Last Saturday I had the great pleasure to attend the very first D9820 Interact Conference, held at Nossal High School. This conference was organised by the District 9820 Youth Chair, Josie Wilson, with the help of RC Berwick members Geoff and Di Double, Greg Lee, Andrew Somers, and Jim Wilson. Also helping were Erica Peck and Rob Cook (Peninsula Rotaract). No doubt I am missing people, but let's just say it was an enormous effort from everyone. Three Interact Clubs were represented.
The RC of Berwick, in partnership with RC Emerald, sponsor the Interact Club of St Margaret's School and Berwick Grammar School. The picture above is representative of our 40 member strong Interact Club. The program was engaging, informative and thought provoking. The presenter, Kate Wilde, was in tune with the Interactors, bringing out some amazing insights to what young people are thinking and how Interact is giving them a pathway to make a difference. Kate's presentation style was very interactive with the participants and she quickly made everyone at ease enough to problem solve issues with people they had only just met.
Josie made a big effort to get banners, materials and representatives of as many Rotary programs as she could. Then we showcased around the room, so that the Interactors could see the depth Rotary has. I was able to do a short tour of some of Rotary programs with our group and they asked some very deep and meaningful questions. Good thing I knew the answers! My personal opinion was WOW! They were all keen to learn more and even come and visit our Rotary Club.
Thank you Josie and her team on putting on a very worthwhile event. I am looking forward to the next one for sure.
When Roger Thornton (RC of Pakenham) and David Button (RC of Berwick) get together for a chat, it is mostly about expanding what Rotary can do through networking because most Rotary Clubs don't have an expert in every field. Roger is the D9820 Donations in Kind (DIK) representative and works closely with many different groups that pass through the DIK Shed in West Footscray. The Rotary Club of Berwick is also a member of Rotary Donations in Kind Inc. and supports some of the costs associated with running a big warehouse.
For those who are unfamiliar with DIK, its sole purpose is to repurpose new and used clothes, computers, medical equipment, school equipment, stationery, medical supplies and other things for use locally, or internationally. It is an amazing recycling organisation and Roger is a very hands-on representative.
Networking within Rotary Clubs is key to expanding a Rotary Club's reach into new areas and new experiences. As a good example, our Club's involvement with Balibo, Timor-Leste, is a result of networking. The journey with this one project has opened up so many new doors we would need an extra 100 members to work through them all.
So through our chatting, we came up with a plan for a joint meeting! Obviously, we needed a few people to come along so we had Rotarians to network with. The next minute, eighty-seven people turned up for a vocational visit to Alameda Homestead Nursery in Devon Meadows. These members spanned eight Rotary Clubs. It was a very pleasant evening of good information, great fellowship and terrific food. Thank you to all that helped to set it up, the people who helped it run smoothly, the people who came and made it a great event and the ones who cleaned up the next day. Until the next one.......!
For those who missed last weeks meeting, here is a picture of Funno's big chop!!! What an amazing effort raising $2,000 for the world's greatest shave supporting families with leukemia. It's not too late to donate, contact Funno if you forgot to donate. Well done Funno!!!
Now just in case you are wondering, Funno did get a professional trim the next morning! I expect that he is very light headed after the removal of such a gigantic man bun.....!
We have now crossed over into the last quarter of the Rotary year. Many things have changed over the last nine months and now we are moving into the planning stages to set us up for a brilliant start for 2021-22.
This year we have started the move towards the members deciding the direction of the Club, to ensure we all have a say. The underlying factor for me as President is, who has 'skin in the game' and who is just sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what happens next. I would like to think that all our members have an active interest in how our Club is going and will contribute to its success where ever they can. That success means being a financial member at all times, so that your vote counts.
So are you a paid-up member? If you are unsure of your status, please email Wendy: treasurer@rotaryberwick.org.
This week, I will be organising a vote on either accepting or rejecting the Satellite Club proposal. This is a Financial Club member vote, so I would like all financial members to cast a vote. I know that some members have no opinion and that is ok, there will be an option for that. All I need to know is that you are informed about the proposal. The voting method will be online by Jotform, so that all members can participate. You will be emailed a link.
President David Button, PDG Tim Moore and PP Jack Kraan will each present their findings from their visit to the first Satellite Club interest meeting last week, and offer up a recommendation.
The book ‘HUMANITY IN ACTION: Celebrating 100 years of Rotary clubs in Australia and island neighbours’ - is now available.
This is not any old history book. This is a fascinating collection of historical origins, reaching out, adventures in service, identifying need, achievement and fun!
Posterity demands a brief overview of Rotary’s beginnings in Australia and such coverage is included in some detail covering the formation of the Rotary Clubs of Melbourne and Sydney.
The book has over 500 pages covering Rotary achievements through the various eras, dozens of pages of club, district and personal data - along with an amazing gallery of dated and modern images.
Three Interact clubs have been chosen from more than 300 applicants, as recipients of the 2020 Interact Awards.
The Interact Club of Prativa Pokhara Fishtail, Nepal, won for its video documenting the club’s campaign to carry out five service activities during a 15-day period.
The Interact Club of Vishwa Adarsha, Nepal, won for its photo of a project in which members worked in a rice paddy to demonstrate the importance of agriculture; and the Interact Club of Cagayan de Oro Premier, Philippines, won for an essay about a member’s participation in her club’s leadership training program.
In recognition, the three clubs received funding for their next projects (funds were donated to their sponsor Rotary clubs). The Prativa Pokhara Fishtail club received $1,000, and the two other awardees received $500 each. All three received a plaque and a letter from Rotary President Holger Knaack.
Interact clubs in 59 countries submitted videos, photos, and essays that showed off their best service project, or leadership development activity.
A panel of judges made up of Rotary International staff members evaluated the submissions on criteria including creativity and storytelling ability, and selected eight videos, four photos, and four essays as finalists.
The annual Interact Awards began in 2009 as a way to engage Interact clubs around the world, and participation has increased every year. The 2020 awards, announced in January, were the first to recognize photo and essay submissions in addition to videos. See the video finalists’ entries and learn more at youtube.com/InteractOfficial.
District Governor Mark and Linda are excited to invite you to our District 9820 Mini Conference as we gather in person for the first time in 12 months to celebrate our District.
Our mini conference will be held face to face on the 1st May following the online virtual 2021 Multi District Conference, information following. Jump in your car, drive down the highway and meet us all at Nossal High School for an afternoon and evening of fun and entertainment.
This will be our first conference in two years. We have quite a lot to catch up on, so we are breaking the conference into three components.
The Conference component will bring us together to pay our respect to those called to higher service, to celebrate and acknowledge award recipients, to hear presentations and to ratify some short mandatory business resolutions.
A friendship break in the foyer, where we can socialise over finger food.
Conference Dinner and entertainment in the main Hall, where you will enjoy time together over a two-course meal, beverages included, while being entertained by our Nossal High School students as they showcase their amazing musical and dance talents.
Venue: Nossal High School
100 Clyde Road
Berwick VIC 3806
Time: 3:30pm Start – mini conference
Cost: $70 per person
RSVP:
24th April 2021 including any medical dietary requirements to Jane
The Otto and Fran Walter Foundation has pledged $15.5 million to The Rotary Foundation to start a Rotary Peace Center in the Middle East or North Africa.
Rotarians, Rotaractors, and Interactors worked together in a nationwide project that promoted behavior change and initiated safety standards for businesses.
The $2 million grant goes toward Rotary club-led Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia program; an additional $4 million contributed by partners the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and World Vision USA.
May 3rd marks the 60th anniversary of the charter of the Rotary Club of Berwick! A cause for great celebration.
To mark this special occasion, we invite you to party with us for dinner on Friday 28 May at The Beaconsfield Club, Holm Park Reserve, Beaconsfield. A fun night of Rock n Roll themed friendship is promised!
More details will be published soon, so for now, dust of your blue suede shoes and sneakers, dig out your denims and save the date.
It's kind of a joke that I don't answer my phone during daylight hours because most of the time I have my hands full with something or am driving some noisy machine. I am sure that some people just don't believe me so this one is for the non-believers!
On 26 June 2020, then-Rotary President Mark Daniel Maloney made a momentous announcement: The environment would become a new area of focus for Rotary. It was one of the final achievements of a term disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and capped by Rotary’s first virtual convention. "Ultimately, the proposal passed the Trustees unanimously, the Board approved it unanimously, and I had this great satisfaction — sitting in my living room," Maloney said during a recent interview over Zoom.
The moment was built upon decades of Rotarian interest. In 1990-91, Rotary President Paulo V.C. Costa made the environment a focus of his term, creating the Preserve Planet Earth Committee to look at ways clubs and members could carry out environmental initiatives. Surveys have found that the environment is one of the top-ranking causes among members of the Rotary family.
Over the decades, Rotary members have carried out thousands of projects to protect the environment. In just five years, global grants totaling $18 million have funded projects that help support the environment while also focusing on one of Rotary’s causes, such as providing clean water and sanitation, growing local economies, and supporting education. Now that the environment is itself one of Rotary’s causes, members have even more opportunities to focus on issues that are important to them.
"The boundless creativity, enthusiasm, and determination of Rotarians everywhere, combined with their willingness to take on significant problems, make them particularly suited to make an impact on the environment," says 2017-18 RI President Ian H.S. Riseley, who chaired an environmental issues task force that championed the new area of focus.
Read on to find out how Rotary members have already been supporting the environment and to learn about new kinds of projects that will be eligible for global grant funding as of 1 July.
In Campo Mourão, Brazil, only 5 percent of garbage is recycled, and workers at the local recycling facility lacked the equipment needed to increase productivity. Without a conveyor belt, they had to sort recyclable materials at tables and move them by hand, requiring extra time and effort. And their outdated press was slow and created bales of recyclables that were smaller than standard for the regional market.
Working with a local environmental program that coordinates the recycling cooperative, members of the Rotary clubs of Campo Mourão and Little Rock, Arkansas, developed a project to increase workers’ capacity to separate and process recyclable materials, providing both economic and environmental benefits. The project, supported by a $33,066 global grant in the community economic development area of focus, funded the purchase of equipment to improve worker safety and efficiency and provided environmental and financial training. Workers sorted an additional 2.63 tons of recyclables per month after the grant project was implemented, and their income increased nearly 25 percent per month.
In the remote villages of Ndandini and Kyaithani in eastern Kenya, families live on less than $1 per day, and their homes are not connected to any electrical grid. Most cannot afford kerosene or paraffin to light their homes, which means students cannot see to do their homework in the evenings.
Members of the Rotary clubs of Sunshine Coast-Sechelt, British Columbia, and Machakos, Kenya, learned about the problem while working in the area on other projects. In 2014, the Rotarians embarked on a project, supported by a $101,564 global grant in the basic education and literacy area of focus, to bring environmentally friendly solar power into homes and schools.
About 1,500 students attending local schools were each provided a solar light under a rent-to-own program; students pay $1 per month, less than the cost of paraffin, for eight months, after which they own the light. The proceeds are used to provide another student with a solar light the following year. Project partner Kenya Connect, noting that the time students spend reading has tripled with the introduction of the solar lights, described the program as "a game changer in our efforts to improve the quality of education for rural schools."
The grant, combined with funding from The Rotary Foundation (Canada) and the government of Canada, also created computer labs at two schools and a solar system to provide enough power for the entire setup. More than 200 teachers received training on digital learning and ways to better make use of computers in their teaching.
WATER DIVERSION
Residents of two communities near Aurangabad, India, get their water from wells that are recharged annually by monsoon rains. But within a few months after the rains end, the wells run dry, and community members either must go further afield to fetch water or must buy it, which many cannot afford.
Members of the Rotary clubs of Aurangabad East and Chatswood Roseville, Australia, collaborated on an eco-friendly solution using a simple, traditional technology: check dams. These small dams are constructed across gullies to control the rate of stormwater flow. They decrease erosion and increase the amount of water that percolates into the ground. More than 200,000 check dams have been built across India for this purpose; a check dam constructed in India in the second century is one of the world’s oldest water diversion structures still in use.
In Aurangabad, the monsoon rains flow via a channel across a government-owned sports training center toward the sewage-contaminated Kham River. Supported by a $36,500 global grant in the water, sanitation, and hygiene area of focus, Rotary members funded the construction of two concrete check dams on the campus. The increased percolation of the monsoon rains into the ground is expected to lengthen the period each year during which the area’s 20,000 residents can obtain water from their wells. The dams have an anticipated life span of 75 years and require little maintenance.
The book ‘HUMANITY IN ACTION: Celebrating 100 years of Rotary clubs in Australia and island neighbours’ - is now available.
The Interact Club of Prativa Pokhara Fishtail, Nepal, captured a tree-planting project in its award-winning video.
