We have a Club Board meeting tonight and one of the topics for discussion will be the Rotary Zone 8 Regionalisation Pilot Rotary Community Groups (RCG) preference for Hawthorn. It is expected each RCG will include between 12-20 Rotary Clubs and they can be regionally based or project focused, it is possible for the RCGs to include international Clubs. I will update members on the Board’s discussions around our preferred RCG at the meeting on Tuesday 17th October.
An upgrade of the Club website was disc
ussed at the June Board meeting and a working group of Ian Bentley, Ari Talantis and myself have been working on the project. The plan is to make the website more informative and user friendly for our members, sponsors and parties interested in understanding the Club’s projects and activities. Ian has started to update some of the areas, in particular the Community Service projects and removing out of date information. We plan to replace the Club History section with an e-book version of “Reflections of 70 Years Rotary Hawthorn 1953-2023” which provides a very informative Club history. Feel free to contact Ian, Ari or myself if you want to provide comments or feedback on the new look website.
ussed at the June Board meeting and a working group of Ian Bentley, Ari Talantis and myself have been working on the project. The plan is to make the website more informative and user friendly for our members, sponsors and parties interested in understanding the Club’s projects and activities. Ian has started to update some of the areas, in particular the Community Service projects and removing out of date information. We plan to replace the Club History section with an e-book version of “Reflections of 70 Years Rotary Hawthorn 1953-2023” which provides a very informative Club history. Feel free to contact Ian, Ari or myself if you want to provide comments or feedback on the new look website.Next week’s meeting at Kooyong will include a Club visit by Bryan Griffith and Angela Beutel from Rochester Rotary. The flood event in Rochester was twelve months ago this week and I know from discussions with Bryan and Angela the anniversary will be very confronting for some of the residents. Bryan will make a few observations and comments to members at the meeting but it would be appreciated if members understand their sensitivity to discussing events in any level of detail.
The meeting next week will also include a brief presentation from Eromi Dissanayake (Tilak’s daughter) and Penelope Waymark on the Mae Tao Clinic in Thailand which is working to provide healthcare to migrants from Myanmar. The Myanmar refugee community is not allowed access to Thailand’s government funded medical facilities.
Our guest speaker next week will be George Petrou, an acclaimed artist, on The Art of Sacrifice. I’m sure you will agree it will be a very interesting meeting and I look forward to seeing you there.
Upcoming Events
- October is Walk With Us Month to End Polio: Anne Scott has organised a Hawthorn Rotary group called Hawkers Walkers 2023 on the Rotary Walk With Us in 2023 website https://www.rotarywalkwithus.org/ You can join or provide support to members registered and this year a special Walk with Paws is planned for Saturday 14th October in Elsternwick Park.
- Rotary Club of Nhill weekend 25th and 26th November. We are organising a Club visit and the Nhill Club will host a special dinner with the local Myanmar community. Noel Halford is preparing a program for the weekend and will provide updates in the Bulletin.
- Club Christmas Dinner Tuesday 12th December The Social Committee have secured the Conservatory Room at the newly refurbished Studley Park Boathouse as the venue. Ticket sales will open shortly on Trybooking and the price will be $75 per person, which includes a welcome drink. We hope to see you there.
Rotary District Conference Bendigo Weekend 12th – 14th April 2024. David Pisterman has agreed to act as our Club’s coordinator for the event and will provide updates as we get closer to the time. Early registration will be open in November.
- Rotary International Convention Singapore 25th - 29th May 2024. Bookings are open now.
Doug McLean
Rotary Hawthorn President 2023-24