Last Week - Project Meeting

 It was our first official Project Meeting when we looked at our on-going projects and future developments  at Cresset House.  Jasmyn van Heerden gave us an interesting overview of the workshops that were being organised for the residents with the expansion of activities and products in the bakery on the one hand to fun and therapeutic activities which cover a wide field.  There were many questions afterwards and thoughts on future involvement.

Professor Shelley Schmollgruber gave a brief synopsis of our possible Cervicle Cancer Project as unfortunately Richard Moloney has been ill and was currently in Hazyview.  She was waiting for notes to be sent by him and they have subsequently arrived.  

This Week

Michael Fridjhon will be talking on whether South African wine consumers are spoiled for choice or  for value....or perhaps both.

With over forty years’ experience in the production, wholesale and retail sectors of the industry and considerable local and international expertise, Michael Fridjhon is one of South Africa’s most widely consulted liquor industry authorities, a highly regarded international wine judge and one of the country's leading wine writers.

He teaches and directs the Wine Judging Academy run in association with UCT’s Graduate School of Business and has been an adviser to the South African Minister of Agriculture. He is the author, co-author or contributor to over 30 books, writes a weekly column for Business Day, contributes to various international wine publications and provides all the wine scores for WineWizard.

A recipient of the French Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole, he was the Louis Roederer International Wine Columnist of the Year in 2012 and is an honorary life member of the UK's Circle of Wine Writers.

Next Week

It's our monthly Business Meeting and:

 

We have invited the Rotary Clubs who contributed to the Gerald Fitzpatrick House & Nursing Home Project.  Gerald Fitzpatrick is for elderly ladies who have no family support.

This is a very important project as we needed to provide electricity during load shedding, particularly in the Frail Care Facility, as we could not have the elderly residents stumbling around in the dark.  The original project has expanded to include solar panels and the next step will be to upgrade so that the laundry can function during load shedding.

The Rotary Club of Knights Pendragon wishes to thank the Rotary Clubs of Johannesburg, Rosebank and Springs as well as Leeshen Reddy who donated the solar panels and Christine Solar Company who gave of their time and expertise. 

Don't think this is a closed event.  Invite anyone you like, especially any one you may think is a prospective member.

International

Into the metaverse

By Arnold R. Grahl

Last year, Tana Serrano Marín decided to enter the metaverse. The family law attorney in southeastern Spain kept hearing about the vast possibilities of the immersive, 3D online world where everyone from gamers to harried parents seeking an escape interact via cartoonlike avatars. 

First, a guest speaker at her husband’s Rotary club meeting extolled the virtues of the metaverse. Then, a person on the district’s membership committee brought it up. And she watched with interest as brands and businesses adopted the technology to reach customers. Could it catch on with Rotarians? Serrano Marín and her husband decided to find out. 

They started dabbling with Spatial, a platform to create virtual spaces. As interest grew, they took the idea to district officials and lined up club officers. They attended an in-person training session, and the Rotary Club of Metaverso (metaverse in Spanish) was chartered 28 November with a membership roster of 14 women and six men. Most, like Serrano Marín, are from the city of Murcia, near Spain’s Mediterranean coast.  

“What makes thisplatform so immersive is that after just a few sessions, people identify with their avatars online and the experiences become personal,” says Serrano Marín. “It’s quite different from just taking part in a videoconference.”

So what’s a Rotary club meeting in the metaverse like? To find out, I planned a visit in January and got to work creating an avatar on Spatial. You can choose one that’s lifelike or experiment with a different look, as did the club member who appeared as Elvis in the meeting space. I chose the former option. 

When the meeting day arrived, I watched my avatar drop into a pink-purple room with a gaming vibe. I was greeted by club member Antonio Carrión Serrano, who acted as my guide and interpreter, as the club language is Spanish. On a computer, keyboard strokes allow you to move, but the skill can require some finesse. On my early attempts, my avatar appeared to walk through others. Another keystroke sent my avatar floating in air with strange motions that looked like swimming. 

Another quirk to the club’s meeting space is that there are no private conversations; everyone can hear you. But that allowed me to meet another newcomer to the metaverse who joined the meeting as a guest, Michel Jazzar, a past district governor from Lebanon. “This is my first time,” confessed Jazzar. “It is something new. As we say in Beirut, ‘New is beautiful.’” 

That people can attend easily from anywhere and fit meetings around busy schedules is a strength of the platform. Member Juanjo Morales Aragón, for instance, says he had heard of Rotary before but had not been able to join because his work schedule prevented him from attending an in-person meeting every week. “It is a format with an enormous capacity to give greater visibility without limits, making the Rotary experience available to everyone,” he says. 

Another plus is the fact that it is more immersive than videoconferencing, says Carrión Serrano, a 20-year-old law student and the son of club founder Serrano Marín. “This is a new concept, quite attractive to young people.”

He is adamant that the metaverse is not a fad, noting that Nike has a space on a platform called Roblox where participants can play games and dress their avatars in Nike apparel. “There are a lot of big projects involving the metaverse. Businesses are here,” he says. “It’s a different way of viewing life. And it’s wonderful for Rotary to be here.” 

He led me into the Sala Paz (Peace Room), where posters on the walls discuss Rotary’s Action Plan, mission, and causes. At the far end of this long rectangular space, a walkway proceeded out over a sea of magenta water. The sky teemed with indigo clouds. I knew it wasn’t real, but I couldn’t avoid feeling that one false move would plunge me headfirst into a pool of lava. 

A virtual bell on stage rang to begin the meeting. I entered the Sala Paul Harris, an auditorium splashed in a deeper shade of purple. On the front wall, a large screen allowed people to share presentations. The auditorium sloped downward with rows of short square seats on either side of a center aisle. Eventually, I figured out how to click on a seat and sit. A regional expert discussed mediation and ways to settle disputes peacefully. Occasionally, applause broke out, sending streams of red hearts soaring into the air. 

Serrano Marín says that the club plans face-to-face meetups in addition to its regular virtual meetings. Members carry out service projects in the real world, like any other club. One of their first projects solicited contributions from 17 companies, which received advertising space in one of the rooms. The contributions were used to buy coats for 17 children in El Palmar, a village near Murcia. Serrano Marín says members also plan to explore causes they can address in the virtual space. 

At least one other club meets in this new domain, the Rotary Club of Taipei Metaverse, which chartered in June 2022 in Taiwan and has nearly 40 members. The idea seems to have appeal, judging from the enthusiastic comments from across the world on a Rotary Voices blog post that Serrano Marín wrote in January. And Jazzar, the past district governor from Lebanon, says his own district is discussing a similar club. “The metaverse is the future,” says Serrano Marín. “Rotary must be there.”

This Week: Project Discussion

 The two projects that we will be discussing are:

• Cresset House   Jasmyn van Heerden will be chatting about the way forward at Cresset.  For those who don't know, Cresset House is a facility in Midrand that caters for adults with intellectual disabilities both providing housing, care and work possibilities.  Knights Pendragon has a long history of involvement.  
• Cervical Cancer Project   This is a potential project that has been suggested by Rotarian Richard Moloney who is not a member of our club.  Shelley Schmollgruber will report back on progress and the way forward as Richard is currently in Hazyview and will only be back on Friday.

Last Week's Mead Tasting

It was a lot of fun for those who were present and I did wonder if it wasn't disappointing for those on line.

Ernst Thompson of the Cape Town Mead Company gave us an online talk on the history of mead and where he sources his honey from....primarily from Zambia.  Sustainability is the basis of everything he does which appeals to our environmentally focused club policy.

We tasted a sparkling mead made in the same way as Cap Classique with a secondary fermentation in the bottle as well as three still meads, dry, sweet and a spiced one.  In addition there was a "mead beer".

The general consensus was that the sweet mead was the nicest and the one least liked was the spicy one.  Opinion was divided on the other two though we all enjoyed the beer.

Next Week

Our guest speaker will be Michael Fridjhon.

Rotary International

A farmer and a giver

It’s a long way from a farm in Mount Cotton, Australia, to South Africa, but a 1973 trip to the country kicked off an even longer journey for Dan Holzapfel. It was there that he first became aware of the terrible toll of polio and committed to doing what he could to help stamp it out. Fifty years later, in the year he turned 100, Holzapfel is one of the most significant contributors to Rotary’s polio eradication effort, donating about US$2.5 million to the cause.

“When I saw the suffering of children with polio in South Africa, it made me realize I had to do something about it,” he says. “To see the way they suffered, the way they would crawl around on hands and knees, it was shocking. It really opened my eyes.”

Holzapfel left school at age 11 to work on his family's tomato farm in the Redlands area near Brisbane, Australia. An active Rotarian for 48 years, he's attended dozens of conventions all over the world, but is still a hometown boy at heart.

"He's very proud of the history of the Redlands. He's very proud of his origins," his friend Bruce Allen says. "He was born there and raised there, he worked there, and he'll die there. That's all he ever wanted, was to be in his own particular patch."

Holzapfel has found all sorts of ways to help his community, from serving on the local government council to volunteering with the Queensland Ambulance Service. He's also given AU$100,000 to the Redland Foundation to provide transitional housing for families affected by domestic violence. He even set up a fund in 2018 for small businesses in the area that provided grants of AU$25,000 for seed capital. His giving goes beyond the local level too: He's a Diamond Supporter of ShelterBox Australia.

While the rural area surrounding his family's land was developed over time, Holzapfel remained dedicated to the farming life. He continued gardening into his mid-80s, maintaining a few potato and pumpkin patches. In the Redland Museum, to which he's a significant donor, the Dan Holzapfel Farm Pavilion documents the Redlands' history of agriculture. Many of the exhibits date from the early to mid-20th century, when Holzapfel was young and the Redlands was known as "Brisbane's salad bowl."

It's no wonder Holzapfel was designated the Redlands' 2018 Citizen of the Year. There's even a park named after him.

"He's a very hardworking, downright, forthright person," Allen says. "The strongest swearword I ever heard him use was 'darn.' He's hard-nosed — I've seen the hard side of him — but he's a very giving person."

Holzapfel says turning 100 was no different than any other birthday, though his Rotary friends and King Charles III of the United Kingdom disagreed. The friends threw Holzapfel a party on 1 May, and the king sent an official letter of congratulations. At the party, Redland City Mayor Karen Williams spoke emotionally about Holzapfel's dedication to his community and the world.

"I feel very humbled and honored to be here," she told the Redland City News. "There are children out there who can walk because of him. There are domestic violence victims who have somewhere safe to live because of him.

"Dan is the sort of person we should all aspire to be. He is a living legend."

This story originally appeared in the August 2023 issue of Rotary magazine.

Ambrosia - Nectar of the Gods

 This week is a hybrid meeting so that those who wish to can attend and taste various mead products. 

Dr Ernst Thompson will be talking about mead and presenting a tasting.  

He became an independent agricultural consultant in 2011 specialising in feed Fisheries, technical input and data analysis with a focus on developing sustainable agriculture practices. In June 2013 he joined the team at Beonics Feed Supplements working on expanding their dairy farm business.  

He established the Cape Town Meadery in 2018 and I won't preempt his talk.  

I was fascinated by this because I had interviewed a Cape Town mead maker last century to whom it was a hobby and I remember tasting a mead that was made like champagne with a secondary fermentation which tasted very like champagne, bone dry but with a completely different nose.  Honeyed is the only way to describe it.  He was making it for his own wedding which was in a year or so's time so it would be nicely matured.

As you can see from the riddling rack, Ernst also makes a similar sparkling mead so it will be interesting to taste his.

Zen Rankin has offered to provide the food for the evening though she must know how many will be attending asap.

Mário César Martins de Camargo, a member of the Rotary Club of Santo André, São Paulo, Brazil, is the selection of Nominating Committee for President to become Rotary International’s president for 2025-26. 

He will officially become the nominee on 15 September if no other candidates challenge him.

De Camargo plans to boost Rotary’s public image by working from the top down.

“Rotary today has strong competition for members and funds,” he says. “We need to rejuvenate the brand, especially in some zones. We should utilize post-pandemic meeting tools … to allow the president to address Rotarians all over the globe. We also need to develop more long-term partnerships with political, community, and business leaders. Let’s emphasize our greatest asset: 1.4 million volunteers.”

He also hopes to improve Rotary’s process for appointments and governance.

“Rotary should adopt a more transparent system to appoint volunteers for positions, with clear criteria and data-based evaluation of results,” he says.

De Camargo was president of Gráfica Bandeirantes and has been a consultant to the print industry in Brazil. He has also served as president and chair of several printing and graphics trade associations, including the Brazilian Association of Graphic Technology and ABIGRAF, the Brazilian Printing Industry Association.

He has served on the board of Casa da Esperança (House of Hope), a hospital sponsored by his Rotary club that serves 150,000 children with disabilities every year.

De Camargo studied in the U.S. and Germany and holds degrees from EAESP-Fundação Getulio Vargas in business administration and Faculdade de Direito de São Bernardo do Campo in law.

A Rotarian since 1980, de Camargo has served Rotary as director, trustee, RI learning facilitator, committee member and chair, and task force member.

De Camargo and his wife, Denise, are Major Donors and Benefactors of The Rotary Foundation.

Rotary in Ukraine

On 26 January in Odesa, Mykola Stebljanko spent the day under attack. A barrage of missiles killed 11 people and destroyed critical infrastructure around Ukraine, including in the city where Stebljanko lives.

Despite not having working electricity, Stebljanko – who publishes Rotariets, Rotary’s Ukrainian magazine – was determined to report on the situation and Rotary’s response to it. He was able to make a cell phone call to describe an experience he’s had several times during the past year of war.

"Sometimes we have time to go into the shelter, but sometimes there is no time — we're just sitting in our apartment and waiting for the end," he says. "Most of the targets are military or infrastructure objects. Not the buildings for civilians. But sometimes the missiles go to civilian buildings. We just decided, if it will be our building, that will be our destiny."

Even under fire, Stebljanko, a member of the Rotary E-Club of Ukraine, wanted to let members around the world know how important their efforts were. In an interview, he spoke about how members established humanitarian hubs along the Ukrainian border to receive supplies and distribute them throughout the county.

In the city of Kharkiv, he noted, Rotary members who own a shopping center donated space to store supplies.

"They provided a whole underground level for the humanitarian hub," Stebljanko says. "They provide aid each day to thousands of people. In the front line cities, the Rotarians are real heroes. Despite their very complicated life, they try to continue to serve as Rotarians."

Members inside Ukraine have had supplies to distribute partly because of the global network of Rotary members who have used disaster response grants to provide them. They have sent generators, medical supplies, emergency equipment, modular housing, and other provisions, as well as providing support for refugees.

The Rotary Foundation has awarded more than 375 disaster response grants, totaling more than US$17.3 million, to help people affected by the war. More than 280 districts have sponsored grants. That's more than half of all districts.

This Week: A Public Holiday, Women's Day, so No Meeting

Women in Rotary

I am sure many of members of our Rotary Club remember the turmoil when women could join Rotary.

I certainly can!  We had members leave because of it and there were all sorts of strange objections.  "Wives are against it for obvious reasons."  As if any woman in her right mind would join Rotary for sex;  the gym would be a far better bet!  One thing that has happened is that men tend to be better behaved when women are present as at the end of the 18th century when women eventually joined men at table the piss pot was no longer passed round for men to relieve themselves.

It has made a difference to Rotary priorities as we are seeing more female priorities where projects are concerned, not only at International level but also locally and not only proposed by women.  We are also seeing more women in District leadership roles and men are less willing to come forward for such positions.  The same applies at club level.  I wouldn't be surprised if in South Africa Rotary will eventually become primarily a women's organisation probably far sooner than we think.

This is what RI has to say about it:

Women are active participants in Rotary, serving their communities in increasing numbers and serving in leadership positions in Rotary. The 1989 Council on Legislation vote to admit women into Rotary clubs worldwide remains a watershed moment in the history of Rotary.

 “My fellow delegates, I would like to remind you that the world of 1989 is very different to the world of 1905. I sincerely believe that Rotary has to adapt itself to a changing world,” said Frank J. Devlyn, who would go on to become RI president in 2000-01. 

The vote followed the decades-long efforts of men and women from all over the Rotary world to allow the admission of women into Rotary clubs, and several close votes at previous Council meetings.

The response to the decision was overwhelming: By June 1990, the number of female Rotarians had skyrocketed to over 20,000. The number of women members worldwide reached 195,000 in July 2010 (about 16% of Rotarians) and surpassed 277,000 in July 2020 (about 23% ).

A top priority for Rotary is growing and diversifying our membership to make sure we reflect the communities we serve. We know that our capacity to increase our impact and expand our reach is larger when more people unite with us, which is why we value diversity, equity and inclusion. Rotary celebrates and welcomes the contributions of people of all backgrounds, regardless of their age, ethnicity, race, colour, abilities, religion, socioeconomic status, culture, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Our timeline highlights historic milestones and senior leadership firsts that have helped build greater diversity in Rotary. These leaders and all our female members are making positive change in communities around the world.

Timeline of women in Rotary

1. 

   1950  An enactment to delete the word “male” from the Standard Rotary Club Constitution is proposed by a Rotary club in India for the Council on Legislation meeting at the 1950 Rotary Convention.

2. 1964   The Council on Legislation agenda contains an enactment proposed by a Rotary club
   in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to permit the admission of women into Rotary clubs. Delegates vote that it be withdrawn. Two other proposals to allow women to be eligible for honorary membership are also withdrawn.

3. 1972  As more women begin reaching higher positions in their professions, more clubs begin lobbying for female members. A U.S. Rotary club proposes admitting women into Rotary at the 1972 Council on Legislation.

   

4. 1977  Three separate proposals to admit women into membership are submitted to the Council on Legislation for consideration at the 1977 Rotary Convention. A Brazilian club makes a different proposal to admit women as honorary members. 

   The Rotary Club of Duarte, California, USA, admits women as members in violation of the RI Constitution and Standard Rotary Club Constitution. Because of this violation, the club’s membership in Rotary International is terminated in March 1978. (The club was reinstated in September 1986.)

5. 1980  The RI Board of Directors and Rotary clubs in India, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States propose an enactment to remove from the RI and club constitutions and bylaws all references to members as “male persons.” 

6. 1983-86  In a lawsuit filed by the Duarte club, the California Superior Court in 1983 rules in favor of Rotary International, upholding gender-based qualification for membership in California Rotary clubs. In 1986, the California Court of Appeals reverses the lower court's decision, preventing the enforcement of the provision in California. The California Supreme Court refuses to hear the case, and it is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

7. 

   1987  On 4 May, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Rotary clubs may not exclude women from membership on the basis of gender. Rotary issues a policy statement that any Rotary club in the United States can admit qualified women into membership. 

   The Rotary Club of Marin Sunrise, California (formerly Larkspur Landing), is chartered on 28 May. It becomes the first club after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to have women as charter members.
   

   Sylvia Whitlock, of the Rotary Club of Duarte, California, becomes the first female Rotary club president.

8. 

   
   1988  In November, the RI Board of Directors issues a policy statement recognizing the right of Rotary clubs in Canada to admit female members based on a Canadian law similar to that upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

9. 1989  At its first meeting after the 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Council on Legislation votes to eliminate the requirement in the RI Constitution that membership in
   Rotary clubs be limited to men. Women are welcomed into Rotary clubs around the world.

   

10. 1990  As of June, there are about 20,200 female Rotarians worldwide. The Rotarian runs a feature on women in Rotary.

11. 1995  In July, eight women become district governors, the first elected to this role: Mimi Altman, Gilda Chirafisi, Janet W. Holland, Reba F. Lovrien, Virginia B. Nordby, Donna J. Rapp, Anne Robertson, and Olive P. Scott.

12. 2005  Carolyn E. Jones begins her term as the first woman appointed as trustee of The Rotary Foundation.

13. 

14. 2022  Jennifer Jones begins her term as the first female president of Rotary International.