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From the Governor

Posted by John McKenzie

Already we are into August and the time has flown. Fayah and I have been busy with club visits and have reached the halfway point. It has been most enjoyable and has reinforced the power of Rotary to connect and change lives as our Rotary International President Mark Moloney has said.

All clubs visited so far have been conscious of increasing our reach by exploring ideas to encourage more people to join us in our clubs and service activities. A useful resource can be found at Rotary.org/flexibility which gives a range of ideas and tools to consider in making a club more attractive to new members.

It was a pleasure to be invited by the Rotary Club of Cowra to plant a tree at Europa Park, a tradition for all recent District Governors. We put on plenty of mulch so hopefully it will survive through the drought.

This District Newsletter/bulletin is for all our members, so if you have something you would like to promote or have a good story to tell about club activities or a project please let me know.

Rotary Drought Initiative

from Mike Whitehouse, Treasurer RAWCS

Rotary was requested by the Commonwealth Government to assist in the distribution of the $30 million, announced in October 2018 by the Prime Minister, for financial assistance to farming families impacted by the severe drought impacting Australia from FNQ to Victoria. This request came in recognition by the Government of the extraordinary effort by the RAWCS eight drought relief projects in distributing $2.4M of the $10.1M raised in the Channel Nine/ RAWCS/NFF appeal.

RAWCS received $6.5M of the $30M from the Drought Communities Support Initiative [DCSI], the balance being received by the Salvos and Vinnies.

In the period January to May 2019, these same RAWCS eight drought relief projects distributed grants to 3,405 drought impacted families. The logistics of identifying each of these families, assessing they met the criteria and delivering gift cards has been the greatest act of service by Rotary in Australia. Literally hundreds of individual Rotarians and so many Rotary clubs throughout the drought impacted area have given their best in this Rotary service. The mantra of “Wellbeing not Welfare” resonated as Rotarians visited farming families; “we care, how can we assist, accept gift cards for everyday items such food, fuel, farm supplies and come and join us, with other farming families, for a barbeque”. It was about addressing the issues of mental health resulting from prolonged drought.

Cost versus Value

Article by RC PDG John Prendergast

We regularly seem to hear the complaint that Rotary is too expensive, and that this cost is a deterrent to attracting new members.

So, what does Rotary cost us each year? I reckon about $1,680.32.

My Club subscriptions are a very low $200 per year – consciously kept low because we have a number of members on fixed incomes. We are able to have a low sub because every year we deliver telephone books around our city, and the funds we earn from that project are used to offset some of the costs of running our Club.

So, $200 a year doesn’t seem like a deterrent to attracting new members.

Was Trachoma Introduced to Australia?

Posted by Michael Milston on Apr 27, 2019

Some Rotarians asked this question

... read the response on the End Trachoma site

Stamping out Trachoma

Posted by Michael Milston on Apr 24, 2019

What a great response from Rotarians at the recent Griffith D9700 Conference

We were inundated with stamps from far and wide. There were collections and stamp albums, someone even included their love letters inside the envelopes! (No we didn't read them, and suggested they might like to keep the contents

)

Thanks to AG Elaine, these stamps will be taken to our contact in Melbourne who will prepare the stamps for sale.

YOU CAN HELP PREPARE THE STAMPS YOU SAVE. We have included a special guide to help prepare the stamps for sale.

Unfortunately Rtn Carrol, who did all this sorting and preparation out of love, has had to 'give up' that job due to family bereavement. We hope to have some good news about a replacement for Carrol, and will inform all Rotarians if and when it eventuates.

Thank you for helping to stamp out Trachoma, one lick at a time!