We wish to acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional owners of this land
– the Aboriginal people past and present.
It is upon their ancestral lands where we are today.
As we share our knowledge, Rotary practices and ideas, through this newsletter and all of our activities, may we also pay respect to the knowledge embedded forever within the Aboriginal Custodianship of Country.
For years, Susanne and I hosted many Rotary Youth Exchange students in our home. This program was an entry point to Rotary for me, and my heart is truly in it. When Rotary’s exchange programs were suspended because of COVID-19 to keep students and families safe, we felt sorry, especially for the participants, because those years cannot be repeated. Because of the many uncertainties of the pandemic, the Rotary Board has decided to suspend in-person exchanges through June 2022. As we look ahead with hope, we thank Youth Exchange officers, host families, and volunteers for their contributions in years past, and we encourage districts to offer virtual exchanges as a way of connecting students around the world with each other and with our communities.
An unavoidable rearrangement will need to be made to the District Calendar for this year. The Presidents' Lunch meeting which is being held this Saturday, 22nd May, had previously been advertised as the Awards Presentation for 2020-2021 as well. Due to unavoidable constraints for some Clubs in the District, and the District itself, the Awards Presentation will now be held at the Changeover luncheon on Sunday, 4th July. The arrangements for the luncheon this Saturday remain otherwise unchanged.
President Mary Crammond (the Rotary Club of Terrigal) is exceedingly thrilled to announce that she has arranged for Ravi Ravindran (her hero from his articles in a Rotary Down Under) to speak on Zoom during Terrigal’s meeting on the 20th May.
"We believe that we are really privileged to have Ravi talking to us. It would be sensational to have members from each club in our district to attend" Mary said.
The meeting is on Thursday, 20th May 2021. The Club meets at 6 for 6.30 dinner and Mary will be asking local Clubs Erina and Kincumber to join the meeting in person. The Zoom meeting will start at 7.00 when Ravi will join us and Mary has invited every Rotarian in our district to attend. More details will follow with information about the link, and any other final details about this evening.
Please RSVP to President Mary ASAP at marycrammond@gmail.com ASAP so that broadcasting or Zoom Meeting details can be prepared.
The Changeover will be upon us quite soon as our year races by. Time to register for the lunch gathering. Due to current restrictions, there are limited numbers who can attend, so it would be better to register now if you have not done so.
An Important Message About the Changeover from District Secretary, Pamela Noal
Dear respected fellow Rotarians and good friends through the years,
Please note that the well established essential Changeover Committee of 6 Rotarians has again met in planning the D9685 Changeover event to be held at Castle Hill RSL auditorium on Sunday, 4th July 2021 for a lunch to become a celebration with many distinguished guests through our Rotary journey in this most challenging year. Indeed, our Rotary Centenary Year!
COVID-19 Government and Medical bulletins continue to update our Rotary planning events with observations of global advice and learning of difficult present devastating news we are hearing from India. It is within utmost respect that the Changeover 2021-2022 committee have unanimously decided that, out of true respect to India, our sincere, ongoing support from our Global friends in reaching out, we will no longer have the District Changeover theme " Bollywood. " .
THE REPLACEMENT D9685 CHANGEOVER 2021-2022theme will most respectfully become "colourful" with table decorations remaining a colourful theme.
Thank you all for your understanding of the changes related to our most important events and the links that we continually, respectfully, share globally. On behalf of the D9685 2021 - 2022 Changeover team, I offer my assistance in all future enquiries in the ongoing planning of this wonderful Annual event in our Rotary calendar.
The next three parts of the District Assembly, Parts E, F and G, are being held on Sunday, 23rd May
Part E is for Community Service Directors on Clubs' Incoming Boards, 9.00 am to 10.00 am.
Part F is for Vocational Service Directors on Clubs' Incoming Boards, 10.45 am to 11.45 am.
Part G is for International Service Directors on Clubs' Incoming Boards, 12.30 to 1.25 pm.
The Zoom link for these Seminars is being sent out to all concerned on Friday 21st May - one link for all of the sessions on Sunday 23rd.
If you have not registered for the remaining sessions of the District Assembly, the link to do so is below.
Please do not leave it to Sunday morning to register. More than 30 people registered for the Foundation session on the morning of the session. This caused a problem with the capacity for the meeting being exceeded unexpectedly. This problem was rectified within a few minutes, however, your help is sought to avoid this problem. Register before Sunday morning.
2. YOUTH PROTECTION UPDATE AND REMINDER FOR VERIFICATION OFFICERS - NEWS FROM THE OFFICE OF CHILDREN’S GUARDIAN
YOUTH Week is celebrated in New South Wales in April, and there are always a number of activities planned by the Office of Children’s Guardian. To view the activities planned you can visit their website.
More importantly this is a reminder that during this Rotary year, the Audit team from the Office of the Children’s Guardian have been in contact with every organisation in New South Wales that has any involvement with children under the age of 18 years, including every Rotary Club in New South Wales.
Needless to say, they did find some clubs who had not been following procedures relating to the recording of the Working With Children check details.
Fortunately for those clubs and organisations, the OCG has granted an AMNESTY UNTILL THE30THJUNE 2021 for those clubs and organisations to get their paper work in order.
At the closing of the Amnesty period, any breach on the rules will result in a $10,000.00 fine.
Please ask your Verification Officer and any other board member with responsibility in the area of Youth to ensure your club is registered as an “employer” and all records are up to date ad more importantly, in line with the requirements of the Office of the Children’s Guardian.
If you have any questions, please contact me on 0418411449
John Wakefield OAM
PDG 2002-3 – District Youth Protection Officer.
3. Focus Area - The Environment
Rotary International has adopted ‘Protecting the Environment’ as the new Area of Focus. So you are invited to the Australia/New Zealand zoom Launch of this new Area on Friday, 4th June – the day before World Environment Day – at 6pm AEST/UTC+10. The launch will feature PRIP Ian Riseley and PDG Juliet Riseley, Dr Roger Blakeley from Wellington NZ and Prof Leslie Hughes from Macquarie University, Sydney. During the launch, there will be a showcase of Environmental projects already underway in New Zealand, around Australia (in most States) and the South Pacific, perhaps some from our District, will be featured.
See the image for this Zoom Forum in “Special Interest Stories” below.
For more information please contact the District 9685 Environment Office, Melanie Lewis, melanie.lewis@rotarysocialimpact.org
4. Ku-ring-gai Celebrates 100 Years of Rotary in Australia
Ian Cameron from the Rotary Club of Wahroonga posted this entry onto the Rotary Public Relations Facebook page. It is truly exciting when Rotary's work or activities are noted in Parliament. Thank you Ian.
5. RYLA Committee
We need some volunteers with specific skill sets to join the RYLA Committee. Liz North was hoping you might be able to assist by requesting to Youth Directors, Secretaries & Presidents of your Club seeking the following skill sets/working knowledge:
IT/Social Media
Registrar
Marketing Promotion
Rotary Club Liaison
Any interested parties to contact Liz North direct at liz@advs.com.au
Radio is a powerful way to spread your Club stories. If your Club has a project, local or overseas, which would interest the wider general public, discuss it with Rotary Matters presenter Ian Stuart who will be glad to help spread the word. Ian.stuart@optusnet.com.au 0416 138 860
William Chan is a remarkable young Australian architect, an urbanist and design strategist with a passion to create resilient and inclusive places. A Global Grant from Rotary enabled him to study in Milan and fine tune his ideas about the social outcomes of architecture and the need for fundamental community challenges and perspectives to be considered from the outset. Keep an eye on him!
Please let me know of any Club activities that would interest the wider general (non Rotary) public and I’ll endeavour to promote them.
Communities are in urgent need of volunteers to assist farmers who have been impacted by the recent floods and prior to that the devastating Black Summer fires of 19/20. The bank’s partnership with Blazeaid is to encourage people to volunteer. Any assistance Rotarians can provide is greatly appreciated. BlazeAid has been well supported by many Rotary Clubs to date and in partnership many clubs have benefited via grants from Bendigo Bank for that all are grateful for their contribution. The Bowral Mittagong Rotary has had a number of members volunteer last September at the Blazeaid camp at Tumbarumba and earlier this month at the Blazeaid camp at Adelong.
Please see the attached article and consider how you might help devastated rural Communities.
There are now over 3,000 COVID cases in Timor-Leste, which is expected to rise due to the Easter weekend floods and the displacement of families. inal emergency relief following the Easter. We know through the Australian Embassy that Australia’s latest support includes –
AUD 7 Million in additional emergency relief following the floods over the Easter weekend.
Installation of 33 water tanks across 25 sites including evacuation centres and affected communities to provide emergency water supplies and reduce the risk of water-borne diseases.
Immediate provision of food, water, hygiene kits and bedding to the most vulnerable people in evacuation centres through NGOs.
Psychological support to those in evacuation centres (including children).
Immediate support in the aftermath of the flooding to restore essential services such a power and water at critical sites, including the Integrated Crisis Management Centre, the National Laboratory and COVID-19 isolation centres.
Delivery by the Royal Australian Air Force of more than 27 tonnes of emergency relief materials, including PPE, hygiene, kitchen and shelter kits.
Initial deployment of the first two members of an Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT)- health specialists to work with the Ministry of Health’s surveillance team to manage public health needs from COVID-19 and the flooding.
Defence Cooperation Program funding and personnel to support the FFDTL’s (Military) provision of emergency power, planning, food, water and clean-up activities.
Connectivity support through the Pacific Flights Program to ensure essential humanitarian supplies, medical stores and personnel can travel to assist the response effort.
Australian Federal Police support to the PNTL (Police) to maintain operations after the floods and continue its focus on border posts and the delivery of enhanced training to combat gender-based violence.
AUD 24.3 million to support Timor-Leste’s vaccine access, including practical and technical support for the COVAX rollout (including cold chain and supply management, logistics and public health education), and an offer to supply Australian-manufactured AstraZeneca vaccines to enable timely rollout at a time when the international supply of vaccines is constrained.(source-17 April Aust Embassy newsletter)
In some of the world’s most vulnerable places, coronavirus is still a deadly threat. Devastated by disasters or forced to flee their homes, families urgently need shelter aid to help protect themselves from the virus. To find out more, click HERE.
The Rotary Club of West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook
THE ROTARY DECAF
Advocacy - A Perfect Role for Rotarians
Keynote speaker John Oldfield, principal at Global Water 2020, knows the power of advocacy and is a long time friend of WASH-RAG.
John will share:
why advocacy is so important in WASH in healthcare facility work
Empowering vulnerable young women's decisions and goals
Approximately 30% of the vulnerable young people StreetWork supports are young women, so it's important that we employ trained staff, who can understand female aspirations and anxieties.
Recent research by Mission Australia identified the three top issues facing young women - between the ages of 15 and 19 - as being; coping with stress, school or study problems, and body image.
Of concern was the fact that more than double the proportion of females surveyed were extremely/very concerned about coping with
stress compared to their male counterparts. This disparity between the sexes was echoed in the recent KFC Youth Foundation, Confidence Report. KFC's research found that 48% of young women experience a crisis in confidence, on most days, a number almost 20% higher than the young men surveyed.
During adolescence, the parts of the brain that allow us to: make sound judgements, plan, and assess the consequences of our actions are developing, and young people often make decisions without fully comprehending the risks.
StreetWork currently employs two female youth case workers. These qualified mentors, encourage young women to set goals and to connect with the community services that can help them to address their anxieties and better understand the impact of their risk taking behaviours.
to let us know of any bereavements you would like published.
You may also inform your Assistant Governor, the District Secretary, or the Governor. Remember to also update your club's member database on the District website.
Rotary Theme for May
THE ROTARY LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE COURSE 63
18th to 20th June, 2021
on Zoom
There is still time to register
for this Learning Opportunity. RLI62
recently concluded with great success and rave reviews. Don't miss out .
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