NI01 and NI02 Zone Day

Almost forty members from eight of the thirteen VIEW clubs in Zone NI01/02, attended the Zone Day which was held at Oak Tree in Tamworth. The day commenced with a delicious morning tea catered by Mareen from Tamworth Peel Evening and NA Sally, and the table decorations were made by Bev from  Tamworth Peel.

To remind those present of the 100 year celebration of The Smith Family, there was a display of household items from the early 1900s onwards including babies bottles, irons that heated up on the Aga stove and the old eggbeater.

National Advisor Sally Cronberger welcomed Priya Nuni The Smith Family’s Family Partnership Coordinator, Past National Vice President Beryl Pike, Past Zone and National Councillors Mareen Bithrey, Glenda Noble and Barbara Hyslop, Past Zone Councillor Joan Harwood and current Zone Councillor Aletia Norman. She thanked Aletia for organising the day and also Tamworth Evening VIEW Club Vice President Carol Swain who organised the venue. Catering was by the Tamworth Women City Lions Club.

Club reports

Coonabarabran VIEW Club was an apology for the day and Sally shared their report which included that theirs is a small club who hold their meetings in different locations throughout the town and host lots of activities in order to support their four students.

Glen Innes VIEW Club reported that they currently sponsor four students and have 63 members. They are a very social club who listen to their members in terms of what they are prepared to do and host a range of activities including lunches, morning teas, trips etc., and recently donated $2500 to TSF Winter Appeal.

Gunnedah Day VIEW Club currently have 19 members with three waiting to join and three new members. They support one student and recently celebrated their 49th Birthday. They raise funds in a variety of ways including  movie days, soup and damper lunches and they are never short of interesting guest speakers.

Gunnedah Evening VIEW Club support three students and disappointed recently when a planned visit by Marianne Maher had to be cancelled due to Covid. Their club is one of fellowship and fun and raise funds by hosting a range of activities including movie days and trivia nights. They have recently had an excellent speaker on CPR as well as the local Gunnedah Mayor.

Manilla VIEW Club currently has 26 members and recently held their AGM where all positions were eagerly filled. They sponsor three students and ensure they all get a gift card on their birthday. The local hotel is their meeting place where they are treated very well by the staff and fed fabulous food too. They have held a Mother’s Day raffle, had a sing-along with the Sydney Street Choir around the fire, and donated $500 to TSF Winter Appeal. The hospitality students from Manilla High School are catering for their August meeting this year.

Tamworth Day VIEW Club have over 40 members including four new ones. Their Committee works cohesively enabling them to sponsor three students. They have a monthly meeting and a function monthly, a regular newsletter and a new venue for their monthly lunch meetings, The Southgate Inn.

Tamworth Evening VIEW Club has over 60 members with two new members joining this week. It sponsors six students and has had a range of interesting guest speakers this year including Merryl Chaffey, End of Life Educator and Richard Newberry, a local blind man who has never let blindness define what he can do, and of course Cindy and Pryia. It has donated substantial amounts to both the Winter and Christmas Appeals and raises money in a variety of ways including Fashion Parade (with Blue Illusion), Musical Afternoon, Trivia Night, to name a few. TEVC will celebrate its 44th Birthday in August.

Tamworth Peel Evening VIEW Club celebrated their birthday recently and a beautiful cake was made by member Bev and iced by Rayleen. A skit was performed to complete the night. Their planned bus trip to Windy Station Quirindi next weekend with lunch in  Gunnedah in a building erected in the late 1800s, had organiser Lyn changing the original 19 seater to a 48 seat coach, such was the interest. Mareen hosts monthly friendship morning teas for members in her garden, and there are a few more plans in the pipeline to help raise the funds to support their four students.

Werris Creek is a small club with 12 members and has recently celebrated its 40th Birthday and meet monthly in the local Chemist shop which also has a café. They do not have guest speakers and sadly it was stated that it would be closing at the end of the year.

Sally thanked the clubs for their reports and suggested that Werris Creek not give up hope of keeping the club viable as help was available to assist in this process. She went on to report on the International Women’s Day speech given by The Smith Family CEO Mr Doug Taylor. There are currently 1500 students being supported by VIEW Clubs across Australia and he sent a special International Women’s Day greeting to the 15,000 VIEW Club members in 300 clubs for their support of these children.

Past National Vice President Beryl Pike then reminded those present of the importance of taking the time to make some resolutions in readiness for next year. Resolutions will not be discussed at this year’s convention in Adelaide.

Beryl is on the Resolution Committee and stressed that resolutions do make a difference particularly in children and women’s lives. She asked that members think about resolutions in terms of “what we can do to change things for the better for women – so that we know that we have made a difference”. Beryl mentioned that housing for women is currently in crisis particularly since the recent floods in Queensland and NSW.

Beryl gave those present a brief overview of the benefits that VIEW Resolutions have created, such as seat belts in school buses, flashing lights and 40k speed limit in school areas. At present there are only two resolutions at National Office and more are required as soon as possible and before the end of August. The Resolutions will be voted on at Club level then the ones chosen then to go to Members of Parliament. We are making a difference!


General Discussion

Sally advised the meeting that the New VIEW Handbooks are now available and asked each club to take one home. She reported on the Delegates meeting, which was held the previous day, where it was discussed that National Office need earlier notification of any planned events including monthly meetings please, and could all events be emailed to all clubs in the Zone so that others can attend.

Aletia reported to the meeting that members can only take on a maximum of 2 positions on a committee and if women are members of more than one club, they can only hold a position on one club’s committee.

Aletia stressed that selling of items other than VIEW goods or a Trading Table, at a meeting or function is not allowed. If holding a day like this Zone Day, ordinary raffle tickets can be used, however if you are selling tickets to members of the public, official VIEW raffle tickets must be used.

It was also suggested that each committee keep a book which lists those people who attended the meetings and if you have to change your venue for a meeting, for insurance purposes, NO need to be advised.


The issue of badges being attached to ribbon is not banned by NO was raised and members were advised that it is a suggestion only by NO that the wearer should only have club badge on clothing not a directive. Manilla VIEW Club has altered their badges by putting a magnet on the back to attach them to clothing.

Articles for the next edition of VIEW Matters need to be at NO by September. Members were reminded to nominate women in their clubs for the  “Making a Difference Award”. Members would have seen on the VIEW Clubs of Australia Website, “ Inspiring Women of VIEW”. You only need a good resolution photo of such a woman in your club and a few words about what makes her inspiring.

There was some discussion regarding making purple tablecloths for events and some clubs have already done this and had VIEW embroidered on them. Clubs were reminded that raffle tickets sold to the general public need to be kept for 12 months in case of any disputes.

A question from the floor to the meeting was “why are children from Catholic or other non-public schools excluded from sponsorship by TSF?” Pryia offered to seek some clarification on this matter and feed back to the clubs via Zone Councillor Aletia.

Guest speaker

Priya Nuni the Smith Family’s Family Relationship Coordinator for this area acknowledged country and introduced herself.

Priya has a Doctorate in Pharmacology which she completed in India and a Masters in Social Work, completed in Australia. She commenced work in Tamworth in July 2021 but due to the Covid restrictions had limited contact with families. Since March this year, she has been able to have face to face contact with parents, students and schools.

She outlined her extensive role including liaising with schools and principals to progress the referral of students to the program, as well as working with families and students to maximise school attendance.

Priya explained that her role included but was not limited to liaison with students, families, school, local community services and community and cultural leaders. She outlined the reasons for a student exiting the service.

Priya explained the importance of families keeping receipts for all purchases made by them for school related items. This is necessary for legal and auditing reasons as well as developing good habits with the families. She works with families to encourage the students to continue through to year 12.

Currently there are 600 students in Tamworth alone receiving support from The Smith Family and thanked the women of VIEW for their ongoing financial support of the children.

100 years ago

Zone Councillor Aletia then read out what was happening in Australia and worldwide in 1922, the year The Smith Family was established, and this was very enlightening to all especially the fact that Insulin was introduced for use by Type 1 diabetics 100 years ago. Prior to this, diabetics could expect a very short lifespan.

The day concluded with four lucky members winning the lucky door prizes and three fortunate members winning the raffle prizes.

Aletia and Sally thanked all those who assisted with making the day a success, including the Tamworth City Lions for catering, and wished all a safe journey home.

Report by:  Kathy Challinor OAM, Publicity Officer

Tamworth Evening VIEW Club