Stories
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Zone 8 Regionalisation Pilot Information UpdateYou are invited to attend a one-hour information session and receive an update on the Zone 8 Regionalisation Pilot. We would like to update you on what has happened since the vote and the next steps. Moving forward, the goal remains to establish a Regional Governance structure to transform Rotary and Rotaract in our region to better support Clubs to provide relevant and engaging experiences that serve our communities and enable us to grow. This session will kick-off a series of regular communication that will enable you to be kept up to date and informed throughout the next period of the pilot. With time zones and work schedules in mind, we will host three different sessions for you:
The host for the webinar will be Rotary International Director Jessie Harman. Presenters will be Co-Chairs PDG Ingrid Waugh and PDG Peter Frueh. Questions will be asked through the Q&A function and will be moderated by Rotary International staff. In the meantime, we invite you to visit our website, which will continue to have the latest updates creatingtomorrowrotary.org. PLEASE CLICK ONE OF THE DATES ABOVE TO REGISTER. * Content will be the same in each webinar; you only need to attend one that best suits your schedule. Sincerely, Regionalisation Pilot Project Team Co-chairs Ingrid Waugh (NZ/Oceania) and Peter Frueh (Australia) |
2023 - Melbourne Convention Special Registration FeeA special registration fee of US$425 will be available between the 4th and 8th June 2022 (USA CDT). Registration information will be available on from the 4th of June on the Rotary International Convention web site. The fee will increase to US$475 on the 9th June 2022, so be quick to get the special rate. Keen to volunteer, from the 9th of June 2022 you'll be able to sign-up on the Host Organising Committee's (HOC) website. See the attached flyer for additional information. |
How to take photos which enhance our Public ImageRhys Martin – Creative Director / Photographer, Rotary Down Under will be presenting to the Zone on Sunday the 29th of May at 2:00PM AEST, 4:00PM NZT For more details and to register click the image.  |
The Mobile AmbassadorsThe Public Image Committee's Barry Antees will be presenting to the Zone on Sunday the 1st May at 12:00PM AEST and 2:00PM NZT For more details and to register click the image.  |
Pedal power drives passion for Polio fundraising across the Nullarbor Tasmanian Rotarians Phil and Joyce Ogden are about to mount their tandem bicycle and stage an epic fundraiser to support Rotary’s END POLIO NOW campaign. With thirty years of tandem cycling behind them, they plan to leave Perth in mid May and ride the 2,750 km to Adelaide to support Rotary’s premier world project – with the support of their South Launceston Rotary Club. They have been Rotarians for over ten years and have been passionate supporters and donors since first hearing of the END POLIO NOW campaign. A retired anaesthetist, Phil has witnessed first hand the terrible legacy of the Polio epidemic of the fifties and the ongoing threat to children of the world until the Rotary inspired campaign worked its magic over the last 30 plus years. |
Public Relations Resources |
People of ActionThe Public Image Committee's Roslyn Teirney will be presenting to the Zone on Sunday the 27th March at 12:00PM AEDT and 2:00PM NZT For more details and to register click the image.  |
Rotary Foundation Launches New Site in Australia The Rotary Foundation has launched a new local site to give Zone 8 Rotarians a great resource to better understand the Rotary Foundation its goals and ambitions. Click the following link and explore the new site and all it has to offer Zone 8 Rotarians. |
2021 GETS / GNTSThe Governor Elect Training Seminar (GETS) and the Governor Nominee Training Seminar (GNTS) have a tentative date of 17-19 November 2021. Participants will be contacted by their Training Leaders as information comes to hand. Questions regarding the programme please contact Tony Monley.
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Zone 8 Conference Registration is Closed |
Showcasing the Wonderful Impact of Rotary – Zone 8 Virtual Conference 2021 To celebrate our Centenary, this year’s Zone 8 conference is all about sharing the wonderful impact of Rotary. It will take place on 11 & 12 September.There are some great reasons to attend this year’s event:
The 2021 event is virtual with a flexible two-day program designed to inspire and energise you. The event will have all the best elements of the face to face conference – you can listen to great speakers, ask questions, network with Rotarians friends (old and new) and choose the sessions you want to attend – all from the comfort of your home or in a shared space with other Rotarians and friends. This event will bring together the best of Rotary in one place over one weekend, running on both days from 11.30 – 1.00 pm AEST. Registrations open 5th July 2021. |
2021 Zone 8 Conference
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Humanity in Action - The BookDon't forget to order your copy of 'Humanity in Action - Celebrating 100 years of Rotary Clubs in Australia and its near island neighbours'. This is a 400 page hard cover book to mark the centenary of Rotary in Australia. Numbers are limited and can be ordered via the following form. Great book to give new Rotarians or Rotarians celebrating a milestone in Rotary.  |
Polio Update Dear friends,Welcome to 2021 and the task of maintaining the impetus of our END POLIO NOW campaign – in the face of the ongoing struggle with COVID-19. To this end, I thought there was no better way to get our thoughts and plans in unison then to invite RI Past Vice President Mike McGovern, Chair of RI’s Polio Plus Committee, to provide a special message (click here to access) to inspire us all to renew our commitment to the demise of Polio by way of focus on promotion and fund raising within our Rotary clubs and districts – and the public arena – between now and June 30. Mike highlights the fact that our PolioPlus network has been fully engaged in providing surveillance to keep the coronavirus pandemic in check during 2020 but never once took our eyes off the task of eradicating polio! Please take time to read the message – you will be inspired! |
Gold Coast's First Corporate Club The Rotary Club of Gold Coast Corporate in D9640 recently chartered in October, made up entirely of corporate members. The club, one of the first of its kind in our region, has 27 senior corporate leaders from over 14 international and national companies, with 5 more members wanting to join since chartering. The club has over 60% women and 40% are under 40 years of age.The club’s champion, DG Andy Rajapakse (photo insert on the left), tells us what the value proposition was for corporate members when starting the club: ‘My message was simple. Rotary gives a trusted platform to implement their corporate purpose to be a good corporate citizen. Today's customers will ask what your corporate purpose is before making their purchase choice. And it worked!’
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Membership and marketing: Two sides of the same coin Many of you will associate me with the membership roles I’ve held in Rotary. Yet in my professional life, outside Rotary, much of my career has focused on marketing and communications. For almost a decade, I taught Marketing Principles to undergraduate and postgraduate students at University. Later, when I moved into University management, I put those principles into practice - marketing the University’s programs to business, government and international students. |
Membership Engagement & Retention The Current SituationIf we look at our District 9800, we have 65 Rotary clubs. This is down from the 67 of five years ago, and our membership has also declined from around 2,400 to 2,100 in that time, an average of about five members a club, or one per club per year. This is a long-term trend across all Districts in Australia and much of the developed world, but what would it take for us to have a net increase of two each year per club, rather than a decline of one? |
Welcoming LGBTQ+ Communities As I have started to share my ideas, opinions and stories about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender diverse, and queer and questioning (LGBTQ+) inclusion in Rotary, I have heard so many of our leaders say to me “We’re a really decent club/district. We don’t have any bad people. So, we don’t have a problem. Right?”, “why Rotary is doing something so political” and “there are no gay people in my community”. |
Connecting to the Media How to talk to your local pressEvery person or organisation has a story to tell which will interest the media. We need to increase public awareness and understanding of Rotary to set the stage for membership growth, fundraising and collaboration. Rotary members are actively working to improve communities around the world and have so much to share with an external audience so they can learn about Rotary and also hopefully join in our efforts. The positive news is that media needs stories now more than ever - journalists require fresh information to plug into websites, papers, radio slots and television slots. Time zones and printing schedules don’t limit the media anymore and most news outlets have a 24-hour news cycle to meet the growing demand to deliver news as it happens. The challenge is to package and present stories in a way that will get them covered by media. |
Young Rotarian & Rotaractor Eeshwar Rajagopalan Wins RI Appointment Western Australian Rotaractor and Rotarian Eeshwar Rajagopalan has been appointed to the Rotary International Membership Committee for 2020-23.Eeshwar is a member of the Rotaract Club of South Perth and the Rotary Club of Elizabeth Quay. He is currently the District Rotaract Representative for Districts 9455 and 9465 and Youth Director for District 9455. Professionally, Eeshwar is an engineering consultant, assisting in the development of real-time monitoring systems and operator training simulators for major hazard facilities, principally for the international oil and gas industry. |
Membership Satisfaction: What Image Does Your Membership Portray Some 40 years ago I started training people – people entrusted their life in my hands. I was a partner in a successful independent SCUBA training facility; teaching four days a week from basic SCUBA to, night, deep, wreck and cave diving. Offering professionalism and quality, people wanted more from us, we were entrusted to teach a Westpac Rescue crew and Police Rescue members to dive.This taught me to reach our level of success as trainers, we had to invest to be the best, exhibiting competence from initial contact to classroom training and in-water skill development. |
Rotary Zone 8 Virtual Conference - 2020 The Zone 8 Virtual Conference has been a great success and we'd like to thank all our speakers for their invaluable input. The feedback has been very encouraging which indicates we are on the right track. The speakers sessions have now been moved to our YouTube channel and can viewed by clicking the following link Rotary Zone 8 Virtual Conference 2020
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Should Rotary Clubs Change Their Business Model Post COVID-19 With shutdowns, border closures and social distancing all businesses have had to look at their business models and come up with solutions to trade profitably in the new environment.Regretfully many won’t find solutions and will close. What about Rotary? Can we survive if our members face ongoing unemployment or substantially reduced retirement incomes? Social distancing and border closures will continue for years’ ahead without a vaccine. There is no guarantee of a vaccine and this is the fourth SARS type virus in the last 20 years. |
Rotary in the time of COVID-19While we continue to practice social distancing to ensure the health and well-being of our families
and communities, it’s important to ensure our members stay engaged in Rotary during this extraordinary time. |
Bushfire Relief Update Rotarians all across Australia have been profoundly saddened and touched by the bushfires that ravaged our country over the past summer claiming lives, destroying many homes and decimating thousands of hectares of bushland. |
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Regional Membership UpdateArticle by Barbara Mifsud, Regional Membership Officer, Membership Development, South Pacific and Philippines Office, barbara.mifsud@rotary.org, https://www.facebook.com/barbara.mifsud.Membership Experience Feedback Survey Results Why do people join Rotary? What makes them stay in their club and what makes them leave? Rotary conducts the Membership Experience Feedback survey every year to better understand the needs, interests and engagement of our members. However, this survey goes well beyond just asking members if they like their clubs and how satisfied they are. In the last iteration, we also asked about club flexibility, areas of focus and other causes, local vs. global service, hands-on vs. financial contributions and leadership growth. The most recent survey also offers insight on prospective, current and former members that can differ by region. |
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For most of us it has now been over five weeks of isolation and in most cases isolation from your normal Rotary activities. How have we coped without regular face to face meetings, unable to do traditional community service or fund-raising activities? Are we looking after our members in these difficult and in some case tragic times?
We are certainly in unchartered waters as the Rotary world comes to grip with the affect that Coronavirus is having on our Clubs and our activities.
I think back to when I joined Rotary in 1994, I was 32 years old. At that time, I had just moved back to Maitland after a 10-year hiatus in Sydney. I had started a small business and was keen to become involved in the local community. I was invited to attend our local traditional club.