Report by Steve Ronnfeldt - Rutherglen Apex

Rutherglen Apex Club member Steve Ronnfeldt who this year joined the State Victoria board as Membership Director attended the National Apex Convention in Perth from July 11th – 17th.

Mr Ronnfeldt made the most of the experience by making the journey into a family holiday taking his wife Wendy and daughters, Meg, Grace and Emma and seeing the sites of Perth and Fremantle.

Mr Ronnfeldt commenced his Apex journey on the Saturday attending a 3 day District Governors Course at Bunbury (3 hrs from Perth). The course included incoming District Governors (DG) from all over Australia and guests from Apex Clubs from the Philippines and Malaysia. The Course covered the responsibilities of becoming a District Governor for Districts of Apex Clubs. This year our for Ovens and Murray our DG is Richard Keating from Albury who attended with also representatives from Myrtleford outgoing DG O&M Doug Clifford and Travis Gunston.

A great time was had and learning the importance of Apex in the community and today’s societies requirements and membership the hot topic. The National board directors, State directors and previous presidents delivered the course to the delegates, who also showed them how to run handover meetings and induct incoming Apexians to their clubs, with mock presentations conducted. Once the courses were conducted members travelled into Perth where the District Governors who represented their districts voted motions of changes to Apex Association Australia. Apex Public Speaking also was conducted with State up against State for the National title and also the same with Junior and High School Public Speaking. It was a fantastic experience watching the students speak, with most of them not using cue cards that just blew me away, said Mr Ronnfeldt.

Once the formalities were over Apexians and their partners joined for a fellowship boat cruise on the Swan River with each State required to do a Skit on the night. This was a very funny night and the great state of Victoria taking out the honours with their skit of a take off of the Apex Aust Teenage Fashion Awards, (AAFTA) their skit “ AVAFTA”. Apex Victoria are Fashion Trendsetters Alive. With a bit of cross dress involved and some funny commentary the Victorian’s were clearly the best-organised skit and funniest.

The National Board Changeover was also apart of the Convention and outgoing National President Phil Gallagher expressed his thanks to his board over the year and new incoming President Mark Wenzel was inducted. This year will be a year of necessary change, this change has been recognised by the members of Apex throughout Australia and voted at the National Convention.  Members are what make a great club and organisation, this year we experienced “The Real Thing” at Perth and now its time for “The Real Deal”, he said. Apex is an important organisation for our communities and like our ideals, our pledge “ building better communities while forming enduring friendships”. We need to sell ourselves to the public and let them know what we are all about so that we can get more people involved.

Awards were presented and Victoria’s Best First year member Stacey Savage of the Moe Apex Club won the National award. Other Victoria nominations that were up for National awards were the Myrtleford Apex Club for Best Club of the year. Victorian Apexian of the year Phil Keily from Greater Melbourne and Moe Apex Club Mary Savage for DG of the Year.

If you would like to be apart of this great organisation and experience some great fellowship and fun while building better communities give Steve Ronnfeldt of the Rutherglen Apex Club a call on 0260329948 or 0428449110.