 |
News Search |
For your browsing convenience, you can navigate quickly to any News article using the following search: |
| |
|
|
Club News Search |
For your browsing convenience, you can navigate quickly to any Club News article using the following search: |
| |
|
|
 |
District Assembly...through the eyes of a delegate
|
| Assembly 2008 |
It was a beautiful sunny pre-winter day when Rotarians Dawson, Lindsay, Butler & Damp, together with District officials Fisher,
Beekman, Campbell and Caine, drove to the District Assembly.
After a welcome second breakfast of muffins and coffee
they attended the Assembly
which started sharply at
0900hrs.
One misfortune at this time
was that PDG Colleen Pieterse
stepped back over a curb, fell
awkwardly and fractured bones
in her foot. She was taken to
hospital and very bravely returned and sat in for the rest of the
day.
After the call to order and devotions by Gerald Sieberhagen
and Vic Bredenkamp respectively, we were welcomed by DG
Richard who framed our presence there by the who, why, what,
where and how questionnaire.
Who are we? We are motivators.
Why are we here? Presidents elect mandatory, interested other
board members or members. He beseeched to plan our way
and not fly by the seat of our pants.
What are we doing here? To learn from Rotary
Where will be in 14 months time and will we have left a
footprint?
How will you and your Club deliver? How many new Rotarians
will you induct?
This was followed by the roll call, volume attendance was
led by the Indian Clubs but all the Clubs in the District with the
exception of perhaps four were represented, some of which had
travelled many kilometres.
DG Elect Hennie de Bruin then addressed us on the year
ahead: he expressed joy in his role as District Governor and
thanked DG Richard for his guidance. He elaborated on our
responsibilities towards Hunger, Water and Health, he stated
that some 50 000 children die every day in the world through
malaria, AIDS and malnutrition, outlined his policy for 2008/9 and
challenged us to lower the child mortality rate, to give children
hope and the chance of a future, to improve their environment
and to make their dreams real.
PDG Richard Tolken, substituting for Colleen Pieterse and
using her notes, concentrated on how we can raise funds for
Foundation. How the EREY issue—every Rotarian every year—
averaged $78 per Rotarian (our club’s is $100 per Rotarian)
needs to be increased, and he suggested ways of raising money,
for example, donations instead of Christmas cards, donate your
travel claims, and gain new members, amongst others.
He outlined how the District’s receipts from The Rotary
Foundation far outweigh the input from the Clubs.
He then went on to talk about GSE exchanges, International
Club toasting, Ambassadorial scholars and their involvement in
our projects and the volunteer programme.
He told us that 22 Matching Grants this year had brought in
approx R4 100 000.
Neville Caine then gave us an excellent PowerPoint
presentation on membership, explaining how close we were
to losing our District status by nearly slipping below the 1000
member mark. We are only slightly above this critical number.
We must all be ‘Mad’—make a difference—and ensure that the
District inducts a further 50 to 60 members to get ourselves out
of trouble.
I think it worthy of comment that the acoustics in the
Showground Halls are very poor and if, as it is intended, the
District Conference 2009 be held in these Halls something has
to be done about the problem. Many of the speakers could
barely be heard, particularly at the back. Many of the speakers
spoke too fast, did not project their voices, and relied on the
microphone to enhance their speech. To do this they need to
speak slower and louder than their normal speaking voice for it
to be heard clearly.
After tea District honorary treasurer Chris Beekman gave us a
breakdown of District accounts which showed that the District is
fairly healthy. He proposed that District levies for the year 2008/9
be as follows:
DISTRICT LEVIES R210 per Rotarian
CONFERENCE LEVY: R 75 per Rotarian
GSE LEVY: R 15 per Rotarian
TOTAL R300 which is due on 1 July 2008
At this stage the Meeting split up into discussion groups. I was
allocated to the President Elect group run by Hennie de Bruin
and therefore cannot speak for the others.
Our group discussion took place and there are some
excellent projects of small and large nature being run in the
District. Membership and the growing age of members was also
discussed and I am of the opinion that many of the statements
were excuses rather than solutions. It was emphasized that we
should be taking advantage of the District web site to learn of each others projects and problems.
On returning to the main Assembly Hennie de Bruin spoke
on motivation using Maslow’s theory to emphasise his points in
motivation and problem solving.
He was following by Neill Augustus (Gussie) on Youth
Exchange, who spoke briefly on the subject and then persuaded
his wife Hilary to emphasise the need to protect incoming
students from molestation. There have been no problems to
date (in this District) but should one occur the whole exchange
programme would collapse.
Richard Tolken then talked on his favourite subject, The
Rotary Family and he was followed by Pinetown’s president,
Jean Senogles, who gave an excellent presentation on The
Preservation of Planet Earth and how our planet is being eroded
to such an extent that if the population increases there will not be
enough room for us to exist in a few years time.
A numbers of speakers then talked about some of the
forthcoming programmes, Conference 2008 at the ICC 23-24
May; Rotary Foundation seminar at Pinedene Inn 16 August;
Membership and PR seminar at Pinedene Inn, 20 September;
and District Conference 2009 at the Royal Showgrounds 8-10
May 2009.
The meeting was closed by Hennie de Bruin at about 1500hrs
Submitted - 21 Apr 2008
|
Gallery - Click Images to Enlarge
|
 PDG Gerald Sieberhagen |
|
 DGE Hennie de Bruin |
|
 DG Richard Fisher |
|
 Part of the delegates |
|
 DGE Hennie motivating Rotarians |
|
|
|
|
|
