ATTENDANCE
Well done to those members who have successfully registered an attendance on our website.
This is still developing and we are waiting for Cameron our IT specialist and Administration Director to write a program that will record everyone’s attendance when you log on and log off. Only attendance longer than 30 minutes in one session will count. Some of this time may be used to post on your page on the website, make comments or suggest changes that we can adopt for our Club.
The website is interactive so you may post comments and give feed back to any of the posts made on the website. This is to be encouraged and hopefully we can all learn from doing this.
You will also receive an email from me this week with essentially the same message as appears here on the website. I want to encourage members to attend more regularly.
MEMBER SURVEY
I will also post a survey on the website in the drop down menu under Member Login, that I want all members to complete in the next 2 weeks please. We require some personal details and it will also relate to what you want to achieve in the Club and what goals we should be setting for ourselves.
CLUB GOALS
Each year the Club executive set goals for the Club to achieve during the year. I am suggesting some goals listed below that I consider we should achieve in our first year of operation as an E-Club:
- Increase our membership from 10 members to 15 members. The more members we have the easier it will be for the Club to function as the roles and tasks can be shared more. Each one of us should make a real attempt to introduce a new member this year.
- Contribute to the Rotary Foundation a total of US$1000 both from the members and the Club. We need to generate some income for us to achieve this.
- Support at least two of our overseas projects with funding and perhaps volunteers.
- Develop our website to better reflect the requirements of Rotary International and improve our communication and fellowship as a Club.
- A least one of our Club working as a District Officer – We already have Lauren Slater who has taken on the role of District Youth Director.
- A least one of our Club be a member of a Rotary Fellowship. I am a member of the International Fellowship of Skiing Rotarians (ISFR) and Carolyn and I will be attending the week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming USA during February 2017.
Please let us all know your thoughts on these by recording your comments on the website.
If we achieve these goals and any others that you might suggest our Club will be well on the way to becoming an effect E-Club and part of the wider community of Rotary.
JULY IS LITERACY MONTH
![1276981567442274136reading%20a%20book-hi[1]](https://zgk20f.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1276981567442274136reading20a20book-hi1-239x300.png)
Welcome to our website. Every month Rotary International has a different theme to bring this to the attention of all Rotarians. July is Literacy Month, an area that has been the basis of many Club projects.
It may be as little as Rotarians conducting a project to offer their services to schools in their own community to children who are having difficulties in reading and just listening to and correcting their reading skills.
Other projects might be like Past Rotary International President Bill Boyd’s dictionary project to supply primary school children in New Zealand with their first dictionary.
Worldwide, 67 million children have no access to education, and more than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate. Rotary Club’s support educational projects that provide technology, teacher training, vocational training teams, student meal programs, and low-cost textbooks to communities. Rotary’s goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender disparity in education, and increase adult literacy.
Video on providing Computer tablets to remote school in Fiji.
All Rotary Clubs are encouraged to consider a literacy project during the month of July. Look at this Rotary Resource that explains some strategies.
Basic Education & Literacy Project Strategies – 618en
Each year the Rotary International President sets the goals for a Rotary Club to achieve a Presidential Citation for their Club. The Presidential Citation criteria are listed below. As President I and the executive will be discussing our Club goals and setting them in Club Central. I am not anticipating we will achieve all goals but it is worth setting them and at least achieving some of them in our first year of operation as an E-Club.
![changeover2016[1]](https://zgk20f.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/changeover20161.jpg)
The District 9700 Changeover Dinner was held in Orange on Saturday June 25th, and District Governor Michael Milston (front row 5th from the left) is pictured with his board and assistant governors.
D9700 WELCOME ADDRESS AT CHANGEOVER DINNER
DG Michael Milston has also set some goals for District 9700. He alludes to some in his speech at the Changeover Dinner.
Governor Michael Milston’s Welcome Address
In welcoming you to the 2016-17 Rotary Year I acknowledge and pay my respects to the Wiradjuri elders past and present on whose country we celebrate this great Rotary tradition.
Through our International theme of ‘Rotary Serving Humanity’, our year has a two-fold challenge: to engage with more people in our communities, and to help club Rotarians to achieve their endeavours.
Over 110 years Rotarians have developed, assisted in, and funded projects to meet local, regional, national and international needs. Our actions, as Rotarians, have motivated others to help and to contribute, and have seen many join Rotary, in pursuit of “making the world a better place”.
I believe that we have a challenge, on our own doorstep, to engage with more people in our communities. This engagement could be professional networking and service-oriented, to encourage more of our community to see Rotary as a way to help and serve; and it could include learning about, engaging with, and developing projects collaboratively with our Aboriginal brothers and sisters.
The media has given play to many reports, not only recently, but over many years, that demonstrate that policies and projects over decades have failed to “Close the Gap”.
We now find our communities, compared to previous years, often suffering worse employment rates, worse health outcomes, worse education levels, and disproportionately high incarceration of Aboriginal people.
Are we up for the challenge to do something?
Our Rotary District is in a unique position as our geographic district is wholly enclosed in Wiradjuri country. This provides us with a great challenge and opportunity to reach out to our local communities, to listen, to learn, to understand, and to think how we can collaborate to help bring about change.
NOW IS THE TIME TO START LOOKING AT HOW WE (ROTARY) CAN BE THE CATALYST FOR CHANGE IN OUR OWN LAND, IN THE LAND OF OUR FIRST PEOPLES!
Rotary has great networks, great youth programs, good service planning models, an international focus on health and education, on literacy, and on conflict resolution and peace.
We Rotarians from the first world fall over ourselves to support projects in Africa, Asia and other less developed countries. Let’s see what we can do in our country.
Rotary International President John Germ asks us to “Serve Humanity” I know you will and I hope you might also join the process in Wiradjuri country.
You know in our club we start the 4 Way Test with the statement, The 4 Way Test has been translated into over 100 languages, well tonight I can proudly inform you that the 4 Way Test is now in Wiradjuri:
In the things we think, say and do …
Dhulu–ya-rra
Yindy-a-marra
Marra marra Marang Mala-yarr
It is now my pleasure to present to you the District Leadership Team – Directors, Assistant Governors and the Learning & Devt Coordinator:
Immediate Past District Governor Garry Roberts
District Governor-elect George Weston
District Governor-nominee John Glassford
District Secretary John McKenzie
District Treasurer Doug Conkey
Director-Administration Sue Gordon
Director-Communications and Public Image Jenny Somerset
Director-Foundation David Kennedy
Director-Membership/Club Sustainability Russ Martin
Director-Service Projects Peter Gissing
Director-Youth Lauren Slater
Learning and Devt Coordinator Lynette Bullen
Assistant Governors Don Jewell Group 1
Michael Horth Group 2
Ray Pluis Group 3
Julie Poplin Group 4
Bryan Short Group 5
Miles Hedge Group 6
In closing I want to thank some very important people:
- Past District Governors, would you please stand – you provide us all with balanced opinion and often sage advice, thank you
- Those amongst us who are Presidents in our year, please stand, you are the key leaders in your club and in your community, we are grateful your commitment and wish you well
- The Rotary Club of Orange Daybreak – these are the noisy ones. This is a great club and is now 21 years old, over which time they have been a great force in serving humanity; and their support of me in this role and of the District is outstanding – thank you
- The other Rotarians across the District, some of whom are here tonight, your contribution to our collective well-being is stunning and I look forward to serving you all this year
- Lastly, but by no means least, our partners, our family and our friends – could you all stand. You all provide us with the strength to continue, you assist in our many programs, you balance our crazy yearn to do much more than is possible and you console us when things go awry – thank you
- I want to make a special mention of my family– they have travelled from interstate to be with us tonight, such a massive effort and you’ll never know how much that means to Ann and me.
- And then there is Ann [Ann Dib is Michael’s partner]. Ann put much thought into agreeing that WE go on this journey, and I sometimes think she feels it was the wrong decision. So far we have survived – just – and I just want to say to you, Ann: Thank you for everything you have done and will do to make our year memorable and, as a fellow Rotarian, to serve humanity.
Mung-dung-gool …Good evening
Welcome to 2016-17.
Congratulations to all who have contributed to having our Rotary E-Club of D9700-Serving Humanity officially recorded on the D9700 website with ten members.
We are small in number but I am sure we will grow. We have the potential to nurture some great international projects and develop some new directions that may be applicable to all Rotary Clubs.
Read a profile of John Germ Visit the president’s page
Listen to President John’s speak on his theme for 2016-17
We have now started the new year and RI President John Germ has chosen his theme – Rotary Serving Humanity. We should be proud that we have chosen a similar name to his theme as we believe it aptly describes what our Club wants to achieve.
Our next Board meeting will held Tuesday 5th July on GoToMeeting at 7.30pm EST. All members are welcome to attend. If you have not already received the link let me know ASAP and I will re-send the invitation.
Welcome this week to another new member – Rotarian Jemma Hayward who is transferring to our Club from the Rotary Club of Wagga Wagga, D9700. She is relatively new to Rotary and due to work commitments away from Wagga Wagga was finding it difficult to attend he previous Club. We are now 11 in total number with still more prospects who have not yet committed.
Meeting Attendance
Our meeting attendance commitment is online and you can report your service or just browse our website for 30 minutes. Feel free to send any recommendations that you might have for our Executive or Directors. One other member has registered her attendance this week – congratulations to Secretary Debbie.
This is what I wrote in my meeting attendance post. When it is submitted it is sent to our Administration Director and myself.
“I attended a RAWCS Seminar at the D9600 Offices at Northlakes, Brisbane from 10.00am to 1.00pm Saturday 25th June. I presented a presentation and workshop on the RAWCS website for personnel from D9600 and D9630. It was well attended with 15 attendees who all learnt a lot about RAWCS and its programs.
What have you learnt that is new about Rotary this session?:
It is apparent that we need flexibility in our service requirements for Rotarians to attract and involve the younger member of our communities in the International and local service programs of Rotary.
We have the chance in our Rotary Club to learn and gain a lot of members and projects for our Club with this flexible approach to service and membership of Rotary.”
I encourage all of our members to register their attendance and make comments each week. You can do it at any time of the day every day of the week. We want your involvement and participation.
Joining Fees
For those members who have not paid their joining fee of $30.00 we need it to be paid this week!
Please pay your dues (fees) by Direct Deposit or Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT):
-
Account Name: Rotary E-Club of D9700 – Admin A/C BSB: 032 769 Account Number: 696 453 Payment Reference: (Your Name) & Dues or Join Fee
Please all try and attend the next Board Meeting – GoToMeeting to be held Tuesday 5th July at 7.30pm. I will send the email with the link to all members on Tuesday 28th June.
Want members? Then get social!
By Evan Burrell
Did you know more than a billion people use social media every day?
Social media is readily accessible, instantaneous, cost effective and user friendly. It offers your Rotary club a fantastic opportunity to communicate more effectively with members and supporters and can energise the way you promote your club and find new members.
Here are just a few examples of ways your club can use social media:
- Use Twitter to quickly advise members and the public of a last-minute change of venue for an event.
- Let members and potential members know via Facebook when and where the next meeting will be and who the speaker is.
- Use Facebook to start a discussion about a particular topic or issue at the club. Be prepared for positive and negative feedback and use it to improve your club.
- Share details of your club’s new member recruitment session. When people “like” your post or retweet it, it shares the info with their entire social network.
- Follow the Facebook pages of local businesses and organizations in your area. Comment on their posts; start a conversation.
- Share stories and photos from your club service projects. When people see the great work your club is doing, they’re more likely to join.
- Remember that social media is a conversation, so respond to comments, answer questions, and focus on the benefits of being a member of your club.
- Once you get active on social media, stay active. The more you’re connected, the more likely you are to make connections – and get new members.
Most importantly, if you are using social media, don’t forget to let your supporters know you are!
Add social media buttons to your website, links on invitations, newsletters and emails, and display account information in recruitment and marketing materials.
Getting started on social media can help your club get the word out, especially where younger people hang out, and attract new members.
- Join a discussion on membership best practices
About the author: Evan Burrell is a member of the Rotary Club of Turramurra, New South Wales, Australia, and a former member of Rotaract. He has been involved with Rotary since he was 18. He currently manages social media for Rotary Down Under, the Rotary regional magazine of Australia. Follow Evan on Facebook.
Welcome this week to another new member – PP Lauren Slater who is transferring to our Club from the Rotary Club of Murrumbidgee, D9700. She has great Rotary experience and is without doubt our youngest member. We are now 10 in total number with still more prospects who have not yet committed. Below is a great E-club that we can probably use as a model for our website and Club activities.
A great example of a Rotary E-Club
That’s the problem that the founders of the E-Club of Silicon Valley – (please look at their website – http://www.siliconvalleyrotary.com/) set out to solve when they established their club last year. “It was very much a conversation of how we can get people into Rotary who want to be a part of Rotary but always come up with the response of, ‘I don’t have the time,’” says 25-year-old charter member Yvonne Kwan. “These are people who want to do good. They want to help out. They want to give back to the community, but they just can’t make it out to the meetings every single week at a certain time.”
Kwan’s club posts its meetings online for members to “attend” at any time during the week. The club also hosts regular social gatherings – potlucks, happy hours, and, most recently, a hike in a natural area north of San Francisco. “We went out into nature, and we took a few hours and hiked up to Point Reyes,” she says. “It was beautiful.”
When members go online for meetings, they find engaging content, Kwan says. “We’ve made our meetings very visual-heavy with videos, pictures, a font that’s easy to read.”
Look at this example of a guest speaker from one of their meetings.
In addition to the standard Rotary business items, the e-club meetings feature videos of speakers from all over the world and a weekly “tech tidbit or life hack” that members may find useful or entertaining. Kwan recently posted a tip about a discovery she made when she temporarily lost her Internet connection: The Chrome browser has a game hidden in its connection error page. “It was the highlight of my day for that very treacherous time when I had no Internet,” she jokes. So she made a short video about it and shared it with the club.
Another difference between Kwan’s club and others: “We don’t have big service projects that we do as a club because we’re dispersed throughout the world,” she says. Instead, members are encouraged to partner with other Rotary clubs or nonprofit organizations, find their own opportunities, and report them to the club as service. “You can do your own service in your own time,” Kwan says. “It gives people more power to adjust their own schedules.”
Though the e-club’s meetings are online, Kwan considers the in-person interactions to be just as important. She usually invites potential members to a social event before they ever see an online meeting. “It draws them in and it piques their interest, and you get to know them a little bit more,” she says. “I think that’s really valuable. Millennials are looking for a place to give back to their community, but they need to feel like they are getting value as well.”
Ee, of the Los Angeles club, agrees. “It doesn’t matter how bad my week was. I always end it with Rotary, and I always leave with a little more good faith in humanity,” he says. “I’m really excited for the next 20 years – to see where Rotary’s going to go.”
Kim Lisagor is a freelance writer and co-author of Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Help Save Them.
The Rotarian
We are getting close to our Charter date – we believe it will be 1st July 2016. We have now completed all the requirements to accept the charter of a D9700 Rotary Club that has decided to hand their charter to our Rotary E-Club of D9700-Serving Humanity.
Currently we have nine members who have completed their expression of interest in being Charter members. There is still time for YOU to complete your expression of interest and join us in this new initiative for our District.
If you want to be part of the wonderful Rotary community please join us by completing your expression of interest.
We are 1.2 million neighbors, friends, and community leaders who come together to create positive, lasting change in our communities and around the world.
Our differing occupations, cultures, and countries give us a unique perspective. Our shared passion for service helps us accomplish the remarkable.
As an active member of our Club you are welcome to attend and make-up at any meeting of any other Rotary Club worldwide. You can become involved in the many International Projects that our Club members support. You can assist to develop projects here in Australia that will improve our communities and to assist those that are in need.
This month is Rotary Fellowship Month. Through fellowship we can gain insight into how to better serve our communities and fellow Rotarians.
The Fourth Object of Rotary states, ” The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service”.
Rotary Fellowships are international, independently organized groups of Rotarians, Rotarian spouses, and Rotaractors who share a common vocation or recreational interest. Rotary Fellowships give their members the opportunity to have fun, make new friends around the world, and enhance their experience in Rotary.
Rotary has numerous Fellowships already established. If you cannot find one you are interested in perhaps you can look at establishing one that YOU would like to develop.
Many fellowships also use their special interests to serve others.
I am a member of the International Fellowship of Skiing Rotarians(ISFR). I have been on three ski weeks with them. At Whistler – British Columbia, Telluride – Colorado and Big Sky – Montana. This coming February my partner Carolyn and I will be skiing the ISFR week at Jackson Hole – Wyoming. These are great fellowship weeks, skiing with about 100 other Rotarians who love skiing. A very rewarding and social time is had by all. The ISFR raises about US$60,000 each ski week that is donated to adaptive ski schools (disabled skiing) around the world. Disabled Snowsports Australian at Falls Creek, Victoria received US$10,000 from ISFR in 2014 for uniforms and special equipement.
Other fellowships active in Australia are Flying, Cricket, Recreational Vehicles, Antique Autos, Caravanners and Golf.
![ban_kimoon[1]](https://zgk20f.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ban_kimoon1.jpg)
UN chief Ban Ki-moon opens Korea convention
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was among the first to welcome Rotary members and friends to the 107th Rotary Convention, heralded as one of the largest-ever gatherings of Rotarians and the most multicultural assembly of nonprofit leaders in Korea.
He offered a message of gratitude: “Rotarians do remarkable work around the world,” Ban told the thousands of attendees gathered at KINTEX, the Korea International Exhibition and Convention Center in Goyang city, on the outskirts of Seoul. “You help the United Nations reach our goals, and you help the world understand the United Nations.”
Special guests included prime ministers Hwang Kyo-ahn of South Korea, and Ranil Wickremesinghe of Ravindran’s native Sri Lanka.
Hwang, who was the charter president of the Rotary Club of Seoul before he served as minister of justice, spoke about Rotary’s history and presence in South Korea, now the fourth-strongest Rotary country in terms of membership and one of the strongest supporters of The Rotary Foundation, per capita.
Our Club should be proud that our Secretary Debbie Schache and her husband John are attending the convention. All Rotarians are welcome to attend all conventions, so put next years Atlanta, Georgia, USA Convention – 10th to 14th June 2017, on your calendar.
Annual General Meeting of the Rotary E-Club of D9700-Serving Humanity
Can I thank all of those members attending the AGM held last Tuesday 17th May 2016. I would also like to thank those who did not attend and offered to fill a role with our fledgling Club.
We adopted our Constitution and Bylaws and can now start to register as an Incorporated Organisation in NSW.
Congratulations to our newly elected Office Bearers for 2016-17:
President – John Roberson
Secretary – Debbie Schache
Treasurer – Marilyn Roberts
Vice President – Vacant
President Elect – 2017-18 – Vacant
Directors:
Administration – Cameron McKern
Membership – Malcolm Dunnett
Public Relations – Susan Welch
Foundation – John Roberson
Youth & Australian Service – Donna Vaughan
International Service – Sharon Daishe
We are small in number but very excited about our new Club. If you are interested in becoming a member please fill out the “Membership Expression on Interest” Form on this website and submit it. Those joining before we charter will become Charter Members of our Club.
Rotary International Convention
On the 28th May the Rotary International Convention is to begin in Seoul, Korea. All members of Rotary and their spouses are welcome to register and attend the annual International Convention of Rotary. Listen to what those attending have to look forward to by clicking on the Convention Minute by Rotary International President Elect and Convention Chair Ian Riseley.
RIPE Ian Riseley – Welcome to Seoul Convention