Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Fellowship Night at The Bombay Club on Monday 28 November






















What a great time was had by all last night when we sampled the Indian banquet fare at the Bombay Club in North Road Ormond.

The Bombay Club was opened by Narandra 18 years ago and as the owner/chef with considerable experience in big name hotels, he saw a gap in the market of Indian cuisine and commenced preparing food using genuine North Indian recipes. He told us that Indian food is not spicy hot but it's warmth comes from the many herbs and spices like cinammon, cardamon and saffron.

We presented Narandra and his wife with a Certificate of Appreciation and a Rotary Banner which he proudly displayed above the till in quite a prominent place that can be seen! I belive he was chuffed to be presented with this and have an opportunity to talk about his country and his cuisine.

Here are some photos of the night.
































Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Business Networking Events Are Over! (For Now)

Well the business events are over! Phew, I can now let out a huge sigh of relief.

Lots of hours when into them planning, preparing, sourcing, co-ordinating, creating, promoting, walking, talking and door knocking. And guess what, we will be doing it again next year!

Particularly I'd like to thank Philip for acting as the Chair and ensuring that we all kept to time. A big thank you to Greg and Ian who set up the room and the AV equipment and ensured everything was working smoothly. Thank you to Bill, Geoff and Philip for doing the walk around the local business neighbourhoods to drum up support and to Yvonne who may have felt slightly swamped with the amount of people last night but did a stirling job to act as a charming host at the door. Thanks also to everyone else who spoke to their own networks, friends, colleagues and business people they know and brought them to share the evening with us. It's been greatly appreciated.

So what did you think about the evenings? Did you find them useful? Engaging? Did you find having a spread of ages and professions at the presentations interesting?

For me, it was an opportunity to observe that simply by sharing the evening with a wider group of people, we were all connected through business. Also, some of the feedback I was getting was that there was a real genuine feeling of openess and friendship in Rotary that inspired non-Rotarians to rethink or look at Rotary Clubs in their own area. In effect, even though we may not get any members, our club has been instrumental in promoting Rotary to others.

However, we can't stop at just one set of business networks. In order to be successful we need to get a 'name for ourselves' out in our community and continually keep holding these events. So next year, I believe our promotion will be made just a little bit easier because the people who attended this time around can also be the ones who spread the word. If anything, we will still need some door knocking to be done to get local businesses to come along so any assistance here would be greatly appreciated. I've already created the flyer for February events and registrations are now open online so please continue to spread the word!

Next week we are having a social night - we've earned ourselves a break - until we get back to the normal meetings. Greg has kindly organised a banquet meal at the Bombay Club at 556 North Road Ormond. The reviews on Urban Spoon show that this restaurant has some great food so it's not to be missed! We will need to get 20 people there on the night as the restaurant is opening the doors JUST FOR US! So please invite your partners and friends along so that we can be ensured of a great night. The cost will be $30pp.

So thank you once again to everyone for your support in the Business Networking Events. Already City of Kingston will advertise and promote our events in their business newsletter. I have made a limited colour print run and will hand these out to people to actively promote in December and January. Maybe we can set up a small team of people to go door knocking for a couple of hours over a weekend or during the week?

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Business Networking Month - Lesson on Cashflow!


Wow, did you come away from that presentation last night with a new appreciation of how hard some businesses are doing it when they consider cash flow? Were you as surprised as I was to find out that the average age of business owners in Australia is 55?

Lisa Gissing from the Davidson Institute which is the educational arm of the Westpac Branch gave us a rivetting presentation on Cashflow: The Lifeblood of Your Business". What could have been a dry topic actually turned out to be interesting and she had us engaged because she gave us real life stories and examples of business owners who we all could relate to. She had the knack of asking questions to us that made us think about our own business situations.

Thanks also to Merv Ericson who also gave us a short presentation on what Rotary has provided him in personal, professional and business development in his 46 years in the banking and finance industry. I do hope that what he said resonated with all of us. It certainly did with me - that's why I'm in Rotary. I'd like to believe that my knowledge and skills can be used for projects that serve the greater good.

We all congratulated John Perry for the Paul Harris Fellow Recognition. John contributed during October when the massive Global Polio Eradication Program was in full force and his contribution will go a long way to source more vaccine and continue to eradicate polio from this world once and for all. Congratulations John!

This morning I had a lovely surprise. Sarah from Sarah Belle Designs (who attended our first presentation) had mailed out to me a beautiful 'Friendship Card' that thanked Rotary for the Business Event. She mentioned that she had a really good time and everyone being so lovely. Here is the photo of the card and the message:







Next week, we have more people signed up to attend (up to 9 guests) so I would encourage you again to we welcoming hosts and enjoy the last of our business events for this month.


Our next set of Business Events are all locked in for February 2012 and promises to be great... here's a rundown:


Feb 6th: Priya Chandra, Online Marketer will talk on, "How to Engage with Your Customers Using Social Media" followed by Snigdha Gurrala talkin on 'My Experience on the National Youth Science Forum"


Feb 13th: How to Make Your Business Sustainable and Save Money followed by Rotarian in Business, Pat Armstrong, consultant on environment talk about "The Professional and Personal Value of Rotary in my Life"


Feb 20th: Roger James, Small Business Mentor will talk on: "The Value of Business Mentoring" followed by Rotarian in Business, Diane Fisher who is a business coach and change management consultant talk about "The professional and personal value of Rotary in my life"


feb 27th: Vocational tour of Cell Care in Heatherton followed by social evening at a local restaurant

Monday, November 14, 2011

Last Week a Busy Week In Rotary

Last week I attended the Rotary Foundation dinner at the Dingley International Hotel on an evening that was best to be at home. At one stage, I thought the wild weather would have ripped off the roof and expose us all to the elements as we were caught in the middle of a storm that the whole of Melbourne was waiting for. The Rotary Foundation Roadshow occurs every year and it's an opportunity to learn more about the Rotary Foundation and its programs. There will be one particular big change occuring in 2013 around grants and also the GSE will not be covered by Rotary Foundation funding anymore - but by the districts.

All this information will be made available through the DG newsletters and also filtered to all clubs.

On Friday, I went to the Rotary Presidents Meeting (the second for this year) at the Wheelers Hill International. It's an opportunity for all Presidents in our District to get together and promote their various club activities. Here is a rundown of what was mentioned:

1. Membership Growth

In our District we now have 3 Interact and 3 Rotaract clubs and our aim is to grow it to 5 eac. Rotaractors are our future Rotarians and it was encouraged that we keep Rotaractors involved as they are keen people. If there is no Rotaract or Interact club in our cluster, clubs were encouraged to create them. Thanks also to RC Beaumaris who has establish Interact now in its second year and going well; whereas RC Rowville/Lysterfield is in their second month. RC BMC and Healsville are also looking into creating an Interact Club

2. RYPEN - District needs at least 3-5 volunteers to run RYPEN in May 2012. Any support appreciated.

3. Books for Babies - was run in Feb 2011 and it was a national Rotary project where Rotary gave a book to every newborn. It was a literacy project and undertaken to commemorate Rotary's birthday. The book was by Mem Fox called, "10 Little Fingers, 10 LIttle Toes" and we teamed up with Penguin Books who sold them to us at $6.80 each. There was also some PR and press coverage on radio about the project but the intention is to do it all again next year. Clubs encouraged to seek maternity wards in their area to give this book out to new mothers.

4. District Conference 2012 - planning in progress but people encouraged to take advantage of the early bird registration. Guest speakers are still being sourced but so far it's looking to be CEO Fairshare, Chairman of Rotary Health, Dr Leanne Wilton (IVF Melbourne), Crikey.com editor Stephen Maine and George Calombaris, Mike Brady and hopefully the US Consul General and of course, our Texan GSE team.

5. Rotary Leadership Institute - registrations are open for RLI. Cost is $50 and it will be 3 one day workshops on Rotary. See Jenny Coburn.

6. Rotarians who are inducted are invited to a New Member Reception at the Kingswood Golf Club on Thursday 17 November. This is a new event that welcomes new Rotarians into the district.

7. Corporate Clubs - Tim Treeby is setting up corporate membership for Rotary Clubs and there will be member information/business networking nights on at the following. RC Malvern, 15 Feb 2012; RC Dandenong on 20 Feb 2012; RC Geelong on 21 Feb 2012 and RC Ringwood on 22 Feb 2012

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

TAFE Vocational Award Recipient - Amy

Last year, our club sponsored Amy Hayes, a local student from Bentleigh through the TAFE Vocational support program in partnership with Youth Connect. Amy was highly recommended as a worthy recipient of our club's support to assist her to complete her studies.

I spoke with Amy today who told me that for the last six weeks she has been doing a placement at Moreland Hall which is a drug and alcohol service. In this placement, she observes the mental health programs and actively engages with the clients. She tells me she loves it and is now looking forward to moving into the counsellor role in a full-time capacity...but not before she finishes more studies.

After her placement, she goes back to TAFE to complete her Diploma in Youth Work but that she has applied to also complete a Diploma in Drug and Alcohol Counselling. She is extremely interested in mental health programs and is passionate for her work and her studies.

I invited Amy back to the club in the new year so that she can tell us more about her work and her studies but would like to link it to a presentation around Mental Health or Drug and Alcohol and would like to call on John Hunt to investigate potential speakers in this sphere that can share the floor with Amy.

Good work Amy! This is definitely a good news story for our club and our club can actively support other students like her through their studies.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

We are so Close!



Business Event Networking Month Begins!

Hello everyone

First of all I’d like to congratulate our newest member Jason Chetty and partner, Intha for joining our club. It was a pleasure to be able to induct Jason into our club last night in front of members and guests who got to see a small but important ceremony that not many people outside of Rotary get to see. Jason and Intha, I wish you both the best in Rotary and I hope that you both find personal satisfaction and new friends. Congratulations!

Thank you also to everyone who helped out on our first night of the inaugural business event. I believe it was quite a success. I have to thank everyone who made an effort to invite friends, colleagues and guests along and I would ask to continue doing the same for the next couple of meetings as we need more people to come along to the next events. So please let’s keep the momentum going. I’ll be knocking on doors over the weekend and handing flyers out again in my local business area because we simply need more people to come along.

Our guest speaker Bruno Bello was engaging and enlightening. His presentation on key success factors in growing your business really made us all think and looking around the room, he had us riveted. He presented it in such a way that it connected and resonated with all of us in the workforce. For me, I was listening to his presentation and realising that we can treat Rotary like a business too – we need to be able to ‘take stock’ of our club and look at the processes and the systems we have in place and then be open and honest about where we are and how to get to our end point. His comments about marketing and how simple things like paying for marketing, wrong website design and generating irrelevant newsletters that add no value back to the business made me think and reflect of our marketing efforts in the past and how they have fallen flat.

My personal take on last night is that as a club, we don’t have the connections to the local business community simply because many of us don’t live and work in the area. But I don’t see this as a negative, I simply see it that it means that we ALL have to work that little bit harder to make an effort to walk on the footpaths and go and visit the businesses and local factories in our area. Word of mouth in this instance is the winner because only then can we speak face-to-face with business owners to invite them to come along.

A personal connection is best in business – and not rely on email or website marketing as the main medium simply because these people are running businesses and don’t have time to read emails. I don’t know about you, but my best meetings and relationships have been face-to-face and this is why everyone in our club will need to go and have a chat to their local retail or business owners and invite them to come along. Who knows, you may make a new friend in the process or see your local shops in a completely new light.

Unfortunately although our second guest speaker who was going to be a Rotarian in business did not show, I don’t believe we lost the impetus on the night. However, I will ensure this never happens again as the main focus of these events is to have a connection back to Rotary and have a personal story of how a Rotarian has developed professionally and personally with an association to Rotary. Strangely though, in my organisation of these events, the most difficult aspect has not been organising external guest speakers (all who jumped at the chance to speak and be invited to a Rotary club) but our own Rotarians who declined or who were hesitant in speaking about their association with Rotary – even when I said that they can use the the opportunity to promote their own club!

In my experience and observations, it seems that Rotarians can easily speak about their Rotary programs that they are involved with (eg ROMAC, Polio eradication etc), but struggle to talk about themselves and how Rotary has assisted with the business and professional development. This must change if the business events are to be successful. We need to have the personal story back into the meetings so that Rotary is contextualised for the guests and to make it relevant for them too.

I spoke to all of the guests last night and some of the comments that they said was that they were, “inspired” (thanks to Jason’s emotional and heart felt speech) and that “they now know what Rotary is about,” and “they felt welcomed,” “the food was great for the price”, “that Rotary is something they would like to know more about”, one lady said she “liked the spread of ages and experience in the room – everyone had a different story”. We had enquiries and interest about joining Rotary from 4 of the guests but as they live in different areas, this presentation has inspired them to search for clubs in their area.

I also believe that congregating outside at the bar area and introducing and welcoming everyone before we all went into the main room was another good factor as people could relax and chat before the proceedings started. I’d like this to continue and certainly the bar staff appreciated the patronage!

So thank you once again to everyone who helped make this night a success and I would ask of you to do it again twice more.

I will follow up now with the people who have left their business cards to see if they will be attending next week (4 have already expressed that they will come along again next week – so this means I have to change my speech again to keep it ‘fresh’).

I sincerely believe that Rotary has the right formula for success. With a blend of business, community and socialising we do have something that no other service club has around the world. We need to be more open and continue inviting our friends and colleagues along, we also need to lessen the formalities and create a welcoming and friendly atmosphere and a varied calendar of events because this is what attracts people to keep coming every week.

So one down, and two to go! Keep those invitations going…