First, I am pleased to announce we have had an application from Norm Franzi to join the Club which has been approved by the Board and will now be circulated to Members prior to his induction to the Club.  I expect a number of Members have already had a chance to meet Norm at recent meetings and will appreciate he has an interesting background as a barrister, educator with a wide range of other interests.

Each year at the May Board meeting the Directors review the Club administration expenses and discuss the level of annual membership fees required to cover the 2024-25 expenses.  Over the past three years the Club has been able to maintain the annual Member’s subscription at $395.

 The significant administration expenses for the Club are Rotary International, District 9800 and Clubrunner charges which have remained at the same level over the past few years and are expected to be held at a similar level in 2024-25.

In February Kooyong LTC increased their charges for in-person meetings to include a $200 per meeting room charge.  During our review of alternative venues, it was determined Kooyong was still the best option for Club meetings and the Club would absorb the room charge within administration expenses instead of increasing meeting charges.  In 2024-25 it is estimated the Kooyong room charge expense will be $4,400, the Board feel it is unreasonable to continue absorbing the full amount and have increased the Member’s subs by $50 to cover half of the room charge expense.

In summary the Board approved Member’s subscription for 2024-25 have been established at $445, Family and Country Member’s will be held at $100.

The Board also reviewed an issue which has come up over the past few months in relation to photos in our weekly Bulletin which are subject to copyright protection.  An organisation called PicRights have been able to run software over the internet and identify photos in our Club Bulletins which are subject to copyright and have charged the Club for their use.

To avoid the copyright issue on older versions of the Club Bulletin a Copyright Subcommittee comprising Ian Bentley, Dorothy Gilmour and Andrew Crockett has been working on removing any images in the Bulletin over the past six years which may be subject to copyright.

The Board have also looked at how we minimize copyright risk in the future and adopted the following recommendations for the Bulletin and public media releases.

1.    Images and other material published by the Club in the Bulletin and online should be:

a)    created by Club members (eg photos and articles); or

b)   originally from a Rotary approved source; or

c)    obtained from a royalty free source; or

d)   material that we have written permission to use.

2.    Cartoons and other comic material that includes photos and other images should no longer be published in the Club Bulletin unless they satisfy one of these criteria.

The Copyright Subcommittee have determined we can continue to include jokes in a written form within the Jesters section since these are not subject to copyright.

 As you will appreciate it was a very full May Board meeting.

Just a reminder CWA Boroondara have invited members to join them for an Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea event to raise funds for the Cancer Council on Saturday 25 May, from 10.30am – 12noon at Auburn Bowls Club, 2B Munro Street, Hawthorn East. The cost is $15 pp donation and will include a selection of morning tea items and coffee/tea.  RSVP: For catering purposes, please advise your total number of expected attendees, and any dietary requirements, by Sunday 12 May, to Sue Seymour on suecrockett@gmail.com

The annual Changeover Dinner is scheduled for Tuesday 4th June at Kooyong LTC starting at 6:30 pm.  It will be a fun filled evening with a few surprises, details and booking information will be included in this week’s Bulletin.

Footing tipping this week is still a three horse race with Richard in first Doug coming up second but Demons of Old a close third.

The next Club meeting is Tuesday May 21st at Kooyong and the guest speaker is Neil Cole.  Neil is a multi-award winning playwright and author who won the Aspire Award in 2017 from the Supreme Court of Victoria for his ground-breaking work on psychiatry in the theatre. He is also a former criminal lawyer, mental health advocate, former member of parliament and Alzheimer's researcher.  Neil’s latest book is titled: Trials and Tribulations In Community Law. 

I hope you can join us for Neil’s talk on a number of interesting topics.

Doug McLean

President 2023-2024