A quintet of Warrnambool justices of the peace joined an exclusive club on Tuesday.
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Kevin Fry, David Atkinson, Collin Brinkmann, Ian Slockwitch and Geoff Harlock were welcomed into the 100 Club, reserved for JPs who have donated at least 100 days of their time to signing documents at their local police station.
Geoff Harlock led the way, clocking up 170 sittings at Warrnambool Police Station over his time volunteering as a justice of the peace.
Inspector Gary Coombes and Sergeant Russell Tharle were on hand to present certificates to the men at the JPs’ informal meeting on Tuesday.
Sergeant Tharle told the group that JPs made a valuable contribution to the community.
“You guys volunteer and it’s fantastic, it saves the police a lot of time,” Sergeant Tharle said.
“There’s other JP duties you do outside of the Victoria Police so we just applaud you for that commitment as well.
“It’s just a great civic service that you do.”
Justices of the peace are volunteers who provide document witnessing and certification services to the community.
They can witness anything from general legal documents to students requiring documentation.
Warrnambool JP Rodney McKenzie tallied up the volunteer hours to determine who would be joining the 100 Club.
He said about 15 people were regular signers at Warrnambool’s police station.
“I thought we should do something to recognise some of our people and their contributions,” Mr McKenzie said.
“It’s just a thank-you for what they’ve done... We’ve done 1300-1400 sittings and we’ve signed 31,000-odd documents.
Mr McKenzie said the 100 Club began among Melbourne JPs as a way of recognising the services’ long-time volunteers.
“It’s for anyone who has sat 100 times or more at a local police station since 2006,” he said.
The weekday signing service operates from noon to 2pm at the Warrnambool Police Station.
“It just saves the police having to sit there and sign documents,” Mr McKenzie said.
Warrnambool’s JPs are made up of working professionals, as well as retired people.
The JPs work from a monthly roster, normally volunteering their time once or twice a month.
“A lot of them have been JPs for a long time,” Mr McKenzie said.
“We’re always looking for new people who can spend two hours a month.”
