Welcome to another issue of our District 9810 Monthly Newsletter
The current, and past Bulletins can always be accessed here.
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Hello again my fellow Rotarians,
Well, our Conference is on this week so you can imagine our team is pretty busy ensuring everything is in place. I am looking forward to welcoming members of our own District 9810 and those from elsewhere to Warrnambool.
Our Rotary International President's Personal Representative is Haresh Ramchandani, pictured at left, from Jamaica. For those attending I encourage you to introduce yourself to him.
I will take this opportunity for an early thank you all those who have helped put the Conference together under the leadership of Wil and Sue Cornelissen. This includes members of the Committee from various Clubs within the District and those from my own Club, Bentleigh Moorabbin Central.
I think we're all still talking to eachother!
The other focus of late has been the Regionalisation Pilot which is really gathering momentum. Please refer my story below about the opportunities for Rotarians to get directly involved as a Rotary Specialist or Community Leader. These are certainly times of change, but I am certain are for the better.
Well done to all the Clubs that embraced International Women's Day. I had the pleasure of attending two events. These are great opportunities to involve members of the public and get them exposed to what we do in our Clubs and what Rotary does as an organisation.
Keep up th egood work everyone and I look forward to seeing many of you in Warrnambool.
You can still book for our Conference. Sorry it's too late to register for the Gala Dinner but we'd love to see you in Warrnambool for the Conference. $145pp.
Bookings have now closed for all events other than the Conference itself and the Gala Dinner on the Saturday night. Remember you can book to attend the Conference only if you prefer.
Bookings will close Tuesday next week (March 19).
SO, IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON COMING BUT HAVEN'T BOOKED - DO SO NOW. CLICK HERE.
I hope everyone enjoys their Club Dinners on the Friday evening - this is always a great tradition at the D9810 Conference.
The web page for the Conference has been updated now with all the speakers. Check it out now.
The Registration Desk will be located in the foyer of the Lighthouse Theatre at 185 Timor St, Warrnambool from
Friday 11.30am – 4.00pm Saturday: 8.30 am - 12.00 noon
The Rotary Clubs of Whitehorse joined forces to host the International Womens Day breakfast on March 13 at the Box Hill Town Hall.
The Box Hill Town Hall appeared filled to capacity as many Rotarians, local business people, dignitaries and members of the public were in attendance.
The theme was Inspiring Inclusion. The guest speakers were: Dr Niki Vincent, Public Sector Gender Equality Commisioner; Janenie Mohgan, Innovation Product Lead at ENGIE; Leonie Valentine, strategic advisor to CommandHub and Melbourne Uni MATCH project, a director of Save the Children Australia and a number of other roles. She was formerly an executive at Google.
The event was MC'd by distinguished Rotarian Ashley Coleman of RC Box Hill Central.
Our Clubs which supported this event were Box Hill Central, Box Hill Burwood, Forest Hill, Mitcham, MASH, Nunawading and Whitehorse Rotaract.
As previously advised, our International President, Gordon McInally, along with Heather is visiting Melbourne after the Singapore Convention.
There have been some changes to the events - the luncheon on the Sunday (June 2) is still going to happen but we expect the cost to be reduced a little.
The Mental Health Forum planned for the Monday (June 3) will now be a breakfast.
As soon as these new arrangements are finalised, we will send out advice via email.
I encourage all members to consider attending one , or both of these events, especially if you have not yet had the pleasure of hearing Gordon speak.
To celebrate International Women's Day, the Rotary Club of Glen Waverley held a very successful event on the evening of March 4. The keynote speaker was Tania Farha, CEO of Safe and Equal, a merged identity of two organisations: the Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria (DVRCV) and Domestic Violence Victoria (DV Vic). Previously, Tania has held executive positions across the Victorian Departments of Justice and Community Safety and Premier and Cabinet, including as CEO of the former Office of Prevention and Women’s Equality. Tania worked at UN Women for over four years as a policy specialist in the Ending Violence Against Women Section and worked for Victoria Police for over nine years to improve its responses to family violence, sexual assault and child abuse.
Her address prompted some great questions and discussion which showed the real benefit of these types of events. There were many members of other Clubs, council and state dignitaries and members of the public in attendance. My congratulations to President Chris George and his team. A highlight was the handing over of a cheque to Tania for proceeds from the evening of $1100.
Through his connections at the RC of Melbourne, President of the RC of Nunawading, Ian Evans secured Dr Peter Rogers AM as a guest speaker at a Club meeting in February.
Under the new Zone 8 structure Peter is Portfolio Lead: Major Fundraising and Grants. Peter's full bio can be found here.
My congratulations to Ian and the members of RC Nunawading for a great evening.
The meeting was very well attended and prompted many questions from the floor. Click on Read More for another pic.
It's been a busy time with the Regionalisation Pilot.
Community Groups
Establishment Meetings were held over the weekend of March 2 and 3.
We held 7 meetings in total, one for each Community Group in the new District of 9815. It was a most productive process. Feedback from the meetings was passed back to the Pilot leadership group.
The next step is the appointment of Community Group Leaders. As I write this we are preparing the email which will go out to all members seeking expressions of interest in the role.
It is expected that the closing date for lodgement will be March 27. Remember, under the new structure, Community Leaders will be a member of a Club from that Community Group.
For more info about Community Leader role, click here.
Specialist Roles
I would like to remind members of another great opportunity to serve Rotary. Offer yourself as a Rotary Specialist. I know I am repeating myself but I think it's worth reminding members of this great opportunity. Under the Pilot, there will be fewer opportunities to serve at a traditional District level. Under the Pilot, a database will be established of Rotarians who will contribute their expertise in specific areas to assist Clubs. Specifically.....
The Rotary Specialist role is a new way you can use your skills to help clubs reach their goals and make a difference. Each Rotary Specialist will be an expert in a particular field who will provide guidance to clubs across the Zone, either in person or virtually, in their specific area of expertise. When clubs ask for help, Specialists will support them by providing expert advice, and directing them to useful resources and other experts as required. Clubs will be able to easily find and request assistance from Specialists through a searchable database. There may be numerous specialists in the same subject area to cover the geography of Zone 8.
If you have the required skills and knowledge to provide expert advice to clubs in your area of expertise, you can be a Rotary Specialist! You may be:
Someone who has been in Rotary anywhere from a few months to a few decades
Someone who has held multiple leadership positions in Rotary, or none at all
Someone who has relevant formal qualifications such as a diploma or university degree, or has simply gained expertise through practical experience – either within or outside Rotary
If you’re an expert in a field relevant to clubs, great with people and passionate about Rotary, you should consider applying here.
A copy of the recent webinar which explained these roles can be viewed here.
The other role that is available is that of Regional Council Portfolio Committee Member.
Keep up to date with all things related to Regionalisation here.
I had the honour, along with District Governor, 9820, Linda Humphries of confirming the appointment of Emma Clark, from the Rotary Club of Emerald and District to the position of District Governor Nominee Designate District 9815.
This means Emma will serve as the District Governor in the year 2026-27.
I'm sure Emma is very familiar to many in the District. Just to remind you of Emma's Rotary journey..... She began as a Charter Member of the Rotaract Club of Emerald & District in 1991. She held various positions in Rotaract including Deputy District Rotary Representative. She joined the Rotary Club of Emerald & District in 2002 where she has been a very active member serving in many key positions including Secretary (2022-23) and President (2016-17). Emma served the District as a key contributor to the organisation of the District Conference, 2023. Emma is holder of two PHF's. She is also a member of the Spangles!
Once again I offer my most sincere congratulations to Emma.
Well, Emerald and District picked the perfect day for their American Car show. I had the pleasure of getting on the bike and riding up to Gembrook to check it out.
We had had the big storm earlier in the week so it had been a little unsettled leading up to the day. I encountered a lot of storm damage on the encountering a number of crews still working to clear away areas beside the road.
Plenty of cars, plenty of spectators and plenty of food, provided of course by plenty of members of Emerald and District with lots of help from the RC of Belgrave.
The Rotary convention is where friendship and learning come together to inspire you. In Singapore you’ll connect with people of action from around the globe at Rotary’s biggest event of the year.
The 2024 Rotary International Convention, will be be held 25-29 May in Singapore.
Here are a couple of stories to help inspire you to register.
Just a reminder to all members, but especially Presidents, committee chairs and event organisers to get your event into the District Event Newsletter, Highlights, edited by Michael Ellinger.
This will also ensure it gets included in the District Event Calendar on the website, link here.
To publish your event and/or function please send it to Michael in either a word document or PDF file format at highlights9810@gmail.com
Get all District 9810 events automatically added to your calendar.
From the Calendar page here you can subscribe to the District's event calendar.
This will result in the District's calendar being added to your existing calendar subscriptions, thus ensuring that as an event is added (or modified) to the District's calendar, it will appear on your phone, tablet etc. Calendars supported are Outlook, Google and Apple.
Take the link, Subscribe to Calendar, from the Calendar Page here.
You can view the newsletter from your email or take the link at the top, and open it in your browser. Generally the content of the newsletter will be in the form of "stories". The first paragraph and a small image will appear here, on this page. By clicking on the "read more" link, you will be taken, via a separate tab in your browser, to the full story, with more pictures, within the District website. You can then return to where you were viewing this page, in your email or browser. If you wish to submit an article, please read preferred format at the bottom of this page.
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Our Rotary International President's Personal Representative is Haresh Ramchandani, pictured at left, from Jamaica. For those attending I encourage you to introduce yourself to him.
Ian Ballantine
ell, Wil (Cornelissen) and his team have been hard at it getting exposure for our Conference in Warrnambool.
The Rotary Clubs of Whitehorse joined forces to host the International Womens Day breakfast on March 13 at the Box Hill Town Hall.
As previously advised, our International President, Gordon McInally, along with Heather is visiting Melbourne after the Singapore Convention.
There's quite a bit of news this month.
To celebrate International Women's Day, the Rotary Club of Glen Waverley held a very successful event on the evening of March 4.
Through his connections at the RC of Melbourne, President of the RC of Nunawading, Ian Evans secured Dr Peter Rogers AM as a guest speaker at a Club meeting in February.
I had the honour, along with District Governor, 9820, Linda Humphries of confirming the appointment of Emma Clark, from the Rotary Club of Emerald and District to the position of District Governor Nominee Designate District 9815.
Well, Emerald and District picked the perfect day for their American Car show. I had the pleasure of getting on the bike and riding up to Gembrook to check it out.
Just a quick Save the Date for the Joint District (9810 and 9820) Changeover dinner this coming June.
