Dear Rotarians of District 9680,
October was another incredibly busy month for Sandra and I. We attended some 20 or so Official Club Visits plus some great special nights – such as the North Sydney 80th Birthday at Parliament House, and the Forsyth Foundation 30th anniversary at the Epping Club. There is certainly a lot of Rotary activity in this district.
The new provisional Breakfast Club of Rouse Hill is well underway with some 12 interested members at this stage. They are now meeting regularly as a provisional club at The Mean Fiddler every Wednesday morning at 7.15am. This is an excellent start for a provisional club and we don’t believe it will take them long to build up to the 20 members required for chartering. If you have the chance why not join them one morning and show your encouragement. Just check out the website for this provisional club!
Congratulations to the Glenhaven club who completed their “Do your own PB” with members that are now thinner, healthier, happier, more polite, more caring! Read all the achievements of the members who met their targets!
A special congratulations to Glenhaven’s sergeant Vino Dullab for the excellent way he ran this program !
November is Rotary Foundation Month. A time to check your club’s donations to the foundation as well as to strive to have 100 Centurions in your Club. See the articles further down this issue and let’s see how many clubs can reach 100% Centurions by the end of November!
Then there is the money coming the other direction - back to the clubs in the form of Matching Grants. However so far we have only four matching grant applications this year. I know there are more in the planning, but please District has $40,000 to help these matching grants, and these projects to help save the lives of little children living in extreme poverty are amongst the most satisfying projects any club can undertake. Still looking for a great little matching grant project- ring Pam Hudson now 0415 233 575
Yours in Rotary
Tony Castley, District Governor
DG Club Visits
I have now completed 55 DG official visits! Phew! In the past fortnight, I have visited West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook, Dural, North Sydney Sunrise, Neutral Bay, Balgowlah, Wahroonga, Galston, and Belrose. See the photos While I have only 11 to go, unfortunately I will not complete them this year due to the Rotary Institute I will be attending in New Zealand this month, after which we are taking a week’s holiday in NZ. While Sandra and I have really enjoyed visiting all these clubs, we must say we are looking forward to catching up with our friends at Epping when I have my DG visit there on 1 December.
District RYDA thanks St Edmund's School
St Edmund’s is a special high school in Wahroonga that caters for students with sensory and intellectual disabilities. Recently, the District 9680 RYDA Committee took the opportunity to thank the staff and students for the work undertaken preparing the brochure packs given to RYDA participants. View the story
RYDA resumed at St Ives this week and will run until 28 November. The 2009 session starts in February.
November is Rotary Foundation Month
The District Website, www.rotarydistrict9680.org.au and Rotary International’s website www.rotary.org both have a host of material to inform and promote the work of The Rotary Foundation. Here are just two:
Five Reasons to Support Our Foundation
Showcase Our Foundation
Update on Email Addresses
Do you know who is NOT getting our District’s E-News?
Of the 1,934 Rotarians in our District, some 1,400 email addresses have been registered. However, 220 of those email addresses are not correct. That makes our circulation only 65% of what should be possible – or some 750 Rotarians are not getting the benefit of E-News!
Secretaries and Club Web Champions - please check your Club members’ email addresses by going to the District Web Site logon and ensure that all email addresses are entered and they are correct.
Check your Club members’ email addresses here
Congratulations
Congratulations to PDG Tom Tait of the Rotary Club of Lane Cove on celebrating 60 years as a Rotarian. A remarkable, but well done achievement!
District Vocational Excellence Awards
Attention all Presidents and Vocational Chairs!
It is this time of the year when your club should be considering nominating someone for our District’s Vocational Excellence Award. This very prestigious award is presented each year at our District Conference to two or three people who have made outstanding contributions to their vocation. In the past we have had awardees such as Dr John Yeo, Rear Admiral Peter Sinclair, Nancy Bird Walton, and many others.
Please take a look at all the details on our website prepared by our Chairman Bob Kaye-Smith , and discuss this at your next meeting so that your members can think about whom they might like your club to nominate for this award next year at our conference (12-15 March). Please note the closing date is the 3rd December 2008 and for your nominee to be considered it is essential your entry must be on the Nomination Form provided.
Go here to see the Introduction and Outline of the Awards, a list of Past Recipients, and obtain the Nomination Form Any questions? - please contact Bob Kaye-Smith: Mobile: 0411 263 294 Phone: 9679 7022 Fax: 9679 7033 email: kayesmithr@syntechtron.com
ShelterBox Update
The latest updates remind us how quickly the memory of disasters fades. The Caribbean Islands were devastated by a series of hurricanes just two months ago, yet that has passed from current notice.
Our attention for the last month (or more, for the farseeing) has been dominated by " THE WORLD FINANCIAL CRISIS", let alone whether Obama will win next week, or what will emerge next in the NSW Parliament/Sunday papers? Meanwhile, there have been further disasters in Pakistan, with ShelterBox SRT members assisting with the assessment and delivery of ShelterBoxes. Read the Latest News
New DIK Manager
Following the passing of Ken “Grumpy” Nicholls, Miriam Jacka is the new Manager of Donations in Kind. Please direct all enquiries to her. View the details
Membership Recruitment & Extension
Visiting 50 clubs in the past three months has given me the chance to see what membership recruitment programs work and why. Therefore, I have written these findings of mine up in “TC’s RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL RECRUITMENT” which is now on the website. I think you will find it interesting. Please Read
I have also written an article on “THE URGENT NEED FOR NEW BREAKFAST CLUBS” , which sets out why I believe the formation of new breakfast clubs within our district could dramatically increase our membership and our Rotary PR in the community. Please Read
Presidents’ Christmas Meeting
Attention all Presidents. URGENT
We hope you are all attending our special Christmas Presidents’ Meeting at Miramare, Terry Hills on 14 November with your partner! This is going to be a good night, at the lovely Miramare Gardens venue. 6.30 for 7pm, enter off Myoora Road, and park underneath the building. $40 per head.
Miramare want to know numbers this week, so I will ask all AGs to ring you and check how many of you and your partners are coming. This will be our last meeting for the year, so let’s have a full attendance please!
GSE Team to Germany
We have now selected the team of four for our GSE team to Germany. Along with Our Team Leader, Mark Anderson, our team of three ladies and one man, will represent us well in District 1900 in Central Germany. The D1900 team has also been selected and they will visit us in April. Photos and details on both incoming and outgoing teams to Germany plus our incoming and outgoing Wheelchair team to Arizona are now on our website. Keep your eye on this page for all the GSE news
Looking for Child Mortality or other Projects?
I recently received a reminder from RI about ProjectLINK, the on-line, searchable database which lists Rotary club and district projects in need of funding, volunteers, donated goods, and/or partners for a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant, and model projects that can be used as examples of best practices. RI have recently made it easier for non-English-speaking clubs to add their projects which means it can now be used by a much wider audience. I encourage you to use this resource in your clubs to support projects related to President DK Lee’s emphasis of reducing child mortality. For example, if your club is seeking a project that will help support President Lee’s emphasis of reducing child mortality, you might conduct a search on the advanced tab, by entering keywords such as “child,” “nutrition,” “water filtration,” or “AIDS.” Access the ProjectLINK database here
Rotary and the United Nations
Rotary and the United Nations have a special relationship since Rotary was one of the founders of the United Nations. It started in November 1943, when Rotary sponsored a conference in London with ministers and observers from twenty-one governments. This group began laying plans for what was to become UNESCO. During the foundation of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945, forty-nine Rotarians helped to draft the United Nations Charter in and many of the international delegates from around the world were Rotarians. Upon founding the United Nations, Rotary became one of the original 42 Non Governmental Organizations that were invited to participate, apposition that Rotary still maintains. You can read more about Rotary and the United Nations on the internet at the following links:
www.rotaryfirst100.org/history/history/un/
http://nyrotaryunitednations.blogspot.com/
Australian Rotary Health Research Grant
The Australian Rotary Health Research Fund continues to award grants to researchers through their PHD Scholarship Grants. Read about their latest PhD research awardees. Read more
An ARHRF PhD scholarship is an incredibly rewarding project for a club or a number of clubs working together to undertake. If you would like any further information on how your club can get involved, please contact Richard Ives 9481 9148 rives@bigpond.net.au
Global Networking Groups in our District
Do we have any? Global Networking Groups allow individual Rotarians from several countries to join together to focus on common interests. They include Rotary Fellowships (like the International Tennis Fellowship of Rotarians), and Rotarian Action Groups. We are trying to update the lists which are now on the District website, so if you are involved please visit the page and provide details. Go to the Global Networking Group page
Farmers’ Speakers Bureau
“Telling agriculture’s story” is the passion of the NSW Farmers’ Association Speakers Bureau .... More information
Are you willing to Help?
DGE John Cameron is seeking help – a HR person, a minute secretary, and a publisher. Check if you can help