President's Desk 25-03-13

From the President's Desk

Dear e-Club Members, Rotarians and Friends of Rotary,

What a week!!! Let's start with our special Regional Member Dinner last Tuesday for our Forum. The Gold Coast crowd was once again hosted by Mary our Admin Director; it was a beautiful dinner and made for a wonderful atmosphere for the Forum. The enthusiastic and ever so positive Peter Baumann was our Guest Speaker; he put his experience of Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) into photos and words. If there were any Rotarians that couldn't see the positives the participants get, Peter would have changed their minds. We also found out on the night that Peter and Rhys have been accepted as attendees for next year. What a great honour indeed to be chosen from all the applications to be able to give back what they received from doing the seminar this year. 

We also took the opportunity to ask all the people who came to Marys to donate a 'gold coin' for a charity through the GIVIT Direct Giving Network for Easter Eggs. Ingrid was able to deliver four shopping bags of Bunnies and Easter Eggs to Bridges Reconnect. They support 12 to 18 year old youth in need and at risk, Tammy was so grateful and hopefully we can help them again in the future.

Thursday Night was the Board Meeting and Secretary Chris has put all the minutes into the Dropbox for everyone to see. I have been asked to mention two things, firstly, ROMAC are looking for volunteers at District Level. They have four positions where vacancies will occur shortly, the roles are ROMAC Treasurer; ROMAC Secretary; ROMAC Marketing and ROMAC Fundraising. Please contact Brendan Porter if you are interested on 0488 768 279.

Secondly, the e-Club is looking for applicants to send to Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment (RYPEN) May 3rd to 5th, 2013. RYPEN is for students between 14 and 16 years of age and its aim is to increase participant's self-esteem and at the same time develop a respect for the beliefs and ideas of others.   If you know of anyone please get them to fill in the form HERE ASAP!

This week's Forum Tuesday 26th of March is Sam Brown presenting Project Amigo - Empowering Kids to Change Their Future Themselves.   Project Amigo a non-profit organization whose goal is helping poor rural children in the west-central state of Colima, Mexico achieve the education and skills they need to build better lives for themselves and improve their communities and their country. Project Amigo also provides safe hands-on international service opportunities in Colima for Rotarians and their families.

Look forward to seeing you at the Forum.

Yours in Rotary,

Rick Jewson
President