MELBOURNE EXHIBITION & CONVENTION CENTRE

All Okay at present!

It has been a busy time over the past few months with Reeds Gift, AGHA, the Club Marine Boat Show and Furnitex Furniture Shows.

August kicks off with the CBA Homeshow.

A few MECC regulars are off to Sydney for the Games. So good luck to them and also to everyone holding the fort here at home!

So long until next time!

MELBOURNE PARK

Melbourne Park’s ever pending contract has finally been decided. Cleanevent has been awarded the event business for the precinct. We shall now be involved in four venues, being Melbourne Park (Rod Laver Arena), the new Multi Purpose Venue (Vodafone Arena), Olympic Park and the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre.

With this change in structure the next few months will certainly be busy, leading up until the end of the year and the start of another Australian Open pre clean.

Till next time "good luck all" over the next few months.

Hi from the Valley of Excitement!

All staff are in the Cox Plate mode with our general maintenance program in full swing. Functions are beginning to pick up with a busy few weeks scheduled and night racing is just around the corner with our first meeting due September 7.

We farewell Jim and Kris to the Olympics – Good Luck fellas! I’m sure the rest of the staff will do a great job in their absence.

Bye from the Valley for now!

Since the last time I wrote, we have had a couple of small crowd midweek race meetings and a couple of functions. The grandstand is coming along a lot better than, from the outside that is, and they are still talking about opening on October 2 (I’d like to see that.)

Merv "Leyland" continues to gather frequent flyer points for Craig’s end of year holiday with the frequent visits to Sydney.

The gang out here are still kicking goals even though most people’s teams are finished for 2000. My tip for the Brownlow is Daniel Chick and Stephen King both at odds of 100-1. My outsider is Lance Whitnall at 250-1.

Upcoming events at Flemington are Frontline and Girls Day Out, apart from that it is business as usual.

P.S. If Paul Lovett reads this, where is my Bon Jovi memorabilia and the US $40.00 that you have owed me since moving across the world.

The excitement is brewing here at Optus Oval. The Blues have secured a spot in their finals campaign. "Go Blues!" scream the supporters as the blue Boys break from the oval as training ceases. They contest Melbourne on the weekend and I’m sure it will be a light match.

"Well Johnny, we are confident and the guys are fired up and ready to demolish any side we come up against," one of the senior players mentioned to me. Let’s hope they live up to those expectations, but at this stage my money is on Essendon to take out this year’s flag.

Not mentioned in my last newsletter, I’d like to thank all my casual staff for their persistence and efforts during the footy season.

Oval and Out!

Working at Calder Park Raceway from a casuals point of view.

The season is about to start for the year 2000-2001 and that means Thunderdome, Drags and of course the Nationals. With the permit go ahead for Bob Janes concerts, this gives us a chance to see Calder park utilised to its full potential as it is a fantastic venue.

It is Super V8 time and we are about to start preparing the Internals and Track. There is never a dull moment as this is busy and non-stop. Victor Haldane and Kenny Smith are busy whipper snipping, painting and doing lawn maintenance, etc.

Tracey O’Sullivan has been busy cleaning the Internal run, getting rid of cobwebs, vacuuming, scrubbing showers, mopping and making truffles (at home.) The weather out here can be either stinking hot or freezing cold.

During the Nationals in February, the weather was stinking hot and we just kept our cool trying to keep up with everyone trying to cool down. The toilet floors looked like a swimming pool.

We love working out here because the staff, Ralph, Glenys and Rick are terrific people to work for and with. They make you feel welcome and we always have a great time working out here.

People comment on how good the facilities are and the cleanliness of this venue, which makes us casuals feel great as this is a reflection of our hard work that we know we have done leading up to events. Everything we do is under the supervision of Ralph and Glenys.

The staff in Calder Park Administration are lovely people and always make an effort to say hello.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their input into the newsletter and the hard work they do. Let’s face it, without a good crew of casuals that we can rely on to help with set-ups and prep work, this would make our jobs a lot harder than they are now.

It gives great satisfaction to hear the comments on how well the place looks, how hard the staff work before and during each event and how helpful and polite they are when asked a question for information. So thanks to all the full time staff and casuals for a job well done.