Co-Presidents report – 4 September, 2024

This week our guest and presenter was immediate past DG Ron Payne who shared his experiences of the time leading up to, and during, his term as our District Governor last Rotary year.  A lot of work for sure, by Ron and his wife Deb, and we thank them both most sincerely for their commitment to making our Rotary district as successful as it was during their tenure. Thank you very much Ron, and we hope you both thoroughly enjoyed your extremely important and supportive roles in Rotary.

Congratulations to Past Co-President Toni Carrington who was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship by Ron Payne during his visit.  Toni’s award is very well-deserved after almost 30 years of continuous Rotary membership and taking on many roles in 3 different clubs during that time.  It was great that her daughter, Gabrielle, and her husband Bill, were able to witness this happy event.

The next board meeting will be this Tuesday, 10 September, at 5pm, at the home of Co-President Adrian and Madeleine. The meeting can be accessed by any member via Zoom via the usual breakfast link in the bulletin.  Also, please consider nominating for president or co-president-elect for the 2025-2026 Rotary year.  It is not an onerous position, it has many rewards and you will receive plenty of support from the board and club members alike.

The opening of Bendigo Foodshare’s new food relief warehouse at 227 Breen St on Friday morning, 6^th September, was an excellent opportunity to observe the work that goes on behind the scenes in order to help feed our communities’ most vulnerable people.  A gathering of some 300-plus people were given a very warm welcome by the chair of Foodshare, Sue Clark, and politicians Maree Edwards and Lisa Chesters.  Mayor Andrea Metcalf was also fulsome in her praise for the staff, volunteers, generous businesses, tradespeople and members of the community who have worked extremely hard to bring this much –needed facility to fruition.  For those of us who have been to the previous warehouse in Havilah Rd, this large new facility is superb, and should fulfil the needs of the organisation for many years to come.  The site covers about 5 acres, and there are plans to develop it further so that fresh food can be grown there in the future.

We look forward to Stewart Annan’s working bee at Comet Hill Reserve this Sunday 8^th September at 9am to spread the donated mulch around the seedlings we planted a few weeks ago.  It will be great if you can assist.  It is not heavy work and it will not take too long with good teamwork.  A shovel, plastic tub and/or wheelbarrow, and some gloves will be helpful to do the job.  We hope to see you there.

Speaking of Stewart, we congratulate him and some members of his family for taking part in the Run for Dad event, which conducted at the Bendigo racecourse last Sunday.  This event was a fund-raiser for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, at the same time raising awareness of mens’ health generally.  Stewart running 8km and still living to tell the tale is an excellent achievement, we think …

The role of the DG is a 3-year journey. The most enjoyable part for me was the DG Elect year. I had to give a lot of thought to what my year would look like.
I reflected on what Rotary meant to me.
For my team and the members of all Rotary Clubs to be effective, we needed to empower the members of the teams.

For me, the 2023-2024 Priorities booklet was powerful. The purpose of this booklet was to give each Club a starting point and some guide posts to structure and planning for what we are doing. For my year, I didn’t want to be telling the Clubs what to do – I wanted the District team to provide support to the Clubs and members if they needed or wanted it.

I was also very conscious about the fact that we are a worldwide organization. We are all different, but there are things that underpin what we do. The 7 areas of focus bind us all together – both locally and internationally. I wasn’t going to tell Clubs what to do in those 7 areas of focus, but within those 7 areas of focus – that is your work, that is what binds us together and guides us in what we do. You decide what the needs of your community are, and we use the Rotary action plan for that consistent approach.

As a DG, I saw my role as providing a consistent message that you matter, your work matters and my job was to provide consistent support to all Clubs, link people up to support they wanted and link Clubs together for their projects.

Some of the really key work we do in Rotary is grounded around Foundation. In an organisation like Rotary, Foundation is critical - it is our bank, our charity and it binds us all together. To have a consistent approach and have it really well managed is vitally important.

The End Polio stuff is really important. We all know the story and it continues and with the current outbreak in GAZA we need to keep going, otherwise it could take off again.

One of the things I am really proud of is our RI fundraising contributions in this last year. Approximately $306,000US was donated from our District. The average for other Australian Districts is $160,000US. In terms of polio, our District gave $93,000US and the average for the other Australian Districts is $72,000US.

As part of what I was doing as DG, the club visits were so important to me. I was able to visit and speak at all 63 Clubs and say to all members that what you are doing is so important and your work is so valued.

Some of the highlights of the year for me were:

-the great work done in the metro area in programs such as DIK (a District wide project), Rotary Inner Melbourne Emergency Relief Network (RIMERN) and Western emergency Relief Network (WERN). These provide basic household goods for families or individuals in need of emergency support. Clubs are working together to provide this support.
I feel there is potential in Bendigo to do something similar. With all the Clubs in Bendigo we probably already do this in different, small ways. I am starting to think on a bigger scale – is there a way to bring all or some of our Clubs together to do an emergency relief network here, in a big rural community.

-there was a strong focus on Youth this year. We did some magnificent work with Youth in our District.

One of our success stories this year was getting a new Rotaract Club out of Melbourne Uni with 58 members. There is an opportunity to get another Rotaract Club out of Swinburne

Another highlight for me was the District Conference here in Bendigo. Thank you to your Club and the other Clubs in Bendigo for your support and contribution.

We are at a time vin Rotary now where we must continue to challenge each other to think differently. The old structures of Rotary are still serving us well but we also need to think outside the box. If we stay only with what we have got, we will continue to decline. So, lets think about how we might do our work. I believe one of the very basic ways is to get into community more – not to just give to community, but to work WITH community, so that we are working hand in hand with community groups.

In summary, Deb and I have had a wonderful year. It hasn’t been just one year – it has been more than that. We lived out of suitcases for 12 months and when those phone calls and emails stopped, I took a deep breath and now I will be going back into my own Club to keep the interest going. Remember – people can only give so much. Whether it be wealth, knowledge, time or experience. We all have resources to give and it is a matter of tapping into what people have. Remember – Rotarians are good people. You are all good people. We all make a difference.

I look back on my year really fondly and I am very grateful for the opportunity I had to do it.