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Club Bulletin 24th October

25/10/2020

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A Note From The President

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As I type it’s another very strange day, Grand Final on 24 October, held in Queensland at night time. What a travesty! Or maybe it will be something to think about for the future (well, not Queensland as a venue but a night game maybe?). This is another example how we have all undergone adaption this year to new ideas and concepts that would have been impossible until Covod 19 came around. Covid has forced us to do things differently and strangely we have all coped to some degree. However that’s not to ignore the high levels of stress and mental health breakdown by many in the community.

Once again, it is Rotary’s opportunity to show it’s colours by adapting to the current situation and getting in there to help the community to recover. A big shout out to the Op Shop staff who are busting to get the shop open and see some money coming in.congratulations on their efforts to do phone and collect to at least keep the public in touch with the Op shop. Of course we are all busting to get our markets going again but we don’t know when we will be able to run them safely so that is still very much up in the air.

We had another reasonable attendence at last week’s Zoom meeting with an apology from Frank Molinaro. There were the inevitable technical issues at the beginning. Might be a good idea for those who don’t know the meeting ID and password to write it down as soon as you get the email and keep it with the computer you will be using. Also check your emails for updates from the organizer as sometimes there are glitches with the zoom invitation – that’s what happened last week and a second invitation had to be sent. It will be so good when we don’t have to worry about that any more.

Reports:
Treasurer and Foundation – Kevin Hall reported that the Centurion Towers are on order and will distributed free to any Rotarian. Some clubs have requested one for every member – that means every member has pledged to join the Centurion Club - $100 per year every year. Thus more funds to return to the District for grants in three year’s time. It will be more important than ever this year as club funds are lower than usual and the need in the community for help is higher. I urge our members to consider joining this group – as I said last week it’s less than the cost of one take away coffee per week.
Op Shop – the committee are working on a Covid Safe policy for the Op shop prior to it opening. This will be submitted to the District Insurance Officer Marcus Robertson. Also Bob McKenzie reported he has been invited by another club to talk about the Op shop and it’s operation, as this club is thinking about establishing an Op Shop. Good luck all round. Now is probably as good a time as any to establish an Op Shop as there are sadly so many empty premises in what were thriving retail strips.
Judith Lightfoot reported that a stalwart from the Lions Op Shop, Brian, has recently died – she will get details so we can send some flowers to his wife.
Annual Report: Bob McKenzie reported that he report is almost ready for printing and distributing prior to the AGM in November.
We had some constructive discussion about the Strategic Plan which has been circulated to all members for consideration.
The issue of Social Media was raised and the importance of us establishing good social media presence for all of our activities. To this end we need to garner some help from a younger cohort – maybe Rotaractors and or some of our younger family members as our club does not have the expertise to take full advantage.

Another issue discussed was the need for a good mentoring program for new members – Louise said as a relatively new member there are still a lot of things about Rotary that are a bit of a mystery. It was decided to ask Liz and George Guiver if they would like to put together a check list of all things new members need to be informed about – this can be used as a template for new members and the person undertaking their Mentoring. I can report that Liz has agreed to do this.

Thanks to all the club members who contributed to the discussion – it will not be the last of it – there is a lot of material to digest and ideas to follow up on so I look forward to more thoughts being aired and people coming up with solutions.

Very little else to report this week as it has been an unusually quiet week on the District Rotary front.
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Wishing you all a very good weekend and hopefully some better news from our fearless State Leader Daniel Andrews on Sunday.


NEW SEGMENT – Soon we will have a new segment in the Bulletin – “Spotlight On…” which will be a chance for us to get to know other club members in a light hearted way. I hope members jump on board with this. It’s not easy to put together a bulletin that is interesting and relavent when there is little feedback or input from members. Here is your chance to help. You will all get an email from the editor in due course.

Upcoming Programme

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​Re-Opening Op Shops and Markets COVID Safe.

The following link is for a WorkSafe page regarding industry recommendations regarding workplace safety in relation to COVID. You may want to save this page and review once restrictions ease as it could provide you with further guidance when considering reopening any of your op-shops, markets and even with respect to Club sanctioned gatherings:
www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/coronavirus-covid-19-information-your-industry

A Blast From The Past

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Go to front page of District Website to Register for this event on TOMORROW NIGHT
– Highly Recommended -

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Climate Scenarios

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Club Bulletin 18th October 2020

25/10/2020

0 Comments

 

A Note From The President

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Well what an occasion it was last Tuesday, another “first ever” – a joint meeting with the Rotary club of Commonwealth Quezon City in Manila. I’m not sure exactly how many of their members zoomed in eventually but we had two screens’ worth so I’m thinking it must have been more than 30 participants, which was wonderful. I forgot to look at the participant number at the bottom of the screen.

Our members wore an interesting array of hats, in recognition of Hat Day for Mental Health week. Our guest Leanne was the envy of golfers as she put proudly showed off her Masters hat.

The evening was organized by PP Kevin Hall and PP Dr. Manolito Villarica (known as Mano) from the RC Commonwealth. They have known each other through business for over 30 years. The photo left depicts Kevin visiting the RC Commonwealth some years ago, and Mano is holding the polo shirt Kevin was presented with.

A few years ago our club was involved in a donation to build a house, as part of one of their community aid projects for disadvantaged in Manila.The photo (right) is of the family who live in the house we built.

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PP Mano was a founding member of his club which last year celebrated 30 years service.

During our pre meeting conversation we found out that the temperature in Manila that day was in the low 30s with very high humidity and they had recently had flooding in the city. Manila and much of the country is in lockdown with most people working from home and all the school and university students are doing remote learning. Only essential retail shops are open, so they are in a situation very like our own.

Once the meeting got underway I gave a short summary of our activities. I then handed over to their President Sid de Mesa. They have around 34 members in their club (no women) and are involved in many projects to assist the poor of the area including as mentioned, housing. President Sid is a very young 28 and an entrepreneur in the IT industry. He became involved with Rotary some years ago when he decided he wanted to contibute to the betterment of the poorer people in his country. He has found the Covid 19 restrictions frustrating because he was full of good ideas for projects which involved outdoors and normal socialisation. However he has been able to use his business skills to help their signature project.

Our guest speaker was Orly Bautista, a Software Enginner/Entrepreneur and President of Hive Training Centre and Hivelabs Technoliogies Corp. His presentation was “Rotary Community Corps Thrives Pandemic by Tech Training” – his club’s project this year, which involves upskilling workers by them undertaking Digital Marketing and Web Development courses. The courses take around four weeks of full time study – all of which can be done remotely and by the end of the course it gives the participants the necessary skills for employment in the IT field or to launch an on line business. Each course admits 10 students at a time and costs 15,000 pesos (around $435.00 . The club partners with another organization ANCOP.
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Prior to the course being developed it had been noted that the technology in the Philippines had dropped far behind other Asian countries seen here in the diagram. This statistic was one of the drivers of the project.

It was a terrific evening and once again shows how we can venture into unchartered territory with our zoom meetings. It would never be possible under normal cirucmstances but now we are up to date with our own technology how wonderful to be able to share a meeting with people from around the world. I hope we can do something similar again.
Next week I look forward to discussion about our Strategic Plan which was finalised in draft form last Thursday. The process has been very interesting – and I wish to thank the participants – Bob Fry, Kevin Hall, Gavin Birch and Ian Thomlinson for their unwavering support and commitment to the establishment of this plan. It has been emailed out to everyone in the club and I hope everyone reads it and has questions for the committee next Tuesday night.

We have made contact with Anton and looking forward to having him come to one of our zoom meetings. It’s in Program chair Gavin’s hands. Enjoy your weekend. I hope it is the last ​in complete lockdown and look forward to being able to get out and about a little bit more before we become complete hermits.
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Upcoming Programme

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​Re-Opening Op Shops and Markets COVID Safe.

The following link is for a WorkSafe page regarding industry recommendations regarding workplace safety in relation to COVID. You may want to save this page and review once restrictions ease as it could provide you with further guidance when considering reopening any of your op-shops, markets and even with respect to Club sanctioned gatherings:
www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/coronavirus-covid-19-information-your-industry

​Marg George Up Date

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Marg had a steroid injection in her back a few days ago. She will go to rehab after a few more days in Knox Private. These are the flowers sent to Marg by the club. She is Facebooking regularly with updates and has many well wishers including all of our club members!


​District President’s Meeting

Last Friday evening was a zoom district president’s meeting. The following items were discussed:
Tony Monley elaborated on several items to do with the Council on Resolution.

Ken Miller – talked about the R100 Baton Relay – currently 34 clubs will participate over March, April and May 2021- with the finale being a Picnic In the Park at Jells Park – the day will involve static displays, kites, gnomes and fairies, a huge cake, a golf day, hopefully Puffing Billy – and more. The Whitehorse cluster aims to walk the length of Whitehorse with a baton.


David Alexander – District Foundation Chair – November is Foundation month - he urged clubs to honour their Foundation goals – because there is a risk of reduced funds for grants in three years when that money comes back into use. Since people are saving on petrol, food and bar costs by not attending meetings it has been suggested that more people join the Centurion Club - $100 every year for every Rotarian.
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Ian Donald – Centurion Club – Ian talked about the new Centurion towers to be circulated free to any member. The idea is to collect spare change in the tower and when it reaches $100 you have enough to join the Centurion Club. It is hoped that 50% of District 9810 will become members. Kevin Hall is in charge of distributing the centurion towers.
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24th October is World Polio Day!

YouWorld Polio Day is a time for Rotarians and Rotaractors across the globe to raise awareness about our work to eradicate polio for good. If we stay committed to making progress, polio will be the second human disease ever to be eradicated.

Join the effort to vaccinate children and end polio by organizing a World Polio Day event for your community. In 2019, Rotary members held more than 5,900 events in 136 countries. This year, online events and activities will allow us to expand our reach even more and inspire others to join us. Not sure how to take action for World Polio Day? From virtual event ideas to social media posts and photos, the World Polio Day Toolkit can help you start planning and promoting your activities now. https://www.endpolio.org/world-polio-day?cid=com_wpd20_20200909_eml_na_mem_tkt_adt_en

Greg King – talked about the Paul Harris Society – Rotarians who donate US$1000 per year. They will hold a virtual lunch on 1st November – free, 12 midday for 1 hour. See advertisement next page for details.

Kehala Vandenberg – talked about Alumni – being people who have been involved in Rotary programs or Rotary sponsorships, and the benefits of re establishing and or maintaining contact with them as potential members.
Daryl Moran – District President Elect - talked about Interact. He urged clubs to select their President Elects and let him know so they can participate in any forthcoming training sessions.

Ken Miller – told us that District 9810 now has a YouTube Channel. It can be accessed on the District Web Site by clicking on Links for Members. This will be very useful for clubs to access interesting videos to show at meetings.
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​Ever Walked the Camino or Want to?

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Active and energetic Rotarian Ron Brooks of RC Forest Hill wants to start a Friends of the Camino Rotary Fellowship.

Ron is starting by gauging the level of interest in Australia and New Zealand. If this is part of your experience or an item on your bucket list, please contact Ron and be part of this new Rotary group. Ronbrooks1942@gmail.com


A Blast From The Past

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BBQ outside Quinton’s IGA 2011
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Conference 2011

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Club Bulletin 11th October 2020

19/10/2020

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A Note From The President

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​Best wishes to our Marg George who is in Knox Private Hospital with a nasty back injury. She is likely to be there for a few days undergoing some treatment. We wish Marg well, hope she recovers quickly and we look forward to seeing her back to her usual self. We are all thinking of her, especially in these circumstances where she cannot have us visit.

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Once again a good number of members joined our last Zoom meeting and it was great to see you all after a weeks’ break. What a strange world we are living in when our big thrill for the week is going to the supermarket and seeing ourselves on a screen with our friends! The novelty of isolation is definitely wearing off!

It was a pleasure to welcome our guests AG Kehela and Leanne Liao again, and our guest speaker Shino Yu at our last meeting.
There was a bit of confusion for some who didn’t realize Shino had screen control because she wanted to control her presentation. A gentle reminder to members that Zooming presents some challenges for the operators, the screen will not always look as familiar as you are used to when there are presentations, and it is incumbent on us to be polite to our guest speakers and wait for instructions or information. Even if not everyone is seen on screen we can all be heard. I also would like to ask that members use the MUTE button on their screens when the guest speaker is talking to prevent background noises coming through. If you don’t know how to do this please ask and we will tell you.

Shino gave a most interesting talk about Change Management. She talked about the dynamics of change – that people facing change within a system/ organization/group can go through four stages shown in the diagram below. She talked about what the different stages mean and how people react. The key is for good clear communication all the way through the process and to involve the participants so they come on board rather than be alienated.

At the end of the presentation Chair David said he wished he had had this information at his fingertips many years ago when he was in a position of managing a lot of staff and undergoing change. Probably a few of us felt this way! It says a lot about corporate life today that Human Resources are so important and change is “Managed”.


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I think we all learnt a lot and made us think about our reactions to change – as Shino said, we live in a world of constant change. Rotary is no exception and one only has to participate in some of the seminars, meetings and training sessions to see subtle changes. It is all positive and hopefully we are keeping up with current thinking!

To that end the Strategic Planning Committee once again met on Thursday and we expect to present something to the club for perusal in the next few weeks. It has not been a simple process but a very interesting one and I thank the committee for all their efforts. The next stage will be to have club members look at the plan, familiarize yourselves with it, ask questions and have discussions with the planning committee. We will give members a period of time to contemplate on it then vote on it.

On Thursday evening Gavin and I attended a Zoom meeting with the Committee for organizing our Cluster R100 celebrations next year, ably chaired by Brian Negus from Templestowe Club. Gavin is heading up the road signage project and I am heading up a small committee to look at having a cluster Long Lunch at the Manningham Council Chambers. We will also be involved in the Baton Relay in some way. Rob Edwards will be zooming into the Baton Relay meeting tonight (Friday). So, more about all this as time goes by. Of course the big uncertainty is Covid 19, and how it will effect our activities next year.

I’m really looking forward to next week’s meeting when we have international visitors join us. Members of the Rotary Club of Commonwealth in Manila will be joining us and telling us what they have been doing. At this stage we don’t know how many but it is bound to be different and interesting. It will be good if we can give them a run down of our normal (pre-covid19) club life as I’m sure they will be interested to hear about our activities and projects so Chairs be prepared to give a short report.
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That’s about it for this week, so I wish you all a good weekend, hoping the ground dries up a bit and we can get outside to walk, tend our gardens and take in some fresh air. Try to stay positive even though our Covid 19 numbers are not looking as good as they should.

Upcoming Programme

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Information About The 2021 Festival In The Warrandyte Diary

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Latest Club Ad In The Warrandyte Diary

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👆👆👆​(This is why we need good photographs!)👆👆👆

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Club Bulletin 4th October 2020

4/10/2020

0 Comments

 

A Note From The President

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Today I attended the Energising Rotary seminar. It was one of the best and constructive sessions about strengthening Rotary that I have attended, and I’m sorry not more of you joined as it was well worth it.

Guest speakers were Evan Burrell and Jessie Harmon. Evan is a young passionate Rotarian from the only Coffee Club which meets every second Sunday of the month for coffee ( in NSW). He is a graphic designer and public speaker and you can see on the front page some of his designs, he is constantly developing and sharing jazzy graphics which really get the message across. And once again the message about engaging in social media came across LOUD AND CLEAR!! We need to get with it and we need more members to take up the challenge of getting educated about Facebook. I know we will need help with this.

As always, Jessie’s presentation was great – she gave some really useful tips on membership retention:
• Create a good first impression
• Have meaningful roles for everyone in the club and volunteers
• Have varied service projects
• Have good two-way communication between all members and volunteers and stake holders
• Make it fun and inclusive
• Recognize and appreciate volunteers (Some people track volunteer hours)
• Advertise what has been achieved
• Make sure members know they are part of something really big!
• “Fit your club to it’s members don’t fit your members to your club”.

Some if not most of these ideas and themes came out in our club survey so you are all on the right track. We just need to put them into practice.

Last Friday night I attended a Cluster President’s meeting -you will be interested to hear that National Youth Science Forum is going ahead with a hybrid online program so we hope our candidate Zoe is still on board with this.

We were encouraged to ensure our Foundation giving goes ahead so the district has funds to disburse in three years.
When fundraising resumes we must have a Covid 19 Safe OHS plan for each of our activities these need to be kept and attendance records. WorkSafe and Chamber of commerce all have resources for this.

We talked again about interesting ways to hold meetings – Doncaster club had a recent meeting with the Rotary Club of Doncaster in the UK – they are about to turn 100! They did a combined zoom meeting and it was a huge success. Some clubs have had very successful trivia nights and murder mystery nights. The cluster clubs are holding their footy tipping final night next week – they would love to have us join them. All proceeds to REAL – an organization for people with intellectual difficulties.

We held a board meeting last Tuesday night, and members will be sent a report of this meeting in due course with the opportunity to ask questions about any issues from the meeting.

Until then everyone have a safe and productive weekend and will see you on Tuesday night when we have a talk from Shino Yu, her biography is below. It may be a little challenging for some because the theme is “Change” but I’m looking forward to hearing what she has to say.

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Upcoming Programme

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​LinkedIn: TopNotch Business and Career Solutions

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Zooming last week at the Latimers. They’ve got all the bases covered. Our guest speaker Peter Julier.
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Our Club Fundraising At Work

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​Our RCWD Fund donation to the Rotary club of Box Hill Burwood was very much appreciated. It will be used to continue this great program into the next few weeks. Please continue to donate to the program, our Community Committee will find plenty of ways to use it for the benefit of people in need in the coming few months.
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Who are we

Rotary International is a worldwide organisation of business, professional and community leaders, who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. The Rotary Club of Warrandyte Donvale is one of four clubs in the Manningham Cluster. This cluster is in Rotary District 9810 which comprises the Rotary Clubs of Doncaster, Manningham and Templestowe.

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INQUIRIES: Gavin Birch 0438 448 854
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We meet each Tuesday evening.
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Natalies Restaurant
669 Maroondah Highway, Mitcham
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CONTACT: Rob Edwards at 0409 258 744​
Rotary Club of Warrandyte Donvale Inc.
​PO Box 31, Doncaster East, Vic 3109
​ABN No. 5910 6339 050

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