This weekend along with around 1100 people from all over the world we heard from a variety of Rotarians, Rotaractors, some past DGs, the current RI president, in all, lots of people who addressed the Zone 8 Virtual Conference. The overall theme, during this time of upheaval due to Covid 19 is the necessity for Rotary to CHANGE, because the world has changed. The music was terrific by the way, The Bowden Brothers, and indigenous group sounding a bit like the old RedGum. It is so good for us to get out of our own little bubble and hear what is going on in the wider world of Rotary. The trick is not to let it overwhelm us with feelings that we cannot do what others are doing because we are such a small club and that we only know how to do what we know we do well, and nothing new. I know the ideas are there and they will emerge gradually. This lockdown period has given us time to stop and think about what we are doing, where we are going and what might we do to continue.

I hope also that you have had a chance to look at the “Creatures of Habit” Video by Mark Huddleston we intended watching at last week’s meeting, but didn’t due to technical issues (which we think we have now solved). If not, we will have look at it next month maybe along with some other videos. There is plenty of good material on the Rotary web site and now is a good time to motivate and stimulate ourselves by hearing what others are doing successfully.

Nevertheless, we had a very useful club discussion mainly around the Op Shop and ways we might assist people who come to the attention of the Op shop workers who are having difficulties. Judith Lightfoot was as ever full of good ideas to keep the Op Shop afloat – so told us about their “Drive Through’ service and how it is working. Photos of the various saleable items are put on the Op shop Facebook page and then shared to various other pages and through other people sharing. People can ring up and pay over the phone for the items then collect in their cars. Op shop volunteers have sanitised and prepacked the items which they put in the boot of the purchasers’ car. Judith was toying with the idea of using Zoom to take people through the shop virtually so they could see what is on offer. She is yet to trial this and will keep us up to date next week. Well done to the Op Shop volunteers for their indominable spirit and determination to keep going. Great Rotary values at play there.

I was delighted to announce the Warrandyte Community Bank’s grant of $2000 toward the Op Shop food program, as well as the approval for a Defibrillator to be installed at the Op Shop. Once again, a huge thanks to Liz Guiver for her terrific work doing Grant applications – it is much appreciated and I was able to thank Liz over the phone during the week. She and George are both well by the way, which is good news.

I attended the Waverly Club’s meeting on Thursday lunch time to hear about a refugee at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation, Farhad Bandesh, a musician and writer, who had been on Manus Island and was relocated to mainland Australia for medical treatment several years ago. It was interesting and again, good to see what else is happening out there in the world of Rotary. There are many invitations to other club meetings and seminars so please consider joining them, you don’t have to say anything, just be present.

Last Friday night I attended the bi-monthly District President’s Meeting. Tony Monley gave a short presentation about the council and Legislation and Resolutions. We also heard about how clubs are coping with Zoom meetings, with a small number reporting that their numbers of attendees have dropped from the usual face to face, but many clubs saying they love Zooming and have had really interesting guest speakers from all over the world. Some clubs have inducted new members too. District 9810 has a good list of guest speakers who make themselves available to any club who wishes. Of course, we all want to get back together for face to face meetings but in the meantime we can make the most of the current situation. Many clubs will continue with at least one zoom meeting a month for those who cannot attend in person. The discussions were good and again, it was stimulating to hear what is going on in other clubs.

​I look forward to our next meeting where we will hear about the racing Industry from Peter Julier which promises to be different and entertaining. Until Tuesday keep well and safe.
​
President Judy.

Club input to the District Grants “Fair Share” Modeland Rotary from a Villagers Perspective in Papua New Guinea

Learn how The Rotary Foundation and District 9810 Resource Network can help your Club to participate in Local and International Grants Projects

While Covid-19 has caused many Rotarians to ‘re-think’ their position on providing service to the community, locally and internationally; and giving to the Foundation; - this inspirational Seminar is designed to renew your enthusiasm to do more ‘good in the world’.

This seminar is in two parts: - Part 1) covering Club projects in both the local and international community through a proposed new District Grants model; and Part 2), an enhanced approach to conducting our international service projects, as seen through the eyes of Osivo, a village project leader in Goroka, Papua New Guinea (part of D9600 Brisbane).

We will cross to Goroka to learn how Osivo led a village driven process to help Rotary deliver a project that the community needed – precious water! Learn also how resource networks across Rotary Districts can connect your Club to our near neighbour communities in need. Hear directly from Osivo what a benefitting community wants from its relationship with Rotary; and significantly, how to avoid the mistakes of other Aid Agencies, including some of our Rotary driven Grant projects of the past.

This seminar is a must for all Clubs as we prepare to embark on exciting new opportunities in Rotary D9810. Tony Stokes (International Service Chair) and David Alexander (Foundation Chair) welcome you to attend.

An Invitation to attend this meeting of the Rotary Club of Manningham.
​If you have Irish heritage it may be of great interest to you. Dr Callaghan is a professional Genealogist.
Contact Kathy Monley Zoom for details

It has been a quiet week on the Rotary district front with no additional zoom meetings or seminars.

Last Tuesday night we held another successful Club meeting with the two Manningham Rotaract Presidents Roshni and Christine who talked to us about their club and the Connecting Manningham Project. Connecting Manningham is an on -line project which now has up to 600 people involved with various digital activities such as book club, cooking videos, make up tutorials, Physical training and children’s story telling. They are also assisting the local U3A with their digital literacy learning and they have long term projects such as fortnightly streaming of games and trivia nights and discussions on sexuality and sex education. Its all designed to maintain connection between Manningham residents, very relevant in these times.

The Rotaractors are very switched on to Facebook and other social media since all their projects are on- line and the club has thrived and grown in numbers in the current climate as the members are all so accustomed to meeting, learning and socializing on line. They started with 8 members and are now up to around 16, with 6 males and the rest females. They are hoping to even up the gender tally as they proceed. They are finding the Zoom platform very convenient for their current lifestyles.
​
Roshni is a third-year student at Melbourne University, studying a Bachelor of Science and worked in a coffee shop before the lock down, hoping to return to that as soon as she is able as she misses her coffee fixes. Christine is likewise in 3rd year at MU studying Biomedicine, Human Structures and Functions and works part time in Coles at The Pines. It was great to hear how enthusiastic they both are about volunteering and how successful the club has been in growing their numbers. We look forward to more involvement with the Rotaractors and would love to have them back to give us a tutorial about Facebook for those of us who are not Facebookers. Check out Connecting Manningham on Facebook.

District International / Foundation Joint Seminar - (5:30 pm - Friday 25th September 2020)

Club input to the District Grants “Fair Share” Modeland Rotary from a Villagers Perspective in Papua New Guinea

(Learn how The Rotary Foundation and District 9810 Resource Network can help your Club to participate in Local and International Grants Projects )

While Covid-19 has caused many Rotarians to ‘re-think’ their position on providing service to the community, locally and internationally; and giving to the Foundation; - this inspirational Seminar is designed to renew your enthusiasm to do more ‘good in the world’.
​
This seminar is in two parts: - Part 1) covering Club projects in both the local and international community through a proposed new District Grants model; and Part 2), an enhanced approach to conducting our international service projects, as seen through the eyes of Osivo, a village project leader in Goroka, Papua New Guinea (part of D9600 Brisbane).

We will cross to Goroka to learn how Osivo led a village driven process to help Rotary deliver a project that the community needed – precious water! Learn also how resource networks across Rotary Districts can connect your Club to our near neighbour communities in need. Hear directly from Osivo what a benefitting community wants from its relationship with Rotary; and significantly, how to avoid the mistakes of other Aid Agencies, including some of our Rotary driven Grant projects of the past.

This seminar is a must for all Clubs as we prepare to embark on exciting new opportunities in Rotary D9810. Tony Stokes (International Service Chair) and David Alexander (Foundation Chair) welcome you to attend.

Environmental Sustainability Rotarian Action Group (ESRAG)

ESRAG provides an organizing point and informational resources to share information with clubs and communities about sustainable practices and the global humanitarian crisis of climate change.

“The Rotary Foundation Trustees and Rotary International Board of Directors have both unanimously approved adding a new area of focus: supporting the environment. More than $18 million in Foundation global grant funding has been allocated to environment-related projects over the past five years. Creating a distinct area of focus to support the environment will give Rotary members even more ways to bring about positive change in the world and increase our impact.

RI President Mark Maloney says that during his travels around the world as a Rotary senior leader he encountered many Rotary members and Rotaractors who advocated for the environment to be an area of focus.

“I believe strongly that our Rotary Foundation programs now have a valuable added dimension to our efforts,” says, Maloney.

Foundation Trustee Chair Gary C.K. Huang says that with the global population reaching near eight billion, protecting the environment is increasingly important.

“It is time for us to use our collective resources to invest in a smart and efficient way to protecting our environment,” says Huang. “We are qualified to take this initiative because we are a global group of problem solvers with diversified talents.”

Contact person: Bronwen Lamond - Oakleigh Clayton Huntingdale

Want to learn about and understand the breadth of Rotary and how it fits together, the pieces in the jigsaw puzzle?

RLI provides participants with a two-part series of content rich, well-paced modules to enhance understanding of the full range of Rotary programs offered across District 9810. RLI is a Rotary program designed to provide the “story of Rotary” through sharing of knowledge. The courses will be run on two Sundays, with two modules being covered on each day Participants contribute through facilitated workshops and syndicate sessions. Members from our District who have completed the course found that the content is valuable, relevant and well worth the time invested.

As I type we are hearing about the “roadmap” out and into Covid Normal. It will be a while yet before we can all meet in person, so we just need to continue as we are now and look forward to better times. At least the weather is warming with signs of spring all around. We must stay optimistic and maintain our routines, fitness and activities so that when we emerge, we will still be reasonably sane and ready to go.

Last Monday night the Social Media workshop was held – ably run by a young Rotaractor, Netania from the Monash Rotaract Club. It was focused on Facebook and how to maximize a clubs’ profile, and how to get across to your target audience. It was very interesting but quite technical if you didn’t have any experience in Facebook. The take home message was that we need to be using these social media platforms because that is how businesses and younger people are advertising and connecting with the community. There will be more about that next week when we have our Manningham Rotaractors talk to us about their projects.

Last week saw AG Kehela talk to us about Health and Safety which is her forte as a lawyer who specialises in Work Safe issues. As a service club with no employees we must be aware of how we fit into the scheme of things with our large number of volunteers being our club members , Op Shop workers and others who assist in activities such as the Art show and the various markets. Our insurance compliance, risk assessments and safe work practices must be up to scratch because the bottom line is that the Rotary Club Board is responsible if anything goes terribly wrong. It is a big job for clubs and perhaps needs a person to take charge of it to manage it properly.

The latest Open Doors came out last week and I urge you all to have a read, there is always something of interest in there and some useful short videos to access as well.

You will have noted that the Club Runner tutorial will be run again because the pervious session was not recorded due to some technical issues. It was a very useful learning experience and again I suggest you attend to learn how to access the District Directory. I feel like a broken record on this one!

​The Op Shop volunteers are gearing up to what we hope will be an opportunity to reopen and the call has gone out to us Rotarians to assist by offering a shift or two. They predict to be extremely busy in the coming months and don’t have enough volunteers at this stage to do everything needed so they are asking us to help. With extra time on our hands it shouldn’t be too difficult for some of us to lend a hand, it is our Op shop after all and we are the ones who benefit from it’s profits so I hope to see some of us volunteering.

Welcome to “Connecting Manningham”, a community initiative sponsored by the Rotary

Club of Templestowe and The Rotaract Club of Manningham, designed to:

- Connect to Neighbours and Spread Kindness
- Connect to Services and Business and Support Local
- Connect to Programs and Meet New People

​1. Enhance community connectedness within Manningham by providing opportunities for residents and visitors to connect online and in person.
2. Encourage community kindness and positive neighbourhood relationships within Manningham now and beyond COVID- 19.
3. Develop online platforms that allows for positive social connection, active participation and linkages to local services, businesses, and programs
4. Enhance the profile of services and businesses, encouraging people to support local.
5. Provide programs and activities that encourage positive lifestyles, improves wellbeing, and supports social inclusion.
6. Build community and business partnerships, and positive relationships with key stakeholders to further deliver joint initiatives

The Connecting Manningham Framework:

Connecting Manningham is a program that provides and encourages community and business connectedness and sharing in an open and engaging way. The online platform centres on three key focus areas depicted in the model above.
Project Objectives:

Connecting Manningham has the following objectives:

Current Status

​The Connecting Manningham Project was developed based on a three phased approach. The initial phase, which considered the design and establishment of an online Facebook group commenced in May 2020.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/connectingmanningham/

This phase was considered a pilot exploring the opportunities and was a partnership between The Rotary Club of Templestowe and Manningham Rotaract. This phase of the project primarily included the development of online content on the Facebook site by the club members focused on connecting with neighbours, connecting with business and services, and connecting with programs and activities. Phase one has received positive growth and interest from community. There are also links with the Rotary Club of Templestowe Facebook page and website.

https://www.facebook.com/rotarytemplestowe
https://templestowerotary.org.au/

Phases two and three of Connection Manningham, which is set to commence in the next two months, is a further development of the program to support broader community benefit. There are three aspects to these further initiatives:

• Neighbourhood Connection and Spreading Kindness
• Promoting and linking people to local Services and Businesses
• Connecting to Programs and Activities - In addition to Rotary/Rotaract programs,

Community will be invited through an EOI process to deliver free or low-cost activities online via the Connecting Manningham Group.

If you would like to download a PDF version of this bulletin, please click below.

​I hope this week finds everyone in good spirits as the Covid 19 statistics start to look better than they were a week ago. Four more weeks seems a long time. We must consider that even then we will be restricted and may be zoom meeting for some time, so I’d like to think we are mentally planning for that and not dropping our collective bundles! As I keep saying, keeping in contact is vital for our welfare.

Our Strategic Planning committee has started meeting weekly on a Wednesday until we have a document that is representative of our clubs’ wishes and direction. The committee comprises Gavin Birch, Ian Thomlinson, Kevin Hall, Bob Fry and me.

Last week was a refreshing change to our usual meeting with partners joining us for our Trivial Pursuit Night. Great to see Micki, Yvonne and Marianne holding up their own. Sorry to hear that Terry was under the weather after her recent surgery, but I’ve had it on good authority since then that she is now recovering well and much better than she was last week. That’s good news.
​
Sergeant Steve had gone to a lot of trouble to prepare question and answer sheets and a power point presentation of the questions. Notwithstanding technical problems it was a fun night with most of us scratching our heads to think of the correct answers, and very few of us, if any, succeeded in 100%. Thanks to all who participated, especially Steve Latimer and chair Gavin and we look forward to our usual club meeting next week.

Judy Hall

​Jennifer E. Jones, a member of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland, Ontario, Canada, has been nominated to become Rotary International’s president for 2022-23, a ground breaking selection that will make her the first woman to hold that office in the organization’s 115-year history.

Jones will officially become president-nominee on 1 October if no other candidates challenge her.

Jones says she sees Rotary’s Action Plan as a catalyst for increasing Rotary’s impact. “As we reflect upon our new strategic priorities, we could have never envisioned that our ability to adapt would become our North Star during what is inarguably the most profound time in recent history,”

Jones said in her vision statement. “Silver linings rise out of the most challenging circumstances. Using metric-driven goals, I will harness this historic landscape to innovate, educate, and communicate opportunities that reflect today’s reality.”

As the first woman to be nominated to be president, Jones understands how important it is to follow through on Rotary’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Statement. “I believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion … begins at the top and for us to realize growth in female membership and members under the age of forty — these demographics need to see their own reflection in leadership,” Jones said. “I will champion double-digit growth in both categories while never losing sight of our entire family.”

​A current Rotary Foundation trustee, Jones has been a Rotary member since 1997 and has served Rotary as RI vice president, director, training leader, committee chair, moderator, and district governor. She played a lead role in Rotary’s rebranding effort by serving as chair of the Strengthening Rotary’s Advisory Group. She is the co-chair of the End Polio Now Countdown to History Campaign Committee, which aims to raise $150 million for polio eradication efforts.

Welcome from Zone 8 Conference Convenor, Noel Trevaskis

G’day, I would like to welcome you to our first Virtual Conference for Australia and New Zealand. This is due to the fact we aren’t able to go to Alice Springs as planned due to COVID19. This gives us an exciting opportunity for all Rotarians to participate in this conference, for which registration is free.

The array of presenters is first class plus you will be able to experience what is happening in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. This conference is one not to miss, it will be historic.
​
I would encourage Rotary Clubs to have their Rotary meeting on the Saturday or Sunday or both days and watch the conference live (between 11.30AM AEST and 1.00PM AEST each day on the 19th and 20th of September).

Organise a brunch, lunch or afternoon tea and share the experience.

While this year has been challenging we can still celebrate Rotary and let Rotary open opportunities! I hope to see you on the 19th and 20th September!
​
Regards Noel
NOEL TREVASKIS, CONFERENCE CONVENOR — JUL 29, 2020
Noel Trevaskis is the Convenor of the 2020 Rotary Zone 8 (Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific) Virtual Conference.

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE — JUL 23, 2020
We're delighted to be hearing the following speakers at our virtual conference on the 19th and 20th of September 2020.

Saturday 19th September 2020 (11.30am - 1.00pm AEST
• Rotary International President Holger Knaack
• Past Rotary International President and The Rotary Foundation Trustee Ian Riseley – The Rotary Foundation – the charity of choice for Rotarians
• Past Director Stuart Heal – Winds of Change
• Showcase - New Zealand Rotary Projects
• Sarah Brown AM – Continuing story of the Purple House

Sunday 20th September 2020 (11.30am - 1.00pm AEST)
• Past Rotary International Vice President The Rotary Foundation Trustee Jennifer Jones – A modern Rotary
• Past Rotary International President and The Rotary Foundation Trustee Barry Rassin – The Rotary Foundation, doing good in the world
• Showcase - Australian Rotary Projects
• Chair End Polio Now. Past Rotary International Vice President and Past The Rotary Foundation Trustee Mike McGovern – Eradicating polio in the COVID era.
• Rotary International Director Elect Jessie Harman

EVANSTON, Ill. (June 23, 2020) — Rotary members throughout the world are working safely and diligently to assess and provide for urgent community needs as they strive to respond and recover from the effects of COVID-19 coronavirus. While following social-distancing and health guidelines, they are providing comfort and hope to those feeling the effects of isolation and fear, and focusing their resources and solutions toward supporting frontline health workers and first responders as they battle this disease and save lives.

​“As leaders in virtually every community on earth, we bring a unique combination of local knowledge and access to a global network of expertise and resources,” said Mark Daniel Maloney, president of Rotary International. “In the face of uncertainty, we are adapting to shifting needs to offer immediate help to people at a rapid pace. And we'll remain committed to recovering from this health crisis for as long as it takes.”

If you would like to download a PDF version of this bulletin, please click the link below.

Are you feeling the way Liz’s dog looks? Without our normal routines and activities it’s easy to slip into apathy and time wasting. The weather is in tune with the general feeling around the place – gloomy, cold and miserable. As far as Rotary is concerned it is vital that we keep active, involved and optimistic. Things may never go back to exactly what they were before and as Covid19 progresses we are all becoming aware of changes in society and the community around us. Planning is one way we can move forward and be thinking about how our club may meet the needs of the community in the coming years.

If you would like to download a PDF version of this bulletin, please click the link below.