President Jim's update to Club members in respect of matters currently outstanding.
 
Hi All,
 
As you are all aware I have been traveling for quite a while and have not been at Rotary much. I want to thank you all for your patience and helping out with meetings and other responsibilities.
Seeing our meetings currently are book sorting and next Monday is our Xmas Party, I want to touch base with you all to update you and to seek opinions on some matters.
 
Last Friday was busy attending volunteer functions. 
Kokoda Youth Program held a breakfast at Mercure Hotel to thank the many sponsors and to celebrate the successes of the participants. Freda and I attended on behalf of our club. The morning reinforced what a valuable program this is and was a great way to see the scope and size of the program.
I suggest we get Andy Britton and Matt back in the New Year to present to the club. We can hear from Matt on his thoughts, see the video Freda and I saw and again hear Andy’s message.
I suggest we commit to this program in an ongoing way. 
 
Barwon Health Volunteers Party was held on Friday night in the Captains Room at Simmonds Stadium. Our club was invited as the major sponsor and I represented our club. I met many of the volunteers who drive the cars we funded and they were all so appreciative of our generosity. I was overwhelmed by the thanks showed to our Rotary Club from the CEO and Chair of the board right through to all the volunteers. The only pity was not having all our club members there to see how grateful everyone is.
I would like to suggest we invite Zoe Waters (director of volunteer services) and the volunteer drivers to a meeting next year so we can hear first-hand the benefits our donations are having. I think this meeting could be informal so the drives could mingle with the members to tell of their experiences.
Again, I suggest we look at what ongoing support of this program could look like. This also could be a great multi Geelong region club project. I am meeting with Zoe this Friday to get a summary of the program since we have had the cars up and running.
 
Torquay Book Fair. As you all know by now, we have been able to agree to jointly hold a book fair in Torquay with The Rotary Club of Torquay in late January. This has all come about as a result of discussions I had earlier this year with the then President Elect Amanda Hough. Make no mistake, this is a joint project and not a project run by RCT with our stock of books. Michael Clyne has begun the discussions and arrangements with his equivalent at their club (Rhonda). Michael and I will be meeting with Rhonda next Monday. The Fair will be held on the last weekend of January Sat 23rd - Mon 25th in the local Scout Hall. The dates and venue have been chosen as the best options available. Torquay will provide people power for the event through their own membership as well as the Torquay Probus Club. We will obviously provide the books to a quantity agreed to. Transport of books will be carried out by Zippy. Advertising and PR will be worked out by Theresa and Daryl (Theresa has a pretty good blueprint now) and will be adapted to fit a coastal town on holidays. All costs will be met by the proceeds of the Book Fair. Proceeds after costs will be split between the 2 clubs. The % still to be worked out but will be something like 25% us 75% RCT. I will be discussing this with Amanda within the next week. A review will take place after the Fair to determine what worked and what didn't which will hopefully give us a platform to plan for the next one.
 
Newstart. On the same night we heard from Andy Britton and Matt about the Kokoda Program we heard from Grant Rau from Newstart. The feedback from club members was that Newstart should be something we get involved in on an ongoing basis. I will be following this up in the next week or so as well so we have something more concrete to discuss next year when we meet about funding.
 
Foundation. We had presentation planned for 16th Nov with the district rep for Foundation to present to us. Unfortunately something went wrong with the details and Peter Simons didn’t appear. Looking back through my records, I probably should have contacted him to confirm. However, I still think it a worthwhile idea to get Peter along with Lorraine to present to us next year. I will email him to see what his schedule looks like.
 
Diversitat. After holding our meeting out at the North Geelong hub, feedback from some members is that there could be something worthwhile to come from some form of alliance. I am seeking another meeting with the head of Diversitat, Michael Martinez to further these discussions to see what this might look like. Again with a view to presenting back to the board for consideration. To let you know where my thoughts are. I see Diversitat being able to provide person power for us in times when we need some help, book sorting, set up of book fair etc. I also want to explore what we might be able to do with Pakofest and perhaps finding a way Diversitat might be able to sell 2nd hand books on an ongoing basis. This could be a fund raiser for both organisations. In return Diversitat is looking for funding for their projects. I want us to understand more about those and what that looks like.
 
Membership. After our last board meeting, Trish and I met with DG Jane Cox and AG Kathy Ryan. The purpose of the meeting was to get an insight into problems/strategies other clubs have around membership. They had some really good positive ideas. Since that meeting Trish has met with Michael and Theresa about forming a new membership drive/retention policy/strategy. These are all really positive moves. Next year we hope to really crank this area up and we will be asking the whole club to get proactive.
Survey. Michael has put out a survey to the members and those results are being collated. Theresa facilitated at our AGM/ club assembly night and those comments are also being collated. Again we will be able to use the opinions/thoughts good and bad of our members to help with our deliberations going forward.
 
PE. Isn’t it great to welcome Marie onto the board and in particular welcoming here as our PE. As everyone has already said, I think Marie is going to make a wonderful President and she will be able to clean up the rubble I leave behind. Thanks Marie. Marie and I will work together so we have a seamless transition of thought and direction.
  
Trivia Night/Fellowship. Another trivia night looks like being held next April/May. Freda is working on venue/dates/format and news will be published when it comes to hand. The fellowship team is also looking at other nights out/ functions to get us enjoying some relaxing and good times. I’m sure any constructive ideas will be gladly received. 
 
Please send me back feedback/comments on what I have outlined above. Also, let me know anything else you want us to concentrate on.
I hope to be able to get a few of these things sorted and ideas formatted for when we return next year so we can hit the ground running.
 
Cheers
Jim