Welcoming Address By Incoming 2009/2010 President Barry Watts 

Fellow Rotarians and guests.

Thank you Pauline for your very kind words of introduction.

I also want to thank you for your assistance and advice as I prepared for this occasion and the Presidency.

I have also received considerable encouragement and support from many past presidents and others.

Pauline, on behalf of the Club I would also like to recognize the success you have had during the year which was the subject of many highlights as presented by your 2 Vice Presidents last week.

Congratulations on a great year and even though you were unable to participate fully due to illness you contributed enormously to the club’s achievements.

I would now like to present to you the Past Presidents badge and the bound set of Bulletins for your year which will give you some light reading as you now take greater control of your available time.

I would also ask Judy to present some flowers to you and as well we have a small gift ,which I know is not usual but I would like you to have a memento of appreciation as you have made significant personal sacrifices as President of this Club.

2009/2010 is, I know, going to be an exciting year for me but also I expect for the members of this great Club.

In my business career I learnt that preparation, knowledge of markets and the business but most importantly recognising you cannot achieve optimum results on your own are some of the important elements of success.

You need a great leadership team aligned towards clear goals to succeed so therefore allow me to introduce the board for 2009/10 .I will ask them to stand as I call their names.

Peter Rogers - VP Club Management and Fellowship

Austen Burleigh - VP Community Service

Barry Murphy - Club Secretary

Robert Read - Club Treasurer

Daryl Hawkey - Director Corporate Issues

Mary Barry - Director Fellowship

Leith Doody - Director Membership

Chris Knight - Director Communications

Jan Moffatt - Director Club Meetings

Trevor Nink - Director International Services

Malcolm Simpson - Director Vocational Services

Rob Helme - Director New Generations

Keith McNeill - Director Community Services ,

Phil Endersbee - President Elect for 2010/2011.

And whilst not a member of the Board allow me to introduce a key organiser and maybe a substantial fundraiser for our club in 2009/10 the Sergeant at Arms, Nick Pelham

Thank you, could I ask all of the Rotarians and guests present to acknowledge the team that will lead us through 2009/2010.

In this presentation I plan to cover 3 things:

·         our club theme for the year - “Making a Difference“

·         the theme for 2009/10 of Rotary International President Elect John Kenny -“The future of Rotary is in your hands“

·         and finally the key goals and projects, many of which are ongoing, that will be our focus in 2009/10

One of the roles I was privileged to have this year as President Elect was to chair the Horizons  Committee whose main task is to review or develop our Strategic Plan for the Club.

To do that we conducted a survey of our members to establish the health of our Club, identify our strengths and the issues concerning members.

We then developed a 3 year Strategic Plan which formed the base for our Annual Plan and its priorities for 2009/10.  This preparation, providing some important background knowledge, has been an important element for our focus on the future.

Let me now talk a little about “Making a Difference“ - our club theme for 2009/10.

We joined Rotary for a number of individual reasons one of which no doubt was fellowship which was also one of the key reasons Paul Harris and others started Rotary in Chicago.

Another reason for joining Rotary was probably that we wanted to make a difference to the disadvantaged and to the young so they could reach their potential and to many other people in need.

“Making a Difference“ is what we are all about, making a difference in our personal lives and the lives of others.

Therefore members should consider how they are making a difference not only in their active involvement in the Club but also how they can help the Club be more influential and successful in making a significant contribution to the welfare of the disadvantaged, the homeless, the elderly and the young.

Challenge the past and the normal programs within the Club, not necessarily to change them, but a constructive review could identify different approaches that may enable us to do things a little better and importantly also ensure more active participation of all members particularly newer members in fellowship, club committees and projects as we are making a difference .

An example of this is with the Police Mentoring Program.  I was present at the district conference in Tasmania in March when a presentation was made, at the end of which I asked myself how are we really making a significant difference to this senior police officer.  I recently received a request from District for us to participate in 2009/2010 so I asked our VP Elect Austen Burleigh to discuss with our participants and a newer member of the Club should we continue.

The discussion which took place on which I was copied highlighted some deficiencies and some constructive solutions and requirements of what should be a successful program.

This will now involve Inspectors rather than Assistant Commissioners with expectations and outcomes much clearer.  So now we can “make a real difference” after challenging the past and asking how can we improve our effectiveness. 

The theme of Rotary International President Elect John Kenny for 2009/10 is “The future of Rotary is in your hands “

This is a personal message to us all to make a difference not only in the way we enjoy Rotary through fellowship but to gain personal satisfaction from ensuring the club is successful with its projects and newer members are gaining the value they seek from Rotary by being encouraged by longer serving members to actively participate in committees, projects and our groups.

We want newer members to take leadership positions in these activities within 5 years of them joining so we can all benefit from the new ideas and perspective on projects such as water and sanitation for villages in the Pacific etc.

One valuable motivator, particularly for our newer members, is to read Owen Parnaby’s book “Australia’s First Rotary Club” which is a history of our Club available from our office.  It should be required reading as it describes the great achievements of this club in the past and provides the incentive to achieve great things in the future.  If you have not read the book recently I encourage you to do so.

The third area I want to cover is some of the more specific areas we will focus on in 2009/2010.

In our 3 year plan, which we have provided to all members, to ensure we are all aware of and aligned with our priorities and goals, we have also provided a reminder of the core values of Rotary:

-Service

-Integrity

-Leadership

-and Fellowship.

These values will be the key drivers of our performance.

We have also identified in the strategic plan a number of actions we can personally take in “Making a Difference”.

I won’t cover them all here but make sure you have read our plan, not that we are going to have a series of questions from Ian Ross but areas where you can contribute may be more obvious. 

These themes have provided the guidance for the 4 areas of key focus for our Club in 2009/10.

We actually have 6 priorities but these are the 4 most important.  Each of these 6 priorities has specific goals and action plans for directors and committees.

The 4 most important priorities are:

1. Optimise our capacity to provide service

2. Advance the recognition and public image of the Club

3. Sustain membership at around 300 and increase diversity

4. Develop and utilize the leadership experience and skills in the Club

1.Under our service objective we want to continue the great achievements of projects such as East Timor, Second Bite ,the Homeless ,which covers a wide range of issues, Donydji, which will be phasing down this year ,the elderly, the young ,and the disadvantaged, all of which were covered by the two VP’s last week.

We will be seeking to identify another large project for the future.

There are many other projects and activities we are involved in and awards we arrange but one thing becomes apparent in a club such as this, that so much is accomplished by committees and project champions.  Keep up the good work.

However we cannot do these things alone, so we will be seeking to develop strong partnerships with other stakeholders such as other service organisations including Rotary at all levels, government, particularly local government, corporates and international organisations also interested in some of the programs we consider important in the local, national and international communities where we seek to provide “Service Above Self“.

There are many other organisations trying to do the same as we do but we know our efforts will be more effective if we can partner with organisations such as the City of Melbourne, and  the Brotherhood of St Lawrence as we address problems such as the homeless.

We want to achieve a bigger bang for our buck and coordinating our efforts with others should help us achieve better results .this is not going to be an easy year for funding for anyone but we are confident we can find additional sources and partnerships that may make us more effective.

“Making a Difference” is not a simple task but will call on the passion of all our members to ensure we are successful over the next 12 months.

2. However one of our large tasks will be to ensure our projects, activities and our speakers are made known to the general public and our stakeholders through promotion.

We want to ensure our vision of being regarded as an energetic, dynamic service organisation delivering outstanding results to the community is recognised and encourages new members and supporters.

Performance measures have been given to the promotions committee to help ensure people and organisations outside our Club are made aware of our achievements which we hope will encourage more people to be members and supporters of our Club.

3. We want to sustain our membership at around 300 and review classifications to ensure we are diversifying into the most appropriate vocations in today’s environment.

We do not want just increased numbers, as history shows when that happens, we can have a poor retention rate and that is something we are targeting to improve.

4. Using our leadership capabilities in the Club is a key goal.  We have in the Club many members of great skill and passion which we want to ensure is being widely used to encourage and help members to participate actively in club fellowship and programs.

We want them to feel they are achieving their expectations of rotary and our Club but remember “the future of Rotary is in your hands “

The goals established in our plan will be the basis for committee objectives and actions, and regular reporting to the board by directors, not necessarily to change things we do successfully today even if they are not mentioned in the plan but to consider how we may do things a little better and achieve even greater satisfaction that we are making a difference.

 It is a great honour for me to lead this Club in 2009/10 and with the very motivated team we have assembled on the board and to lead the committees I believe we will have a very positive year

Barry Watts

ABOUT PRESIDENT BARRY WATTS