Since our last update Christine and I attended the
DGE RI International Director’s Briefing Weekend in Parramatta, Sydney on 5-7
August. This weekend brings
together the 22 DGEs from Australia and 6 from New Zealand. It is the opportunity for networking,
meeting the staff at RDU and RI South Pacific and Philippines Office. It was also the opportunity to hear
about many of initiatives and programmes being run with support from Rotary
across Australia and New Zealand.
These included programmes such as Cure Kids, StarJam, Interplast,
Shelter Box, Disaster Aid Australia, project Cleft and ROMAC – just the tip of
the iceberg. What it brought home
to Christine and I was the vast number of humanitarian projects being supported
and run by Rotary. The challenge for
us in our DG year will be in deciding which of these very worthwhile projects
we should support.
It was also an opportunity to hear of Rotary
initiatives and future directions from RI Director Stuart Heal and his successor
John Boag. Stuart is also the head
of the RI Strategic Planning Group and is proposing a number of significant
changes in Rotary. It is clear
that positive change is in the wind and we need to start embracing that change
– more on this in a future report.
These changes will give us the opportunity to see how we can revitalise
clubs and make them more relevant and appealing to younger members.
Of particular benefit was the opportunity to meet
with other DGE’s and exchange ideas.
The NZ and Pacific Island DGEs were able to get together and start
planning our time at International Assembly and the entertainment presentation
we will need to give in January next year. Already we are forming a tight bond, no more evident than on
Saturday night when we supported the All Blacks to an excellent victory in
front of our Australian fellow DGE’s.
I also attended a training session on Rotary Club
Visioning with other members of our District. Club Visioning is a programme run by District for clubs to
facilitate them to consider their future direction and vision. About a quarter of the clubs in our
District have now run this programme with some very positive and startling
seeing them being re-vitalised.
PDG Howard Tong is now heading up the District PR
committee and I will be working with him and other committee members to look at
how we can better publicise Rotary activities across our District. Another interesting initiative we are
involved in across District is working with a small group carrying out training
of Rotary clubs on the use of Social Media such as Facebook. A pilot programme has been run with the
Rotary Club of Eastern Hutt and over the next few months it is hoped to roll
this programme out with other clubs.
We are currently appointing Assistant Governors and
developing our District Training Programme. More on this next month.
Graeme Blick
