July is the first month of the Rotary year and is when the annual theme starts. This year’s annual theme is, as you know “Imagine Rotary”

 

It is this theme that I have been promoting to members in reference to membership growth.  Imagine what our club will be able to do if we had more members.  More Rotarians means we could have “hands on projects and more of them, increase awareness of Rotary in the Community, share our commitment to the Bentleigh Market, have more like-minded friends to enjoy fun and fellowship with.

 

Last week we welcomed Michelle Wang, the Vicar of St David’s who was a guest of Tim Lynch. We look forward to seeing Michelle again.

 

This month’s theme is “Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention”

In the 1990’s Rotary established Rotary Peace Centres to train new generations of peacebuilders. Rotary Foundation has funded scholarships enabling thousands to study in area's devoted to peace. There are 7 Peace Centres in the World, one of which is in Brisbane at the University of Queensland.

Applications for these scholarships are now open.

Could there be someone we know who could be eligible and seeking to develop a career in peace building and conflict resolution?

Could we think of a project that would meet a mission to support global peace, social justice, and non-violent resolution of conflict?

We will be hearing about the various suggested projects by you, our members, from the Fund-Raising Committee over the next month.

This is your opportunity to have a say, suggest a project we can all be involved in, one that can grow, form partnerships both within Rotary and the Community.

Next week is our District Conference in Canberra, at the Realm Hotel from 3rd to the 5th March. The conference theme is 'Diversity', and will be 'Looking at the past, embracing the future.' 

Altogether there are 10 Rotarians from our club going, it is not too late to come join us so that together we can enjoy fellowship and be inspired by Rotary.

Thank you to Sam and Jo for organising a great night at the Arcobar, good food and fellowship. All in all, a fun night.

Also, a big thank you to Helen for her article in “Imagine our Passion” the 9810 newsletter,  about the Rochester Bikes project, well done Helen. Click here. Fantastic for us to have some publicity.