Fellow Rotarians and guests,

May I start by saying thank you to Past President Barry for his kind words of introduction.

In taking on the role of President of this great Club one is quite quickly reminded of the wonderful history and tradition that has made the Club what it is today.  Part of that tradition is the support that one gets surrounded with as you embark on your preparation year, your year as President Elect.  This period of preparation could be very daunting, but for me, as I am sure it has been with others , was made that much easier because of the careful consideration, encouragement and support that Barry has given to me.  I would like to take this opportunity Barry, to say a very sincere thank you, for all that help in the broadest sense possible.

One only has to reflect back over the years and remember each of the Past Presidents.  I am sure as they embarked on their year they probably were all wondering what difference can they make but rest assured they all did and none more so that Barry.  Last week we were privileged to hear from Barry’s two Vice Presidents about all the projects that were accomplished during their year and if there is one thing that I will remember from that year it is Barry’s “corporate approach” to the way we think & our methodology of work.  Barry started the year with a survey of members to get a feel for our perceived strengths and weaknesses as well as members issues and concerns.  From this Barry along with his team developed a Strategic Plan for the next 3 years and then using this as a base set up the Clubs Annual Plan.  During the year the Club pursued a range of activities but all were built on this solid framework – this systematic approach is a great legacy for Barry.

Having said all this it is now incumbent upon me to present you with some mementos of your year and firstly may I present you with your Past President’s badge.  In addition, we have the bound set of bulletins for year 2009/2010 which will give you some light reading when you head north into the sun.  I would now like to ask Jane Endersbee and Judy Watts to come forward as Jane would like to make a presentation to Judy on behalf of all members for the considerable personal sacrifices that Judy has made in being such a great support for Barry during his year.

Barry, please stay up here for a moment longer.  A week ago I was working (volunteering) in Copenhagen for a children’s charity and I bought you a present – yes a special thank you for going that extra yard for me.  These Scandinavian countries are just the greatest when it comes to innovation & design – I hope one day we will learn from them.  Anyway, Barry loves a good red wine and this small gift will let him appreciate a good drop that much more.  Thank you Barry for your friendship & help.

Before I go on any further may I recall a short story about the famous US Newspaperman Will Rogers who was recounting advice from his father about making a speech, he said:

“son, stand up so all can see you, speak up so everyone can hear you and sit down so everyone will like you”.

Well, I have not started yet so please bear with me.

Let me now take this opportunity to set the scene for the year ahead.  One only has to look around us now post the GFC and have a look at some of the emerging issues and it is interesting to note that it is all about change which just tells me it is all about new opportunities.  Last Sunday we were at the District changeover for the swearing in of DG Iven McKay and I did note how Iven referred to comments by our RI President which I believe we all should note & that is – “we need to embrace change, it is not always popular but we need to be better, bigger and bolder”.  He then went on to say that “tradition is good but we need to embrace what is new”. I  will come back to these comments a bit later but in the meantime whilst we are thinking about Rotary International the theme for this year for RI is “Building Communities Bridging Continents”.

So if we have change and opportunities nothing will happen for us without a well structured Board.  May I now take a few moments to quickly introduce your team leaders, our Directors, for the year ahead. If the members could all please stand as I call their names.

Vice President – Club Management and Fellowship – Kevin Sheehan

Vice President - International – Trevor Nink

Secretary – Garry Fowler

Treasurer – Robert Read

President Elect – Austen Burleigh

Directors:

Corporate Issues – Peter Marfleet; Fellowship – Doug Marshall; Membership – Bernie McIntosh; Communications – Chris Knight; Club Meetings – Bev Brock; International Service – Kelton Dennis; Vocational Service – Malcolm Simpson; New Generations – Quin Scalzo; Community Services – Keith McNeil.

Could I now ask all Rotarians and their guests present to acknowledge the team for all being prepared to take up the challenge in front of them.

I would like to now outline some of my thoughts about how I see the year ahead and how I would like to see all of our members become involved.

Our Club theme for the year is “Participate and Enjoy”.

I say this because I do feel that it is so vitally important for the well being of the Club, it’s health barometer if you like, that every member is involved or more precisely does something of value. I readily acknowledge that we have some members that through age or ill health might struggle and they have a legitimate excuse.  It goes without saying that we will all be in the same shoes one day & we would like the Club to appreciate that when our time comes.  Nonetheless, I wish to make sure that everyone who can, is partaking, on at least one Committee and is interacting/doing/committing to one of our numerous and varied tasks in these Committees to make our Club the way we all want it to be during the year ahead.

In saying this I am also saying to the members if there is something you want to do or contribute to then please feel free to tap me on the shoulder & put your hand up particularly if you have a skill that you would love the Club use.  It is a bit like making sure we have the engineer working on the water project and not trying to do the Clubs accounts.

Over the last couple of months I have had a few come to me to say they want to take something meaningful on.  The first was Bev Brock who said I think a big white elephant sale or garage sale is something we should do.  She went on to say how many of us are down-sizing in houses and making lifestyle changes and have found the old adage – “you accumulate until you are 50 & then spend the rest of your life trying to give it away” holds true.  Well, Bev has started to tap a few on the shoulder and with Peter Jones weighing in I trust in the weeks ahead we will have a presentation from Bev on the roles we will all play as this idea comes to fruition around October.  This project I believe will be our first big fund raiser in the first half.

In a similar way Stephen Lake & Phil Bowley have said they would like to update our website & during the first week of July we should see what they have come up with.

In planning for the year I thought it would be great to have something special in each half.  In the first half it will be our Bev Brock fund raiser and in the second half it will be our 90^th birthday celebration and as such it will also be a celebration to mark 90 years of Rotary in Australia.  This event will be orchestrated by Peter Jones and will be a black tie gala dinner during April.  It goes without saying that we will be extending the invitation to all in our District as well as to the District Governors in Australia, the Presidents of all the capital city Clubs and the Presidents of our sister Clubs overseas.  I have asked, nothing confirmed yet, the Governor General , Her Excellency Quentin Bryce AO to be our guest speaker for the night and knowing what Peter Jones is capable of doing then I think it will be a night for all of us to remember and certainly not miss.

On the service side there are 2 key platforms that I wish to see us build on during the year.  We have started on these in Barry’s year and I have been working with President Elect Austen Burleigh so we can see them moving on into his year and these are “Homelessness in Melbourne” and “Future Vision”.

I often reflect on what Cliff Doctorman has to say.  This man is a great Rotarian and Past World President and he addressed us at the Conference in Canberra a few years back and he said in his talk, well if someone said to you what do Rotarians do?, what would you say?  In other words define a Rotarian in a couple of words. His response was “we do good in the community”.  It does sound simple but this is precisely what I want us to stay focused on and there is no better cause than to confront and do all we can to help the homeless and particular the homeless with disabilities.

Working on “homelessness” is something that hits the mark as described by Cliff and it is also an issue that overarches many of our projects and Committees.  We have an MOU with the Brotherhood where we will work on career mentoring for homeless people, we have the “street soccer” program and now we have the project with Homeground where we will be helping with the services provision for the new accommodation centre for disadvantaged homeless people in Elizabeth St.  This new building will be opening on the 10^th of August and we (our Club) have made a 3 year commitment to help with this project.

The other is Future Vision and this is the way Rotary International wish to help Clubs with their funding on collaborative international projects in the future.  In line with this I have asked that Vice President Trevor Nink start to think about what of our overseas projects our Club members can participate in during the second half of this new Rotary year.  I do feel it is vitally important that we have a hands-on project that we can prepare for and then go away and get our hands dirty building and putting together.  We should know more about this around August and then those who want to get involved can start planning for a good 10 day working holiday trip for a date in the second half of the year.

When it was first announced that I was to be the President Elect , Past President David Wittner came up to me and said he wanted a job or he had some good ideas about groups.  Not too sure which way round it was but my response was “I would love you to be the Captain of Groups” and David readily accepted.

I do believe that our Groups make the Club and when functioning well can bring out the best in all we do.  David has been working on his plans for many months and I do feel the Group Captains now have a good grasp on what is possible and how we will make this important part of our life in Rotary that much more relevant.

One of the things that has been highlighted through David’s deliberations is the influence that Committees like the “Arts” Committee and the “Let’s Go” Committee can have if embraced by the Groups.  We will be making sure from a Groups perspective that we are all getting involved with these good fun activities.  What we are trying to do here is build on our Club theme so that we get a good and clear understanding of when we are about fellowship and when we are about fundraising.  These Group activities are about fellowship and about us getting to know one another much better other than recognition that one could only describe as “looking first at ones badge before you say their name”.  We are all guilty of this so let’s see if we can all improve by doing a bit more together.

As we move through the year we will aim to make a few subtle changes.  One of the things I notice is that we have some great speakers who are members and we are all bowled over whenever we have the opportunity to have one present.  We will be seeing more of our members on the podium.  In saying this I also look forward to having either our Committee Chairs or Committee members presenting on what their Committee is up to.  It is amazing to hear what we are doing and unless our members are given the opportunity to present many of us have not got a clue what some of these Committees are doing.

There is no doubt as we work on trying to lift the tempo for our lunches it is important that all of us remain alert.  If needed let’s make sure we have those nana naps before we come to Rotary and not during someone’s address.  We should also make sure that we extend those common courtesies to our speakers and not talk whilst they are talking.  Just a couple of simple things but it can make all the difference to the way people remember us.  Our “brand” is important.

In closing, I would like to sum up how I believe the Club will be managed under my stewardship.

In many ways running the Club will be like campaigning a racing yacht or car.

My responsibility is to steer the Club, the VP’s (Kevin & Trevor) will drive it, the Secretary(Garry) and Treasurer(Robert) will administer it, the Directors will make sure it happens and the Committee Chairs with their Committees will just do it.

If we can all keep this philosophy in the back of our minds then the year should be plain sailing and hopefully a lot of fun for all.

It will be an absolute honour and a privilege for me to have both hands on the wheel and serve the Club to the best of my abilities during this Rotary year.

Thank you for your attention.

Philip Endersbee

President 2010/2011

 

 

 

 

In 1973 Philip joined Pacific Dunlop on a Management Cadetship and went on to complete a Bachelor of Business whilst working in the Sheridan manufacturing plant in Hobart.  Over the next 15 years he built and managed factories in Australia, Egypt and China.  

In 1989 he started his own manufacturing company in Australia, Wilderness Wear, of which he is still the Managing Director.  Philip also holds Directorships in Ace Investment Holdings and 3 Peaks Outdoor Gear.

In the mid 1980's Philip joined the Board of an AFL Club, “Fitzroy” to help in their restructure and subsequent move to Brisbane.  At the same time he joined the Board of Women's Cricket Australia to help in their restructure and merge with the Australian Cricket Board to become Cricket Australia.

In the 90's Philip became a Fellow of Leadership Victoria, trained as a bereavement councillor for Caritas Hospice, joined the Board of the Rotary Club of Melbourne and became a Director of The John T Reid Charitable Trusts.  Over the last 10 years Philip has added a Directorship for the East Timor Embassy building project and Deputy Chair of PLAN International Australia.  

Philip is heavily involved in sport and particular yachting and car racing where he has represented Australia in yachting on 3 occasions and has completed 6 Targa's in Tasmania.

Two of Philip"s father's friends and colleagues Barry Rawlings and John Thompson sponsored Phil into the Club and the only advice his father gave was when they ask you the key question the answer is YES.  After his first week in the Club he became the Minute Secretary and it has not stopped from there.

Married for 27 years, Philip and Jane have 3 children Richard 23, Sarah 22 and Claire 18.