Previous to this, my reports have been based around Membership. What we have to do to attract new members and the best methods of retaining them once they've joined. We've learnt from this, if all Members are treated well and have involvement in the Club, friendships form, communication occurs and this helps to create a vibrant Club.
Let's now turn our attention to the next most important step within our Club, this being Service.
These principles have been developed over the years to provide Rotarians with a strong, common purpose and direction. They serve as a foundation for our relationships with each other and the acts of service we do in the world.
The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:
· FIRST: The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;
· SECOND: High ethical standards in business and professions with an opportunity for each vocation to serve society.
· THIRD: The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life;
· FOURTH: The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
Rotary's Avenues of Service
We channel our commitment to service at home and abroad through five Avenues of Service, which are the foundation of club activity.
· Club Service focuses on making clubs strong. A thriving club is anchored by strong relationships and an active membership development plan.
· Vocational Service calls on every Rotarian to work with integrity and contribute their expertise to the problems and needs of society.
· Community Service encourages every Rotarian to find ways to improve the quality of life for people in their communities and to serve the public interest.
· International Service exemplifies our global reach in promoting peace and understanding. We support this service avenue by sponsoring or volunteering on international projects, seeking partners abroad, and more.
Service plays an integral role in Rotary. To strengthen the friendships and relationships we make at a Club level, I encourage you to take the next step and be active in avenues of Service.
It's not until you donate some of your hard earned spare time that you realise how worthy these Avenues of Service are. The feeling you experience knowing you are helping others who may be less fortunate than yourselves, is indescribable.
For those of us who have full time work commitments, often coming to our Breakfasts is all we can do. However, I encourage you, when and if you can, to get involved with one of our Club's Avenues of Service. Remembering also, there is a commitment when you're invited to join Rotary that you do participate in Service Projects.
There is nothing like wearing your Rotary shirt at a Rotary Stall at our local Chilli Festival and being approached by an international Rotarian from South Africa. Immediately there is that feeling of talking to one of us, someone who has a commonality despite the tyranny of distance. This is achieved by Acts of International Service providing that global reach, promoting peace and making the world a smaller place. Rotary does that via International Service.
Remember, making friends that become lifelong friendships is enhanced further when we Serve together. Let's build on the vibrancy of our Club and make a difference by Serving together to help ourselves, the community we live in, and ultimately the entire world.
Have a great rest of the week and I look forward to seeing you at the next Meeting. Remember, it's our Annual General Meeting. One not to be missed. We will be electing the Office Bearers for the next Rotary Year under the Presidency of Bernie and accepting the Financial Reports of 2016-17.
Our Vocational Visit to Sunshine Coast Council's Smart Centre was - to say the least - eventful and eye opening. Some 26 members were present, enjoying breakfast supplied by the Chilli Jam Café; almost 75% stayed for coffee when we adjourned to ... the Chilli Jam Café.
President Elect Bernie, in her capacity as Vocational Services Director organised everything and manned the desk to welcome us all, PDG Alan proposed the International Toast, and President Peter presented his report and invocation, before Bernie introduced us to Jacqui Gray who is the Smart Centre Officer for the Council.
What happened to Cassie just before stays at the Smart Centre!
Next Tuesday's meeting is your opportunity to volunteer to lead your club on the Board for 2018-19 supporting Bernie as our President for that year. Or perhaps you can volunteer or be persuaded to stand as President for the year after?
No matter what, come along to discuss the formal matters on the Agenda and enjoy this otherwise informal stand-easy meeting or forum.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
& ELECTIONS
The club's AGM and Elections is coming up on 5 December.
Nominations are being called for the following positions:
Our last regular meeting for 2017 is on 19 December - stay tuned for Santa's plans
The first meeting in 2018 will be on Tuesday 16 January - it is billed as a slow start as most of us will still be in recovery mode
The meeting on 23 January is being transformed into a 'mobile meeting' whereby two or three of us will be requested to visit each of the other Rotary clubs in our cluster or vicinity. A roster might be a good idea to ensure we limit numbers!
On 30 January, we will receive reports from the visits to other clubs
To be fair to our hosts, it is important that you RSVP whether or not you are attending our Christmas Party at Anne & Merv's home. It is especially important if you are planning to be there, in which case please make sure you pay in advance.
The Mooloolaba Christmas Boat Parade starts at 6.30pm so please DO NOT park near boat ramp as you will probably be fined as it is for vehicles with boat trailers only.
Vincenzo and Jackie Romano from the Rotary Club of Johannesburg South 101 called in at the Chilli festival on Saturday - they would like it to be a make-up for when they return home. We would make them very welcome if they visit our weekly meetings.
Who mandated that every club meeting needs to include a speaker and a meal? And that community service can only be done outside club meetings? That “rule” probably never existed anyway, and with the flexibility permitted in the last Council on Legislation, many clubs are experimenting with different models.
A great example is the Rotary Club of Port Hope in District 7070. Faced with declining membership, the club took the message of flexibility to heart and changed its meeting schedule drastically beginning with the new Rotary year in 2016.
Club members continue to meet each week, but not over dinner! Yes, the club continues to have one “conventional” meeting each month, complete with a speaker, but has changed the other weekly meetings. The club now schedules one social event, one hands-on project, and one session devoted to committee meetings each month.
And the results are already showing: In just over one year, the club’s downward membership trend turned around and already, the club has grown from 25 to 35 members.
What are these meetings like? The “conventional” meeting is straightforward. The social events have included ball games, bowling, theatre nights and excursions to local restaurants, and spouses and partners are of course invited.
The hands-on projects have included cleaning the local beach, painting the walls and shelves at the food bank (BYOB, bring your own brush), giving out the Christmas hampers along with the Salvation Army and cooking dinner for some in need in the community. The committee meetings usually are held in someone’s home where planning or committee work can take place.
Just a “regular” meeting at Port Hope RC, Club members build “little libraries” during their weekly time together. All of these events have increased the social activities of the club, which means that the Rotarians have gotten to know other members of the club better — all while making a difference in their community. As an added bonus, the new format has reduced club costs: Not all meetings include meals and many do not require hall rental.
The example of Port Hope is one that we can all think about. The focus must always be on coming up with meeting formats that are most meaningful to club members.
Article by Bob Wallace, Zone 24 East Rotary Coordinator From Beyond Borders, the Newsletter of Zones 24 & 32, October 2017
The work of Rotary begins in the community, and every community has its own unique needs and concerns. While we serve in countless ways, through The Rotary Foundation we’ve focused our efforts in six key areas to maximize our impact. These areas encompass some of the world’s most critical and widespread humanitarian needs, and we have a proven record of success in addressing them. One of them is Disease Prevention and Treatment.
Rotary's top priority is the eradication of polio, but our members take on far greater responsibilities to fight disease. We set up health camps and training facilities in undeveloped countries and in communities struggling with HIV/AIDS and Malaria. We design and build the infrastructure for doctors, nurses, governments, and partners to reach the one in six people in the world who can't afford to pay for health care.
Disease prevention and treatment takes on many forms, from supporting studies to helping immunize people to improving drinking water and the sanitation infrastructure. The world relies on Rotary to tackle these global challenges, and to set an example for others to follow.
Here are some suggestions on how Rotary clubs, Districts and our service partners can address these needs both locally and internationally:
Support health education programs that explain how diseases are spread and promote ways to reduce the risk of transmission.
Help immunize people against infectious diseases.
Support continuing education and training for health workers through scholarships, and public recognition.
Improve and expand access to low-cost and free health care in underserved areas.
Improve sanitation facilities by providing toilets and latrines that flush into a sewer or safe enclosure.
Promote good hygiene habits through education. Proper hand washing with soap and water can reduce diarrhea cases by up to 35 percent.
Develop or support programs that provide immunizations and antibiotics. Measles, malaria, pneumonia, AIDS, and diarrheal diseases are the leading causes of death in children under five.
We have been very busy with Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC*).
Since I returned home 10 days ago we in ROMAC have transited a total of 12 people through Darwin Airport.
These include two carers and two patients last week who attend Royal Darwin Hospital, stayed overnight with me before returning to Dili, three Mothers and three children arrived from Dili on Saturday and transfer to Auckland via Melbourne, the children will have cardiac surgery and our latest little one Justino and his mother returned to Dili Wednesday morning.
Justino arrived in Darwin when he was five days old, he had urgent surgery in Royal Darwin Hospital that saved his life and now at two months' old he is a delightful little baby and is healthy and can expect to have a great future.
It is indeed a privilege to be a ROMAC volunteer and see the extraordinary results that the ROMAC program provides to children who would otherwise have not such a great future and long life expectancy.
What is ROMAC?
Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children is a combined Australia and New Zealand Multi District Rotary initiative. ROMAC has been in operation for over 25 years.
ROMAC's mission is to provide specialist treatment for children, from developing countries, in the form of life saving and/or dignity restoring surgery not accessible to them in their home country.
Seventy-two years ago, the United Nations was founded "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war ... [and] to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours." Despite those worthy aspirations, and generations of investment in achieving them, the "scourge of war" is still with us: Last year, more than 102,000 people died in 49 armed conflicts around the world. Some of those conflicts were in their fifth decade or beyond. Terrorism, intolerance, and extremism; the refugee crisis; and environmental degradation are now global challenges.
Collectively, we seem further than ever from achieving the goals that were set with such ambition and optimism in 1945. Yet hope endures, as long as there are people willing to work for a more peaceful future – not only through their governments, but also beside them and beside each other. Today, Rotary is better placed than ever to have a real and lasting impact for peace: through our peace-focused programs, such as Rotary Peace Fellows, and through every area of our service. Water, sanitation, health, education, and economic development are all interrelated and part of the complex interactions that can lead to conflict – or avert it. To best leverage our service in all these areas, and to maximize their impact for peace, it is essential to understand these interactions and plan our service accordingly.
For these reasons, we have scheduled a series of six presidential peacebuilding conferences between February and June in Canada, Lebanon, the UK, Australia, Italy, and the United States. These conferences will focus not on peace but on peacebuilding: We will share ways that we can work to build peace through the service of our Rotary clubs and districts. Five of the one-day conferences will illuminate the connections between peace and another area of focus. The first conference, in Vancouver, B.C., will explore the link between peace and another sphere of great concern to us in Rotary: environmental sustainability. You can view the full schedule and register at www.rotary.org/presidential-conferences.
The goals are simple: to help Rotarians find new ways to advance peace through their service, to learn from experts, and to strengthen our abilities to build peace. It is my hope and belief that these conferences will help us move closer to a more peaceful world, through Rotary: Making a Difference.
Please click HERE to download the ‘Rotary On The Move’ Newsletter for December 2017.
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