Katrina Flinn and Bronwyn Stephens are making good progress with their project to extend the MHU Care Pack project to St Vincent’s hospital.  We have had positive feedback from RC Glenferrie; they will consider joining the project providing volunteers and financial support.  The Club has also submitted an application for a Rotary Balwyn Centenary grant and will be notified by 31^st May if we are successful.

Rotary Hawthorn has had a long-term association with Lille Fro, a charity providing educational support for some of the most disadvantaged children in Northern India.  The charity is run by Tamara Cannon the daughter of Ngaire Cannon, a leading member at the Club from 1994 until her sudden passing in 2020. Over the past four years Lille Fro has been unable to provide Rotary Hawthorn with supporting financial information required by Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) to maintain their tax deductible status for donations. The reason for the lack of information is partly due to COVID limiting the work in India and also to Tamara’s personal reasons.

Tamara joined the Board meeting and explained how she was able to visit India in late 2023 and now has a plan to scale back Lille Fro over the next few years.  The main project to establish a school boarding house is nearing completion, and with local governments receiving more funding they will take over the education needs of new students in the villages.  Lille Fro will continue to support the existing students with the majority now in their senior years at school.

The Board shared their concerns with Tamara that we need to ensure all the RAWCS reporting requirements are being met to continue our association with Lille Fro.  The Board also expressed their respect and admiration for the good work Lille Fro has done within the remote community providing opportunities for the next generation to have a better life. The Board will have follow-up discussions with Tamara to ensure all the RAWCS requirements are being met to enable our Club to continue in a supporting role with Lille Fro.

The Board also discussed the update on the Zone 8 Regionalisation pilot project which is moving forward. Hawthorn has been included in Community Group 9800-2 with the following Clubs:
Balwyn, Brighton, Brighton North, Canterbury, Camberwell, Caulfield Chadstone East Malvern, Glenferrie, Hawthorn, Kew, Malvern, North Balwyn, Prahran and Toorak. 

Ron Payne, DG 9800, highlighted the key focus for the Community Group will be to work together on increasing membership and collaboration on local and international projects. The next key milestone is the election of Rotary Community Leaders to work with all the Clubs in our grouping.   

Details on the Community Leader role and application process are included in the Bulletin below.

The Rotary Hawthorn AFL Tipping comp is off and running and hopefully you had better luck than I did in the first round; what happened to the Dees in the fourth quarter?

As outlined below our next in-person meeting is on Tuesday 19^th March at Kooyong and it will be a special meeting to present the inaugural Service to Seniors award; I look forward to seeing you there.

Announcements

Taverners raffle ticket sales. A reminder the Club is selling Taverners raffle tickets again this year with half the monies collected donated back to the Club; details are included in this week’s Bulletin. 

The Annual Award for Service to Seniors Presentation will be on Tuesday 19^th March. Our guest speaker is Gerard Mansour, former Commissioner for Seniors.  Gerard is President of Winteringham, a not-for-profit welfare organisation created to address the scourge of elderly homelessness and he will present our award.  We would encourage members to invite family and friends to this very special meeting, booking details are included in the Bulletin.

MHU Care Packs packing day Tuesday 26^th March from 9:30 am.  If you are available to join us please let Katrina know and we will be finished in time to join the monthly Zoom meeting after.  

Doug McLean

President 2023-24