From the President
Hello Club Members
THE GOLF CLUB VENUE ASSESSMENT
I think the new arrangements for the Golf Club lunch went well.
1) the meals mainly came out before the speaker
2)We had a greater variety of food
3)The screen was clear and maybe we should get a microphone set up next time
4)The coffees did not come out before most of us left but we will from now on get the plates taken away before the speaker and the coffee orders can be taken then
5)The view is great and we converse with more people in the square formation.
So, the arrangement of ordering at the bar before you come to the Meeting room seems to work well and we will have more funds to cover our Membership fee at the end of the year.
Please comment on any other improvements that you think could be made.
Please note we will meet at the Mercure, corner Ainslie and Limestone Avenues, this week, to hear from Phil Domaschenz of the Nusa Tenggara Association. We are not able to use the Golf Club because we had not booked early enough. We are booked in at the Golf Club for the following two lunch meetings, on the 5th and the 19th of September.
GROWTH WORKSHOP ON THE 25TH OF AUGUST FOR THE CAPITAL REGIONAL SOUTH.
I attended the Growth Workshop run by Tara Pullen to discuss ways to grow our Club Membership. Firstly, we identified our population profile in Canberra and even though Government employment is prominent only 20% of the population works for Government enterprises. We are highly multicultural and many people have high incomes from two bread winners in the family. This tends to mean many people say under 50 find it difficult to put the time into Charity work and engagement in Rotary.
In Zone 8 we have lost a Net 11,000 Members across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. However, this is a less rapid decline than other World Zones.
The Growth Project is one of two Zone experiments to see how Rotary International can grow in the future. The Capital Region South has twelve Clubs including Cooma and Bombala.
The Burley Griffin Club has had a net decline of over 12 Members since 2020/21 which is over a 30% drop in Membership.
Limitations to Members joining were isolated as the cost of Membership, the time commitment and maintain the motivation of the current Membership.
No easy solutions were made on how to recruit new Members apart from creating a higher Profile with the Projects we do at our Clubs. Some suggestions were
- Food stalls in local markets
- Recycling Mobile phones as gifts to women in violent relationships
- Preparing personal hygiene and clothing kits for women fleeing domestic violence
- Wrapping Xmas gifts for children in care
- Painting Floriade Gnomes
If anyone has any better ideas I would like to hear them.
MERGER PROJECT WITH THE MURRUMBIDGEE AND THE SUNRISE CLUB
After our Growth Meeting members of the two other clubs and myself met to discuss the Club Merger Plans. The basic options are:
1)One or two clubs hand in their Charter and Members join other Clubs as they wish, or
2)The three clubs hand in their Charter and a new Charter is drawn up for the New Club. The Murrumbidgee Club did this when their two Clubs Merged.
We agreed to put together a Proposal of what we want for our Club activities, Meeting times and Places and other objectives. I think if we are to engage in this process we need to gauge how much change we want to undertake? My view is that I send out an email to get this feedback.
Yours in Rotary
Russell Dew, President
Last week’s meeting: The Poachers’ Legacy
