This coming Wednesday 16th December meeting is Party Time, as we forget the past and look forward to the future. Our venue is at Holm Park and I am pleased to say that the new caterers, Vicky and Bob Carlyle, have lived up to their promise of affordable dining and delicious food. The COVID-19 restrictions have meant that we have plenty of room to spread out and we are not crammed in like sardines! There are more opportunities than ever before to move around and join in with conversations.
Vicky has planned a traditional Christmas menu, nothing flash but based on Vicky's previous meals, I am there with bells on!
The room will be decorated in a Christmas theme and that old favourite, the dance floor, will be making a re-appearance! With the magic of Spotify, who knows which tunes will get us up and dance the night away.
Now any good celebration deserves some efforts by the patrons to dress to impress! Get your fancy gear on, slap on the makeup (fellas too if you like) and make it a party that no one can forget, or remember either. (Maybe order a taxi too.....just a thought).
This topic is sort of about membership but not about club membership, it's more about Rotary membership.
Our Club is on the brink of one of two things. Great expansion and serving the community through networking, building resilience in our club profile and looking outside our comfort zone for new and different ways to be relevant, OR withering on the vine and dying a slow death. As a nurseryman, I deal in life and death every day of the week, so I do have some idea of what can give us the advantage to thrive.
Through the first half of the year the focus was to get the club educated enough in Rotary to take advantage of the mechanisms that Rotary has to offer us. I am hoping that some of that learning will give us a stronger edge to be creative in our service. Our Club profile is not just our clubs' members, it is our connections throughout Rotary and extends out to the wider community. While I would love to have a diverse membership in our club that allows us the freedom to do any project we chose, I know that won't be happening anytime soon.
Diversity comes with skills, experience and culture. We, you included, need to seek out Rotarians from other Clubs, regions and countries, potential members and community leaders to add to our diversity here in Berwick. Together we will grow but we must build our toolset to get us further down the track with new skills, connections, experience and culture than we can do alone.
Working together gets us further. Bringing members into our club, or even another Rotary Club, may fill in gaps to our skillset and make a huge difference to what we can achieve in our community and abroad. Together we put our best foot forward.
The Rotary Berwick & District Benevolent Society works in close collaboration with Casey North Community Information Service (CNCISS) in Narre Warren, with PP Gus Dominguez as our club representative on their Board. Each year before Christmas, the ‘Benevolent Society’ organises a collection of non-perishable food items and toys from local schools and supermarkets for distribution via CNCISS. This is a project of the Rotary Club of Berwick.
Nossal High School students
The 2020 Christmas Collection began on 1st December with generous donations from Nossal High School and Berwick Market Square Supermarket. The collections continued this week with donations from Kambrya College, Beaconhills College, Berwick Grammar School and St Margaret’s Senior and Junior Schools. The efficient pick-up team consisted of Rotarians Laury Gordyn, Mark Caulfield, Isobel Caulfield and Sam McCurdy.
The collection from St Margaret’s Senior School was particularly notable, since it was the culmination of work done by the students of the newly formed Rotary Interact Club at the school. The Club was formed under the sponsorship and mentorship of the Rotary Clubs of Berwick and Emerald.
From left to right: President Annabelle Morton, Sam McCurdy,
Mark Caulfield, Isobel Caulfield, Laury Gordyn and Sanya Verma
Interact clubs bring together young people ages 12-18 to develop leadership skills, while discovering the power of the Rotary motto ‘Service Above Self’. They organise at least two projects every year, one that helps their school or community and one that promotes international understanding.
The donated items from all collection sites were passed on to CNCISS, where they are packed into Christmas hampers for distribution to those in need within the local community.
From left to right: Vanessa Shillito, Isobel Caulfield,
Laury Gordyn, Susan Magee, Sam McCurdy and Mark Caulfield
Although the storage room at CNCISS looks fit to burst, CEO Susan Magee confirmed that it will empty very quickly once they start giving out the Christmas hampers to the 90 or more families in need, within the local community. The donated items will be greatly appreciated by the recipients, making their 2020 Christmas so much easier and happier.
Next week will be the final week of collections for 2020 and will involve donations from Berwick College, Timbarra P-9 School and Berwick Market Square Supermarket.
Berwick College's Year 9 English Class
Berwick College reports that the Year 9 English class has just completed reading the novel 'Six Impossible Things' by Fiona Wood, which follows the adversity and financial struggles experienced by a family. This has provided the students with a context for the Christmas Collection.
Thank you to everyone who contributed and to all those involved in the collection and distribution process.
You know when things have gone slightly pear-shaped, technically speaking, when your Zoomers start dropping off the screen just at the most interesting part of the meeting. Who can blame them if they cannot hear a thing and all they can see is someone presenting something that on the face of it looked kind of interesting, but it was just too hard to tell.
The chat function which was live to the Holm Park audience wasn't exactly lighting up on Wednesday, so no one knew the extent of the issues until the next day. A little late to fix it don't you think! Please work with us Zoomers, to ensure we deliver the experience you are expecting!
So what went wrong? We didn't deliver the technically perfect broadcast from ground zero this week due to a last-minute computer switch that undid all the efforts we had made to get it right. We have all the equipment, mostly borrowed, some stolen and nothing bought to make it happen, but not quite the technical knowhow to turn porridge into gold. So a professional sorry to all the Zoomers and a promise that it might happen again, if you don't alert us in the nifty chat area as a message to everyone, so that our Holm Park audience know we need to fix something straight away. We all love technology but not that much.
I have included a photo of what we are dealing with at our end in the hope you will cut us some slack while we sort stuff out!
The new Rotary signs were placed on the town signage frames at the East and West ends of High Street in Berwick, on the morning of Tuesday 8th December 2020. These are compliant with the current Rotary branding guidelines and replace the former worn and non-compliant signs. The signs were produced under District 9820 incentive, which provides a $150 reimbursment for the upgrade.
ShelterBox awarded Rotary International with its first Global Humanitarian Service Award, in recognition of Rotary’s outstanding partnership throughout the years during its 20th anniversary virtual event on 12 November 2020.
The District 9820 Governor Nominating Committee invites Clubs to nominate a District Governor for the year 2023 - 2024 to follow on from existing and upcoming District Governors; Current Governor Mark Humphries (Governor 2020-2021), DGE Bill Degnan (Governor 2021-2022) and DGN Paul Mee (Governor 2022-2023).
The process and procedures are set out below and we look forward to Clubs’ nominations for our future leaders.
Would you please direct any enquiries to the Chair of the District Nominating Committee, IPDG Adrian Froggatt jannespeirs@gmail.com Mob. 0409 356 469
Ensure -
Applicant meets qualifications (as detailed in the Bylaws of Rotary International 16.010 in the 2019 Manual of Procedure which can be downloaded from https://my.rotary.org/en/document/manual-procedure-035). Recommend you also read Bylaws 16.020 and 16.030.
The Club has met and accepted a resolution to support the candidate through the process if successful. Suggest this is done prior to Christmas to avoid the January break.
Nomination form is fully completed and signed by the applicant.
Nomination form is signed by your Club Secretary.
Include with the Nomination Form (please ensure these are no more than two pages each)
Information sheets containing:
a detailed relevant CV of your Personal & Rotary background.
A vision statement for your year as District Governor.
Closing date for applications id Close of Business: Wednesday 13th January 2021
Submission
Submit the completed Nomination Form and Information sheets to:
As the Club President, I get all sorts of emails which is to be expected.
Yesterday, I got an email from a member who objected to a direct marketing email from The Rotary Foundation. This one got me a little perplexed because I am not sure the author understood the underlying message and took it as a cash grab email.
So the email goes as follows:
"I refer to attached email from RI touting for donations direct from Rotarians.
Please put on record my objection to Rotary International contacting Rotarians direct for donations or contributions.
I object on the basis that it may water down any member’s direct donations via their own club, and indeed asking for donations could put off members from Rotary, and cost is membership.It may also water down club fundraising totals.
Rotary fund raising or donation gathering money from members should be carefully monitored, as we should concentrate our fund raising efforts in targeting outside the club or clubs.
For the record I do not have any objection to recent fund raising efforts from club members, eg walkathons or Trachoma."
The complaint is perfectly understandable. You get an email asking for money and it just gets your hackles up. There is a selection of projects to put money towards and a nice spiel about what the foundation does.
"Thank you for being part of the Rotary family! Did you know that because of our generous donors, Rotary members were able to complete more life-changing projects last year than ever before? You can make a difference by helping people in need — from supplying equipment that protects health workers against COVID-19 to training peacebuilders, who’ll work toward a future with less conflict. It all starts with giving the gift of Rotary.
The Rotary Foundation funds the work of Rotary members, who provide sustainable solutions to their communities’ most pressing needs. This work is necessary now more than ever, but we need people like you who will take action and help make these projects possible.
With your gift today, together we can fund projects that make a big impact by strengthening communities to create real, lasting solutions. Please consider giving the gift of Rotary, so we can keep Doing Good in the World."
Sincerely, The Rotary Foundation
Time for a fact check: The Rotary Foundation is funding our Rotary Club projects too!
Now I am not sure if anyone has been paying attention, but the Rotary Foundation is our lifeline to our own Rotary projects. Last year:
It provided $7,500 AUD to help us with our BlazeAid project.
It also provided 7 Ventilators @ $67,000 US in a global COVID-19 grant application to New Jersey USA.
3 ventilators for Trinitas Health Foundation @ $36,000 US, in a global COVID grant application to New Jersey USA
Critical Care Bed for Overlook Hospital @ $34,000 US in a global COVID grant application to New Jersey USA
Our current ongoing project, Global Grant GG 1753140 Water Filtration for Six Villages in Philipines is still live. We are still involved with projects in Balibo, Timor Leste, which are also supported by the Rotary Foundation.
The Rotary Club of Berwick has donated $340,109 over the life of the club to the Rotary Foundation. 34 members are current donors through the Centurion Club/Polio Plus or other programs, 11 members are not donors. By making personal donations to the Rotary Foundation, you directly contribute towards your PHFs, as recognition of your commitment to supporting Rotary projects. Remembering a PHF is an award for service to the community, if awarded by a Club or District. It is also a recognition of supporting the Rotary Foundation as an individual by donating money. $1000 US will afford you one Paul Harris Fellow.
The complaint made by the member does not take into consideration the support for the Rotary Foundation by the Club. or the realisation of the existing support by the members and the projects that are being funded. All I can say is, check out the top ten Charities in the world and look at number four: https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=topten.detail&listid=18. All the facts and figures are there for you to work through. Then check out your own favourite charities. You may be surprised at what you find. I know I was in shock just looking at the most popular Australian Charities with admin and fundraising costs at 16% to 31% of turnover.
To be honest, the Rotary Foundation is my personal charity. The Admin and Fundraising costs are low. It is very transparent in its operation. It has a strong ethical standard. All project partners need to have skin in the game, so projects are not funded outright. Sustainability of all projects is a priority. Some donations are multiplied, for example Polio Plus donations are matched 2 for 1 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, so your $1 donation becomes $3. Together we can fund projects that make a big impact by strengthening communities to create real, lasting solutions.
The final point is that it takes a lot of work to make a project fly with The Rotary Foundation funding. My money and your money is better than well spent. There are many checks and balances in place to make sure that all projects stack up and deliver the best outcome.
So if you get an email from The Rotary Foundation telling you why you should be giving them money, feel proud that our Club is already a strong supporter and pass it onto a friend, who may want to support our amazing work too. Donating to the Rotary Foundation is not just for Rotarians. People from outside of Rotary also recognise its value and donate to it.
This coming Wednesday 16th December meeting is Party Time, as we forget the past and look forward to the future. Our venue is at Holm Park and I am pleased to say that the new caterers, Vicky and Bob Carlyle, have lived up to their promise of affordable dining and delicious food. The COVID-19 restrictions have meant that we have plenty of room to spread out and we are not crammed in like sardines! There are more opportunities than ever before to move around and join in with conversations.
Vicky has planned a traditional Christmas menu, nothing flash but based on Vicky's previous meals, I am there with bells on!
The District 9820 Governor Nominating Committee invites Clubs to nominate a District Governor for the year 2023 - 2024 to follow on from existing and upcoming District Governors; Current Governor Mark Humphries (Governor 2020-2021), DGE Bill Degnan (Governor 2021-2022) and DGN Paul Mee (Governor 2022-2023). 
As the Club President, I get all sorts of emails which is to be expected.
