends and peers over a beer or wine and to take in what was a fabulously refurbished venue.

Soon it was time to move into the function room The Venue where guests were welcomed by MC Brendan James and greeted by a very spacious room filled with bud light centre pieces to light the way to your table. Brendan then officially opened the CMPA Silent Auction for the night, which involved guests bidding on items throughout the night on gift s donated by members.

The auction raised nearly $4000 with proceeds going towards the CMPA Educational Fund to develop educational and training resources to improve safety in your workplaces.

This year the CMPA Annual General Meeting was incorporated into the dinner for the first time. Tim Bird, CMPA Chairperson opened the meeting and in his address spoke about the highlights of the past twelve months including the submission provided to the VCEC – Inquiry into Victoria’s Regulatory Framework as well as various workshops held on blast management and slope stability.

These such issues were brought to the attention of the CMPA through incidents that have occurred on quarry sites. He also acknowledged the hard work of the Associate and Management Committees over the past year.

A motion was raised to accept all presentations provided in the Annual Report: Chairperson, Associate Chairperson, Education Chairperson, Policy & Special Issues Chairperson, Treasurer and Secretary which were duly passed (These presentations provided in the Annual Report are available in the members only area of the CMPA website.).

The last two orders of business for the AGM was the re-election for a further three years to the Management Committee, consisting of Peter Baenziger, Tim Bird, David Carrucan, Garry Cranny, David Eldridge, Robin Hocking, and Basil Natoli. As well, the election of John Mawson as the new CMPA Chairperson, also for a three year term took place. We thank Tim for all his hard work and support over the last three years and welcome John to the role and look forward to working with him over the coming years.

A DVD presentation of the last twelve months of the CMPA was then played which depicted the pride of the members in the association through photos of their quarries, sand and stone front covers, video footage of a blast from Allstone Quarries and voice over commentary outlining the strengths of the association and the challenges that lie ahead. (The DVD presentation can be viewed on the CMPA website www.cmpavic.asn.au).

The feature act of the evening was the MC turned solo artist Brendan James who kept us all entertained with his renditions of Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra. Guests were also given the opportunity throughout the evening to have their pictures drawn by star caricaturist Tony Bramwell who worked non-stop all night.

The dinner was an overwhelming success with many new contacts made and old ones renewed. Many associates were overwhelmed by the opportunities they had during the night to network with fellow associates, but more importantly with quarry members. One associate made the comment “I spoke to a dozen quarry members in a few hours, this sort of one on one communication would have normally taken me a few months to achieve and on top of that I didn’t even have to travel anywhere to speak to them.” “What a spectacular way to mix business and pleasure!”

OTHER COMMENTS

“Had a great time, what a wonderful venue!”

“Thank you for a terrific weekend. I had a great night and have made contact with enough quarry sites to make visits for the next few weeks, which is great.”

“What a great weekend, so well organised. It was just perfect-everything just seemed to fall into place effortlessly…but I know how much effort goes in to making it happen. The planning and organising is much appreciated.”

“Congratulations to everyone involved in organising the AGM and Dinner, the venue for the weekend and they meals were fantastic.”

“Attending my first dinner as a guest of a quarry member, I was overwhelmed by the venue and the entertainment. A great night and a good way to get a better understanding of the association and an insight into the industry they work in.”

The night finished with guests who wanted to carry on the party, doing so over quiet drinks and social conversation in The Pavilion and Piano Bars.

At this point the weekend was only half over, Sunday morning brought three more opportunities to mingle with fellow members and to reminisce on the night before.

A beautiful continental breakfast was served up for 50 guests who braved the early morning at the Star Hotel in Echuca, what a start to another beautiful day. This was soon followed by an hour long Paddle Steamer cruise up the Murray River with over 40 members and families booked in.

A leisurely round of golf for eight at the Echuca Back Nine course was held, where rivalries may have commenced for future CMPA events. The inaugural winner was Ian McLeod from DPI.

We sincerely hope everyone enjoyed the weekend and as you can see from the photos it certainly appears that way!

THANKS TO THE SPONSORS

On behalf of the guests at the 2011 Annual Dinner, we would like to thank all those who sponsored the evening:

Early Bird Prize Sponsor: Petromech Pty Ltd
Early Bird Prize Sponsor: Lincom Group
Name Tag & Lanyard Sponsor: Oli Vibrators Pty Ltd

Platinum sponsors:
Astec Australia Pty Ltd and Onetrak Pty Ltd

Gold sponsors:
Atlas Copco Construction and Mining Australia, Belmont Diesel, Bendigo Regional Institute of TAFE, Crushing Equipment, Delta Rent, Finlay Screening & Crushing Systems, Gordyn & Palmer Pty Ltd, Orica Australia (Quarry Services), Terex Jaques, WAM Australia and William Adams.

Silver sponsors:
Advanced Engineering Group, Brightwater Manufacturing Pty Ltd, CJD Equipment, Earthmoving Industry Engineering Pty Ltd, Groeneveld Australia, Indeco Australia, Kinder & Co, Landair Surveys, Landmark Contracting, Oli Vibrators Pty Ltd and Petromech Pty Ltd.

Bronze Sponsors:
Australian Mine & Quarry Supplies, Box Hill Institute of TAFE, CEC Electrical, Central Queensland Hydraulics, Galesafe Weighing, Komatsu Australia Pty Ltd and, Sandvik Mining & Construction and TSP Group of Companies.

It would be greatly appreciated if all Members could thank these companies if you are talking to them. Members are asked to consider these companies when you are next pricing a job.

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