Let me start this article by saying that I am wanting to spark debate – I am wanting each of you to think and be engaged.  These views are my own, are neither right nor wrong, but express my belief in what can be, should be or will be in the future.  If you disagree, great – express it, if you agree, fantastic – express that as well.  At least then I will know that you (a) read this and (b) are actually alive!

Back in December 2011 the club had a fantastic guest speaker – Phil Preston – who spoke to us on the concepts of Organisational value and the shift that has been occurring over the past 3 or 4 decades in the manner with which value is measured and reported in many Organisations.

As a follow-on from this, how many of us have thought through what this actually means and related it to the Rotary Club of Wollongong?  Would I be correct in guessing that I am the only one (someone prove me wrong here – please?)??

So where is all of this going?  One of the goals that I have set for this year is the development of a Corporate Partners program for the club – firstly as a membership extension program and secondly to expose as many good corporate citizens to the work of Rotary – to do this well, we need to be in a position to EXPRESS as succinctly as possible what it is that we (a) do, (b) how does this contribution make a difference  and (c) what is the VALUE of this is to the community.

At this point in time if I asked each of you to answer the above in 25 words or less you would (a) struggle and (b) need around an hour to think of the answer.  This is not where we need to be – each of us must be able to express the value of Rotary as an International Organisation as well as the value of OUR CLUB in less than 15 seconds AND MAKE IT COUNT.  Once we can do that our membership will expand to the point where we are turning away “talent”!

Let me give you a couple of examples that I have recently heard and used when asked what is it “we” do…

“Rotary is a support system for Great Ideas – you bring the ideas, we bring the global network and together we  can achieve anything”

OR…

“Rotarians are a group of professional, business and community leaders who connect great ideas with the resources needed to make them happen”

Consider the value that OUR CLUB has delivered to Wollongong in one single project over many years – what would be the COST of developing (from scratch) Mt Keira Summit Park today?  What VALUE do our relatively small efforts each year bring in terms of exposure of Wollongong to the rest of the world?  Truly, we do enable great things and deliver enormous value to our communities – we just need to quantify and express this!

I had the pleasure of receiving an e-mail from the clubs latest "outbound" Youth Exchange student this morning - apart from some beautiful photos of the Swiss region she is calling home for the next twelve months, the following line really caught my attention:

"I have absolutely no doubts in my mind that this is the best decision I have ever made!"

Perhaps I am slightly biased as I have had a Norwegian Exchange "sister" for some 20 years...

 

Tonight I have the great honour of representing and speaking on behalf of our club at the Charter dinner of the latest Rotaract club in Australia - the Rotaract Club of the Illawarra.

These young people are unique and inherently special - they are all from Generation Y. Unlike the stereotypical representation of the media, they are committed and passionate about helping others - their focus is outward not inward - they are for there community not just of there community.

I wish each of them well on there journey in Rotary and am proud to be a part of it!

Last night saw the club AGM held, run, won and whatever other terms one can think of when votes, motions and elections are required - certainly not being one to trivialise what is an essential part of the Rotary Year, last nights meeting achieved a number of massive goals for the club.  We now have member approval for our "new" constitution and the officer bearers for the 2012-13 Rotary Year have been decided.  The "bad" news from the night (good and bad are always a matter of context I have been told, so perhaps this should read "the other new from the night"), is that I am now the President Elect for the remainder of this Rotary Year - as well as the President - Yes, that means I am doing two terms...

Well the time has come to return to a clean shaven face and some semblance of normailty.  The great shave off was undertaken this morning and now my daughter has shed a tear - she actually liked my "mozzie" and wants it to come back!!  I now have some inkling of how Spencer's daughter must feel after he shaved his Mo AFTER 43 YEARS - Wow, that is a spectacular amount of committment - both to MOvember and to the effort of keeping a Mo groomed and looking acceptable for such a period of time.  The final numbers are yet to be counted, but as a club we have raised funds and had fun (at our own expense) which to me means a successful undertaking - thanks to all involved and especially to team captain Andrew Miller

Tonight we hit the park for the first time this "season" and got stuck into some routine maintenance.  Joining us for the evening was the family of Jaclyn Hedrik on a visit to Wollongong from there home town in the USA - I think the beauty of the venue and the uniqueness of the Illawarra certainly struck a chord with them all!

We welcomed three new members to our team - Mitchell Gordon, Greg Murphy and Leigh Robinson.  On this auspicious occasion of their induction to our club, Greg was joined by his wife Christine and Leigh by his wife Stephanie.  Again, a big welcome to the Rotary family and am looking forward to sharing many more evenings like this with you all.

Sergeant Andrew conducted the judging of the MO's grown over the month - he didn't think that much would change in the couple of days to the "real" end of MOvemeber.  Below are a selection of the "MO shots" and it certainly was a "mugs" gallery...

The winner was declared as the rather scary gent on the bottom right of the Mugshots - yes, he is the same guy that caused a stir at a local bank branch when he was mistaken for Chopper Read!!

A Press Release commenting on the Australian Government's $50 million aid for eradicating Polio has been sent out today. Visit http://www.newsmaker.com.au/news/12599 to see a copy of the Press Release.

And so here I am wondering what the week will hold when a glance at the calendar tells me that today is my last chance to have a nice smooth face for a month - so here goes nothing...  A month of not shaving, itching, scratching and not getting a kiss from my little girl - I certainly hope that the "bounty on my head" is going to worth this.  And before any argues as to whether I had actually shaved for the photo - YES I HAD - I ALWAYS have 5 o'clock shadow - I must be some relation to Homer J Simpson...

Well the message is clear - New Generations and the integration of Youth and Enthusiasm into established clubs is paramount. From the presentation of Michael McQueen on the "intricacies" of attracting, engaging and providing worthwhile "outcomes" for Generation Y through to an example from Holly Ransom on how the Rotary Club of Crawley has grown to 104 members, generated $850,000 and inspired an entire continent in less than 24 months - the District conference has certainly left me with the feeling that the path that I have embarked on with RC Wollongong is the BEST way forward - but I guess time and results will be ultimate judge of that!