Hello everyone and welcome to our new member Stephanie! It was lovely see her back again to share the evening with us and hope that Rotary brings her as much enjoyment as it does to us. So welcome onboard!
Thanks to Bill for his talk on the 2011 Rotary International Convention in New Orleans. Despite the initial audio problems the talk on New Generations was interesting although I must admit, I was sitting there thinking, "if this guy is talking about how he knows Rotary, then why isn't he a Rotarian??!!" Only when he put the badge on his lapel did I breathe a sigh of relief. However, what he said about Rotary appealing to the younger generation because of their volunteerism and their need for mentorship was spot on.
Maybe Rotary's softly softly approach working behind the scenes, using word-of-mouth to get new members and not actively promoting the good work we have done, has been our undoing. Sometimes though it's nice to get a bit of recognition and acknowledgement as it means that it gets our name out there and it inspires people to join to be part of it all.
David from Rotary Club Montrose spoke to us about the 2012 Rotary International Convention in Bangkok on 6-9 May. He is planning a package tour for District 9810 Rotarians to start after the convention for 10 days that will see the major sights and ending in Chang Mai. If you're interested, there'll be more information in the bulletin but you can also fill out a booking form and pay a deposit and he'll organise the lot - accomodation, flights, pre- and post convention tour.
If you haven't been to an International Convention before, I'd strongly recommend. I've been to the Los Angeles and Birmingham ones to date and both have been quite memorable. I particularly like it because we get to meet people from all parts of the world, and actually they are quite fun. The little pub that was created at the House of Friendship in Birmingham was Andrew's hangout in between the presentations. So even though we weren't planning to go to next years convention, we changed our minds when Andrew found out that there's a Tiger Temple Buddhist monastery that he simply must visit (wearing his Richmond jumper). We're looking forward to going now and doing the District 9810 post convention tour.
Other than that, great to see the community service intiatives in our bulletin so if you can help out Sheila with handing over any toiletry items (for the homeless project); and used work clothes for the Fitted for Work (helping women who have been released from prison find work) and hamper items, it would be appreciated.
Also good luck to Yvonne Beadle who will hold the first secondary school spellathon at Bentleigh Secondary College this Thursday in the library from 9am to 11am. Thanks for everyone's support in providing some fantastic prizes to give out the students. The spellathon is a real community service winner that is improving the literacy of children in our local area!
Other sad news that we heard is the unfortunate accident that Jim had in the week and our thoughts and best wishes for a speedy recovery are with him and Varie at this time.
Have a good week and next week, I'm looking forward to hearing what Stephanie says about her experience of RYLA and how it has inspired her to join Rotaract.
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