31st July - Industry visit to Tram Depot - See info below.
10th August - DIK open day (see link below)
25th August - Federation Picnic BBQ at Marong Malone Park
1st Sept - Run for Dad Bendigo, Bendigo Racecourse.
19th October - Rotary Ramble social day, Save the Date, more info closer to the date.
1 - 5 May 2025 Barham Weekend
Phone 5453 2553 to book a site/cabin and say you are from Rotary.
Co-President's report
Co-Presidents report – 24 July, 2024
Our guest speaker this week was PDG Grant Hocking, accompanied by partner Melissa. Given that we are looking at how we can enhance our club membership to optimise our service to the community, we thank them for sharing the very positive experiences of their Rotary Club in Woodend, and the information that Grant has further made available for us.
The Futures Committee greatly appreciate these resources as a guide for action.
There will be a free training session on ‘Lessons in Disaster’ on Sunday, 18 August 2024 from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm at the California Gully Mechanics Institute Hall, 12 School Street, California Gully. A minimum of 12 participants are needed. See the flyer further on in the Bulletin for more information on the session and how to book.
It looks like the weather will be great for tree planting at Comet Hill Reserve, next to Lightning Reef PS, this Sunday, 28th July, which is National Tree Planting Day. The Australia-wide event is promoted on the websites of Planet Ark and the City of Greater Bendigo.
It won’t be just our members in attendance, as other people in the community have indicated they will be attending. This should be a great opportunity for promoting Rotary. The event is scheduled to run from 10am until noon. For those attending, please bring a bucket, trowel, a hammer or mallet, and gloves. A hot drink and morning tea will be provided.
Next week, our meeting will be an industry visit to the Tramways Depot, at the usual time of 7am for 7.30am. This should be most interesting, as we will get to see the newly developed depot and learn of Bendigo Heritage Attractions plans for the future of this Bendigo icon. We thank Jim Rolfe for putting this visit together for us. We are wondering if Chris Purton will be wearing his conductors’ uniform on the day …
The trip to Donations In Kind warehouse will be on 10 August, and you would have seen our ClubRunner email a few days ago in relation to this. We look forward to the tour to see for ourselves what is available so that we can better serve local, regional and international communities. The tour will be at least 30 minutes or so in duration, and lunch will be provided for us.
Co-presidents Ray Carrington and Adrian Schoo
Guest Speaker - PDG Grant Hocking
Grant is a former DG and member of the Woodend Rotary Club. He outlined for members the journey taken by the club in firstly reviewing its vision and secondly using the data to increase membership. Although Bendigo Sandhurst has above average membership and we are recognised as an active club it is a long time since we have undertaken a review and visioning process. There is no doubt in Grant's mind that a thorough process of consultation leading to a well documented plan forms the basis for the work clubs need to undertake in attracting new members.
The critical questions in a visioning process are: "Where are we now and where do we want to be in five years time?" It is critical that visioning precedes planning (the how or what needs to be done) in order for the club to arrive at where it wants to be in five years time. The monitoring of the plan needs to be a consistent agenda item for board meetings. It was noted that there were strong parallels between the approach outlined by Mark Anderson last November and what Grant was suggesting. Grant outlined the elements of a comprehensive survey designed to seek feedback from current members.
On completing the visioning process Woodend Rotary drew on the suggestions outlined in the document "101 Strategies for Recruitment and Retention" to begin a plan to increase club membership. Grant noted that there was considerable ":buy in" from members after an initial working party shared its ideas about recruitment. There was an even greater groundswell of support as members explored strategies to ensure retention. Grant shared a number of documents which have been developed or referred to during the journey. One which was particular useful is entitled "Being a Vital Rotary Club."
Grant emphasised the importance which marketing plays in being a successful Rotary Club. Woodend has developed business cards, a brochure and has made some significant improvements to its signage. Stan noted what a good website Woodend has. Advertising is now included in the bulletin. This provides an ongoing link with the community and is financially advantageous. Grant has offered his support to the Club as we begin to undertake the visioning process and explore ways to attract more members. We thank him for his very engaging presentation and for taking the time to join with us.
Scribe: Jim Rolfe
Industry Visit - Wednesday July 31st
The next Industry visit will be to the Tram Depot, one Tramway Avenue (Corner of Hargreaves Street), on Wednesday July 31st. The tour and talk will be for 45 minutes commencing at 7.30AM, normal meeting time.
Whilst it is only five years since the Club's last visit there are considerable developments at the depot which will be of interest to members.
Please wear flat enclosed shoes.
Members are invited for breakfast after the tour in the tram restaurant at the front of the depot. The Breaky and Brunch menu includes:
Bacon and Egg Breaky Roll- $14.50
Ham and Cheese Croissant- $9
Ham, Cheese and Tomato Croissant- $9.50
Caprese Breakfast Croissant (veg)- $9
Ham and Cheese Toastie- $9
Ham, Cheese and Tomato Toastie- $9.50
Cheese and Tomato Toastie (veg)- $8.50
Partners and family members are most welcome to join us for the tour.
Please contact Jim (0407554263) if you have any queries.
Please keep Saturday 10 August 2024 from 10:00am available to attend the 2024 Open Day. Come to see this fantastic Rotary Community and Environmental project and see all our skills and strengths.
Be part of the celebrations for DIK’s 700th export container.
Registrations for this event are now available. RSVP to Adrian at the next meeting. If you wish to make your own way there, the DIK website has a registration link.
The Donations In Kind (DIK) July Update is now out
There are some interesting facts in the Update on the projects that are being supported for the work of DIK and the Rotary Clubs involved in making the projects happen.
The project locations include Africa, Maldives, Central Aust, and Bendigo.
For more information on the project click on the link below to read the DIK July Update.
The weather was kind to us for our planting project at Comet Hill Nature Reserve on Sunday morning. It was cold but dry, following a fair bit of rain on Saturday.
We had a good roll-up of 31 green- fingered volunteers (16 Rotarians and 15 from the general public). Consequently, we comfortably planted, guarded and watered our target of 400 seedings within the planned time. Save for any disasters, most of the seedlings should flourish as we move into some warmer spring weather in the coming months.
Thanks to all involved, and in particular to our resident horticultural guru, Phil Britton.
The 400 seedlings were funded through a $500 grant from Planet Arc and were purchased locally from Neanger Nursery. The seedlings are all native shrubs rather than trees and comprise a mixture of different varieties of acacia, callistemon and saltbush.
Long-term, our Club’s Environment Committee wants to tidy up the reserve, remove non-native plants and in-fill with native plants endemic to the region. This will improve the habitat for native birds and small native animals, frogs and insect species and provide an area for the Lightning Reef school to use for nature studies.
Stew Annan
Another great day at the Reclink footy match
Paul H and Chris P serve up a well-earned snag to hungry players post-match. The players also received some of the clothing from the DIK program.
Over the past couple of months under the leadership of Graeme Lynas and John Cannon a small team of Bendigo Sandhurst Rotarians have been collecting clothing from DiK in West Footscray, and bringing it to Bendigo for distribution to groups within our community. The clothing being distributed is new product that has been donated by businesses to DiK, which isn't suitable for retail.
Below some new arrivals to Bendigo's Karen community receive clothing.
Lessons in Disaster - Upcoming Training 18th August
The above event is being hosted by the RC of Bendigo South, for more details see the flyer below or clip on the button below to go to the website listed in the flyer.
This time of the year we see many of our members leave Bendigo to visit many places within Australia or around the world. It would be great to hear about their adventures when they return, but in the meantime a selfie at a local attraction on your trip would be greatly appreciated. WHO is Next??
I know there are a number of members out and about at the moment so please contribute a photo by emailing it to bulletin@rcobs.com.au.
A different slant on our roving Rotarians this week again with a mystery photo from Rob Rosaia. Where Am I??
