Hello everyone
Many thanks for your suggestions and feedback at this week's Club Forum. Admittedly it wasn't the easy forum to hold or participate as we asked the hard questions that our club has to face up to. I hope that despite the cloud the was over our heads, you realise that we need to ask the tough questions to decide a way forward.
Our club has 21 members but many of these members are inactive which puts pressure on those who do the work. Also, due to our numbers, we tend to work on small individual projects and many of us feel alone or unacknowledged simply because we don't have the numbers for committee work. Rest assured, your work is acknowledged and appreciated because by the efforts of those who have made a difference resulted in a Presidential Citation for our club - the only club in the district to achieve this.
So what was the outcome of the forum?
We all agreed that our two major fund raisers, namely the Golf Days and the Bentleigh Market are core to our survival and we simply must do our best to agree to commit, support and volunteer for these days. We agreed that we don't want to seek alternative support outside our club until such a time our committments simply cannot be met. At the same time however, we need to be mindful and accept our roles and responsibilities for market duty by attending and leaving at the times indicated by the market organisers. Thank you to Graeme for sending out this document again so I encourage everyone to read this document and abide by the rules set out for us.
Our golf days are our major fundraisers and these events must continue to be supported and assisted by club members. Despite how they were run or conducted in the past, we will continue to use them as our major fundraiser and work with MS, the golf club and others to ensure its continued success. Let's not look at the past about how we USED to do things - let's plan and do things for the future and be open to this.
Another outcome that came out of heated discussion are the questions around what the board discuss and action and it was felt by some members of the club that we deliberately withheld information from the club - this is not so and will take immediate action so that this is never raised again.
From now on, I will make the Board Minutes available to club members and encourage Directors to use the opportunity at club meetings to say their bit - and what was decided at the board level to ensure that everyone is on the same page. It is our club - and therefore everyone should be across all the projects that Directors of each Avenue of Service is across through information in our bulletin, our annual report, club announcements and even, just simply asking them directly.
For everyone's information, I have cancelled the July round of business events as well since I was informed during the board meeting that these events are not necessarily best suited at a club level - instead should be at a cluster level.
Admittedly, I did feel deflated upon hearing this after all the hard work in planning and hosting them however, the idea has merit and I have approached DGN to ask about how we can use these events as bigger attractions and co-ordinated at a cluster level. By seeking support from a small committee made up of a cluster of clubs, it would be easier to co-ordinate, market and promote because I don't want to leave this idea - especially when we have had 4 people join Rotary clubs from our events; and now have a 'presence' and relationship with our council business directory team (and in fact they refer guest speakers).
We were also reminded that position for President Elect is open and if you would like to nominate, please do so asap. We have our Club Changeover on Monday 25 June however nothing has been (or will be) organised without a candidate for presidency. We also considered having an opportunity for a president to do the duty 3 months at a time to 'spread the workload' and this is an idea that has merit to ensure that the club continues past June.
So now for the positive news. This weekend we have our District Conference and for those attending, it will be a great opportunity to meet fellow Rotarians and partners and enjoy what Rotary has to offer. In the evening, we will all meet at Barbara and Bill's hotel room for pre-dinner drinks and get dressed in theme. This year's theme we will all dress as greenies, 'environmentalists' and Bill and Barbara have kindly done up some placards that we can flash around and walk to the National Gallery for dinner. It promises to be a wonderful night for everyone.
On Sunday 27th May is our District Assembly and I need to know who is attending asap. The DA is usually for office bearers and the seminar will be half day and go through some critical information all office bearers need to be across. If you are attending, please let me know asap.
So I wish you all a good week in Rotary and see you at the conference!
