COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT

President:Peter Somerville

Owner and Cruise Director of Maribyrnong River Cruises. Footscray resident. Member of Western Region Advisory Tourism Committee. Founding member of Melbourne's Living Museum of the West and its Senior Vice-President since 1985. Award of Merit from the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, 1992.

Senior Vice-President:Joan Bryans

Altona resident. Active in the Altona Historical Society and the Western Region Group of Historical Societies. Secretary of the Ulster Society (Melbourne). Member of the Management Committee of Melbourne's Living Museum of the West since 1990, initially representing the City of Altona.

Junior Vice-President:Roger Holloway

Williamstown resident. Involved in the process leading to the establishment of the Museum in his former position as Manager, Western Suburbs Action Program. Became a Life Member and maintained close contact over the years until joining the Committee in 1997. Currently Director, TreeBank Carbon Services, assessing carbon in vegetation as greenhouse emission offsets.

Treasurer:Ian Marshall

Formerly Area Manager, Explosives Factory, Maribyrnong. Developed a substantial archive relating to that factory's history and keeps in touch with former staff and employees at EFM. Sunbury resident. A member of the Management Committee of Melbourne's Living Museum of the West since 1994.

Historical Societies Representative :Elaine Brogan

Is a resident of the City of Moonee Valley and is currently the President of the Essendon Historical Society. Elaine has also been the Secretary of the Western Metropolitan Group of Historical Societies since 1984 and is a Councillor with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria; and has recently been elected President of their State Committee. Elaine believes strongly in the links between local history and national history.

Community Representatives:

Marie Earle

Yarraville resident. Experienced member of many committees and organisations in Melbourne's west, currently including the YMCA, the Police Community Consultative Committee and Public Officer of the University of the 3rd Age. 'Citizen of the Year', City of Maribyrnong, 1995. Junior Vice-President of Melbourne's Living Museum of the West since 1993.

Fred Maddern

Footscray resident. Former chairman and current member of the Board of Western Region Group Training Ltd. Involved in many Western Suburbs organisations. Former mayor of City of Footscray and former executive director, Western Region Commission. President of Melbourne's Living Museum of the West 1993-1997. Awarded an O.B.E. for services to the community. Currently Executive Director of the Australian-Vietnamese Services Resource Centre.

Tom Bryans

Altona resident. Active in the Altona Historical Society and the Western Region Group of Historical Societies. On church committees and the Ulster Society (Melbourne). Member of the Management Committee of Melbourne's Living Museum of the West since 1990, initially representing the City of Altona.

Olwen Ford

Sunshine resident, historian and founding director of Melbourne's Living Museum of the West, 1984 - October 1997. Involved in a number of heritage studies undertaken by the Museum.

Co-opted members

Mark Armstrong-Roper

Arts Subject Liaison Librarian at the Victoria University of Technology, Footscray Campus, since 1995. Previously in a similar position for seven years at Deakin University. Currently building the library's collection to support the needs of the community in Melbourne's west and assist researchers from the Department of Urban Studies and Asian Studies with their projects. Yarraville resident. Joined Management Committee of Melbourne's Living Museum of the West in 1996.

Susan Jennison

Editorial Research Co-ordinator for the New Zealand Herald in Auckland, until recently. Formerly subject librarian for the Faculty of Arts at the Victoria University of Technology. President and then Vice-President of Keilor Historical Society. M.A. in Public History. Member of the Management Committee of Melbourne's Living Museum of the West since 1992. Currently working freelance in the area of information technology under the business name JENPRESS.

Staff Representatives:

Kerrie Poliness, Libby McKinnon and Helen Laffin shared the task of being staff representative during 1999. Kerrie represented the staff for the first half of the year. Libby and Helen took on the responsibility for the second half of 1999. Both Kerrie and Libby are Footscray residents, artists and Living Museum associates. Helen, a Coburg resident, is a social worker by training and has been working on Museum projects for several years.

Ex-officio member:Peter Haffenden

Museum Director, Melbourne's Living Museum of the West.

MISSION STATEMENT

Melbourne's Living Museum of the West is a community museum which actively involves the people of Melbourne's west and others in documenting, preserving and interpreting the richness and depth of the region's social, industrial and environmental history.