A Business Meeting, District 9400 Mid-term Assembly and The Ann's 100 Club fundraising initiative....

From the Pen of our President... 

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

 After dealing with Club business on Friday some of us spent a very fulfilling and exciting couple of hours on Saturday morning listening in on the District mid-year assembly.

Rotary is such a satisfying organisation to be involved with – whenever I do anything Rotary related I feel so proud to be a Rotarian. Spend some time with other clubs and the District 9400 representatives and you feel like that times 100!!

After hearing all the stories about what other clubs are doing and planning and involved in I was absolutely inspired – WHAT AN AMAZING ORGANISATION ROTARY IS!!!

 Feeling very proud of Rosebank, the members and just being part of it all – you should join some of the calls and try it!!

Yours in Rotary,

Ann

 

Last Friday....

...was a business meeting with report backs from various Chairs:

 Treasurer - John Symons:

• Club Subscriptions - most members have elected to pay their annual  dues in full, only six members have chosen to pay their subscription monthly and are being urged to do so by debit order.
• All RI, District and Rotary Africa Magazine dues have been paid across in full.
• Last year it was suggested that as we were not meeting at Wanderers where attendees would have paid R50 lunch money, to instead donate that saving to the Club. Only a few members have heeded that call.

Membership  -  David Bradshaw :

• 2 new members who have been attending many of our Zoom meetings are to be inducted soon - Anne Padmore and Charmaine Cleesman, 
• Sonja Hood's son Gareth, who returned to China late last year to continue his teaching contract, is very keen to join as an e-member. With the 6 hour time difference our Friday meetings would suit him perfectly. 
• There are a few potential members that David is working on, so hopefully we will attain our membership goal for this year.

 International  -  James Croswell:  

• The Container Project for the Palliative Care Unit at Baragwanath is as good as completed; only the electricity still needs to be connected.
• An official hand-over will be communicated, Covid restrictions dependent.

Youth  -  Jean Bernardo: 

• Due to the delay in schools reopening not much is happening on that front.
• Marianne has been in touch with Mimi from Highlands North School.
• Masego (or Momo), our exchange student recently returned from Thailand and is struggling to adjust to being back in S.A. She will be addressing us in March and will also give us a demonstration of the Thai cooking skills she acquired.
• President Ann delivered 5 Certificates to scholars of various schools in Johannesburg.

• Given the Covid restrictions the Youth Leadership course will more than likely again be conducted online.
• Thought has to be given how best to conduct the Annual Careers Day given the ongoing Covid challenges.

 Publicity and PR  -  Jean

• 3 articles showcasing our Club have been published in the Rotary Africa magazine.
• We are weighing up whether we should consolidate the Club website and the weekly Ramble.

 Foundation  - Les Short

• Rosebank has fulfilled all obligations to Foundation
• The club received a District Grant of R9 500 with which sewing machines were purchased and with which a group of ladies are sewing masks for the Diepsloot community

Community Services   -  Sybille Essmann

• Although the annual Norwood Spar "Festive Cheer" food drive only took place over two weekends we nonetheless managed to collect R27 600 worth of food items, which were distributed by means of vouchers to Puthatidjaba in Alexandra, The Frida Hartley Foundation, the Candlelight Club and Charity begins with Me. A big thank you goes to Pam Donaldson for her very generous donation of R5 000.
• Sybille is in communication with JoJo Tanks to hopefully receive a donation of a 5000 liter water  tank to harness rain water for the vegetable garden that residents of the informal settlement at Durban Deep mines have planted through the dedicated work of Stefan Ferreira from Charity begins with Me,
• Ongoing support of the "White Cane" Project
• Potential project - the AquaBox - as described on page 26 of the November edition of the Rotary Africa magazine.

Fund Raising - Sonja Hood

• So far about 30 tickets have been sold for the Rob Caskie talk on the 17th of February and Sonja urges that every club member invite at least one friend or family member to this event.

• Sonja will shortly be submitting an application to My School, my Village, my Planet to motivate that Rotary Club of Rosebank become a designated beneficiary.

• Please diarize our annual Quiz fundraiser in October. Surely by then we will be able to hold this ever popular event.

The District 9400 Mid-Year Assembly

263 Rotarians from the far reaches of District 9400 had registered to attend the mid-year Assembly held last Saturday the 23rd of January, and at any given time at least 168 people were online 

The gracious DG Annemarie and the  vivacious DG Elect Stella Anyangwe and a handful of attendees.

I don't want to steal DG Annemarie's thunder, because no doubt she will report back to us in her monthly newsletter.

In support of the Rotary Anns 100 Club.......

Anns 100 Club

The  Anns 100 Club has been running for some five years now.  It brings in money to support our projects.  This year, because of Covid 19 it is an ideal way to raise funds requiring, as it does, no social contact.

This is your opportunity to join the 100 Club for 2021.  Lyn Collocott was our latest winner of the big draw – this year it could be you.

The prizes work as follows:  Every month (for 11 months) there is a monthly draw with a prize of  R300 and one of R150.  At the end of 11 months there is a big draw with a prize of R3000, one of R1500 and one of R500.

Here’s how to buy yourself 11 monthly chances and one for the big draw.

Do an EFT to the Rotary Club of Rosebank Anns for the once=off amount of R300

For the beneficiary reference put in your name and surname and 100 club. 

GOOD LUCK!

THE ODDS ARE GOOD AS ONLY 100 TICKETS ARE SOLD

Banking details:

FNB  -   Bryanston

Branch code   -   250017

Account  number  -  50374602884

P.S. To find out who the other winners for January were please click on the Rosebank Rotary Ann's dedicated page at the top.

Establishment of the Southern African Foundation of Rotary Clubs, The Ann's in Action, and the first Quiz Challenge against Hermanus....

 From the Pen of our President...

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

 I do hope you are all well and keeping a low profile?!

 Rotary life is taking off after the break and we have a flurry of meetings coming up. Please make a plan to be part of a Committee, attend the monthly meeting and be part of the projects we run.

 On Saturday morning you can relax at home and log in to the District Mid-year assembly – hear what other clubs are doing and how things are being handled across the district.

 Look out for ways to get involved, look for new ideas to introduce to the club.

 Keep in touch and hope to see you online!

 Yours,

 Ann

Last Friday....

PDG Greg Stathacopoulos (apologies for misspelling his name in last week's Ramble) was invited to give the Club some insights into District and Global Grants and  the formation of The Foundation of Southern  African  Rotary Clubs (https://fsarc.co.za/).

To understand the mechanics of the application and granting of District and Global Grants is by no means simple, and I am therefore taking the liberty to simplify Greg's presentation. 

Let's start at the very beginning:

1) Club Dues:

Every Rotarian pays an annual amount to their designated Club which covers

* Running cost

* District Dues

* RI Dues

* Rotary Africa Magazine

2) Funds raised from the public may not be used for running costs but will be used to fund Club projects.

Funds are raised by various fund raising efforts such as the annual Arts Festival, quiz evenings etc

Examples of Club projects would be:

* The annual senior youth leadership course, which is a three day weekend away with +/- 65 participants

* The College of Orientation and Mobility - White Cane Project, which is a division of the Guide Dog Association

* The Palliative Care Counselling Unit for patients at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital

3) District Grants:

Monies that District has available to fund District Grants come from RI and clubs apply for these grants. Assume that this year District will be receiving $23 000 from RI which becomes available on the 1st of July 2021. 

This amount is generated from funds that we as District, from all clubs, have sent across to RI (as our donations) which was then invested for 3 years, and comes back to District as a percentage of the returns achieved. 

An example of a District project was the refurbishment of the container for the Palliative Care Unit at Baragwanath.  This entailed:

* Completion of a Grant Application with a detailed budget as to the costs

* A Memorandum of Understanding

* A District Grants Report Form on completion of the project.

This was a huge project and funding came from various sources.

4) Global Grants: 

* Unless the project costs $30 000 or more you would not apply for a Global Grant.

*The project must be within the six (soon to be 7) areas of focus.

* We would approach an international club, who would donate $15 000 or more (that is what Greg mentioned as the possible participation of 18 German Districts who are willing to support projects in Africa)

* RI would then match that  donation Dollar for Dollar

* Funds that we have raised at Club level are not matched.

5) The Establishment of the Foundation of the Southern African Rotary Clubs (FSARC)

Most companies in South Africa and also beyond its borders  (Zimbabwe and Zambia) donate towards Corporate Social Investment (CSI), but in return they would need a Section 18A Certificate for this donation to be tax-deductible. This Section 18A Certificate can only be issued by a Public Benefit Organization (PBO) or a Non Profit Company (NPC).

The FSARC has therefore been registered as a PBO and NPC  and donations received from corporate entities can be issued the requisite Section 18A Certificate  and the funds can now legitimately be made available for approved club projects. 

 Quiz Challenges are back....

Our first quiz challenge of the year was against the Rotary Club of Hermanus. As the hosts they had to nominate the quiz master, and boy oh boy Quizmaster Mark certainly did not make it easy.

questions like:

What does a Blue Moon signify?  (Answer: When there are two full moons in the space of a month)

What wood is a cricket bat made of? (Answer: Willow)

What do Agrophobics fear? (Answer: pain)

What country has the Birr as its national currency? (Answer: Ethiopia)

What is the capital of Uzbekistan? (Answer: Tashkent)

What is a gudgon pin? (Answer: I have not got a clue!!!)

....stumped many a participant, and Team Rosebank was convinced that Hermanus had thumped us good and proper, but no!! We scraped through with a narrow win of 20.66 points against their 20.50.

So we are happy to announce that we have retained the Corona Cup.

Please join us for entertaining fellowship. Tomorrow we take on Benoni and Sonja Hood is our capable Quizmaster.

This Friday....

A business meeting.

A Social meeting to kick off the year and a few dates to save...

 From the Pen of our President Ann....

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

 

 May 2021 bring to each one of you HEALTH, HAPPINESS, LOVE and LAUGHTER – never forget to laugh!!

I had a call with DG Annemarie today and she is happy with our progress for the Rotary year so far – we are in line for a citation – YAY!! Thank you to you all!

We have some great speakers lined up and some important meetings to attend in the next few weeks.

Please do make an effort to attend and remember my house is open to anyone who does not want to be alone… you may come here to attend the weekly meeting or the District events.

Do not give up – we may have to meet predominantly on Zoom for the time being but, this too will pass!

I am a phone call away, my kettle is always on the boil and you are welcome!

Look forward to seeing you all in person or on line.

 

 Ann Hope-Bailie

Last Friday, a Social Meeting...

President Ann offered to host the meeting at her home for those members who wished for some face-to-face fellowship and sarmies; Lenore, Lyn and Sybille showed up but the others joined via Zoom.

Due to our Club's relationship with the Highlands North Boys Interact Club President Ann's ears pricked up when she read this open letter by old-boy Ben Horowitz published in the Daily Maverick last week. He aims to raise a substantial R350 000 from his fellow old-boys for his Alma Mater  and would this not be a wonderful opportunity for these young Rotary Interactors to get involved in "spending" the funds.

Ben Horowitz's open letter to the Highlands North Boys Matric Class of 1981

Ann has received about 1400 children's picture books in Afrikaans and German and was hoping that one of us would have a suggestion as to how best to distribute them to a worthy cause and possibly generate some funds for our Club coffers.

Our First Fundraiser for the Year.....

Please share this invitation with as many of your family, friends and colleagues as possible so that we can make sure that this event will be as successful as our previous Rob Caskie fundraiser.

To secure your Zoom attendance you may EFT payment to the following bank account:

Nedbank

Account Holder: Rosebank Rotary Club

Account Number: 1145 9991 23

Branch Code: 198-765

Reference: Your Surname - Caskie

This Friday....

Greg Strathacopoulos, Chair of the E-Club of Southern Africa will address the Club and give us some insights into the Establishment of the Southern African Foundation.

Quiz Evenings .....

And last but not least, do join us for our ever popular Zoom quiz evenings. Get hold of David Bradshaw on 083 461 6830 and he will include you on our Quiz WhatsApp group so that you are kept in the loop of upcoming challenges.