Rotary Club Meetings – Guest Speakers
By the fantastic Graeme Thompson
In November, Rotary Club of Footscray hosted two zoom meeting with special guests, Lindsey Leigh Hobson and Catherine Cumming.
With qualifications in Life Coaching and NLP, Lindsey Leigh Hobson has coached Millennials and Gen-Zs to create a life filled with purpose and passion that they love. She also brings her experience as a Marketing Manager to this session, including more recently for a Melbourne Recruitment Agency sourcing premium talent for renowned Australia companies. Now, an Emerging Leader Expert as well as an Emerging Leader herself, Lindsey showed the Club members on how to not only gain more younger members, but how to harness their potential and engage them long-term for the good of the club as well.
Lindsey Leigh's personal battle with anxiety began when she was 13 and lasted throughout her secondary education, always questioning what it really means to be alive at a young age. Believing that everyone deserves to achieve all their dreams - anxiety or not, she began journey of self-discovery. Having conquered her anxiety she began a mission to empower others to do the same recognising that 51% of Millennials and Gen-Z’s suffer anxiety particularly regarding their future work.
Lindsey encouraged the club to tap into the potential of those under 40 years of age who naturally want to give back to the community and make a difference and pointed out that many Millennials and Gen Z are keen entrepreneurs. She suggested that we might contact Melbourne Entrepreneur Group as a source of potential members and also use social media to promote projects that would appeal to this demographic.
Catherine Cumming, Member of Legislative Council for MLC Western Metropolitan Region spoke to the members earlier in the month. After 20 years on Maribyrnong City Council with two terms as Mayor Catherine Cumming was elected to the Upper House of the Victorian Parliament in 2018.Her background includes having run small business, a cafe, practicing Chinese Medicine and being a member of the Army Reserve. She is also a past member of the Rotary Club of Footscray.
Before being elected to the Legislative Council she had run unsuccessfully for a lower house seat on a number of occasions. Her passion for politics was initiated by a dispute with authorities over the family home and later becoming aware of the lack of infrastructure and the prevalence of mental health issues in the West. Since becoming a member, she has been concerned about the public perception of politicians and the desire of people to be involved in the decision-making process. Being an independent member has provided her the advantage of speaking freely rather than being bound by party policy. She is also concerned with the political process and the method that bills are handled between the Legislative Assembly and Council.
As one of the 5 members for the Western Metropolitan Region she has responsibilities to the local community, communicating with and questioning the Government, and sitting on committees. She has advocated for an enquiry into air pollution.
The Club members are thankful to both Linsey and Catherine for their precious time and the fantastic work they are doing for the community.