My fellow Rotarians and friends of Rotary.

Living during a pandemic for the past twenty months has been challenging and at times uncertain. However, this moment has also propelled us to adopt methods that had existed, but were not as widely used until now, to stay engaged, undertake work and move forward. This included working remotely, studying online, having meetings online and even serving our community online.

The Rotary Club of Strathfield participates in many local and overseas projects by providing manpower, materials or funds. We do this because of the satisfaction we get from serving others and embracing humanity. Quoting our Rotary International President, Shekhar Mehta, "Service is the rent I pay for the space I occupy on this earth, and I want to be a good tenant of this earth."

We at the Rotary Club of Strathfield have just completed one month of our new year - 2021-22. Although most of our areas are under strict lockdown, we have had great attendance for our weekly zoom meetings with an average attendance of 28 members. Some members are going to be recognized for their 100% attendance at our next meeting. Our Club Service Director Arie Pappas will choose one lucky winner for a special price.

At the Community Service front, Director Rick Vosila has already commenced a few projects, such as:

• Cool room project for the St Paul's Church, Burwood Parish Pantry

• COVID-19 vaccination promotion program via social media

• GoFundMe online fundraising program for humanitarian projects

Under the leadership of International Service Director Roy Ellis, we are happy to announce that we have commenced working on a Global Grant Project. It will be under two Rotary International focus areas, "Disease Prevention & Treatment" and "Maternal & Child Health".

Our Vocational Service Director, Alexey Prokopenko, has been very busy with many projects and programs. He has already started working on the details of our new project, the IT Training Program for Indigenous Community and our annual event, the Police Officers Award Ceremony.

Ying Ho, our Youth Service Director, has already done much groundwork for the new year to continue with the great work done by our legendary late Peter Smith. Our 'Working with Children Check' (WWCC) specialist, Ed Dunlop, has had a great response from our members over the past 2 weeks with a few renewals and new checks, and our compliance has gone up. They were great results to see that 70% of the club and 100 % of our board are now WWCC compliant.

Our gratitude to all the members for their active participation and engagement. Our board members constantly work and lead our club despite all the unprecedented pandemics. Let's think about the various challenges our club faces to remain relevant to the community and to our members and what strategies and initiatives we need to embrace to address those issues.

Tough times don't last. Tough people do.

Yours in Rotary,

Thaya Ponnia