Dear Everyone,
Thank you to everyone who attended last week’s meeting and helping to make my milestone birthday a very happy and special one. It will stay in my memory as the birthday I celebrated with my family and my Rotary family, my best friends. Six months ago, I imagined I’d have a party at home, however this was not to be, and I have no regrets whatsoever. Unlike our Club, Ken, Marcus, Tina, and Kerry who weren’t able to celebrate their milestones because of lockdown, I was fortunate to have a fabulous celebration.
As mentioned at our 9th of March meeting, there will be a time during the Multi District Virtual Conference on the 1st and 2nd of May, for each District to meet virtually as a single District - to highlight and celebrate the activities of D9810 clubs over the last year. We are invited to submit a 2- minute video of our activities over this time. The video may be made up of still photos put together in a format such as video editor on Microsoft 365, or an actual video. The content could be illustrating a key project or projects or could be a celebration of how the club survived the challenges during the Coronavirus lockdown. Due to time constraints, not all Clubs will be able to be featured. The choice will be made by the organising committee, to ensure a varied and interesting coverage.
At the Board meeting last night, we resolved that we would be interested in doing this, and Tina offered to approach a very good friend of the Club who may be willing to assist. I am proud of the Club’s achievements over the past year: the Year 12 Care Packages, the Grade 6es’ Time Capsules, the Christmas and Easter cards and gifts for the Lifeview residents, the vouchers, the Interact Club we helped establish and the Trash2Treasure Market, and these would be featured in the video.
It was wonderful that Kelly and Andrew committed to becoming Centurions, and they received their certificates of membership and pins on Tuesday night.
This year has seen a record year of grant payments; at the start of February, the Rotary Foundation had awarded 1,359 global grants worth USD$95.6 million. In the most recent “Open Doors”, DG Alma referred to a Foundation Giving Crisis. The figures indicate that D9810’s YTD contributions are down 26.4%, which is more than 10 times the global average shortfall of 2.35%. Alma recognises that this year has been difficult for fundraising, and the focus has been to meet immediate needs in this extraordinary year, and not look ahead to those in three years’ time. However, if we don’t support the Foundation, there won’t be the money available in three years’ time.
Our gifts to the Foundation help Rotarians make a more significant difference by delivering well-funded, high-impact projects to people in need – in our community (think our vouchers), around Australia and throughout the world. And now we’re funding projects that protect the environment too.
As a Club, we will definitely be aiming to meet our annual giving goal to the Foundation and we are already part of the way there. All donations to the Foundation are tax deductible, so those members in a position to, could also consider joining the Centurion Club, and the form is available on our Website. You need to know your Rotary ID to join, and you would have received this via email from Rob Byrne on Wednesday. But it shouldn’t be difficult to sign up, so if you have any problems, please contact me.
Thank you, this week to:
- Sergeant Gayle, the laughter-maker.
- Tina for helping to arrange guest speaker Mark’s visit and for standing in for Yvette and doing the response.
- Ian Wakefield for his work on the McLeod-Murphy Award, and for progressing our R100 Baton Relay celebrations with Puffing Billy Railway and the Belgrave Rotary Club.
- The members who’ve signed up for the 100k’s for 100 years Walk, and to Emma for organising the Sunday afternoon walks.
- The Community Service Committee who are working hard to brighten up the lives of the Lifeview residents at Easter.
- Former member Norm Mauger and the Fundraising Team of Kris, Kelly, Emma and Shalini for the Car Rally, which may become an annual event.
- Russ Nielsen and Board members Ros, Kris and Tina for their work and suggestions for a new, more modern letterhead.
- Gayle, Emma and Tina of the Spangles for the Birthday Dance.
**This Tuesday night, on the 23rd of March it’s Club Assembly again, chaired (I hope) by Presidential Nominee Marcus while Shalini takes a well-deserved break.
- We are going to attempt a hybrid meeting, so be prepared for more chaos than usual.
- There will be an opportunity for the Committees to have a short meeting to plan and fraternise before the Chairs present their reports to the meeting.
- The Community Service Committee are planning a special activity for us to complete so you’d better come along.
** Next week: on the 30th of March it’s a Social Night and in the tradition of PP Russell Marnock for the fifth Tuesday of the month, we are meeting at a different venue; we are booked into the Laughing Fox to have dinner. They have a seating capacity of 36 and a liquor licence, and we’ll order off their usual menu, but a couple of extra desserts will be added.
Maybe there will be fun and games too!! 🤣🤣🤣
Family members are most welcome, and we’ll need to have an indication of numbers in due course. Please come along for a fun and convivial night.
**The following week:
on the 6th of April, our guest speaker is Salwan Shahine, District and Youth Service Chair from the Rotary Club of Doncaster talking about Earlyact and Interact. You’ll learn a lot about the amazing projects the youngsters are engaged in and their capacity for empathy. It’s heartwarming.
Don’t stay home, come join us at the Pub for a great night!
Stay safe and stay Rotary Even Prouder.
Yours in Rotary,
Vicki.
