Welcome Sybille, Pets, Snow Leopards..not as pets.. and next Rotary Year theme, Rotary Connects the World

Last Week

 President Jean mentioned
 next Rotary Year's theme badge.

It was a Business Meeting but most important was welcoming Sybille Essmann as a new member of our club.  There are a couple more to follow.
There was quite a bit said about the need for fundraising and the new approach that is necessary for the Rotary Arts Festival.



We also welcomed Takalani Mashadzha,the recipient of our Lester Connock Award but only one person recognised him out of his nurses uniform!




President Elect Training Seminar (Pets)

This took place on Saturday to lunchtime on Sunday and was at a conference centre in Isando so it was easy for us to get there.  It was very different from last year because a lot of time was spent on My Rotary and on the  Learning Centre .  Click on here for the link.....it's actually on the right of the menu when you go into My Rotary. 
I looked at a number of the modules and they vary a bit in quality.  Getting Started was all right.  Peace Fellowships really told you what was on Rotary.org.  Best Practices for Engaging Members & Building a Diverse Club didn't quite make it in my opinion though the two modules added by Great Britain & Ireland, Assistant Governor Basics & Mentoring in Rotary were excellent despite being British and Irish orientated.
President Jean obviously concentrated on the whole thing where-as others read the newspapers, in spite of  PDG Grant Daley in the background.

Incoming District Governor Maurice Stander set the agenda for radical change in our approach to Rotary in his year whilst incoming DG Elect Annemarie Mostert calculates the results.

I have always been a bit sceptical about the District Training Seminar but I realised that it is certainly very valuable, particularly for Board Members.  It will be on Saturday 6th April in Benoni or alternatively Saturday 13th April in Pretoria.  Do make an effort to attend as sadly those who go are the converted and those who really should go don't.

This Week
Our speaker is Dr Rodney Jackson.

Dr. Rodney Jackson is the leading expert on wild snow leopards and their high-mountain habitat. The Snow Leopard Conservancy has grown out of Rodney’s thirty years’ experience gained in working closely with rural herders and farmers whose lives are directly impacted when snow leopards prey upon their livestock.

Upon receiving a 1981 Rolex Award for Enterprise, Rodney launched a pioneering radio-tracking study of snow leopards in the remote mountains of the Nepalese Himalaya. The four-year study led to the cover story in the June 1986 National Geographic. In addition, the June, 2008 issue of National Geographic featured Rodney’s work with the Snow Leopard Conservancy India. He has been a finalist for the Indianapolis Prize in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2016 – the first to be nominated three times consecutively. The Indianapolis Prize is the world’s largest individual monetary award for animal conservation.

I imagine we will have a number of visitors so will order additional pizza, the snow leopard's natural food.

2019-2020: Rotary Connects the World

RI President-elect Mark Daniel Maloney’s theme for 2019-20, Rotary Connects the World, asks Rotarians to strengthen the many ways that Rotary Connects the World, building the connections that allow talented, thoughtful, and generous people to unite and take meaningful action through Rotary service.


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