Last weekend I and over 200 other Rotarians attended the District 9700 Conference held in Wagga Wagga, NSW at the Civic Theatre. It was a friendly and very informative weekend.

Past Rotary International President 2006-07 Bill Boyd from D9940 New Zealand represented our current RI President K.R.(Ravi) Ravindran and spoke to us three times over the two days. His quiet and succinct messages were well received and he enthused us with the work that Rotary is achieving and has plans to do in the future.

The Conference was divided into three distinct themes that DG Gary Roberts wanted to bring to our members. They were on Peace & Rotary, Business & Rotary and Rotary Youth Programs.

Excellent speakers on the program were:

• PRIP Kalyan Banerjee who could not attend due to his wife’s illness however his video address was inspiring and urged us to impart the message that peace starts with the individual and their peace within that translates to peace in their homes and communities.
• PDG Garry Browne and Charles Tarbey from real estate company Century 21 spoke on Rotary & Business and Rotary forming Partnerships with business.
• The Youth Programs speakers William Wood a Rotaractor, PDG Rowley Thompsett a training officer for Rotaract and Sarah Yahya, NSW Multicultural Youth Ambassador who works with Rotaract and Rotary on various projects highlighted the importance of all Rotary Clubs fostering and supporting Rotaract and Interact as a way of communicating the Rotary philosophy to new generations.

In conclusion I would like to encourage all members of our Club to attend next year’s D9700 conference for DG Michael Milston to be held at Orange, NSW – 18th to 19th March 2017.

Please encourage your friends and interested acquaintances who want to join Rotary to consider filling out our “Expression of Interest Form” on this website  to be considered for membership of the Rotary E-Club of D9700-Serving Humanity. Members can be resident in any country in the world and still become a member of a Rotary E-Club.