This week let us focus close to home and discuss MEMBERSHIP of our Club. Presently we levy dues on our members’ of $120.00 to individuals and $175.00 to corporate members. RI , District and RDU charge our Club approximately $100.00 every 6 months. Accordingly the take home message is -> that our fees are low.
Your Board believes that all members of the Club should meet their obligations ie. paying levied dues. As part of that commitment, the Board follows up outstanding dues requesting payment. As a result of that process some pruning has occurred for a variety of reasons. Jennifer Locke, Rob Pennefather, Cyrille Ndongo-Keller, and Egmont Lademann have decided to resign. Shirley Lecking has resigned due to other commitments and Harold Sharp is transferring to Terrigal.
So where is this going? As a Rotary Club we have a membership problem – i.e. Member numbers are falling. The number of our active members is about 22.
How do we deal with this? Many varied suggestions are promoted in Rotary but despite this overall Rotarian numbers are still falling. In our Club, we have not had effective membership leadership for the past 2 years due to a lack of cohesive direction from the Board. Members who have assumed this portfolio have failed to follow through to address these matters.
Our new Board needs to deal with this as a matter of priority. The simplest way to gain new members is to recruit family, spouses and friends. Sure we wish to gain younger members to ensure Rotary continues but older members (50+) and retirees are still acceptable and integrate with the existing membership and keep the Club vibrant. Then we need to recruit the younger local business people being aware that young people today have different time constraints.
So that it is concern – let’s attack it head on and now.
Greg is Program Director with Road Safety Education Ltd based in Sydney. He works closely with Rotary Clubs, major sponsors and government agencies to promote continued growth of the RYDA road safety education program in Australia and New Zealand.
Greg has a background in sales and marketing that has included a range of senior management positions with multi-national corporations including Chevron, Abbott Laboratories and Sumitomo. He has been an active volunteer with the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) for many years including a role as the Deputy Controller of the Sydney Ku-ring-Gai SES unit with specific responsibility for Media and Community Engagement. Greg has been a member of Rotary for over ten years and is a Past President of the Rotary Club of St. Ives and a Past Assistant in Sydney Rotary District 9685.
Our guest speaker was Lisa Graham, CEO of Taldumande Youth Services.
Taldumande Youth services, based over the North Shore, focuses on vulnerable & homeless young people & families. Currently 420 young people are being supported in numerous locations from the Blue Mountains to the Northern beaches.
Accommodation services come in 5 areas – these being Crisis (7 beds), Semi-independent housing, supported independent housing, homeless youth assistance and young offenders joint support. In addition, non-accommodation services include Specialist homeless services support, Outreach program, Intensive family support and an Aftercare program with an open door policy. They are also on call afterhours. More details available at www.taldumande.org.au.
Lisa explained how the complexity of youth had increased dramatic in recent years, due to the Internet / social media and them maturing earlier than in the last century. Taldumande(meaning place of refugee) is young person centric, but ensures they do not become too dependent on them. 15% of the funding is private, and the focus for private funds is in the Intensive family support area, as it has the most benefit and is not funded by government. Results are significantly better with family support.
Lisa’s 25 years’ experience showed thru with a well organised presentation, and we look forward to getting involved with her organisation.
Mark Warr thanked Lisa on behalf of the club.
In Other News
Another successful Bunnings BBQ last Saturday. Thanks to all involved. Next one June 17th.
With great regret we announce the transfer of Harold Sharp to the Terrigal club. Harold will be at the Changeover night(July 3rd) for those wanting to wish him well
Bruce was presented with a certificate of appreciation for helping World Greatest Shave.
Peter accepted another certificate of appreciation for the club for it's donations to Rotary Health.
Tom reported on a very successful evening at his WICKED production raising $3000 for Peter Hojgaard-Olsen.
We were extremely happy to have 2 guests , Yumiko & Hiro Fukazawa from Japan.
Reminders
President Changeover night is Monday July 3rd - 6.30pm. Venue will be the Union Hotel.Cost per head is $40. Please respond to John Saunders e-mail request.
Greg is Program Director with Road Safety Education Ltd based in Sydney. He works closely with Rotary Clubs, major sponsors and government agencies to promote continued growth of the RYDA road safety education program in Australia and New Zealand.
Our guest speaker was 