Narooma Rotary Beacon 12th July 2018

Rod’s Ramble

Planning for 2018-19

Our meeting this Thursday is our Club Assembly at which I will present a draft business plan as endorsed at the Board Meeting. My intention is to take a ‘steady as she goes’ approach.

Over the last two years we have added two major events to our Rotary year – the Renewables Expo and the Busking Championship. Members have sacrificed time with their families and businesses to ensure their success; for a variety of reasons we will be missing the input of some key people in 2018-19. As you know, Moruya Rotary will host the Renewables Expo this year in a great example of inter-club co-operation.

I can also announce that John Rungen has agreed to lead the Busking Championship team this year and we will be seeking assistance from interested people from the community. Thanks John for stepping up. Members please give John all the help you can muster over the next 11 months.

This week Lynda Ord will also give us an update on the Rotary Youth Protection Policy which has been impacted by some legislative changes. It is an additional administrative burden we have to bear to ensure we practice due diligence.

Growing membership

I said last week that membership growth would be a major focus. The ‘Rotary On The Move’ Newsletter for July 2018 has some interesting strategies on attracting new members. In particular it highlighted a toolkit now available to assist in engaging with young professionals. This toolkit will help you rethink membership, from a broad perspective down to a tactical level, that you can adapt to your area. Topics include characteristics of your audience, your club’s culture, ideas for outreach and engagement, and the long-term benefits of becoming a Rotarian. I would like someone to review this material and consider if we could use some of these ideas. Let me know if you are interested.

Mama Mia premiere

I also talked last week about the need to have fun at Rotary, to build on the fellowship benefits of being a Rotarian, and to embrace the broader Rotary family. Hosting the Mama Mia Here We Go Again movie premiere at the Kinema on Thursday 19th is a chance to have fun while also raising funds for eradication of Polio worldwide. This will replace our meeting that night.

Let’s kick off the year with this big event. Invite partners, family and friends even total strangers. Get your tickets early as this will be a popular movie with the broader community, after all, who doesn’t like ABBA. We will also need a hand with catering and raffle ticket selling on the night.

Please don’t forget to bring prizes for the raffle in this Thursday night.

Rod

Out and about

Our mini Changeover

It was good to have a ‘symbolic changeover’ to President Rod last week, supported by a table of Rod’s friends. Stand by for the 4th  August for our official changeover and  60th celebrations!

Polio update prompted by  fundraiser

With the polio fundraiser next week and Ang’s drawing out attention to the polio campaign at last week’s meeting, a few reminders of what it’s all about, courtesy Rotary International’s webpage.

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is a public-private partnership led by national governments with five partners – the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Its goal is to eradicate polio worldwide. So that’s :

• five core partners
• involved 200 countries
• involved 20 million volunteers
• over 2.5 billion children vaccinated
• US$10 billion international investment
• the goal is a polio–free world

Progress toward eradicating polio worldwide was a recurring theme at the recent Rotary International Convention in Toronto. Two notable polio occasions at the Convention were when:

• Rotary International President Ian Riseley presented Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with Rotary’s Polio Eradication Champion in recognition of his leadership and Canada’s contributions to polio eradication. Trudeau highlighted Canada’s continued commitment to working towards a world without polio, a world with gender equity, and a world where everyone has a chance to succeed. He expressed a wish that his children would grow up in a polio-free world, and encouraged Rotarians to continue their important work to achieve eradication worldwide.

• Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal Princess Anne praised Rotary for its work in fighting polio. She spoke of Rotary’s ‘extraordinary reach’, its extensive understanding of cultures and languages, its members’ “endearing habit of leaving (their) egos at the door”, and the organisation’s ingenuity at overcoming obstacles that baffled others. In doing so, she said Rotary with its partners has brought polio to almost full global eradication.