A Business Meeting, the Art's Festival's Hidden Agenda and Rotary's Strategic Plan.

Last Week
 It was a Business Meeting and as we don't usually have photos of members on the blog I thought it would be a good idea to show how seriously they take these meetings.

James Croswell is updating us on the Cervical Cancer Project and announced the acquisition of a container to convert into offices etc for the Baragwanath Palliative Care Project.

Much time was also spent on the Arts Festival which opens on Thursday.

I include a video of the Four Way Test that was seen by our incoming DG.  It is rumoured that he would like this to be the way every club presents it each week.  The District 9400 Glee Club will be performing at Discon with the intention that everyone else will be able to join in and then take it back to their clubs.

This Week
It's a Social Meeting, partly because of the Arts Festival.
Obviously it is our major fundraiser but because of the changes to the nature of the festival we must see it as a Rotary Exhibition which gives us the opportunity to talk about Rotary in general and our own club and its projects in particular.

The Arts Expo Hanging Team

No, they are not preparing the the gallows.  They are helping they are allocating space for the artists and assisting in hanging the paintings.

Let's really make an effort to recruit members but not only for our club but for the club which suits the potential member such as New Dawn or Morningside for breakfast or one of the many evening clubs which maybe close to where the person lives.

Rotary's new Strategic Plan will give us some ideas.

Rotary's Strategic Plan
Rotary's strategic plan sets the framework for our future, ensuring that we continue to be known as a respected, dynamic organization that advances communities worldwide.

As we stand on the cusp of eliminating polio, it time for us to create a new path toward bringing more people together, increasing our impact and creating even more lasting change around the world.

Rotary leadership is developing a strategic plan that will help guide our organization from Rotary year 2020 and beyond. Our current plan guides our work through Rotary 30 June 2019.

Dr. Francis “Tusu” Tusubira, Rotary Club of Kampala-North, Uganda introduces the new Rotary Strategic Plan.

 In June Rotary's Board of Directors and Trustees approved four key priorities and objectives to serve as the foundation for the next strategic plan:

Increase our impact Rotary strives to change the lives of others for the better. Our members invest volunteer and financial resources in a broad range of service activities, but we will do a better job of measuring the results and outcomes of our work. So that Rotary can continue to attract members, partners, and donors, we'll focus our programs and produce evidence of lasting impact.

Related objectives:

• Eradicate polio and leverage the legacy
• Focus our programs and offerings
• Improve our ability to achieve and measure impact

Expand our reach People are seeking ways to make a difference in the world and connect with others. How do we help them find what they're looking for in Rotary? By creating unique opportunities for more people and organizations to get involved. Clubs will always be important. But to extend our global reach, we'll expand our current structure with innovative models that welcome more participants into Rotary and give them meaningful ways to unite and take action.

Related objectives:

• Grow and diversify our membership and participation
• Create new channels into Rotary
• Increase Rotary's openness and appeal
• Build awareness of our impact and brand

Enhance participant engagement Because we recognize the challenges our clubs face in today's changing world, Rotary will support our clubs' efforts to deliver an experience that engages and retains members. When we help clubs focus on the experience and value they give their members, we give Rotarians and other participants the opportunity to serve together, connect with one another, and have a more satisfying experience with Rotary.

Related objectives:

• Support clubs to better engage their members
• Develop a participant-centered approach to deliver value
• Offer new opportunities for personal and professional connection
• Provide leadership development and skills training

Increase our ability to adapt To achieve our vision and keep pace with changing global trends, our structure and culture must evolve. We'll ensure that our operating and governance structures are efficient, flexible, and effective in delivering services to all of our participants.

Related objectives

• Build a culture of research, innovation, and willingness to take risks
• Streamline governance, structure and processes
• Review governance to foster more diverse perspectives in decision-making

What's next

In the coming year, we will craft strategies and tactics for achieving these new priorities and objectives.

Resources and reference

• 2017 strategic plan survey results
• Research methodology and findings brief

Medical Ethics, a Business Meeting & RI President Nominee for 2020-21

Last Week

Professor Peter Cleaton-Jones spoke to us on the ethics of medical research and showed how it had developed subsequent to experiments on adults and children in the Nazi concentration camps creating a need for a code of conduct.  He took us through the development and changes in an ethical approach to medical research through the years and how new methodologies create a need for an extension to the original concept that followed the Nuremberg Trials.

He used as his benchmark the Oxford English Dictionary definition you see here.  I found that particularly interesting as I have always tended to follow Plato which is more positive in saying that Happiness or Well being is the highest form of moral thought and conduct and the Virtues are the skills used to attain it or acquire it.....enough of philosophy for today but I thought it an interesting juxtaposition to the picture.

This Week
It's a Business Meeting.  If you look at President Jean's column you will see the hard work that is being done towards making some of our new projects a reality.  We will obviously hear more about this as well as the ever closer Art Expo which will make them financially possible.

Holger Knaack, a member of the Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln, Germany, has been selected to serve as president of Rotary International in 2020-21.

The Nominating Committee’s decision follows the resignation last month of President-nominee Sushil Gupta due to health reasons. Knaack will officially become president-nominee if no other

candidates challenge him by 31 May.

To build a stronger membership, Knaack says Rotary must focus on increasing the number of female members and transitioning Rotaractors into Rotarians.

Knaack believes that the People of Action campaign offers new public awareness possibilities for Rotary. “This campaign conveys our global image while still respecting differences in regions and cultures,” he says.

A Rotary member since 1992, Knaack has served Rotary as treasurer, director, moderator, member and chair of several committees, representative for the Council on Legislation, zone coordinator, training leader, and district governor.

He is an endowment/major gifts adviser and co-chair of the Host Organization Committee for the 2019 Rotary International Convention in Hamburg.

Knaack is the CEO of Knaack KG, a real estate company. He was previously a partner and general manager of Knaack Enterprises, a 125-year-old family business.

He is a founding member of the Civic Foundation of the City of Ratzeburg and served as president of the Golf-Club Gut Grambek. Knaack is also the founder and chair of the Karl Adam Foundation.

Knaack and his wife, Susanne, are Major Donors to The Rotary Foundation and members of the Bequest Society.

The members of the Nominating Committee for the 2020-21 President of Rotary International are Kazuhiko Ozawa, Rotary Club of Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan; Manoj D. Desai, Rotary Club of Baroda Metro, Gujarat, India; Shekhar Mehta, Rotary Club of Calcutta-Mahanagar, West Bengal, India; John G. Thorne, Rotary Club of North Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; Guiller E. Tumangan, Rotary Club of Makati West, Makati City, Philippines; Juin Park, Rotary Club of Suncheon, Jeonranam, Korea; Elio Cerini, Rotary Club of Milano Duomo, Italy; Gideon M. Peiper, Rotary Club of Ramat Hasharon, Israel; Per Høyen, Rotary Club of Aarup, Denmark; Paul Knijff, Rotary Club of Weesp (Vechtstreek-Noord), Netherlands; Sam Okudzeto, Rotary Club of Accra, Ghana; José Ubiracy Silva, Rotary Club of Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil; Bradford R. Howard, Rotary Club of Oakland Uptown, California, USA; Michael D. McCullough, Rotary Club of Trenton, Michigan, USA; Karen K. Wentz, Rotary Club of Maryville, Tennessee, USA; Michael K. McGovern, Rotary Club of South Portland-Cape Elizabeth, Maine, USA; and John C. Smarge, Rotary Club of Naples, Florida, USA.

The Art Expo, Professor Peter Cleaton-Jones and a Fantastic Book Sale

Last Week
There was a swop of speakers  that ended up not being a swop so we had no speaker last week but we had a very pleasant meeting chatting away anyway!

It is good to see that James and Charlotte Croswell attended the Rotary Leadership Institute Course on Saturday.  I hope that more members of our club avail themselves of the opportunity.

Rotary Art Expo
These are actually a series of Rotary Days that give us the opportunity to promote Rotary and our club in particular.  We may pride ourselves on how successful our club is and how we have been able to maintain our membership which means that we are one of the larger clubs in District 9400 but just add 10 years to our ages and that's what we have to worry about.  It's important that our younger members really do there best to promote Rotary at the Art Expo.

This Week
I am going to repeat what I said last week.....

Our speaker is Peter Cleaton-Jones who will be talking to us on health issues. He is a qualified dentist, medical practitioner and scientist. 

His main academic career was in dental research and anaesthesia; from 1977 to 2006 he was Professor of Experimental Odontology Director of the Dental Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand which was a joint Medical Research Council / University research entity between 1977 and 2004. 
On retiring in 2006 he was appointed a Professor Emeritus for life. Peter has been active in training researchers shown by 95 successfully supervised master and doctoral degrees and as co-presenter (with Prof E Grossman) of a 50 hour research training course which was attended by 1834 participants between 1978 and 2010. 
He has spent time in research entities in Denmark, England and Switzerland; in England he was a visiting professor in the Department of Paediatric Dentistry at the University of Leeds 2004-2010. Since 1974 he has served continuously on the Wits’ Human Research Ethics Committee (Medical), on the Medical Research Council’s Ethics Committee (1990-2002, Chair 1998-2002) and the Human Sciences Research Council Ethics Committee (2003-present, on request from the HSRC he formed the committee in 2003 and was Chair until 2005). 
From 2006-2014 he was an Honorary Adjunct Professor in the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics; in 2015 his title was changed to Honorary Professor. 

Secondhand Treasures Book Sale raises $95,000

When five trucks arrived at a secondary school in the city of Venlo in the Netherlands, members of the Rotary Club of Venlo-Maas en Peel were ready.

The trucks were filled with items to be sold at the club’s 33rd annual book and record sale. The seven-day event in early January raised $95,000 that will go toward projects that improve the lives of children in Brazil, Malawi, Peru, and Sri Lanka.

In partnership with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the club mustered about 200 volunteers, including people who are not Rotary members, who made sure the event went off without a hitch. About 10,000 book and record aficionados from throughout the Netherlands, and from other countries including Germany and Belgium, attended the sale and took home 60,000 books and 15,000 records.

The club members work throughout the year to organize the fair. The club has drop-off points for book and record donations, and volunteers sort through them twice a week.

The items are categorized by genre, and a coordinator responsible for each category makes the final decision on what will be included in the sale. Most books sell for between 50 cents and $2.50, but those that are new or special can cost between $3 and $50.

Sometimes the club receives a donation of something unique. A few years ago, a dossier of documents related to the history of the city of Papendrecht brought in $8,000. The oldest of the documents, which the city bought, dated to 1328.

“The city of Papendrecht organized a special exhibition with these documents,” says club member Peter Elbers, noting that the documents contained previously unknown information about the city’s history.

After 33 years, Elbers has some tips on how to organize a successful book and record fair. Most important, he says, is to plan from the start to make it an annual event.

“Don’t try to organize such a fair only once,” he says. “When people recognize the quality of what you are selling, they will come back.”

A reliable volunteer workforce is also a must. Club member Jaap Verhofstad brought his children to help set up and break down the fair. “My children have had a few hours of fun helping out at the fair during the sale,” he says. “Our 11-year-old twins are too young for the heavy work — but in a few years we will have two more strong men.”

Lambano Paediatric Hospice, Rotary District 9400 Blanket Drive, Wheelchairs, Call Back the Past, Professor Peter Cleaton-Jones and Rotary in Action.

Last Week



 Stewart Mutokonya from Lambano came to talk to us about the new Paediatric Hospice that they building in Kensington to replace their current hospice.  I wrote a lot about it last week so I won't repeat what I had written previously.
Stewart is very articulate and his talk stimulated a lot of questions.  Unfortunately the Rotary Blanket Drive meant that a number of members were busy trying to raise money for blankets outside Pick 'n Pay on William Nicol Drive.

Our efforts for the Rotary District 9400 Blanket Drive took place from last Friday to Sunday this week......I don't know the results yet.

Cesare Vidulich organised a wheelchair for the local Lions Club
and they not only photographed it but also thanked us.  It's very good thing that we are able to assist another service organisation.

We have also provided two wheelchairs for Lambano Paediatric Hospice, specifically to assist with moving children from room to room.

Mark Franklin passed this photograph around for us to see...who is that distinguished looking Rotarian with dark hair I wonder?

This Week
Our speaker is Peter Cleaton-Jones who will be talking to us on health issues. He is a qualified dentist, medical practitioner and scientist. 

His main academic career was in dental research and anaesthesia; from 1977 to 2006 he was Professor of Experimental Odontology Director of the Dental Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand which was a joint Medical Research Council / University research entity between 1977 and 2004. 
On retiring in 2006 he was appointed a Professor Emeritus for life. Peter has been active in training researchers shown by 95 successfully supervised master and doctoral degrees and as co-presenter (with Prof E Grossman) of a 50 hour research training course which was attended by 1834 participants between 1978 and 2010. 
He has spent time in research entities in Denmark, England and Switzerland; in England he was a visiting professor in the Department of Paediatric Dentistry at the University of Leeds 2004-2010. Since 1974 he has served continuously on the Wits’ Human Research Ethics Committee (Medical), on the Medical Research Council’s Ethics Committee (1990-2002, Chair 1998-2002) and the Human Sciences Research Council Ethics Committee (2003-present, on request from the HSRC he formed the committee in 2003 and was Chair until 2005). 
From 2006-2014 he was an Honorary Adjunct Professor in the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics; in 2015 his title was changed to Honorary Professor. 

Rotary in Action