Incoming Beaudesert U3A President Brendan Dever has paid tribute to his predecessor Andy Fechner and promised his best efforts in contributing to the continuing success of the association.
The semi-retired engineer and his wife Verlie, who met at Tancreds Beaudesert in 1976, have been involved with U3A over the last two years through the gardening, guitar, ukulele and travel and adventure groups.
Brendan, a born and bred local, attended St Mary’s and Beaudesert High and forged a career in engineering which included involvement in a CSIRO prototype large scale plate freezer built and tested at Tancred Beaudesert in 1985.
Until 2020 he worked for Milmeq, the company which continued the development of the plate freezer design, which now has about 210 installed in Australasia.
Brendan is still engaged part time on research and development work with plate freezers.
He and Verlie enjoy spending time with their sons and daughters-in-law Keith and Miki and Matthew and Pascale, and their granddaughters Emily, 3 months, and Genevieve, 2 years.
In his first statement to members, Brendan praised U3A for its role in the community.
“Membership… has been a very rewarding way for Verlie and I to re-connect with the Beaudesert community generally and this marvellous group of people following retirement from full time work in 2020,” he said.
“The U3A Beaudesert nurtured by (outgoing) president Andy provides vital services to our members and the community – he has set the bar very high.
“For 2022 and beyond I will be relying on support from all members and promise my best efforts in contributing to the continuing success of our association.”
Brendan thanked continuing committee members Yvonne Berry (secretary/newsletter), Helen Atkinson (treasurer), Stuart Gearey (assistant treasurer), Cheryl Folley (public relations) and Di Johnson (social activities facilitator) for continuing their key contributions to U3A.
He extended thanks to outgoing committee members George Evans (webmaster), Michele Goucher (membership secretary) and Andy Fechner (president).
He welcomed new committee members Tina Jones (vice president and continuing course coordinator), Derani Gearey (membership secretary), Peter Venz (webmaster), Pat Hughes (Facebook), Grace Gregory (assistant secretary) and Diane Rewko (assistant PR).
