This Week: A Business Meeting

 This week there will be quite a lot to discuss following Committee Meetings last week, the issue of fund raising and the Swot Analysis issued by President Andrew.

We are a strong club in comparison with most clubs in the District and we are much better than most when it comes to succession planning particularly when it comes to presidents as we have them in place for two years following this Rotary year.  We have to ensure that we have members in other positions as well and we must continue to recruit members to lower our average age and be prepared to take over positions in the long term.  Where that is concerned we need to see what the club will look like in 10 years time and prepare for that.

President Andrew and myself have set goals for the club for this Rotary year and have kept them modest.  It's better to exceed them rather than fall short.  On the other hand we have not even considered Long or Short Term Youth Exchange and maybe we should. 

Last Week 

It was a 5th Wednesday where traditionally we have had a social dinner in the evening for members and partners.  Instead it was requested that there be online committee meetings as an experiment as we would be having a social breakfast on Saturday morning.

Past President Neil Gardyne attended the breakfast and presented President Andrew with the blazer from the club's first Rotary Exchange Student, Anne Brierley 

There was a suggestion as what to do for the next social meeting in September and it will come up at the Business Meeting. 

Next Week

Our Speaker will be Godfrey Giles:

As a Honorary Vice President of the World Veterans Federation and as a Past President for Life of the South African Legion I truly believe in "Not for ourselves, but for others!"
Through out my working career I have striven to help others - lets make it happen together!

International:  Australia, New Zealand & The South Pacific

Innovation is a guiding force in Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific, where energetic Rotary members are starting dozens of new clubs and reviving struggling ones. The leaders of four new membership teams have started 27 new clubs since July 2020. Their goal is to start 15 more, and rejuvenate 100, every year. To find out how they’re doing this, keep reading.

Start new clubs to attract new members

Andy Rajapakse
Rotary Club of Burleigh Heads, Queensland, Australia
Membership director for Zone 8’s Regional Council

“Forming a new club is easier than reinventing an existing club. New members find the new clubs to be flexible, accommodating, and rich with leadership opportunities. In an existing club, a new member will find it hard to become the president or secretary. But in a new club, you can get a leadership opportunity right away. In the new clubs we’ve started, 58% of the people who joined were female and 28% were under the age of 40.

To find good places to start clubs, I look for suburbs where a big store just opened. We have a big hardware store chain in Australia called Bunnings. They do socioeconomic surveys to see where new developments are being built and new families are coming in. When they open a big warehouse, that’s an opportunity for us. If there is no Rotary club in that area, we know we can start one.”

Mark Huddleston
Rotary Club of Seaford, South Australia, Australia
Captain of Zone 8’s Club and Cultural Transformation Team

“If you’ve got a young family or you’re in business for yourself, you’re not going to have a lot of spare time. People are interested in getting out in their communities, rolling up their sleeves, and getting their hands dirty. They’re not interested in spending their time in meetings every week. Clubs are allowed to meet every two weeks if they choose to. A lot of clubs have taken that up. Most of the new clubs that have started in our zone have the minimum number of meetings: Two times per month.

There was a time when we used meeting attendance to measure the value of a Rotarian. We’re slowly recognizing that member engagement is a more important measure of success. Instead of having meetings at the centre of the Rotary universe, we should have service at the centre of the Rotary universe. Everything, including meetings, should revolve around that.

“My own club has two meetings a month. One is on a Thursday night. The other, on a Sunday afternoon, is often combined with a service project. We do the project, and then we tack on a very informal meeting at the end of it. So, there are very different ways of doing the whole meeting thing.”