We are all too aware that across the developed world Rotary membership is in decline. At Hawthorn too, the problem of membership raising is a regular topic of discussion.
Last Thursday RI conducted a worldwide webinar on 'new' membership models and structures that clubs might adopt with the aim to build membership. In the very different world of 2018, traditional Rotary clubs have lost their appeal and are impractical for many younger business and professional leaders. What hasn't changed is the desire these young people have to volunteer and to do good in the world. Practical structures and engaging value propositions are needed to attract young people into Rotary. Lunchtime meetings appeal to a decreasing number of mostly self-employed people and retirees. Attendance at evening meetings, too, is difficult for many whose workdays extend beyond 7:00 pm. Together with time constraints, the cost of Rotary membership can be an inhibiting factor.
The webinar presenters suggested alternative membership categories such as family membership, corporate membership, associate membership, and 'friend of Rotary' membership. Most of the ideas suggested in the webinar have been considered by Hawthorn in the past and there was little discussed that was completely new. A point worth noting though is that all of the ideas suggested have been successfully implemented by clubs in different parts of the world. The problem, therefore, is not in the ideas themselves, but in their implementation. Perhaps it is worth seriously revisiting some of the ideas we have previously considered and dismissed.
We already have the 'Fifth Meeting of the Month' in place as an alternative to our lunchtime meetings. This is not a satellite club, or a different club but an integral part of Hawthorn Rotary and it needs the full support of the membership. It is a major plank in our strategy for ensuring the future of our club.
Given the time-poor nature of young people and their desire to engage in charitable works, project-oriented meetings are more attractive than our traditional meeting structure. We need to apply our minds to projects that new members can become involved in immediately they come to the club. The fellowship dimension of Rotary for young people arises out of working alongside others in the provision of community service.
I encourage members to enthusiastically support the 'Fifth Meeting' initiative and become actively engaged in identifying and planning projects to engage new members.
The unique and outstanding Angel Flight organisation was established by a Brisbane business man Bill Biristow in 2003.The headquarters are in Brisbane but the free service is Australia wide. Since then the organisation has grown rapidly.
Last year more than 23,000 flights had occurred since 2003 carrying passengers from remote outback areas needing urgent specialist medical and or counselling services which could only be provided in major city centres such as Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. They typically average 20 flights per day with volunteer drivers collecting patients and taking them to their destination from local airports such as Essendon & Moorabbin.
Our speaker Warren Sparrow (right, with Chairman Katrina Flinn) gave several examples of how the service works and why it has been so successful: a Child from Balranald in NSW was air lifted to Essendon Airport by a volunteer pilot and then taken to Monash Hospital by one of 400 volunteer drivers such as Warren.The success of the service is the saving of time from the patient's home to where they need to go. A trip from outback Queensland to Brisbane could take days whereas a flight can have the patient to their destination in just hours.
The request to receive this service comes from a local GP who is registered with Angel Flights. The costs to provide this free service to patients comes from private corporations there is no government funding. Outback communities who have appreciated this service raise funds and donations received include; The Birdsville Races and the Stony Creek Mini Muster which raised $21,000 last year.The biggest expense about 85% of total costs is aviation fuel and associated aviation costs. The registered owner pilots provide their service free of charge.
The founder Bill Bristow was made Queensland Australian of the year 2005 and received an Order of Australia in 2009.
Posted by PDG John Prendergast - RC of Invercargill South
As we well know, the first Rotary Club was formed when Paul Harris called together a meeting of three business acquaintances in downtown Chicago, at his friend Gustave Loehr's office on February 23, 1905. In addition to Harris and Loehr, Silvester Schiele and Hiram E. Shorey were the other two who attended this first meeting. The members chose the name Rotary because initially they rotated weekly club meetings around each other's offices.
Gustavus Loehr, Sylvester Schiele, Hiram Shorey and Paul Harris
Within a year though, the Chicago club had become so large it became necessary to adopt the practice of a regular meeting place. And for the next 112 years, that’s pretty much what we as Rotarians have been doing – meeting every week at the same venue, and generally using the same meeting format each week.
So, what happened to the Rotary in Rotary? How come we became fixed to one meeting spot? Perhaps we should more appropriately be called Stationary, rather than Rotary?
Doesn’t quite have the same ring about it though, does it.
Rotarian Mark Huddleston often says that we’ve become a very meeting-centric organisation – and he’s exactly right. Many of us know of Rotary Clubs (not our own Club of course) whose main purpose and main activity seems to be to hold the weekly meeting. Mark has estimated that we spend perhaps as much as 75% of the valuable time we invest in Rotary attending our weekly Club meetings. So, in many cases we’ve become social clubs, rather than service clubs. Nothing wrong with being social, but if that’s all that we’re achieving then I think we have a problem. Rotary’s recently-adopted vision statement tells us that. Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.
If we’re spending three quarters of our Rotary time enjoying dinner, being fined by the sergeant, and listening to a guest speaker, then chances are that we’re not as actively engaged in pursuit of Rotary’s vision as we perhaps could be.
So, what to do? The 2016 Council on Legislation gave Rotary Clubs the mandate to change things up a bit – it’s no longer compulsory to meet every week, doing work on projects can constitute a meeting, and there isn’t the same emphasis on attendance that there once was – a Rotarian’s level of engagement is much more important than just turning up to a meeting every week.
Post the 2016 Council on Legislation, we’re increasingly seeing Clubs changing the way they operate, and they’re finding as a result that they’re getting much more out of their Rotary experience. Many Clubs now are holding “traditional” meetings perhaps twice a month, and then in the weeks when they’re not having a traditional meeting they’re getting up to all sorts of things – perhaps spending their time on a project, or visiting a member’s workplace (shades of Rotary 1905 all over again), or visiting projects that they’ve been asked to donate money to, thus getting a first-hand view of the project and the people involved, rather than remotely writing a cheque.
Not only do these excursions create added interest for members, thus helping to retain their interest and therefore their membership, and lead to more time and energy being placed on projects rather than meetings, but they also afford priceless marketing opportunities for the Club – rather than being sequestered away having dinner in an invisible restaurant or hotel, by getting out and about people actually see Rotarians in action. And they might quite like to join us.
Photo:- Bernard “Barney” Arntzen referees and Harry Ruggles watches as Paul Harris and Montague “Monty” Bear pretend to have a boxing match during a reunion of the earliest members of the first Rotary Club, held at Harris’ home on Longwood Drive in Chicago, 1942
Do you know a suitable applicant who can attend an international university to study Peace and Conflict Resolution?
Our Rotary District 9800 continues to select some amazing young people to study Peace and Conflict Resolution. Applications are now open for the 2019-2020 year.
There are suitable applicants in our community - it is just a matter of asking them.
Click HERE to access the PDF which gives you all the relevant details.
Cheryl Pisterman (for Rob Helme) Rotary District 9800 Foundation Committee
While some people are always struggling to get their job finished on time, The Shadow considers himself as fortunate as Santa Claus, who has all those little elfin helpers. Our thanks go to Noel Halford, Lawrence Reddaway, Charlotte England and Ian Macfarlane, who have all submitted reports on assorted events this Rotary year. That’s the nature of a club, of course, everybody mucks in and helps.
And the helpers are appreciated, of course, as The Shadow noted at the DIK Xmas lunch for the Volunteers. Store Manager Laurie Fisher was generous in thanking them, and he expressed pride in beating his predecessor Bill Dagg’s record: Laurie said it took Bill seven years to become a grumpy old man, and he (Laurie) had achieved the same result in only four years. He also noted that the store’s output had increased by 70% over the previous year: a fantastic result by all.
In proposing a toast to Laurie, DG Bronwyn Stephens agreed that he was a grumpy old man, but at least he is OUR grumpy old man! And one of the unsung heroes of Rotary.
The Shadow remembers everything – even from 4 and 5 years ago. So the lunch address about Angel Flights reminded The Shadow that Fiona Reddaway, living in Bright and suffering Stage 4 Stomach Cancer (‘treatable but not curable’), was helped on several occasions by Angel Flights to fly from the grass air strip at Porepunkah to Essendon Airport, and thence to treatment at the Austin Hospital. And, of course, home again. One problem was to avoid using the airstrip when there might be dew on the grass! The advantage was just one hour of uncomfortable travel by air, rather than four hours of uncomfortable travel by road. Peter-the-Pilot became (and remains) a family friend of the Brandon family.
The Shadow knows how hard Noel Halford works in our club: he is currently seeking help to fill the car-parking roster for the Kooyong Classic Tennis Tournament on 8th to 10th January. This is one of our major fund-raisers, and we can't do community projects without the funds.
So please give Noel a call on 0419 018 901 or e-mail noelhalford@gmail.com and tell him you can give a few hours.
Rotary Boroondara Christmas Luncheon. 15-16th December
We are now entering our twelfth year and once again we are inviting you to support us through volunteering to make this a memorable day for our guests.
There are many in our community who may not have the opportunity to celebrate Christmas and the joy it brings without your involvement.
We welcome younger members of our caring Boroondara community to participate but due to Child Protection regulations, they must be in the company of a parent or teacher at all times.
Please notify noelhalford@gmail.com showing your name, the names any of your friends and in the case of minors, the name of the responsible parent accompanying them.
We expect to have up 250 guests from a range of community groups and other local citizens.
Kim D'Arcy always seeks to finalize numbers by Monday 8.30am by collating responses about attendance at the next meeting. So please try to email back to her by that time; and, at the same time, forewarn of any guests. (Predicting our numbers as closely as possible helps to minimize our catering costs.) kimcco@tpg.com.au
Geoff Wright collates the attendance information. He needs to know of "make up " events. geoffbwright@bigpond.com
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f young people and their desire to engage in charitable works, project-oriented meetings are more attractive than our traditional meeting structure. We need to apply our minds to projects that new members can become involved in immediately they come to the club. The fellowship dimension of Rotary for young people arises out of working alongside others in the provision of community service.
Last year more than 23,000 flights had occurred since 2003 carrying passengers from remote outback areas needing urgent specialist medical and or counselling services which could only be provided in major city centres such as Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. They typically average 20 flights per day with volunteer drivers collecting patients and taking them to their destination from local airports such as Essendon & Moorabbin.
under Bill Bristow was made Queensland Australian of the year 2005 and received an Order of Australia in 2009.
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While some people are always struggling to get their job finished on time, The Shadow considers himself as fortunate as Santa Claus, who has all those little elfin helpers. Our thanks go to Noel Halford, Lawrence Reddaway, Charlotte England and Ian Macfarlane, who have all submitted reports on assorted events this Rotary year. That’s the nature of a club, of course, everybody mucks in and helps.
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