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JULY 2013

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NAIDOC WEEK 7 - 14 JulyBy Phillip Martin National Indigenous Coordinator

It pleases me very much to be able to report on the fantastic NAIDOC Week events Morris held across the country at our sites. I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate our teams for embracing NAIDOC Week and building on the planned activities to create an event specifically tailored for their customers. Whilst there isn’t enough room to list all of the wonderful events held throughout the week, I would like to mention a couple of highlights.

The fabulous menu created by Tui Moeahu (Karntama Village Manager) was fully endorsed by celebrity chef Mark Olive. “NAIDOC is a significant event celebrating the achievements, history and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. “Bushtucker” is an important but often forgotten part of our diverse culture and I congratulate Morris Corporation and team for producing a menu inspired by our native flora and fauna. I hope you’ll be encouraged to use today’s bushfoods, amazing herbs and spices in all your favorite dishes and have fun creating new ones. Wishing you all a fantastic NAIDOC week” Mark Olive (AKA Black Olive)

Nina Weir (Human Resource Manager, WA) and myself set up a recruitment stall at the ‘Deadly Careers Expo’ hosted in Perth. The Noongar community of Perth were invited to participate in this event with a Noongar welcome to country. There was also a live band various activities for the wider community to enjoy.

The team at Buffel Park went over and above with the kitchen crew wearing Aboriginal themed shirts and playing traditional music. Howard Butler (AKA Jo), our maintenance/groundsman, is a very talented artist. Jo demonstrated his artwork in the dining room and also showcased some of his completed work. The amazing thing about Howard’s artwork is the way it looks when viewed through 3D glasses. The Buffel Park residents enjoyed engaging with Jo as he provided the history and stories behind his paintings. Kenya2 Village also hosted a fantastic theme night as you can see from the pictures.

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Employee of the Month AwardIf you notice a workmate who is clearly demonstrating an outstanding commitment to Morris Core Values and going over and above the call of duty, why not nominate them for Employee of the Month? Ask your manager for a nomination form.

PINK DAYCOLLINSVILLE, QLD

The team at Collinsville has gone pink in support of breast cancer research and Kim Jones. Kim is a Collinsville local who is battling this dreadful disease and every Friday is pink day. This is where the staff can wear their new Morris Pink shirts and pay $2 for the privilege. The reaction from the team wearing pink prompted residents at the village to provide sponsorship and donations for staff for wearing pink. The fundraising event was optional but every team member wanted to be part of this noble event. Don’t they just look fantastic!

AWARD WINNERS EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTHMark Ellery (Randalls Village, WA)From the first time that Mark entered the Randall’s kitchen he has had customers ‘over the moon’ with the high standard of food that he has been producing. Mark is a pleasure to have on site and leads by setting a high standard and is a great example to his colleagues.

SILVER AWARDSThe following people are employee of the month runners up and will be receiving silver awards.Teri-Ann Admin Assistant (Windibri, QLD)Shardae Cleaning Supervisor (Buffel, QLD)Edgar Check-In Utility (Kangi, WA)Vikki Cleaning Utility (Christmas Creek, QLD)Derek Chef (Kenya 2, QLD)Carmann Bus Driver Utility (Higginsville, WA)

CARE & SHARE AWARDAndrew (Kangi Village, WA) Last month the Morris Times featured an article on the Kangi “Bottletop Pickeruppera”. Andrew has been awarded the Care & Share prize for his fabulous idea. In case you missed the last edition, here is more about the invention.

“The Kangi Maintenance team have been creative once again. Andrew, our electrician, decided to create what we have named the “Bottletop Pickeruppera”. Andrew created this tool out of old bits of PVC tubing he found around the village, old magnets he had lying around and an old piece of rope. It is created in such a way that you wave the ‘Bottletop Pickerupperer’ over anything that is metal. Metal objects will stick to the base of the tool. Then, by holding the tool over the bin and pulling on the rope (which raises the magnets from the base of the tool) releases the metal rubbish. This was presented to the Tavern Staff who were grateful for the Bottletop Pickerupperer as now they don’t have to get on their hands and knees to pick up bottle tops.”

INDIGENOUS EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMMECherbourg, QLDWe are pleased to announce that the first group on the Eastern Seaboard has gone through our Indigenous Employment Programme. The group is from Cherbourg, a town in the South Burnett region of Queensland. It is located off the Bunya Highway approximately 250 kilometres north-west of Brisbane and 6 kilometres from the town of Murgon. The pictures show the group on a tour of Kenya 2 Village.

HSE AwardIf you notice a colleague who is clearly demonstrating an outstanding commitment to HSE. Nominate them for the monthly HSE Award. Ask your manager for a nomination form.

SEAFOOD NIGHTMungungal Village, QLDThe Mungungal crew put on a fantastic seafood night which is always a sure way to put a smile on our customers faces. Our chef “Antonio Famador” is our onsite artist and is responsible for all our awesome fruit carvings. Our resident photographer “Cliff Linsdell” has an affinity for snapping some gorgeous sunrises and sunset, here is one of the pics displaying what we wake up to each day.

State of OriginAnglo Village Moranbah

Check out these shots of the Anglo Village residents enjoying the State of Origin Final. It is always a highly anticipated night on site and everyone had a ball.

Christmas in JulyBlubird Village, WABy Gordon Cook

“The residents at Blubird Village in Western Australia were thrilled with their Christmas in July theme night. It’s a pity there is no snow here.” Godon Cook, Village Manager

FOGS Recruitment EventRob Romano, Operations Manager ESB

We recently attended the Indigenous Recruitment Expo hosted by Former Origin Greats (FOGS), in Townsville, Queensland. FOGS are committed to inspiring and developing the next generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and assist in ‘Closing the Gap’ in education and employment between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. What is great about these events is the appearance of the sports stars and how they attract a heap of interest from the public.

My good friends Steve Walters and Steve Price found some time to stop by the Morris stall and I obliged them with a photo op.

SIDS & KIDS DONATIONCOLLINSVILLE, QLDOn 6 July the Collinsville Workers club hosted a “Sids for Kids Cocktail Night”. Collinsville Village was happy to donate a wheel barrow of goodies to assist in fundraising efforts.

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CONTRIBUTE TO MORRISTIMESIf you would like to contribute to MORRISTIMES or have suggestions on how to make the publication better. Email lea@morriscorp.com.au with MORRISTIMES as the subject line.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FMGBy Tui Moeahu (Karntama Village Manager)

2013 marks the 10th Birthday of Fortescue Metals Group. Here are some pictures from the celebrations held at Karntama Village where on top of a special banquet, our customers enjoyed delicious cupcakes and a fantastic cake prepared by our talented chefs, all themed with FMG’s corporate colours.I’d like to give a special thanks to the team at Karntama who did a fabulous job of ensuring the special day for FMG was remarkable.

Team BuildingKenya 2 Village, QLDBy Nick Dent (Village Manager)

Recently the HR team has been encouraging sites to actively run team building exercises at our Toolbox Meetings. After giving this some thought it crossed my mind that although I have a grasp of the personalities of the team here quite well, I know very little when it comes to people’s pasts and their lives outside of work. Many of the staff do get to know the people in their departments well while working alongside each other and socialising after work, but many also work drastically different hours and may not know much about others on different swings or in different departments.

We decided to try a different approach to this exercise at Toolbox even though I wasn’t sure how well it would work or the responses I would get.

The first week the team were asked to think of something on their bucket list (A list of things you want to achieve before you die) that they had already achieved and something that they were yet to achieve. It took a couple of people to get the ball rolling before we got in the swing of it and after a few staff members really opened up everyone began sharing some interesting parts of their lives. Some people had never considered this kind of list before and others could rattle of their list easily.

Some of the completed activities included: owning their own successful business, learning to play a musical instrument, catching a big marlin (over 100 kg). One person set the goal and achieved losing 25 kg and quit smoking since being on site. Travel was a common answer and included living and working in different countries, buying and remodelling a classic muscle car, swimming with sharks and moving to Australia.

Yet to achieve answers included retiring by 50, visiting 100 countries, learning to scuba dive, starting a foundation for under privileged kids and moving their family to Australia. Winning lotto was another popular choice.

Over the following weeks we asked a range of different questions like what was your first job? What is your dream job? What is an award or competition you have won or been involved with? What is your secret talent or a little known fact about yourself?

The questions brewed plenty of discussion even when the meeting was over and there were lots of surprising and memorable answers like, one of the team here has won a state netball championship. One of our chefs has captained a team representing New Zealand in an international cooking competition in Germany, later he returned to coach the team which

placed first in the world that year. One person considered her first job to be delivering lunch to her father on her own 2 miles away each day by horseback at age 4. We learned that another staff member had received awards for showing cattle. Some of our chefs have run kitchen teams in Asia and the Middle East. A number of people said that awards they have received with Morris are very special to them.

Time is a constraint at our toolbox meetings and we found that this was a way to get to know each other and only took 15-20 minutes extra depending on how elaborate the sharing gets.

You never know what the person next to you has done unless you ask the question and sometimes the person most reluctant to share has the most interesting answers.

The ‘Kenya Crew’