I have to say I am excited about being part of Rotary. My Club is full of great people, and every one of those people is capable of greatness!
"Great work is done by people who are not afraid to be great." —Fernando Flores.
As the President, it is my job to create avenues for "my people" to find a path to be the great people I want them to be. After all, the only way to be a great Rotary Club is to be a Club full of great members, who are not afraid of doing great work.
After waiting for almost a year, it is pleasing to see great members voluntarily stepping forward to fill positions that need filling. It is also exciting to see great members putting new ideas into the mix and being creative to make mundane things fun again.
I have been criticised for not allocating jobs to members this year. I rather like the idea of members being so motivated within the Club that they will be drawn towards the jobs that satisfy their desire to serve. I want people to be actively interested in positions, instead of being pushed into jobs they do not want to do.
“We’ll never know our full potential unless we push ourselves to find it.” —Travis Rice
“There is no man living who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can do.” —Henry Ford
A heads up here. My first allocated job was bulletin editor. That is a terrific job if you can get it. My second job was on PDG Tim's conference committee. That was a terrific job too! My third job was Foundation Chair when Halmahera Hospital in Indonesia was getting built. That was a scary job, but well worth the effort, although I did have a lot of help. Whatever you do, find a job that will challenge you and become a role model for others.
We welcomed David Anderson as our newest member, when he was inducted at our Club meeting on Wednesday 19th May. David was accompanied by his lovely wife, Sharon, when he was inducted by President David Button.
After his induction, David provided a summary of his career in the banking industry, which saw him elevated from local Branch Manager to Manager of the South Eastern region of the Commonwealth Bank.
He emphasised the importance of his family and the terrific support that he received from Sharon and his family throughout his career.
On his retirement a couple of years ago, he set himself three goals which were:
1. To learn a new skill - he is taking guitar lessons.
2. To build social networks - he is already a member of two social groups and is now a Rotarian.
3. To give back to the community - his role in Rotary and the other social networks aim to do just that.
Welcome David, we are certain that you and Sharon will be valuable additions to the Club.
Roger Thornton, D9820 DIK Chair and David Dippie, DIK and ESRAG Projects Chair alongside dental equipment bound for Tonga.
I (President David) have done a couple of trips to Donations in Kind (DIK) over the month. At my last visit, David Dippie, Roger Thornton and I discussed a Dental project that would cover four Tongan schools. This project has been in the wind for over a year, however COVID put it on hold. I would like to see the Rotary Club of Berwick be part of this project, as we have done similar projects in Balibo, Timor-Leste and Honiara, Solomon Islands. If travelling allows, this can be a hands-on project for adventurous club members. I hear the fishing is pretty good over there!
The clinic buildings are being built within the grounds of four private schools. DIK along with dentist Dr David Goldsmith (RC Ballarat West) is putting together the equipment for these clinics as we speak. These private schools are building rooms to house a dental clinic for the use of the people surrounding each school.
The equipment is hoped to be shipped to Tonga in July and installed shortly thereafter. I am currently waiting for the full details so that I can inform the club, but I wanted to put it out there that we are not done with helping people outside Australia. The project is a registered RAWCS project: https://directory.rawcs.com.au/144-2005-06.
Our Club was involved with a similar project in Balibo, Timor-Leste and started with a dental project in 2015. We went on to help with a small convention centre to help build an economy in the village to support local food producers and local employment. That then grew into the Balibo Trails project to build tourism. COVID has put a bit of a dampener on all that, but the people have embraced the concepts and I think that Rotary has done a mighty job in the area.
Rotary has also been very active in education with supplies and equipment (desks and chairs, etc), school construction and recently with disaster relief after major floods in Dili. RCB donated $1000 for food and shelter relief for people who lost their homes. RCB Members have also picked up some of the computers, desks and chairs that have been shipped over to schools in Balibo. I think our club has been actively involved with DIK and other supporting Rotary Clubs, to deliver real help to the people of Balibo. It is now time to make a difference in another part of the world, while still keeping in contact with our friends in Timor-Leste.
I am very proud of our involvement with DIK. What started as a casual pickup of some desks and chairs from a local school, has led to significant help in some local RCB projects, as well as projects overseas. Locally we have been able to equip the Hallam Rotary and Senior College's Allied Health Training Centre (Read about it HERE) with $50,000 worth of medical equipment for free, as well as supply beds and equipment to Berwick College Wellness Centre and clothes for the homeless through Casey North Community Information and Support Services.
By promoting our work through social media, website and word of mouth, we have also created an opportunity to accept donations from the community, including $120,000 worth of medical mannequins used in training hospitals. We have barely scratched the surface of what our Club can achieve because we are too shy to talk about it, don't see a need to learn how to tell it, not confident to grow ways to deliver it and too nervous to go out and sell it.
The Rotary Club of Berwick is doing amazing work. Be a proud member and let your friends, family and business associates know that you are part of doing good in the world.
The Disaster Aid Australia (DAA) office is now open for Vocational Visits. It is located at 92 Doveton Avenue, Eumemmering, Victoria. Bookings can be made at the email address below.
The latest initiative from DAA is for Rotary Clubs that cannot easily get there, to have a ‘Virtual Vocational Visit’ to their offices via ZOOM. The visit would consist of a short introduction, a 10-minute video tour, followed by the opportunity to ask questions. (Check out this Invitation)
Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) is a project of Rotary Clubs in Australia and New Zealand. It is an approved Rotary International project.
ROMAC provides medical treatment for children from developing countries in the Oceania region in the form of lifesaving and dignity restoring surgery that is not accessible to them in their home country.
In their May newsletter, Harold Sharp OAM, the Chairman of ROMAC reports that the travel restrictions necessitated by the COVID pandemic have greatly affected their activities.
He states, "The Australian and New Zealand Governments maintain their policies of not allowing ROMAC to bring patients into our countries, even though we have a large list of potential medical cases needing treatment. If, and when, the two governments allow us to bring patients into our respective countries, ROMAC then faces the great challenge of having to prioritise the patients, as we have limited funds available due to the large drop in revenue owing to the COVID restrictions on fundraising functions and special events."
On a positive note, he reports that Vincent, the last patient to be treated in Australia before COVID closed our borders, who returned home to the Solomon Islands in November after 16 months in Canberra, is doing well, is putting on weight and is enjoying life like any happy, healthy two year old.
The photo of Vincent (Above) was taken just prior to him leaving Canberra to return to his home in the Solomon Islands. It was taken by Canberra Times photographer, Karleen Minney.
Throughout the month of May, members of Rotary Clubs, Rotaract, Interact and those involved in Rotary Youth Leadership Awards and Rotary Youth Exchange celebrate the opportunities that Rotary provides to connect, grow through service, develop leadership skills, mentor or be mentored, and to have fun.
By building on a proven concept — such as efforts to stamp out malaria in Zambia — Rotary’s new multimillion-dollar Programs of Scale grants help make good better.
Diana Gomez-Fullaway has been working in the background to bring to the club some extracurricular activities to reinvigorate the social and intellectual side of Rotary. In this excursion, there is a chance to learn about the Metro Tunnel project on the 9th of July.
The tour is limited to 20 people and will be open to other Rotary Clubs. The tour session usually runs for 1 hour, which includes a detailed project overview that focuses on project rationale, progress so far and construction methods used. They offer a sidewalk tour of some of our nearby worksites, where they will go into more detail about what occurs on-site. They do not offer any tours on to the construction site unfortunately, due to safety reasons.
Now each boring machine has a name, as you can see in the image above. There is a great deal of information about this project that needs to be understood to fully appreciate the magnitude of the undertaking. If enough members make the effort to attend, I might see if my friends can attend a club meeting to fluff out the project from a project management side. One was a person who greased and maintained one of the boring monsters. The other a bit higher up the tree.
Rotary International has adopted ‘Protecting the Environment’ as the new Area of Focus. So you are invited to the Australia/New Zealand zoom Launch of this new Area on Friday 4th June – the day before World Environment Day – at 6pm AEST/UTC+10.
The launch will feature PRIP Ian Riseley and PDG Juliet Riseley, Dr Roger Blakeley from Wellington NZ and Prof Leslie Hughes from Macquarie University, Sydney
During the launch, there will be a showcase of Environmental projects already underway in New Zealand, around Australia (in most States) and the South Pacific, so some of your Districts will be featured.
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.
We welcomed David Anderson as our newest member, when he was inducted at our Club meeting on Wednesday 19th May. David was accompanied by his lovely wife, Sharon, when he was inducted by President David Button.
Roger Thornton, D9820 DIK Chair and David Dippie, DIK and ESRAG Projects Chair alongside dental equipment bound for Tonga.
On a positive note, he reports that Vincent, the last patient to be treated in Australia before COVID closed our borders, who returned home to the Solomon Islands in November after 16 months in Canberra, is doing well, is putting on weight and is enjoying life like any happy, healthy two year old.
