Above: My son Sam Smith Roberson while a Rotary Youth Exchange Student in Toyama, Japan

YOUTH SERVICE MONTH

This month is Youth Service Month and one of the programs that epitomises Rotary’s involvement is Rotary Youth Exchange. My own son benefited immensely from his year spent in Japan. He learned to speak, read and write Japanese, a talent that has already allowed him to become a ski instructor in Japan. It also focused him on what he wants out of life and his decision to become a teacher is partly because of his youth exchange experiences.

Thousands of young students have benefitted from their experiences living in another culture, learning about cultural differences and finding and developing their own talents.

Click on this link for a message about Rotary Youth Exchange.

If you want more informatio on Rotary Youth Exchange look at this website.

http://www.ryea.org.au/

Doesn’t a week fly by now days!

We held a GoToMeeting last Tuesday and we had six attendees which is a record for our fledgling Club. We had a great discussion on how our Club is developing and where we go from now.

We have this month and half of June to finalise our website, attract more members, establish Bank Accounts, register as a Incorporated body in NSW and submit our application to receive our charter.

I appeal to all who are interested in becoming a Charter member to fill out and submit an expression of interest form in joining the Rotary E-Club of D9700-Serving Humanity.

Did you know?

Pope Francis greets Rotary International President K.R. Ravindran at a Jubilee audience at the Vatican on 30 April, where 9,000 Rotary members were special guests of the pontiff.

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.

The Rotary E-Club of D9700-Serving Humanity is the first E-Club in D9700 and we welcome all to read about our projects both in Australia and overseas. D9700 is the only Rotary District in Australia that does not have a seaboard. We are located in inland New South Wales with a very friendly membership dedicated to serving their own communities and the world at large.

All Rotarians visiting our website are invited to do a makeup.

Any person, regardless of where they live in the world, interested in joining our Club can fill out the expression of interest form and submit it to the Club Board.