August - My plan finds some bumps in the road

This was the plan for meetings - Committee meetings - Roll-about-comedy - Christmas in winter - Helene Jager, Austrian Exchange Student.

Week 6 - 82.05% attendance - A certain director was heard to say "Didn't we do this already, we've done our plan for the year". Well yes, we did do this, and we will do it another 10 times! So you have a plan for the year, now it is time for your committee to implement it! Then send a report to the Board so that they know what the Club Committees are doing. BTW in August, the Board received exactly 0 directors reports, with the exception of the President (who is on the Board), the Treasurer (who is on the Board), and the Satellite Club (who also has a rep on the Board)! GO TEAM!!! What a proactive Club we are!!!
Week 7 - 38.46% attendance - The first of the non-Monday meetings. Doesn't that attendance figure tell a story! It was the nastiest, coldest evening of the year but no-one knew that when they were supposed to be pre-buying their tickets. Right now, I can hear all the non-attenders saying "well it serves that Morwenna right, if she's going to go rogue and organise these things, then it's her problem". But you see, here's the thing... I stood at the front of the room on my first meeting in July and asked the Club if they would support this opportunity if I followed up on it. The room said YES. Thanks everyone for your overwhelming support! After the flop that was the Comedy night (47 people attended out of a local population of 10 000+), a wise and world-weary Rotarian said to me, "Morwenna, unfortunately all of us who have been President in the past have experienced this lack of support for an event that they have organised". To that, I say Stanthorpe Rotary Club, SHAME ON YOU! Are we really a Club that hangs our leader out to dry just because the weather is bad and the meeting night got changed? Who cares if you don't like stand-up comedy, I don't like boring guest speakers but I still attend. Why? Because it's rude not to.

Mid way through and August is not proving to be my finest hour.


Week 8 - 61.54% attendance - Thanks Goodness for Ann Richo and team and her exemplary cooking, fine craft skills and fun games. What fun Christmas in winter was! In particular the custard was beyond expectations! And for a non-Monday, the attendance was satisfactory. Not an A but at least a C.
Week 9 - 82.5% attendance - Helene - what an impressive young lady! A wonderful presentation, a great meeting.
Well, at least August ended better than it started! It was a month with considerable soul-searching, lots of "why am I doing this?" and the sowing of some bitter and cynical seeds in my head about the commitment of various members of the Stanthorpe Rotary Club which in turn has effected my own commitment. If I can find a silver lining it is that I learned a lot about the members of this Club. Sadly not much that was positive.