January - Sausage Sizzle anyone?

Every January, Stanthorpe Rotary kicks into action as a catering machine. In December we had a bit of a warm-up with some sausage sizzles for local community organisation Christmas break-ups. Then in January we don the green shirts for Australia Day in the park, the Stanthorpe Show Lamburger Stall and then Busking@Stanthorpe. Each event bigger than the previous one. This is the time of year when we are most visible in the community and while it is a lot of work, it is a team effort and it definitely qualifies as "Service Above Self". Catering is one of the major fundraising activities that we do as a Club so not only do we feed the populace, we are also then able to offer financial support to projects in the Community. For anyone who asks why I am a Rotarian... Flipping sausages so that others with greater needs than I can be a little better off makes me HAPPY. I also get to hang with some wise and noble people with a world of knowledge and experience way beyond my own. For me, spending time with fellow Rotarians and friends while at the same time feeding the community is a far more enjoyable way to be a Rotarian than eating my own dinner in a closed room week in and week out. I don't believe that I am the only Rotarian in the world for whom less is more when it comes to traditional meetings, but perhaps I am wrong... This was a hotly debated topic at a recent meeting of our Club so feel free to add your comments to this post if you would like to either challenge or support my notions. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

August - My plan finds some bumps in the road

Image
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...
Read more

February and on to the darkness at the end of the tunnel...

Image
It is now mid-August 2018 so it has been more than 6 months since I have felt a desire to sit and write about Rotary. My last post was reasonably positive... I thought that maybe our Club was turning a corner towards a more hip and happening future. Then we had an Assembly. This is a members only meeting, a bit like an AGM but without the elections and it is an opportunity to "air your dirty laundry" if you have any. It turns out, my positive thoughts were premature. I got a lot of criticism from a small minority about my leadership of the Club. The majority of the room said very little. I should have been able to take that as a good thing and just ignore the "squeaky wheels" but I guess I'm not built that way and I took it very much to heart. I deflated like a stale balloon. That's why I stopped writing. I didn't have the energy in me. I have several family members in the Rotary Club and at this point in the year they all went tripping off to Europe f...
Read more

October - Spring comes to us all

Image
October was quite a conventional month as far as Rotary programs go. We had a great Movie night at the local theatre to raise funds for Mental Health Awareness. The movie was (again this year) one for the oldies, being about folk in a retirement home but was a great night out. We also had two guest speakers on other meeting nights who delivered their talks in the traditional Rotary way at the traditional Rotary time and in the traditional Rotary venue. Attendance by members was good (although there were few guests along to see what Rotary is about) and the mood was friendly, calm and peaceful. It has made me wonder why I am advocating so strongly for change in our Club. It is far easier to toe the line and play by the established rules! BUT, then the emails have started to flow in from the honchos higher up the line. There are sweeping changes afoot at district level with the strong likelihood that we will no longer be District 9640 in a few years time. Why is this happening? Rotary...
Read more