Club Management & Fellowship Vice President’s Report 2009-2010

Vice President, Club Management & Fellowship - Peter Rogers

I am the Vice-President responsible for Club Management and Fellowship.  As I touch on each area of my portfolio, I will ask the relevant director to stand, wave and accept our thanks.

MEMBERSHIP – Director, Leith Doody (now on Leave of Absence in Jakarta)

Bernie McIntosh is the Membership Director for the coming year and has attended Board meetings since Director Leith Doody was transferred to Jakarta with Austrade in February.  Membership is the lifeblood of the Club.  Without a healthy Membership there is not enough resource for the Club to complete its projects.  Many voluntary organisations have found it difficult to maintain their strength during the ‘Global Financial Crisis’ (GFC).  I can report that our Membership position today is exactly the same as it was one year ago.  With today’s induction we stand at 299 members including our Honorary Members.  We actually grew our paid up members this year as our honorary numbers fell slightly.  An induction next week will bring our end year numbers to 300 which is our target.

The Membership Committees are: Membership Development, chaired by Michael Selth, which works on keeping the flow of members up; Membership Involvement chaired by John Shaw, which aims to get new members engaged in the Club and to retain them, and Membership Review chaired by Past President Pauline Burren assisted by Peter McCall, which gives the final imprimatur to prospective new members before they are approved by the Board.  These Committees have worked hard this year and to very good effect.  An emphasis this year has been to increase diversity of our Membership, and I am pleased to report that we have had some success with this initiative which has included a slight increase in the number of women members.

We took an initiative to Rotary International to introduce a third category of Membership – Corporate Membership. At a vote held in Chicago earlier this year; this received one third support from Districts around the world.  Not enough for implementation.

COMMUNICATIONS – Director, Chris Knight

Chris Knight is the Director, Communications, and, has brought some innovations to Rotary this year.  Perhaps most noticeably the SMS messages are a new method of communication which have been sent weekly to members with mobile phones with the dual intention to increase the number of members and guests at lunch and to provide another form of communicating information to members.

Some members have found attendance more difficult this year in the GFC environment, and the Club responded with increased communication to assist Members.  Ron Cullen found this particularly helpful when he was in Europe earlier this year and the SMS message arrived at 3am!

Communications effectively covers three Committees this year. 

Club Archives – Chairman John Kendall

As in previous years this committee under the stewardship of John Kendall has provided invaluable assistance to President Barry, Jo at the Rotary office and others on the past history of the Club and individual members.  Both individually and collectively they access an enormous body of knowledge often on short notice in preparing summaries of past and current members.  It is greatly appreciated. 

Club Information - Chairman George Koczkar

This committee has been responsible for the weekly production of the Club's Bulletin, the annual Directory, briefings to Club members on the full range of Club and Rotary International activities, the Club's photography needs and in the last part of this year the weekly SMS messages to members.  All of which have been achieved with a minimum of fuss.  Special recognition should go to John Tozer for his outstanding contribution as the Club's ‘Master’ photographer, to Kevin Simkiss for his attention to detail, perseverance and ultimate success in getting the Club's 2009/2010 Directory published and distributed and finally Anna MacDonald.  Anna assumed the responsibility of Editor of the Club's weekly Bulletin after the long reign of Alistair Urquhart - significant shoes to fill without the benefit of those ‘red socks’ and has made a significant contribution.  In 2010-2011 Peter McCall is taking that role.  I'm sure that Peter will appreciate all the assistance members can provide so please feel free to contact him with any ‘scoops’.

Promoting Rotary - Chairman to early December 2009 Mike Flavel and since Chris Knight

Work commitments forced Mike Flavel to relinquish his Chairmanship of the Committee and Chris Knight took over this role during the year. Many press releases have been prepared and distributed to various media outlets with several being picked up for feature stories.  The most successful being the Rotary International Award presented to Mev Connell.  The incoming Chairman for this committee is Ralph Roath and he would encourage and appreciate any member wanting to join the committee to contact him.

Website - Chairman Phil Bowley

During this year there have been continuous improvements to the Club's website and the use of the website to convey information to Club Members.  Also special recognition needs to be given to the Committee's management of the Club's membership database in this the first year of the new system.  Their work in this area is critical in the updating, assembling and presentation of members information in to the production of the Club's Directory.  Among other highlights were:

• experienced a continuation of the healthy growth in member usage of, and outside “hits” on, our website which now averages approximately 5,000 per month;
• fine-tuned the member database function within the website and very actively utilised this for management of the Club’s affairs/communications and the administration of the membership development process;
• continued to effectively utilise the survey functionality of the website to gather vital views and information from members;
• undertaken a website ‘Audience Analysis’ to determine current and future user needs for our website;
• undertaken an experimental redesign of the Member Central Home Page of the website to improve the user experience and facilitate easier access to the material contained in the members section;
• changed our domain and email host service to improve the delivery of emails to the Club and the more effective distribution of emails to office bearers;
• commissioned our website service provider to upgrade and refresh the front end look and functionality of our website in time for the start of the next Rotary year.

FELLOWSHIP – Director, Mary Barry

Club Groups and Member Support - Captain of Groups Cynthia Edgell

Over the past 12 months the main area of activity under the Director of Fellowship with the support of the Captain of Groups Cynthia Edgell and all Group Captains was the review of the Club’s Groups to ensure members had the best opportunity to enjoy Fellowship opportunities and get to know each other better.

Restructure of City Group: Following a number of meetings of Group Captains, a survey of members and a review of Groups it was agreed that City Group will be disbanded from 1 July 2010 and be replaced with 3 smaller Groups - Northern, Western and Central 2.

It was also agreed that to be effective the optimal size of Groups in the future should be no more than 20 members.

Choosing your Group: To assist all RCM members determine which Group will best suit them a Group Profile outlining the number of meetings/activities held each year, the type of activities, level of involvement of partners etc was developed and placed on the web site.  All RCM members were invited to nominate which Group they would like to belong to in the future.

Group Captains: It was acknowledged that the role of Group Captain is a very demanding but very important role.  To assist Group Captains perform their roles effectively a Groups Manual area has been put on the website containing:

·         Explanation of the role of Groups/context in RCM.

·         Role of the Group Captain

·         Organisation/geographical boundaries

·         Optimal size per group

·         New member allocation

Issues for next 12 months: During the next 12 months the issue of Groups larger than optimal size (especially Bayside and Hawthorn-Kew) will need to be addressed by the Captain of Groups.

Whole of Club Fundraising activities: It was also strongly recommended by all current Group Captains that the dates of the two annual whole of Club fundraising dinners/events be determined early in the new financial year and provided to Group Captains to enable them schedule these events as Group activities in the year ahead.  If Groups choose not to include as Group activities, Group Captains can alert members to the dates of the fundraising activities to enable members determine if they wish to attend outside of their planned Group activities. 

On to Conference – Bob Glindemann

24 Rotarians and partners travelled to WA for the pre conference tour to Margaret River to be joined subsequently by another member for the conference as well as the Club’s Exchange Student and Group Study Exchange team member at the Club Dinner.  The pre tour trip was a huge success and included three days of visits to a variety of locations with Wineries high on the agenda.  The most important aspect of the pre tours was great fellowship.  The conference provided a very interesting and excellent array of guest speakers.  The Club dinner on the Friday night was also a great success.  All in all, a most successful and enjoyable activity for all concerned.

Interclub Visits - Bruce Davidson

The following Inter Club visits were planned:

·         October 2009 – RC Collingwood and RC Docklands

·         March 2010 – RC North Balwyn

·         May 2010 – RC North Melbourne

CORPORATE ISSUES – Director, Daryl Hawkey

The Corporate Issues Directorate includes the Public Issues, Acclaim Awards and Fundraising committees.

The Public Issues Committee – Colin Neave

This Committee considered matters concerning in a number of areas including:

·         Indigenous Australians;

·         through its Environment Sub-Committee, generated a report entitled “What is needed to deliver a successful Rotary Club International Water Project” and in so doing, developed a template for the development of reports which could lead to Rotary projects; and

·         street violence in the City of Melbourne which led to having Police Chief Commissioner, Simon Overland, and Liquor Licensing Commissioner, Sue McClellan, speak at a meeting of the Club.

The Committee also considered issues such as:

·         homeless people accessing Social Security benefits; and

·         the City of Melbourne 1200 buildings project, which had as its objective minimal environmental impact within the City of Melbourne.  

Fund Raising – Peter Jones

The vitally important Fundraising Committee was Chaired by Peter Jones.  He has been involved with a number of fundraising or fundraising/fellowship activities during the year.  These included two Club Dinners, the wine sales, AFL Premiership lunch and the Cup Day lunch.  Wine sales were again run very successfully by Alan Trumble.  Overall we finished up ahead of last year.  Please show your appreciation for the work of Daryl and his Committees this year.

CLUB MEETINGS – Director, Jan Moffatt

The Program and the Set up for Meetings is at the Heart of our Club. Our venue – the Windsor Hotel - is first rate.  A great deal of work goes on each week.  I would like to pay tribute to Greg Romanes and the Program Committee.  Whenever we bring guests they are impressed by the standard of our speakers.  The Lunch Organisation Committee with its chair Murray Campbell works tirelessly, and our long-standing Music Team of Barry Rawlings and David Kram, add much to the cultural life of this Club.  The Reception Desk led by Debra Yin Foo provides a cheery greeting to us all and has been a model of efficiency.  Our Sergeant at Arms, Nick, has set new records in imposing fines in the nicest possible way.

Finally I mention in the Club meetings context, because that is when we all see her each week, our Office Manager, Jo Mavros.  Jo helps many of us on a daily basis as if we are the only person she has to support.  She is always cheerful, efficient, and positive.  She makes the Club work. Please thank Jan and her team.

Acclaim Awards Ltd – Peter Marfleet, Robin Reid, Peter Rogers, Directors

Acclaim Awards Ltd is a joint venture with the Rotary Club of Cheltenham and assists gifted Australian opera singers achieve their capability.  It is an extension of our Arts Committee and Vocational Service activity.  This year we are introducing new awards.  There will be two main prizes offered in conjunction with Pergolesi Foundation based Jesi, Italy.  Each prize will consist of a professional performance contract in a Fondazione Pergolesi-Spontini production in 2011.  This will continue to fulfil our vision of providing international experience to talented young singers.

Our new awards also include The Hon. John Harber-Phillips Fellowship. This Award is named after the former Chief Justice of Victoria who was a Patron of Acclaim.  We are making this award for the first time.

I would like to ask the Chief Justice’s widow Helen Phillips to step forward to make the inaugural award to 23 year old baritone Kristian Gregory.

That concludes my report on Club Management and Fellowship activities for the year.  Thank you to all members of Club Management and Fellowship Committees.  It has been a privilege to work this year with President Barry and the Board.

Peter Rogers

Vice President

23^rd June 2010