David Goldstone AO is a well known philanthropist from Perth WA and was the driving force behind the formation of a new and different rotary club, Crawley.  In his introduction Chairman David Pisterman only hinted at David's life long efforts and recognitions for "making a difference in the community".
 
Let's expand that a bit.  Rotary, first in East Perth, then Matilda Bay, and now Crawley has been at the forefront with highly significant and executive roles in all, and special involvement in other projects:

• Active Member, World Polio Eradication Program, since 1986.
• Founding Member, ‘Pennies for Polio’ Polio Eradication Campaign, since 1999.
• Chair, WA Committee, PolioPlus, over 10 years; Fundraiser, PolioPlus, District 9450 (now District 9455), 2002-2003.
• Ambassador, Australian Employment Covenant.
• Ambassador, St John of God Lighthouse Foundation; Board & Management Committee, 2002-2004; Teen Challenge Foundation.
• Fundraiser, Bendat Family Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Subiaco.
• Assisted with major fundraising for a range of Perth charities.
• Obtained sponsorship for a VIP Private Studio in Perth Arena for the exclusive use of young adults with disabilities and their carers.

Lead in by the "Queen" song "We will ROC you", certainly most apt for a Rotary Club driven and managed by young people (mostly under 30 years), David told of his efforts to set up a Rotary group attractive to the younger generation.

With 40 years service in Rotary, and observations of the difficulty in recruiting and maintaining young members, but yet still with a passion to get them on board, in 2009 he decided to set up this new style club aimed at that group.  ROC of Crawley, the end product, was chartered in 6 weeks with 74 such members (mostly 20-25 years old) and expanded to 120 in 6 months.
 
Some conventional Rotary practices were changed but the its values and ethos upheld.  The running process for the club was left to these members.
 
A critical point was its breakfast club nature ("lunches and evenings are unattractive to that age group").  Meetings designed by members had short speeches, short video clips and large slabs of time for networking (fellowship?)  There was no head table, nor fines, nor committees only teams and leaders.  The last point highlights the efforts to change language and style and its impact.
 
David’s mentoring was important.  These ambitious but yet community minded individuals were eager to learn, get life experience, and self-motivated by tackling management and promotional tasks themselves.  Financial sponsors were important, and here it was left to young members to make face-to-face approaches to businessmen, senior executives and politicians and afterwards give regular direct personal feedback on contributions made.
 
Question time touched on the contrast with Rotarac, the value of mentoring and self-motivation, style changes, focus and location ( would it work at Swinburne Uni?) and the targeted membership of a club. The success of the ROC of Crawley is outstanding and its members are to be applauded, but so too is the wonderful kick start given to it, by our speaker David Goldstone.