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What's happening at Alex Rotary ?
Weekly news

The "Young Ones" take over

 
On Friday Michelle was host and Jane Hillyard was guest speaker, and wasn't it great to hear have the "young one's" speak with such enthusiasm about how Rotary Youth leadership programs had made such a difference to their lives. 
 
Jane was heading up the corporate success trail when she attended a Rotary Youth Leadership program which gave her the confidence to try new things and sent her along a different  path of accelerated development and a different aspect of her career, trying new things with added confidence. 
 
Added to that came the bonus of wanting to give back by helping the Rotary Youth Programs came along and she has now made a difference to so many others. Well done Jane.  So inspiring and comforting to know that there are folk like Jane in teh next generation of leaders.

 

The club votes to sponsor our first  Satellite Club 

 
There's still a bit of paperwork to do, but the vote on Friday was unanimous in agreeing that we move forward and sponsor the current Provisional Passport Club to become a Satellite Club to us. 
 
This follows discussions with Les W and Brian W a few weeks ago in Caloundra where the two "leaders" of the club explained that they had looked for a different strategy to enable their members to move towards a full Rotary charter. Their club and active members were well known to many of the clubs on the coast through their volunteering efforts, always turning up when a helping hand was needed at a Rotary community event on the Coast.
 
So Wendy and I  felt very privileged to be selected from all the clubs on the coast to help them become fully fledged "Rotarians". 
 
 
 
There's still a few administrative details to be sorted out but we're hopeful of starting the new Rotary Year with our very own satellite club and helping then achieve full Rotarianship. We're also looking forward to pooling our resources to make a bigger difference to the Sunshine Coast Community.
 

Wendy and a certain scribe visit Mooloolaba Rotary 

 
On Monday evening Wendy continued her "Johnny Farnham" farewell tour and said her thanks and goodbye's to Mooloolaba as their outgoing AG.
 
Its always interesting visiting a different Rotary club on the Coast and probably something we should do more often. It interesting seeing how they do they things slightly differently and have different community programs and the like.
 
One thing that is common is that they all want to "make a difference" and contribute the "glue" to the communities they work in.
 
So thank you Mooloolaba for a warm welcome and an interesting night. 
 
Similarities - farewell tours?
 
 

Jeanne has an idea

Following on from the clubs collaboration with Maroochydore Rotary, Jeanne spoke to the club about her idea to help the community through her business (which she is now returning to after the golf!). So we'll talk about that and there should be an email in your inbox from Wendy requesting feedback.
 

Swimmers pass 100

 
The registrations are rolling on, and we expect to pass 100 registrations this week. We're holding short (ish) meetings after the general club meeting at 8.00 am to tick off the things to do as we head into the final preparation. On Friday we're were joined by Jackie MacGregor who is well connected with the ladies in surf and the swim clubs around the region. Also Les W stayed back after witnessing the unanimous vote. Les has been doing a fantastic job with promoting the swim on social media. If any member wants to stay back and join the swim discussions please feel free. Also please don't forget the multi draw and drop a few posters off at your local shops..always a good opening to ask for a raffle prize...you never know...we have some amazing business people on teh coast who are always happy to help.
 
 
 
Controversy Corner - turning up the heat

Wendy asks..where did we all come from?

 
So on Friday by show of hands we discovered what we all know..we're all visitors. So returning to the start of controversy corner a certain migrant (who Australian taxpayers actually paid for him and his family to come here - really??) posed the question...... "If you were going to pick a date to celebrate the being Australian on Australia Day,......would you really pick the date that the continent was colonised? Isn't that like picking the battle of Colloden as "Scotlands" day?.... Just saying. 
 
As we head away from reconciliation week and into Naidoc week are we comfortable with this situation? 
 

Are we Diverse enough?

 
Last weeks controversy corner was met with complete agreement that we should see what we can do to get Australia Day moved to a more inclusive day (see below). So thats something a certain scribe has on his "things to do" list. 
 
But this week something more controversial. It starts with the question...are we diverse enough as a club? Obviously at an organisational level, Rotary is representative of the world community with over 1,200,000 members "in more countries than MacDonalds" was the slogan which I think is still true.....and all races and communities are part of the Rotary family....but what about locally?
 
At Alex we've been very fortunate to balance up our male and female diversity at Alex Rotary and hopefully are no longer seen as a man's club. But like most Rotary clubs we are predominately "oldies". So that brings challenges as well as opportunities. 
 
We'll probably never represent the community age profile due to the nature of Rotary and todays society.... But what about visitors to our community?
 
We know that the Sunshine Coast attracts a very high percentage of residents as first time migrants - either interstate or overseas....what can we do we attract them to Rotary? 
 

Reconciliation or Invasion?

 
This is a story about reconciliation, appropriate to Reconciliation week, but perhaps controversial in some quarters. 
 
A few years ago Tamika,  young team leader from AIME - an amazing aboriginal mentoring support group at USC, spoke to the club. It was the first time a certain scribe heard the phrase" Invasion Day". It sort of jarred with me at the time but I could not really explain why.
 
Then recently Graeme spoke to the club about how the local parish priest always spoke of the Sunshine Coast as "a destination" and a show of hands demonstrated that we were all recent visitors. (some more recent than others!)
 
The more I thought about it, and Tamika's words, the more I realised that Tamika was right.  (and this is from a scribe whose race who have been front and centre in  every invasion for over 400 years). So when folks ask my opinion on the date of Australia Day I say that the date is wrong. I'd be upset if for example Scotlands day of celebration was on the anniversary of Culloden.
 
The date to celebrate this wonderful country  doesn't pass the 4 way test in my book, and the celebrations of Australia should go ahead on a different date. That would improve reconciliation. 
 
What do you think? Silence is assent. 
 
 
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