Rotary Club of Moorleigh Moorabbin

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Helen's Headlines - Monday 15 August 2011

Well our first committee meetings have been completed so thank you to the people who contributed their ideas for their particular portfolios.

Many had mentioned in our survey and in our club forums, that committee meetings have been non-existent in the last few years. This explains why certain projects have been with with individuals for many years and how difficult it is at times to get more people involved in projects or committees.

One of the things that did come out in last night's meeting is that with our reduced numbers we need to look at what projects we can and can't do through the year so that we don't over-extend ourselves. We also need to look at what skills these projects need (do they need skills; our time; our expertise; our knowledge; our networks etc); also we need to look at what grants we can apply for and how to do this so that we can offer a bigger level of funding assistance to chosen national and international projects.

One way we can overcome this is to look beyond our club and seek assistance from other Rotary Clubs, our partners and our extended Rotary Family. We need to get them back into the fold so that they too feel a part of the club on various volunteer projects. The benefit is that they support the ideals of Rotary but we have a lot more fun when we can share the experiences with our loved ones, but also with other Rotarians.

There's a few ideas that came out last night and Greg mentioned that he will now put into the bulletin a section on 'Volunteering' for those who want to get involved in smaller, once-off volunteering opportunities such as those mentioned in my previous post.

Community Service

Sheila will look through the City of Kingston directory to find charities that we can offer our hands-on practical support for a couple of hours every few months. Also she will chase up a Tree Planting scheme where we can partner with Bentleigh Secondary College and plant trees and have a BBQ for City of Kingston.

Greg and Yvonne are working with the Kingston Centre who have agreed to put up 2 Rotary Billboards on each side of Warrigal Road promoting Rotary. They will organise to have these erected soon. Similiarly, they are also finalising details for the Kingston Centre's Centenary where we will provide car parking support and BBQ for this big event. We will be seeking other Rotary Clubs support in the event which promises to be an exciting event for the public. This is going to be one to mark in your diaries as we will need everyone's support on the day and a great way to promote Rotary to the public.

International

Bill will look at how he can apply for a grant with his international projects aimed at achieving the millenium goals on water and sanitation projects in Cambodia

Foundation

Geoff asked if you have any potential GSE candidates please let them know of this excellent program which will go to Texas in 2012. The GSE Committee is also looking for home hosters if you are interested in hosting one of the Texan team members from 24 March to 31 March 2012. It is likely that we will once again, host the team for a day next year and I'd strongly encourage members to come along to that fun day where we can show off our beautiful city to these international visitors.

Next week is a Partner's Night and our guest speaker is from the Yarra Yarra Golf Course talking about the History of Golf. May I ask the people slotted for duties as host, doorperson or chairperson to let me know if you are an apology so that alternative arrangements may be made ahead of time.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

So What Happened At the Rotary District 9810 Presidents Meeting on Friday 12 August

Last night I drove over to the Mulgrave Country Club and wondered why something didn't feel quite right. Of course, I just happened to be at the wrong venue so drove around the corner and up Jells Road to turn into the Best Western International Hotel where I should have come in the first place! But this little setback didn't deter me as I was there in plenty of time for a glass of wine so everything was alright in the world. Presidents from the District's clubs gathered to hear updates by various Rotarians on projects that need assistance or support; items that we should be thinking about in our clubs and of course, talking about the District Conference. Some items were interesting in that our club could directly get involved with community service - but in particularly, not just our Club Members, but everyone part of our extended Rotary Family. Here's the rundown:

District Conference in Melbourne on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 April

Due to the high cost of holding the event at the Melbourne Convention Centre, the venue has been moved to the Peninsula Room at Shed 14, Central Pier at Docklands which is by far, a much better menu and right in the heart of all the action. The venue has been inspired by the London Tate's museum and the group that runs the catering won many awards this year for its catering for functions so it promises to be an event that is sparkling with wonderful food and in a state-of-the-art venue. The historian in me likes it because it is a place of historical significance so it's got to be good. Parking and hotels are plentiful and all nearby -also it's a short walk from the Spencer Street station trains so there's really no excuse not to come along for the weekend! If you want to see the website: http://www.peninsulaagv.com.au/

The cost will be $385pp but this includes the event registration and the Saturday night 3 course dinner which is kept secret but promises to be exciting.

It was mentioned that conference attendance that registrations have dropped considerably over the years but now being that it is in Melbourne, and on a weekend, every effort has been made to get as many people over to the conference next year. They are also looking at other costing options for those partners who may not want to attend the full conference but only the Saturday night event. More information will be provided over the coming months.

Go Back to Where You Came From (Part 2) - A Proposal By Rotary

Bill Sutherland proposed an excellent idea to the Club Presidents last night. I don't know if anyone saw SBS's superb documentary on how a group of hard core Australians who were dead set against refugees and migration, be put through the test by going through the experiences that refugees have to go through to get to Australia. They were put through the ringer, emotionally, physically and mentally and by the end of the program we saw that this experience had changed their outlook, attitude and made them more aware of the plight of these people who risk death to come to this country for a better life. During that program there was an African family who was separated with half of them living in Australia and the other half in Africa.

Bill saw this and had the idea, "what if Rotary can help to get the family back together again?" This started many phone calls to SBS, Australian Immigration and eventually, back to the actual family. This weekend, he will be writing letters to the officials in an effort to support this family back to Australia. If successful, there will be another television show produced about the lives of these people and Rotary will be promoted. So this is an opportunity not only to help out a family in need to be connected once again with their loved ones but to promote what we do across Australia.

Walk for Life. How do you change a child's life forever with just $200?

This presentation was moving and emotive. In Bangladesh, due to the lack of vitamins and basic health care, many children are born with club foot and left untreated, it affects their lives. This charity promotes that with $200 a child can have this club foot treated (without the need for surgery) so that the feet turn to the correct position. Through the use of continual massage and wearing casts and then a brace (see the photo below) where the childs feet are put in this position for a long time to train the feet to stay in position, the condition can be rectified.

They are now looking for clubs and supporters who can assist by partnering with them for matching grants. Their aim is to get 385 of these treatments completed when the grant moeny comes through but they are always looking for more support from the clubs.

Check out their website on: http://www.walkforlife.org.au/

Applying for District Simplified and Matching Grants

A presentation was made regarding how easy it is applying for grants and how the money can be increased substantially when we partner with other clubs and get District funding as well. It's also the time to put in applications for District Simplified Grants as applications close on 17 October 2011. You can find out more information and how to apply here: http://operations.9810rotary.org.au/files/2010/07/2011-12-DSG-Application-Guide.pdf

Community Service: Volunteers Needed - Eastlink Bike Race on Sunday 13 November (Open to all Rotarians, partners and Rotary Family)

Here's a wonderful opportunity to get out there as a club with our extended Rotary Family. Steve Liston is looking for 180 volunteers to line the Eastlink Freeway during a bike race that will see 6000 competitors participating. Volunteers will be placed 200m apart and their role is to communicate any issues that occur during the race to the officials. All volunteers will get a Rotary cap, a tee-shirt, sunscreen, and a cut lunch. This is a great opportunity to promote and showcase Rotary and the clubs participating will be allocated that part of the freeway closest to their club.

Community Service: Volunteers Needed - Paws for a Cause Walk on Sunday 9 October at Nortons Park Wantirna South (Open to all Rotarians, Partners and Rotary Family)

Here's another great opportunity for our club to get involved to promote Rotary. Mandi Hyland from the Bridges Connecting Communities organisation is seeking volunteers as marshals for this dog walk event. It will be on 11am until 2pm on Sunday 9 October at Norton's Park Wantirna South. If our club would like to participate just get in contact with her asap.

Indigenous Exchange - Sponsorship Support Needed for Cockatoo Primary School

One of the Rotary Clubs sponsors Grade 5 students from the Cockatoo Primary School on an exchange program to the Northern Territory to learn more about the indigenous culture. In exchange a small group of the Grade 5 students there come to the Cockatoo Primary School to learn abut the European cultures here. In the past, the school did much of the fundraising but recently is finding it difficult to raise the funds required. The request was for Rotary Clubs to sponsor a student (cost per student $500) so that this beneficial program is continued.

Rotary International Conference Bangkok 6th-9th May

If you haven't visited a Rotary International Conference then in the words of Molly Meldrum, "do yourself a favour!" Next year, the event will be held at Bangkok so it will be quite close for us to visit and participate in the events. David Mackenzie from RC Montrose is organising pre and post convention tours at reasonable rates to consider. He has a Post Convention tour of 9 days and 8 nights that will visit places of interest like River Kwai, ancient temples of Ayutthaya, Sukhotoai, Lamp Pang and Chiang Mai. The other benefit is that it will visit places where Rotary projects have made a real difference to the lives of people there so it's a perfect opportunity to see first hand the effect that Rotary projects have made to this country. It certainly got me thinking of how I can score some leave and do this tour but I don't think my husband wants to come with me....might have to save some money and go by myself? The cost of this tour is $1374
And When You Don't Have Any Projects in Mind but Still Want to Give?

The "Rotarian's Greater Goods Catalog" is a catalog full of simple items to address some of life's biggest challenges all with minimal impact to the environment. Rotarians have field tested products like these to help families and find sustainable solutions. Use this guide to inspire our next project or to encourage our community to give. Ideas includes:

Starter flock of chicks

Rehydrations spoon

Solar ovens

Waterless toilets

Bio sand filter

Hand sanitiser

Mosquito nets

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Charity Golf Day Registrations Now Open for Tues 13 September 2011

Rotary Charity Golf Day – Tuesday 13th September

For those who were unable to attend our golf day on 6th May or who would like the opportunity to play Australia’s number 1 course again, the second part of our Charity golf day takes place at Kingston Heath Golf Club on Tuesday 13th September – 7.30am shotgun start.

The format for this event is different, in that it is booked and paid for on line, using the “golf link” website. It is run by Kingston Heath Golf Club, with all proceeds going to the Rotary Club of Moorleigh Moorabbin, to be distributed locally.

The direct link is:

http://www.golflink.com.au/opendays/

If this doesn’t work please go to www.golflink.com.au Home page, then “upcoming open days and events”.

The cost is $165 and includes golf, competition fee, pull buggy and a plated lunch.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Helen's Headlines - Monday 8th August 2011

Wow, what a great night last night when all but two of our members were apologies but it was a full house! It certainly made a difference when we're all there, are having fun with catching up with the chit chat and having a laugh. Of course, it does help too having a superb guest speaker who spoke to us about an interesting topic that got us thinking and planning how we can get involved.

Jo Saunders is the Executive Officer from the Caroline Chisholm Foundation. It is an independent charitable trust supported by the Chisholm Institute of TAFE and it encourages and supports members of the community experiencing hardship to participate in vocational education. How do they do this? By providing scholarships for youth to apply for to undertake their trade training. Many Rotary Clubs (but only two others from this District) have been involved and this is something that I hope our club may contribute to as part of the Vocational Committee or jointly with New Generations. (Don't forget that this concept isn't new for our club. Recall that we are also sponsored a lass through her studies supported by the Bentleigh Youth Centre). So here's a Foundation that will be able to work with us to come up with some scholarship guidelines, find the applicant on our behalf and we can support them through their studies with a scholarship under our Rotary name. If you want to read more about the foundation, check out:
http://www.carolinechisholm.org.au/Pages/default.aspx

Last night we also welcomed back Bruce from his leisurely European river cruise and we said goodbye to Ian who will be holidaying. Syd will be taking over seargeant duties while Ian is away. Some of the members also stayed back for a brew and a chat outside which was a good way just to chill out after the meeting and continue with the socialising.

I also mentioned that there are some action items being undertaken by the Membership Marketing Committee already. Greg and Yvonne are in the process of organising a Rotary Billboard to be erected at the Kingston Centre as well as exploring an opportunity to assist with car parking at the Kingston Centre's Centenary in September. This is a wonderful opportunity to get out there and hand out membership flyers and brochures to spread the word about Rotary. With more details, I am sure that we can organise a roster for the weekend to have people assist. Similarly, I'm talking with the Kingston Business Directory to organise some guest speakers for our November Business Month and will get back to you with more details. However, should you know of anyone who works in the local area and would like to come along to these nights in November, let them know! Or else, you may have someone who you think would be a great guest speaker - let me know so that we can invite them along. I'm trawling through the local newspapers too seeing what inroads and successes are being achieved by local businesses and earmarking them for as potential guest speakers.

Don't forget that next week is our respective committee meetings. How are we going to play this?

Two groups (Group 1: Bill, Jim, Geoff, John H, Graeme, Ian and Paul) will concentrate on International/Foundation matters and Group 2: Sheila, Laurie, Syd, Philip, Greg, Bruce, Susan, Yvonne, John P, Andrew and Robert will concentrate on Community/Vocational/New Generations. It is going to be an informal evening and up to the Directors on how to handle the meeting but the aim is to achieve a small list of actionable items complete with potential dates and responsibilities so that we can work this into our annual calendar.

Outline for the Evening
6:30-6:35: Rotary Introductions/Toasts/Apologies/Makeups/
6:35 - dinner served: Break up into respective groups to discuss projects and action items to complete
After dinner - 8:00pm: Continuation of meetings with Directors to aim to have a list of items that have been discussed ready for Board Meeting (plus trialling out the cupcakes)
8:00pm: Close - Board Meeting commences

In the interests of time, let's hold off on the Seargeant's session or door prizes). The intention for this night is to re-invigorate and re-introduce committee meetings to have a team approach for projects and a joint effort in planning various projects and events throughout our calendar - but not forgetting the social aspect to it all. Remember, our partners and Rotary Family can help us in many of these projects.

But it doesn't have to be all serious! Guess what? It's that time of the year again when the RSPCA's National Cup Cake Day is on. So please bring along a few cupcakes and place them on your table to eat for dessert. To participate, it's a gold coin donation (or however much you can spare) when you are paying your registration.

Quick reminder that you will need to have your Board reports into Graeme this week ready for our Board Meeting next week!

Hope you have a lovely week and if I can leave you with a pun from my favourite Punmeister Extraordinaire, Tim Vine: "I saw a bargain the other day, a television for 1 pound. Only problem was the volume control was stuck on full. Come on, how can you turn that down?"

Okay while we're on it, here's another one:

"I took my dog for a walk and it was really angry - well, it was a cross breed!"

Friday, August 5, 2011

Update on Membership and Marketing Committee Meeting Number 1

On Wednesday, our small Membership and Marketing Committee (Bill, Geoff, Helen, Yvonne, Greg - Vocational Director, Philip - apology), gathered at my place to discuss some items that would re-ignite some action items designed to promote and advertise our club to get more members to join.

The night started off with the question, "what makes someone want to join Rotary?" and the discussion was heated as it was generally agreed that the answer to this question had changed over the years. There was also some questions around "what do we do?" "how do we explain what we do to others?" and, "is this enough to make people want to join?" Effectively, it came down to having a unique service proposition and the words that we agreed on was that we provide a service to the local, national and international community through friendships and networks. But is this enough? Does this provide enough information for someone to join?

The main item of discussion was that our target audience may need to be concentrated around the main industry focus of the City of Kingston manufacturing and trades. This target audience makes up about 51% of the manufacturing business in Melbourne. We discussed the idea of holding a 'Business Month' in November targetted with guest speakers talking about relevant and critical topics related to the interests and business needs of these industries and inviting them along to our Rotary meetings. In that event, we will also have guest Rotarians who are in that business explain the personal and business benefits of being in Rotary. These events are to be run a few times a year and open to all in an effort to promote Rotary into our community.

It was discussed that one of our meetings be replaced with volunteering at a local charity as the way to best advertise ourselves is to 'get out there'. We will approach the Volunteer Resource Centre at City of Glen Eira and already, I have also talked with the Community Service Director at the City of Kingston to get a list of potential hands-on charity projects that need our support for a couple of hours once a month or bi-monthly.

Another idea was to split the club members in groups and ask them to attend another Rotary club in the district on any day of the week. This would be for socialising but also supporting other clubs and then reporting back to the group about their learning and other ideas we could use at our own club. I'd love to have this happening so I'm the first to put up my hand for this one - who wants to come with me to one of the other clubs??!! I've got some ideas of clubs I'd like to visit - this should be fun!

Other items of discussion were placing the Rotary billboards at various places around the community so that the public can get the information and the 1800 number to Rotary; as well as getting approval from the South Oakleigh Club to promote that Rotary meets at their venue through putting up signage at the venue - much like what many of the American Rotary clubs have.

Other items for discussion were reduced membership rates for the first year for new Rotarians joining our club.

Overall, a very effective meeting with definite action points that have already been set in motion by the committee members. I would strongly urge the committee directors to use every opportunity to meet and re-inspire their team with some ideas of what their portfolio can get involved in. We are a small club but there's so much we can do - but let's make it fun so we can involve everyone in our extended Rotary family too.

Next Meeting to Organise Business Month will be Wednesday 7th September 6:00pm - 8:00pm at Helen's.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Our Club Is In the Kingston Business Directory

Hello everyone

I have registered our club into the Kingston Business Directory. This way, if there are people in the area looking for community service groups, our contact details are registered and we will also receive information on what's happening in our local area around business events.

See what it looks like here:

http://www.kingstonbusiness.com.au/emem/mem/ememProfilePreview.asp

Monday, August 1, 2011

Helen's Headlines - Monday 1st August 2011

First of all, let me apologise to Susan and Ian for forgetting to welcome them back to our meeting. It was great to see them back again to share the evening and we hope to see more of Susan back again soon!

Our guest speakers for tonight were Jeff Needham and Bert Dyt. They have rallied together to organise a Men's Shed for Glen Eira Community. A men's shed is a place where men of all ages can come together and in a supportive environment, be able to work on various trade projects to support community service groups and individuals. There are about 450 sheds Australia wide and Jeff and Bert have worked tirelessly to gain the support and funding by government to organise a shed for the community. They came to our Rotary Club to seek support and our involvement. Their first priority is to set up the shed which has been allocated to 118 Leila Road Carnegie at Packer Park as well as set up a Steering Committee and are seeking a Rotarian with a trade and leadership background. If you would like to be involved in this, or know of someone who fits the bill, let them know. This is a wonderful initiative that supports men's health and well being in our community.

I will be advising Bert and Jeff that they have Rotary Club Moorleigh Moorabbin's expression of interest for support as we may be able to provide assistance in the near future whyen they have set up the shed and are looking for other people to assist.

If you would like more information on this initiative, check out: http://www.mensshed.org/ or call 1300 550 009 - we may even consider a vocational visit one day out to see the Men's Shed in Chelsea or Monash if need be.

Reminder that there will be a Membership and Marketing Committee Meeting at my place this Wednesday night at 5:45pm - 7:30pm. No need to bring anything food wise - just ideas! Smally eats will be provided.

For your diaries, on Monday 15 August, is our club night - that means we will have our major committee meetings on that night and encourage everyone to attend this meeting as you will have an active role to play.

On that night, it will be National Cupcake Day (Monday 15 August): www.rspcacupcakeday.com.au

and I encourage everyone to bring in a few cupcakes to share with your committee groups (and we have received approval from the SOC to have them) and put in a gold coin donation. All money raised that night will go to the RSPCA.

Have a great week,

Helen