3
September
2003
Good
evening fellows and guests.
Last
Friday night I attended the District Governor’s President’s Meeting at
Penrith Panthers accompanied by President Elect Keith Byrne. The District
Governor uses these meetings to provide face to face communication with
Presidents within his District.
The
main topics covered included:
There was a presentation on the guidelines and the District is serious
about following a code of practice and has developed guidelines for
clubs to follow in all Rotary programs which involve children including
exchange students. All club members, involved in activities were there
will be contact with children, are required to sign a declaration which
will then be forwarded to the District Child Protection Officer for
record purposes.
PDG
John Wakefield spoke briefly about recent media coverage, on ABC radio
PM program which referred to a claim by an Australian women who was an
exchange student in 1967 and alleges she was sexually abused by the
Rotary host father. The women was critical of Rotary for its lack of
action in her case reported during the last 3-4 years and claimed the
Rotary exchange student program was in danger. John is the appointed RI
spokesperson in Australia on the matter and Rotarians are requested not
to make any public comment about the matter.
The
District Insurance Officer spoke of the new arrangements this year
including increase in excess amounts, exclusions in some policies and
the public liability “Certificate of Currency” requirement for all
participants of an activity other than volunteers. The things we need to
be aware of is the need to perform a risk assessment of all activities
that we undertake. The excess on any public liability claim is $5,000.
The maximum cover under the Fidelity policy is $15,000, reduced from
$100,000.
Department of Gaming & Racing – “Best Practice Guidelines for Charitable
Organisations”
This is a 210-page “Best Practice” publication of what we need to be
aware of in order to comply with the law in relation to fund raising
activities.
We
were told about the need to increase membership and given a target of 1
new member per month.
In
addition to hearing about the need for new members we were also told
about the need to development and maintain existing members. We were
told of the statistic that 50% of all new members leave Rotary within 3
years.
We
heard about the plans being made for the District Conference at the
Central Coast Leagues Club at Gosford 19/20/21 March 2004. The structure
of the program will be:
Friday night, Youth presentation concluding at 9.30 p.m.
Saturday morning will relate to the Rotary program. Saturday afternoon
will be free. A cruise has been arranged in the afternoon for those
who are interested.
Two
members from Holroyd, the host club, will attend our meeting on 17
September to inform us in more detail about the conference.
A
new concept introduced by RI President Jonathan Marjiyagbe this year is
to be known as the Family of Rotary.
The
Family of Rotary is a concept drawing from membership retention
strategies, being based on Club and Community Service, designed to
encourage Rotarians and clubs to care for the Family of Rotary. This
family includes current and past Rotarians, spouses and children of
Rotary members and spouses and children of deceased Rotary members.
Don’t
forget the Golf Club has advised us there are 3 dates over the next few
months on which the Golf Club will not be available for our meeting, 10th
of September, 19th November and 10th December 2003. As a result we will be
required to make alternative arrangements for our meeting location on
those dates.
Our
scheduled guest speaker for the 10th of September is Jacqueline Booth from
the Northcott Society. Therefore the meeting on 10th September will be a
transfer meeting to the Northcott Society, located at 2 Grose Street North
Parramatta. I will circulate a commitment sheet this week and partners are
welcome to attend.
I
have to advise, that Rod McDougall’s father passed away last week and on
behalf of the members of the Club I offer condolences to Rod and his
family.
A
reminder to those members, who have still not paid their dues, due on 1
July 2003. I suggest you attend to this matter urgently if you wish to
avoid proposed action that may cause you some embarrassment.
Also,
don’t forget to consider opportunities to invite visitors to our meetings
who may be potential members.
Have
a good week
Keith
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