FROM THE R.I.
SOUTH PACIFIC & PHILIPPINES
OFFICE
with Manager Harley TarrantExtracted from the Rotary Downunder Magazine November 2003
The Rotary Foundation is the major vehicle whereby Rotary clubs and Rotarians are able to help people in need in developing countries and promote international understanding, goodwill and peace. As a result of the worldwide economic situation in recent years The Foundation has been forced to cut back on programs and this has caused some dissatisfaction among Rotarians. GSE has reverted to its original format of a program conducted over two years instead of one, there has been a moratorium on 3-H Grants and other changes have had to be made to programs to enable the money available to go around.
The Trustees of The Foundation have set a fundraising goal of US$100 per Rotarian by 2005. If we are serious about our Foundation, we as individual Rotarians need to support this goal. US$100 currently works out at around $3.00 per week in Australian dollars and just a little more in New Zealand dollars. For most of us, it is less than that as contributions through The Australian Rotary Foundation Trust or the New Zealand Charitable Trust are tax-deductible. I spend $12.00 per week on newspapers. If I bought 2 or 3 less each week, I’d have my US$100 for the year. Surely, that’s not a great sacrifice to make to help people much less fortunate than I am. I’m sure we could all make a similar small sacrifice that would make a tremendous difference to the The Foundation’s humanitarian work. Individual contributions are the key to a strong Foundation.
Classification of Retired Members: At its recent meeting the Board of RI clarified the position of retired persons who are inducted into a Rotary club. The Board decided that, “Retired persons being inducted into active membership in a Rotary club will use their former profession as their classification but this will not be counted towards the club’s limit of members in a single classification. The classification roster in a club shall not include retired Rotarians.”
