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Today, the War Veterans Fishing Group has about 130 members across South Australia/ NT, WA, Victoria, Tassie, and NSW, plus one in Idaho, USA.
The group can be seen as a self managing unit. The range of skills provided by its members ensures that, through belonging to the group, each member can participate in achievements well beyond his/her own individual potential. Group achievements are often many times the sum of the inputs by individual members. It is this synergy which makes the group so attractive. This was highlighted recently during the trip to Port Augusta and during the exciting capture of two large Kingfish. Neither the trip nor the successful captures would have been possible without high levels of cooperation.
Such cooperation now extends beyond the group. We have been sponsored and helped in many ways by other organisations with an interest in the welfare of veterans and their families.[See their logos on the front Titles page.] We have been given donations of materials and expertise, and offered discounts from many commercial businesses. [See Mick M. for your membership discount card.] We also have informal affiliations with the Port Victoria Cruising Boat Club [Our Liaison Officer is Mick M] and with the Garden Island Boat Club [LO Peter H.], both keen to coordinate joint activities.
The War Veterans Fishing Group regularly organises charters and fishing competitions in Port Lincoln, Whyalla, Port Augusta, Point Turton, Port Victoria, Wirrina, Cape Jervis, Victor Harbor and Robe. Each year, members charter the tall ship Falie for a four day fishing trip, usually to the north coast of Kangaroo Island and along the coastline of southern Yorke Peninsula. Unlike some more structured clubs and associations, the War Veterans Fishing Group has no Central Committee. In our Group the initiative for these, now, annual events comes from individual members who volunteer their expertise, time, effort, and resources to coordinate these activities and to encourage and assist other members to participate. In return they receive the support of the members wishing to participate.
Any member can use their telephone network/ membership contact list to organise a fishing trip or other related activity, with a particular focus on providing access for veterans with disability. Some members spontaneously organise charter trips by first making a tentative [pencil] booking and negotiated fee with a charter operator, then ringing around to gather a crew. Members invited and wishing to join in make a commitment for the tentative date.
The booking with the charter operator [and any required accommodation] is now firmed up, date subject to weather. At this stage deposits are called for and forfeit on failure to front. [unless a substitute can be found in time]. One or two days before the agreed charter, the coordinator checks and gets the GO or roll-over dependent on weather [safety is paramount]. The crew call the coordinator that day to confirm or the GO, or make other arrangements.
The group should be viewed as an important resource whose maintenance must be managed just like any other resource and that this management should be undertaken by the group itself so that it forms a normal part of the group's activities.
Veterans or their families interested in contacting the War Veterans Fishing Group should call Mick Mummery on (08) 8387 6707, Norm Bell on (08) 8276 9614
or visit the Website www.fishnet.com.au/wvfg/index.html
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