Rotary Club of Eaglehawk / PDG Gordon

“To provide Rotary information to all Members, particularly those who have joined in recent years, I’ve asked Gordon McKern to write a weekly article, which hopefully will be of interest to all. His first one follows: “

1. ROTARY MEMBERSHIP

There are only two types of membership, ie. Active and Honorary. Until a few years ago there was a separate title “Senior Active”, but nowadays all members, unless Honorary, are simply known as Rotarians. I’ll refer, in a later article, to matters such as a well-balanced membership, classifications, and Club boundaries, and the second article in this series will relate specifically to Honorary Members. Our Club Constitution provides the following wording under “General qualifications for active Members: “The Club shall be composed of adult persons of good character, and good professional reputation.” Two important matters to note: The Club itself is a member of Rotary International, not the individual Rotarian. • There is no provision in Rotary for a person to be elected/appointed as a Life Member.

 

2. HONORARY MEMBERS

I quote from the Club Constitution: “Persons who have distinguished themselves by meritorious service in the furtherance of Rotary ideals, and those persons considered to be friends of Rotary for their permanent support of Rotary’s cause, may be elected to Honorary Membership.” They are exempt from the payment of annual dues, shall have no vote, and are not eligible to hold any office in the Club. They are entitled to attend all meetings, and enjoy all the other privileges of Club membership. Following our recent A.G.M., the Board has adopted the following guidelines for Honorary Members: 1. Q. Do I pay dinner fees when I attend a meeting or function? A: Yes. 2. Q. How often should I attend the weekly meetings? A. There is no set number, but it would be appropriate for you to attend as often as possible, so that you can get to know other members, and enjoy the fellowship of the Club. 3. Q. Am I expected to participate in working bees and/or fundraising? A. This is entirely your decision, and depends on your health and availability. However, it will be appreciated if you can assist, particularly with fund raising, eg. selling raffle tickets, Swap meet, bike rides, etc. 4. Q. For what period of time can I hope to hold this position? A. Honorary members are elected at an A.G.M., for 12 months, and can be re-elected at subsequent A.G.M.’s. 5. Q. Could I be consider for full membership of the Club? A. There is no barrier to a member nominating you, if you indicate interest, then the normal process would be followed. Our Club currently has 4 Honorary Members, viz: John Brook; Norman Kenyon; Jan Spencely; Jack Taylor.

3. MEMBERSHIP:

Our longest serving member is Roy Parker. The Club was chartered on the 8th of August 1966, and Roy Parker became a Rotarian on that day. Apart from Roy, we have 11 other members with more than 30 years membership, plus a further five who have been with us for more than 20 years. It is only in recent years that Rotary membership was opened up to women, although Eaglehawk has always considered the wives/partners to be as much a part of the Club as members. Our first elected female Rotarian was Rosie Coleman in 1996, and we now include at least six in our official numbers, plus our wives/partners.

4. CLASSIFICATIONS

One of the principles that distinguishes Rotary from other service clubs and organizations is that membership is based on the principal vocational activity of each member. Preferably there should not be more than 2 or 3 members with the same vocation classification, and this leads to the concept of the club having a balanced membership. An ideal situation would be to have, amongst our members, a representative of every recognized business or professional activity within our community. The rules of Rotary expressly prohibit any discrimination against current or potential members on the basis of gender, race, creed, colour, or national origin. To conclude these first four articles on membership; all six Rotary Clubs based in Bendigo share a common boundary, i.e., each of the clubs can recruit a new member who lives or works within the area covered by the City of Greater Bendigo.

5. DISTRICT CONFERENCES

Every Rotary District throughout the world holds an Annual Conference. In some countries it is always held at the same location, in others, including Australia, the location varies from year to year, with the decision made by the District Governor in conjunction with his Club. Of course, it is decided well beforehand, usually at least 18 months before the event. Our Club hosted the Conference in 1993, and we chose Ballarat, although we used the original spelling Ballaarat. We wanted to hold it within Victoria, in easy distance from all the Clubs in D9800. The main venue was Her Majesty’s Theatre, with lunches and break-out sessions at the nearby School of Mines, and a social evening at Kryal Castle. Our Club members went to considerable trouble with decorations and welcoming signs, we put significant efforts into publicity throughout the D9800 Clubs, and made a strong point of promoting it as a family Conference, please bring the children. We were rewarded by a registration figure of 1445, including children, which stands as the record attendance for our District. For every Conference the R.I. President ask a senior Rotarian to represent him. We were fortunate that Bhichai Rattakul, a Thai who later became R.I. President himself, was at our Conference.

6. SISTER CLUB

In last week’s article mention was made of Bhichai Rattakul, from Thailand. A strong friendship between him and some of our members was developed over the years. In part this led to the signing on 10th December 2003 of a Sister Club Agreement with the Rotary Club of Jomtien Pattaya, located in the city of Pattaya on the shores of the Gulf of Thailand. This Club has a membership of similar size to ours, with a large percentage being expatriates, which makes communication easier. One of the main benefits to come from the relationship has been their close connections to the Pattaya Orphanage, which is at the centre of our R.O.S.E. programme. They were also a significant contributor to the Pattaya farm project, which will be referred to in a separate article about The Rotary Foundation. An interesting item is that one of their members, Peter Malhotra, is the current Governor for D3340. Any of our members who visit Thailand should try to visit Pattaya. Our Sister Club would certainly make you very welcome.