The pandemic has presented its challenges for Rotarians but it has also created opportunities. After years of declining membership, the Rotary Club of Kingston added 19 new members in 2020 - 2021. Even better, the other clubs in the city of Kingston, Ontario added another 20 more new members. Our District stood first in our Zone and our club was recognized by RI for finishing in the top 5% of Rotary clubs in North America. Listen in to learn the the strategies that led to this success!

About the Presenter

Paul Elsley is in the ideal position of sharing this story from the unique perspective of being Rotary Kingston president in 2020-21 and assistant governor in 2021-22.

The amazing story of the formation and growth of the Rotary Club of Brisbane International, formed by the Fijiian community 5 years ago. The club has since chartered another new club and has achieved 40% growth since chartering. The story is told from the unique perspective of PDG Jitendra Prasad, who founded the club and is now District 9620 Membership Chair.

About the Presenter

From the humble little town of Labasa Fiji Islands, Jitendra has served Rotary on a number of positions and has been the inspirational with his Rotary journey.

From spearheading the Nawasawaqa Indian School, Fiji Islands water project, to visiting Petric in Bulgaria to rehab an orphanage for the disabled, to this year challenging the members and community to help with the Tropical cyclone Yasa in Fiji by sending F$75k and a container load of building supplies, converting in excess of 350 houses to homes, Jitendra has also been the pinnacle driver to the charter of Rotary club of Brisbane International and Rotary club of Browns Plains. Amongst these, you can often see him lending a hand to the homeless food drive every month and numerous other Rotary and non-Rotary projects and events.

His wife Nim is an Assistant Governor of D9620, and only sister Subhashni is currently the President of RCBI. His daughter has been the charter Presidents of the Rotaract club of Brisbane International, Rotary certainly is an integral part of Jitendra’s family.

A passionate Rotarian, whose mantra is “ The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” – Gandhi.

How much time have you and your members spent considering Rotary beyond the club? Rotary offers amazing opportunities to members and friends of Rotary through Rotary Fellowships and Rotary Action Groups - Amanda discusses what these are, what they offer our members and how this can benefit your club.

Amanda has had over a decade working in the Youth Community Services sector and 5 years working as a consultant, facilitator, coach and healer.

Amanda has been a member of Rotary International since 2005 serving many roles at club, district, national, zone and international levels, she also volunteers with Red Cross Emergency Services and has done since 2009. Amanda belongs to 5 RAGS 8 fellowships - 1 of which is provisional.

Amanda is a proud member of the Rotary Social Impact Network.

The Rotary E-Club of Western Australia is the home of treemission, a project to address climate change and improve our environment.

The treemission © project started as a collaboration between Rotary clubs, the National Trust of Australia (WA) and Carbon Neutral in 2008. The concept is to encourage people to make a commitment to address climate change and plant trees to offset their contribution to green house gases and global warming. Treemission has goals of informing Rotarians, school children and community members about what is happening to our environment, what can be done to address those impacts and taking action by tree planting to ameliorate those impacts.

Through Treemission, emissions accrued in everyday activities can be turned into trees. (2019)

Gabi Pasqualon is a Rotarian and young multilingual business leader who values her Rotary membership for a number of very practical reasons. Listen as Gabi tells you more. (2017)

An interview with Geraldine Rurenga, who is 29 and the current District Governor Nominee for Rotary District 9705. Geraldine will be District Governor in 2022/23, the same year in which Jennifer Jones will hold office as Rotary International President.

In this second presentation, membership specialist and Creatures of Habit author Mark Huddleston looks at simple ways to make a club more attractive, and also gives his top 10 tips for attracting younger members. Thanks to camerman and producer Martin McGrevy.

You’d have to be nuts to start a new Rotary club from scratch in our current environment of declining membership and closing clubs. It could only be done by offering a very different version of Rotary. Mark Huddleston talks about what makes the Rotary club of Seaford unique and how it continues to grow.

It is no secret that many clubs are finding it hard to recruit and keep members. As a past GSE team member at the age of 30, Tim Moore visited many successful Rotary clubs in England and Australia. Today lots of those clubs are still doing the same things they were doing then, but the magic has gone. What has changed and what needs to happen for a traditional club to be successful again? Tim discusses key options available to turn any club around.

About the Presenter

Tim is the 2017-2020 Rotary Membership Coordinator for 13 districts in Australia, working closely with other Rotarians and fellow Coordinators in our Zone. His role is to support and strengthening Rotary Clubs in Australia and NZ particularly as a resource at District training sessions. It is a role that he really enjoys, particularly working with the many Rotarians that share his passion for growing Rotary so we can achieve so more in the local community and worldwide.

Many nonprofits are now using Facebook well, but may not have realised the potential of LinkedIn. This how-to video focusses on how to use LinkedIn to build genuine connections and find opportunities for service. The discussion uses examples from Rotary but would be relevant to any nonprofit.

The presentation covers:

- how to build a personal profile that inspires trust and demonstrates your value

- how to build a genuine network through finding people you already know

- how to find and reconnect with Rotary program alumni

- how to offer help before asking favours

- how to reach out to new people who may be interested in engaging with Rotary

- how to find experts relevant to your projects

About the Presenter

Kate McKenzie is a philanthropy specialist in the higher education sector who has been using LinkedIn in her professional and volunteer capacities since the early days of the platform. She loves connecting with new people and finding ways to offer them value. She holds a Bachelor of Asian Studies and an MBA and is a mum to two young boys. She is a member of the Rotary E-Club of Western Australia and has been a Rotarian for almost nine years

An enviable lifestyle, the opportunity to volunteer in lots of interesting places and the freedom of meeting via Zoom video make this unique Australian Rotary community very special.

Listen as member John Clements describes life as a Rotary Nomad and the way the club uses Zoom to connect a diverse and far-flung membership.

About the Presenter

John Clements is a past Apexian with 22 years experience. He has enjoyed his Rotary experience through 4 clubs since 2004. He's a past president of the Nomads and the Port Augusta Rotary Club. John is married to Louise and has two sons and two granddaughters.

If you're serious about strengthening membership and developing your club, this is for you.

We Rotary membership specialists sometimes tend to overlook recently retired people as we focus on attracting younger members. Retirement-aged folk have proved to be some of the happiest and most engaged of our many new Rotarians. They're also typically excellent contributors in terms of time and ideas.

In this presentation, Regional Membership Officer, Julie Aubry, joins us from Rotary International in Evanston to talk about the importance of retired Australians to our Rotary membership mix. Julie also offers suggestions about how best to attract and engage with recent retirees.

Interested in creating a new club?

Listen as Baldivis club adviser Laurie Smith (Palm Beach) and charter president Leanne Knowler share the story behind the remarkable success of the Baldivis extension.

Do you sometimes struggle to explain why #Rotary is relevant to millennials? Then this is for you! Listen as Mandi M Wendt relates how what we offer as an incubator of social enterprise fits the needs of aspiring young leaders perfectly. Together we really can change the world!

Amanda Wendt is a millennial #Rotary leader with an impressive track record promoting change and growth in the #Rotary movement. Amongst her impressive credentials, Amanda is past president of the Rotary Club of Melbourne Park, a former Rotary District 9800 Communications Director, a current member of the Rotary International Communications Committee and is sought after to speak at Rotary events, including the RI Convention.

Hot off the back of receiving a District 9800 Recognition for Membership Engagement, Amanda Wendt, Membership Director of Rotary Melbourne shares the iniatiives her club has undertaken over the past 12 months to enhance membership experience. Hear about the strategy behind Rotary Melbourne’s success and learn how you can easily implement similar initiatives in your club throughout the entire membership cycle.

About Amanda

Amanda helps entrepreneurs and leaders to matter by helping them to create a compelling brand, convert thought leadership into sales and turn clients into advocates. With over 15 years’ experience in brand, marketing and communication, she has worked internationally across diverse industries including financial and professional services, health, retail, not-for-profit and the public sector. Amanda is a proud Rotarian and in 2016 was awarded a Paul Harris Fellow from Rotary District 9800. She has travelled internationally with Rotary and has spoken at many events on how to activate members, in particular millennials. Amanda is the current Vice-Chair of the Rotary International Communications Committee, District 9800 Assistant Governor (Stonnington), Rotary Club of Melbourne’s Membership Director and a Past President of the Rotary Club of Melbourne Park.

About the Presentation:

New members are the lifeblood and the future of Rotary. Engaging them when they first join a Club is crucial as that is when they will feel the most excited about their decision to become a Rotarian. Maintaining that level of enthusiasm after induction is pivotal as they figure out how they can contribute to the Club in a way that is meaningful for them. Listen in and hear how you and your Club can mitigate the risk of new members becoming disengaged early, ensure they feel welcome, are appreciated for the skills they bring and can contribute at a level that meets their current life situation.

About the Presenter (Mary Barry): Rotary

Mary Barry has been a member of Rotary Melbourne for over 13 years and served as President in 2017/2018. She was also a Rotary Melbourne Board Director for four years including holding the position of Vice President for 12 months. She is currently the Vocational Service Chair for District 9800, Chair of Rotary Melbourne’s Community Welfare Committee, a member of the Membership Engagement Committee and Rotary Safe Families Committee. She was also a Director on the Board of District 9800 from 2011-2013 heading up the Strategic Planning and Risk portfolio. In 2018/2019 Mary developed and implemented a New Members Mentoring Program at Rotary Melbourne as part of a strategy to retain new members. In many instances new members were leaving the Club after one or two years and the program has been developed to stem that flow.

Professional Role

In her professional life Mary has been a CEO for over 20 years heading up organisations including the Victoria State Emergency Service, the National Heart Foundation to mention a few with her most recent role (2016-2018) as CEO of Our Watch, an organization established to prevent violence against women. Mary is now a mentor to senior executive staff and a strategic advisor to Boards, CEOs and senior executive teams.

Join us for a personal perspective on being a District Governor, as Past District Governor, Tania Lowery (2019-2020) reflects on what she learnt from her year. And then mull over what Past District Governors can do to help Rotary clubs to evolve and be relevant for the future.

About the Presenter

Tania has been a Rotarian since 2011, and has an energetic enthusiasm for the organisation that sees her enjoying as many hands-on events as she possibly can. She believes that attending District development events is a great way to maintain your connection with the bigger picture of Rotary, and to ensure you know as much as possible about what is happening in your District, and around the world. Networking with fellow Rotarians is invigorating and a vital way to get new ideas for projects and to discuss any issues/ideas that you may have. Her District Governor year saw her “breaking the mould”, by sending out a video message to all the clubs and members at the start of the year, and then visiting clubs to help with projects as her way of connecting with the Rotarians of District 9980. Having a full-time job meant that weekend service was a much more realistic way to undertake the busy District Governor role. And getting out “on the job with clubs” meant she had plenty of opportunities to wear her extensive Rotary tshirt collection!

[This presentation is absolute gold for anyone wanting to re-imagine their Rotary club and experience. The RSIN plan and rollout is brilliant. ~ Kero]

The pandemic has opened our eyes to new and exciting Rotary club models that challenge traditional Rotary stereotypes and invite new participants to join the Rotary Movement.

With only 5% of Rotaractors joining Rotary and only 5% of Rotarians under the age of 40, a group of Rotaract Alumni believed it was time to explore a new model of Rotary that focused less on meetings and more on connecting people, ideas, passion and skills to create the change we want to see in the world.

Enter the Rotary Social Impact Network, a new club which has no meetings and instead provides an exclusive online portal which enables members to personally tailor their Rotary experience to the projects, causes and initiatives they are personally interested in.

About the Presenter

Rebecca has over a decade of experience in non-profit leadership and development, running leadership programs across Australia and New Zealand. She has served in a number of senior roles including Chair of Rotaract Australia and sits on the Rotary International Strategic Planning Committee. Rebecca strongly believes in empowering people to create positive change in the world, launching numerous initiatives in this pursuit including RYLA Oceania and chartering a new Rotary Club (the Rotary Social Impact Network). Professionally, Rebecca works in Corporate Strategy in local government, where she brings her strategic expertise into driving positive outcomes for her local community.

Past Rotaract Australia Chair Rebecca Fry is an experienced and innovative millennial leader, who has collaborated in and led the creation of new clubs.

Listen as Bec outlines commonsense steps you can take to rebuild your club.

Don't let the Coronavirus pandemic stop your club doing good in the community! Protect everyone by working safely

As a member of the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley and founder of a new online Rotary Club, Rebecca understands what it takes to effectively engage members remotely. Bec will share different options for Rotary Clubs to try in regards to meetings, socials and projects, so we can continue to serve our communities during these uncertain times.

Rebecca has over a decade of experience in non-profit leadership and development, running leadership programs across Australia and New Zealand. She has served in a number of senior roles including Chair of Rotaract Australia and sits on the Rotary International Strategic Planning Committee. Rebecca strongly believes in empowering people to create positive change in the world, launching numerous initiatives in this pursuit including RYLA Oceania and chartering a new Rotary Club (the Rotary Social Impact Network). Professionally, Rebecca works in Corporate Strategy in local government, where she brings her strategic expertise into driving positive outcomes for her local community.