Greetings fellow Rotarians,
I hope you have had a relaxing break from all things Rotary and are now feeling refreshed and ready for the year ahead. We will be welcoming our 2023 RYLA participants this month, seeing off three wonderful Youth Exchange students to Brazil and looking forward to our incoming students. DGE Christine has been to Orlando for her training and RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service) managers are heading off overseas in all directions to reconnect physically with their projects. So, it looks like things are on the move in 2023.
Speaking of RAWCS, I’d like to congratulate Jan Pryor, our District RAWCS Chair. International President Jennifer Jones chose two projects to visit in Nepal as part of her world trip gathering great stories about what Rotarians do, and one of those projects was Jan’s Didi Foundation. Considering the number of wonderful projects in Nepal, that is quite a feather in Jan’s and her team’s collective hats. Our District continues to lead the zone in the number of RAWCS projects, as well as Foundation projects. We have exemplary leaders in Jan, David Dean, Haran Ramachandran and the committees of The Rotary Foundation and RAWCS who work tirelessly to assist our members to achieve their goals. This is why it is important to continue giving some of our hard-earned dollars to our own programs and then use those stories of action to spread the word throughout our communities.
Over the next six months I will be meeting with clusters to encourage a critical look at their projects and see how we can leverage this often-unrecognised work to grow our membership. There are many clubs struggling with trying to continue their great work with fewer and fewer members and we all know that ‘elephant in the room’ will nudge us out the door if we ignore it.
I also want to remind clubs to think about preparing a great project story to go in the RDU magazine. It doesn’t need to be lengthy and it does need a photo or two showing action. Send your contribution to have to Marilyn Kenney.
My message to you all as I’ve continued on my official visits (wow, I sound like Her Majesty) has been based on providing a positive club experience for every one of your members. This includes empowering everyone to have an equal voice and to be respected and listened to. Jennifer Jones reminds us of this in her January message:
“People like me in Rotary leadership can offer all kinds of advice about how to make your club experience more valuable. But what’s most important is for everyone in every Rotary club to speak up and listen to one another. We should never be afraid to share with our fellow Rotary members what we expect to get out of our membership and have an open discussion about how to make that happen.”
Finally, our Cowra Conference planning is coming along extremely well and thanks to all those who managed to register before the end of December. For those of you who have still not registered please consider doing it as soon as possible. We have a great weekend planned but we need more of you to join us.
I’m going to leave you with a New Year message from Paul Harris, our founder. It’s over 100 years old and still has relevance today.
New Year Wishes form Paul Harris – 1916.
From an article titled, ‘The Future of Rotary’ published in The Rotarian. Harris concluded the short piece with these wishes for the new year.
“I wish you all of the prosperity which your good deeds merit.
May all things you ought to have, be yours.
May your charities rank among your necessary expenditures.
May you not fall into the popular error of thinking happiness is to be found in outdoing your neighbours.
May it always be yours to look beneath the veneer of life to the solid substance which lies beneath.
May you be builders, not mere climbers.
May you be able to appraise life’s blessings at their real worth.
May you be free to act in accordance with the dictates of your own conscience and good judgement.
May you not be slaves to meaningless customs, social or otherwise.
May you shun the groove followers.
May you have vision to discern the right and the health, strength and will to do it.
That is to say, I wish you a happy New Year”.
Shared on FB by Amrit Pal Singh, RC Chandigarh
31/12/2022
"The Club Buzz" is where you will find some exciting and relevant programs or events happening in our Clubs and in District 9685. 
The Club Hiking Stick Challenge - Raising funds for Australian Rotary Health
