-What a great Federation Picnic we had, definitely many hands make light work.  Pauline and Maurice travelled up for the day and added to the fun and workforce. To all those who participated, a very big thank you as it was very much appreciated.  Well-earned amount was made.

-Ted has restructured the market sites plan in Pall Mall for next year's Easter event 2023. This was to present to the City of Greater Bendigo last week with Kevin and Rob. The outcome was positive and we will be updated with further details. 

-Another big Event on Saturday night was White Night. And even though we had a new spot and the night got colder, the sausages were sizzling, the hotdogs were popping and the vegie burgers were browning beautifully. Such a fun night had by all that included our customers and community. Once again, a well-supported effort by the team, under the supervision of Master Chef Kevin. Great to have Bruce travel from Geelong for this big BBQ.

-Much frivolity and a bit of jiving around to the music kept us on our toes. To the team that stayed on until the final hour for pack up, exceptional job done well!

-Our Club voted last week for the Regionalization Trial to go ahead so will now submit that vote to the district.

-If any of the committees are having meetings apart from our normal club meeting, you are most welcome to use the Club computer for those that are wishing to zoom in. Just have it returned by the next morning meeting.

-There is another Radio session with Phoenix FM this week discussing some events from the club.

- Hopefully the weather will be appropriate for our little gardeners to enjoy the next two weeks before holidays and reap some benefits to take home.

-Enjoy the sunny days, try to get some vitamin D and stay healthy. Take care and travel safely.

-A happy Fathers Day to all the Dads. 

FEDERATION PICNIC PHOTOS

Nothing nicer than a smiley greeting!

Pauline and Rob

Order up!

Kev counting his money.

WHITE NIGHT - Featuring a great team of masterchefs!

All systems go!

Sausages anyone?

MESSAGE FROM THE DISTRICT GOVERNOR

Here are some highlights from the DG's message for August. Members can read the full message on the District website.

Welcome to the end of month two. So much to celebrate already, and some clarity on the main challenge we face this year. I trust your signature initiatives for your year are up and humming, or at least in progress. If it still feels early, allow me to remind you of a saying of the great AFL coach, John Kennedy: It’s later than you think. December and January are conventionally quiet months for our volunteers, for obvious reasons. Returning in the new calendar year can be sputtery, and our hosting of International Convention will likely absorb a lot of bandwidth from then into May. This quarter is the window to establish your initiatives. Let’s proceed with purpose.

While we’re invoking sayings, have you heard the one that sales solves everything? In Rotary, you could say member numbers solve everything. Yes, we are a service organisation, but without members and funds, we’re not much of one. Certainly not a fun one. A thriving membership means more hands to provide service to our communities, and deliver the fundraising that enables it. Increasing our membership increases all our metrics, including fun.

August is membership month, when we receive official member numbers for 2021-2022. Our district’s membership at 30 June 2022 was 1,943, falling below 2,000 members for the first time in living memory. This indicates that many of our clubs are continuing to struggle to attract and retain members, while we know a few came out ahead.

While I understand this is confronting, and we conventionally brave-face this issue, responsible organisations acknowledge their circumstances and take action to improve them. In this case, immediate action.

Encouragingly, more than 3-in-10 Australian adults volunteer. This makes our task one of connecting with a vast community of ~6 million keen volunteers. We don’t need to convince anyone to volunteer, we don’t need to strategise this, it doesn’t even require telling our story to get started, we simply need to offer the projects and experiences these volunteers expect. And we’ve proven this.

Growth Action Plan is District’s strategy for 2022-2023, supported by our capability (learning and development) platform, growmyclub.org. It supports our clubs to connect with more volunteers from across our community, convert those participants into members, and develop them into community leaders.

District Service Director Lili Teichman is working with ~20 clubs to adapt or start projects that will connect with volunteers from across our community; projects that are meaningful, hands on and convenient. Her Hands On Volunteering Workshop in July was expanded to accommodate extraordinary interest, and now a dozen projects are on the path to becoming meaningful, hands on and convenient. Two Volunteer With The DG projects – all meaningful, hands on and convenient – have been run and saw fantastic Rotary participation, but also attracted a truly surprising number of new volunteers! They told me these projects were exactly what they and their friends are seeking, so we’re following up with them on continuing to participate, and bringing those friends. They’re keen, and they demonstrate that our approach is effective! Read more on what meaningful, hands on, convenient projects look like at growmyclub.org/service and stay tuned for an announcement on how we’ll support these projects to connect with more volunteers from across our community

District Vocational Service Director Sarah Overton is working with clubs to help them talk to these participants about Rotary’s vocational advantage. Younger volunteers seek not just meaning, but experiences and mentoring that will develop soft skills and provide board and leadership experience. Rotary is the clear leader in offering this, because of the strength our experienced members already deliver in vocational service. Offering more opportunities for our Rotarians to mentor newer members helps engage and retain those valuable existing embers. Our newly-introduced DG Mentorship Awards are already acknowledging the effective relationship between these motivated younger members and their experienced mentors, such as Carlton’s Danielle Schutte and Melissa McIntosh, and Collingwood’s Wendy Tang and Bruce Shaw. These were announced to great acclaim at our first DG Official Cluster Visit for Heritage Cluster, and I look forward to presenting many more! Please share this link to nominate effective mentoring in your club and read more on Rotary’s vocational advantage: growmyclub.org/vocational

There are many dimensions to participating in Rotary, one of which is our much-loved club meetings. We’re also capable of offering other membership experiences, such as enjoying the fellowship of volunteering together. For many new volunteers, this may be their preferred experience. A satellite club provides new members the flexibility to shape the experience they prefer, while retaining your club’s weekly meeting format, and contributing to your club’s membership numbers. Our new reporting system indicates a significant number of Presidents are keen to find out more about satellite clubs, so District Membership Director Jonathan Shepherd is organising a workshop with RI Membership expert Barbara Mifsud, likely for late September, early October. Watch our District Facebook page for more, and visit growmyclub.org/membership

Your District team, across the board, has hit 2022-2023 running, determined to support your club to succeed. And, it’s exciting to see how many clubs are already signing new members! Across the District, 31 new members have been added, as of writing. Congratulations to these clubs who’ve got the ball rolling for the year! I encourage you to keep working hard, keep trying new things, keep listening to what new volunteers expect.

DG Amanda

REMINDERS