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

No comments: