The three F’s at eRotary Changeover

Mary Nettle becomes our new President for 2015/16

Click for Action eRotary members celebrated on the 11th July, 2015 at the Cafe Bliss, as Mary became President for the Rotary Year 2015/16. Yes a day of Fun, Fellowship and Food to mark this next stage in our journey of Rotary online, offline and wherever we go.

A very special handover and everyone wishes Mary a very successful year, joined by her President Nominee Jacqui Horn by Skype, the day showed how flexible eRotary can be and how informal eRotary is in the 21st Century for busy people who can’t be physically present. What was great was that this was done in a public cafe, showing Rotary does not hide away but blends into community life.

As President Mary starts her year she hopes members, potential new members and friends will join in with our exciting programme of activities planned for 2015/16, plus she would be very keen to hear your passions, ideas and activities you are undertaking in your communities.

Our programme 2015/16

July – Summer Event with Yayu in Wimborne learning about her passion for Indonesian Cooking and Botanical Water Colour Painting

August – Plans are in hand about Tap Avoidance to show we care about Water supplies in the world.

September – Again we hope to join in with World Peace Day on the 21st Sep.

October – We want throughout the year to continue to encourage people to discuss openly and learn more about Mental Health and will again run an event on Saturday 10th October at the Cafe Bliss in Worcester to celebrate World Mental Health Day.

November – sees us continuing to support the Let’s Loop the UK, with the Loop Awareness Week 2nd – 8th November, our projects in Swindon will continue to encourage others to get involved.

Plus throughout the year we will help our Uplands Interact Club develop their Guess where the Cow drops it Pat, as they raise funds for the Toilet Twinning Charity. We will continue our support with the District 1100 Vocational Training Team to Sofia in Bulgaria supporting work with the FSCI Houses of Opportunity and of course the important work in the UK with Food-banks.

Don’t forget to encourage friends, work colleagues and relatives to join in with our eDraw, a win win opportunity for everyone including The Rotary Foundation and SOS Children’s Villages. Look out for news of our Young Writer’s competition, Disability Awareness Event, plus more as Mary’s year and team show eRotary is Fun and full of fulfilment.

President Mary would encourage you all to enjoy Rotary, join in with the planned monthly themed vocational meetings, which will use some form of video conferencing. Get to know each other through our Facebook Members Only Coffee Lounge or by what is best for you e.g. telephone, meet ups, involvement with others in activities.

We invite all our Rotary friends and members to visit our programme page on our website every Thursday to read our presentation for our 24/7 week, some great insight of projects, activities and learning more about Rotary and Service above Self.

Finally we wish our Rotary International President Ravi Ravindran a fantastic year for 2015/16. He leads us back to Rotary being about Service through our vocations as he asks us all to be a Gift to the World.

Rotary President’s Message to Incoming Club Officers (EN) from Rotary International on Vimeo.

As President Mary, sends off the President Elect ribbon to Richmond in Canada so that Debbie Vance can take on her new exciting role from across the pond.

President Mary of Click 4 Action eRotary with her team wish every Rotarian across the world a Wonderful and Happy New Year with the hope that we can all achieve this year’s theme through our individual and joint Service to be a Gift to the World.

eRotary continues to make a Splash

A round up of all the news from our exciting and active eRotary, continuing to make a difference online and offline in a network for busy people who want to do Service above Self with limited time capacity.

Virtual Balloon Race for Water

Thank you to everyone who bought a balloon this year in our Race for Water. We congratulate Speedy Girl who came in 1st, closely followed by London Girl 2nd and Kiwi Express 3rd. We will get the prizes to the 1st and 2nd places shortly. The real winners are those who will benefit from the money raised and with additional funds added by the Click 4 Action eRotary to enable us to send £300 to purchase 10 Jompys and £300 to purchase 10 Roll Out the Barrels, ensuring clean water for the communities who benefit from our giving. To help publicise the Race for Water Rotarians Tim and Janice promoted the race from London, Bucharest, Budapest, Prague and Berlin especially on Facebook.

eAwareness – Service through Social Media Posts

As an eClub one of the very practical ways we can give Service is by promoting issues through our use of Social Media. We are already doing this by encouraging people to talk openly about Mental Health and keeping their mental health fit, do help us promote this on Facebook. Other areas are Autism Awareness and Domestic Abuse, so do please get involved with our eAwareness campaigns.

eClub Secretary Tim says ‘The other day I had a Facebook Message from a friend asking me what I knew about the Suzy Lamplugh Trust – Live Life Safe. I had to confess that, apart from knowing it was to do with Estate Agents and someone going missing, I had no idea’. Have a look at their website and let us help this charity to gain greater awareness, as keeping people safe in our communities is everyones’ business.

Other eAwareness issues we can help promote in the coming weeks are Dementia Awareness Week 2015 – 18th May to 24th May. Loads of information on the Alzheimer’s Society website, plus a practical way of getting involved is to become a Dementia Friend, wouldn’t it be good if all our members trained be one? Secondly National Volunteers Week 1st to 7th June 2015, where we ought to be ensuring we show how much is done in our communities thanks to Volunteering with both Rotary and in other organisations that we are working in partnership with, continuing to make lots of splashes of differences through these given hours.

Let’s Loop Swindon News Update

The volunteers involved in this exciting project are continuing as part of the Rotary Community Corps (RCC) to do a tremendous job in auditing Hearing Loops in the town of Swindon, just completed are audits in Post Offices and Community Centres. This week working with a group of students from New College Swindon and staff at a Lloyds Pharmacy, members of the RCC Let’s Loop Swindon Team are making an awareness video to help people understand the difference made by using a Hearing Loop.

As well as continued auditing, the RCC Let’s Loop project has now moved into a second phase of building awareness with both Hearing Aid Wearers and non wearers. Working with the Great Western Hospital Audiology Department our first Newsletter Let’s Loop Swindon News  has been produced, which is to be distributed to 4500 people served by the hospital. The team are also planning to have stalls in the town centre to get members of the public learning more about Hearing Loops and they have purchased a portable loop from the Cheese & Wine Event funds.

At the Let’s Loop Swindon launch, Chair of the Steering Group Tim Mason said ‘he hoped that those attending would be the boulders being thrown into the pool to generate splashes and ripples that would help Let’s Loop the UK’. It is good that we are now also supporting efforts in the Cotswolds, Worthing and Westminster to get Looping the Towns underway.

Welcome to Rotarian Lynda who got involved with Rotary first through her husband and his activities in the Rotary Club of Swindon and then as a volunteer in the Rotary Community Corps Let’s Loop Swindon team. It was with great pleasure that President Janice inducted Lynda into Rotary at the evening meeting of the Rotary Club of Swindon.

We continue our activities in helping to make a splash in our Communities, Membership and eRotary awareness is key to our activities, so we are pleased to welcome and encourage all the provisional members who have joined us. Service is not only what you do in your own communities it can be done using the tools of Social Media to help build eAwareness. Rotary through its 1.2 million members’ network provides a real opportunity to connect on Social Media with like minded people all around the world. eRotarians Jasper, Tim, Janice, Mike and provisional member Ludwig showed this when they all met at EUCO 2015, do read what Tim learnt from this experience.

Jasper, Mike, Ludwig and Marthe enjoy an evening of wine tasting at EUCO

As an eClub from time to time we have opportunities to get together and share fellowship and learn new skills. We are pleased to invite members to our Summer Vocational Event on 26th July, 2015 in Wimborne to taste Indonesian Cooking by Rotarian Yayu. President Janice says ‘I can thoroughly recommend her new book – Yayu’s Simply Indonesian – which is a wonderful introduction to Indonesian cookery. It’s not just recipes (all of which give a wonderful range of the tastes of Indonesia), but a wealth of knowledge about the ingredients. Her eye for detail is brilliant, all the photos have been so well presented and even her atlas map of the intricate Indonesian archipelago has been watercolour painted by herself’.

And Next time

Watch out for our next edition when report on the Young Writer’s Competition, all the fun at the Splading People’s Parade, the work at Malmesbury Foodbank and Rotary Community Corps working on the river. Plus the Uplands Interact Club launch of our Cow Pat for Toilet Twinning…..

 

 

Action the name of our Game

Today 22nd March is World Water Day and we are pleased at this time to be running our Virtual Balloon Race for Water, please help us sell balloons to friends, work colleagues, family, perhaps download the leaflet eClub Balloon Race A5 2015 and help promote our sales. To encourage people to purchase more than one balloon, it is either possible for Click 4 Action eRotary members to collect the money with the leaflet or for multi-purchases to be actioned through our website paypal donate button, just add balloon in the reference.

President Janice says ‘Morning everyone, don’t forget today is World Water Day, something we all can help to promote in all sorts of ways and especially with our Race for Water balloon race going on.
It would be great to see our balloons blazing a trail through the internet making sure everyone knows the importance of the Race for Water. The balloons are taking their time to race, we cannot be so relaxed about supporting everyone throughout the World access to clean water and hygienic sanitation.’

Talking of water, the Rotary Community Corps in Malmesbury are continuing to watch and protect the town against flooding again. Led by our Rotarian Ray, plans and actions are being developed to keep the mechanisms working so that the water is kept flowing and at correct levels. Plus, the RCC members are still helping where they can to support the Malmesbury and District Foodbank.

Let’s Loop Swindon had a Cheesy Time on Saturday 14th March, 2015

Thanks to Rotarian Jacqui for her organisation of our Cheese and Wine Event to help raise funds and awareness for the Let’s Loop Swindon campaign. We raised £314 towards equipment for our Rotary Community Corps members to use when checking buildings for Hearing Loops. In the picture we can see Jacqui and Rotarian Jasper (who’d travelled all the way from Germany) using the Hearing Loop to communicate clearly the stories about the wines people were drinking. We thank everyone for their support of this event, as we continue to help make Swindon a champion town for Hearing Loops.

The RCC Let’s Loop Swindon Team are doing a stirling job, they have just completed auditing Department Stores and the McCathur Glen Designer Outlet Centre, they have now audited over 200 premises. Whilst they continue to check for Hearing Loops, further work has included our Launch Awareness Event on 25th February, when they received their RCC Charter from District Governor Martyn Harwood.

Some of the team described the work of Let’s Loop Swindon at the Rotary District 1100 Mini Convention and other areas are considering replicating the RCC Let’s Loop model e.g. Paddington and in the Cotswolds. Definitely action is very much what this team is undertaking every month as it continues to Let’s Loop Swindon.

Membership recruitment is still key to our actions

Congratulations to Rotarians Debbie, Sunil and Jacqui for receiving the Rotary International Blue Badge awarded by the RI President for sponsoring a new member. In presenting them President Janice says ‘On behalf of Rotary International I would like to thank you for sponsoring a new member of our club, for which RI have presented to you the blue backed pin.’ The challenge is for all our members to do this and how many members can go for gold and sponsor 6 new members?

It is so good when new members are welcomed into eRotary and this year we have inducted Rotarians Charlotte, Paul, Pamela, Yayu, Jasper and Eileen. We also welcome some new provisional members who are taking a trial period of being part of Click 4 Action eRotary, two of whom are from the RCC Let’s Loop Swindon: we welcome Chetra (Sri Lanka), Lynda (UK), Chaitanya (India), Michael (UK), Melanie (UK), Richard (UK), Charles (USA) and Veronicah (UK), we hope you enjoy eRotary and want to take the next step into full membership.

Interested in joining us? Please visit Magic of Rotary

Rotarian Michael is inducted at Regional Assembly with big cheese looking on. Thanks RGB President Elect Peter Davey

Young Writers is the name of the Game

We are pleased to be working in partnership to launch this year’s WorcsLitFest along with Titania the Young Writer Competition 2015 Rotarians. Teachers, Mum’s & Dad’s, Grannie, Grandad, Aunts & Uncles, Godparents – The FREE Young Writer Competition is OPEN!
Young writers between the ages of 7-17 may enter. Full details are available from Young Writers Competition Website.
Please download the poster, print it and take it along to local schools / colleges / libraries / doctors’ surgeries and anywhere else that you can think of in your community – we love to make this competition accessible to every child and young person.

Coming soon as we continue to make Action and Service the centre of all we do

Our Uplands Interact Club are working on a project to help get more toilets in the world by Twinning their school Toilets. We will need to help with promoting their online Cow Pat Competition. As Click 4 Action eRotary we want to do more for toilets, please visit Toilet Twinning.

We would like to start a further Interact Club in Swindon and would like offers of help from local members.

Don’t forget to help promote World Autism Day on the 2nd April, this is a key way in which eRotary can build eAwareness and get people recognising the need for more action and involvement.

Help President Elect Mary with her planning for the new Rotary Year starting in July 2015, she needs your ideas and passions as to what you’d like included in the programme and what activities we might undertake.

President Janice and Secretary Tim are looking forward to their visit to Bucharest when they go to the Rotaract EUCO 2015, where they will be with Rotarians Jasper and Mike. Rotaractors who have recently joined us as Rotarians show us all the need to work in partnership with Rotaract, so the opportunity to learn more is very exciting. As Click 4 Action eRotary want to help build Rotaract, particularly in the UK. As part of this trip Tim and Janice will be promoting our Balloon Race for Water.

Finally we are now recruiting for the District 1100 Vocational Training Team to go to Sofia, Bulgaria and help the Foundation for Social Change and Inclusion with developing Social Enterprise.  If interested please download VTT advert.

 

 

Balloon Race for Water

Today 8th February 2015 we celebrate Click 4 Action eRotary’s 3rd Charter Anniversary and we do so by promoting our Virtual Balloon Race for Water

Click 4 Action eRotary is organising an environmentally friendly balloon race for water. Isn’t it unbelievable in the 21st Century we still live in a world where clean water isn’t readily available. We believe if we can help this to be just a memory and clean water is in abundance, our world would be much happier and healthier. So please help to spread the message that we all need to do more to provide one of the basic needs of our human existence – water, plentiful and available wherever in the world you live. Help us to enable this to happen, by joining a Balloon Race for Water, promoting it to others and have some fun us as we race on the internet.

How does it work?

The virtual balloons are sold for £2 each or 3.05$ or 3.82 Canadian$ or 2.69 Euros or 189.04 India Rupee, etc. You can buy your balloon from now till the end of the race. You can buy as many balloons as you like. The more balloons you release, the more chance to win a prize. The balloons will be released on the 23rd of February 2015, another important anniversary being Rotary’s birthday 110 years old. The balloon race will end on the 9th May 2015. The balloon(s) that travel(s) the biggest distance will win a prize.

What your Balloon will help us achieve – the collected funds will be shared over the following projects:

Roll Out The Barrel

This project intends that the elderly, women and children who collect water, even from the closest of water sources or supply, will no longer need to carry it, by hand, on their backs, on their heads, or over their shoulders, by providing them with a simple push/pull 30 litre Rotary Water Barrel with a handle and rubber tyres for £30 each.
More information can be found at Roll Out The Barrel

Water Filters in India

Our Click 4 Action eRotary has 3 members from India who support a project for installing water filters for families. One water filter costs £40. It will support one family of 8 members for at least 10 years minimum. Hopefully this balloon race will make sure that several families will have access to clean water.

Jompy for Malawi

The Jompy water boiler is a simple, easy to use device that allows the user to cook and boil water simultaneously, so saving on fuel and time spent over an open fire. The Jompy will pasturise contaminated water reducing the chance of water borne diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera. Our purpose is to introduce the Jompy in Malawi to people who can’t afford clean water. Our member David explains more

Pa Modou supporting his village in Gambia writes “Clean safe water is essential for all, it is a basic human necessity and a right. Not having this keeps people’s life at risk, even to the extent where some get so sick and even die. This has been a problem in many African countries and the Gambia is not an exception to that, particularly proposed project for a borehole in SAMI VILLAGE” (read more at of Rotarian Pa’s hopes for his village)

How can you ensure you get on the Leader Board?

Make sure you visit the Click 4 Action eRotary Balloon Race for Water Website

Help us promote the Race to your friends, family, work colleagues by giving them the Leaflets below and displaying the poster.

Balloon Race A5 Leaflet 2015

Leaflets to promote eRotary Balloon Race A5 2015

Take a selfie of yourself with a balloon somewhere unusual and we will publicise, with a prize for the best post and place visited send to info@1100rotaryeclub.org

eRotary changes gear for 2015

Up Up and Away in our beautiful Balloon

Rotarian Jasper is helping us to get ready to launch our Virtual Balloon Race for 2015. This year we are fundraising for Water and Sanitation projects throughout the world. We hope everyone will help sell the balloons to help water projects in Gambia, India and to help purchase Jompys and Water Barrels. Balloons will cost £1 and you choose the colour and the name.

Help Build our Emergency Fund – When shopping online don’t forget to do it through Easy Fundraising, this will help us build a small fund to be able to donate something to emergency causes.

Let’s Loop Swindon – hopefully everyone will have visited our last News Update ‘I can’t Hear’ which gave an update of this amazing project being undertaken in partnership with our Rotary Community Corps; we had some good publicity from the Swindon Advertiser and The Link Magazine. We are looking forward to our launch event on the 25th February and then our Cheese and Wine on Saturday 14th March, tickets are available from Janice Mason or Jacqui Horn at £10. Quite exciting that we have a number of Click 4 Action eRotary members coming already, Jasper, James and Cindy, Michael, Mary, so please tell your friends about this great night that awaits, including more information on Let’s Loop Swindon, Wine Tasting and a talk from our own Wine Expert Rotarian Jasper Vethaak from Germany.

Women’s Empowerment – Our Indian Click 4 Action eRotary members helped start the New Year with Service working with Inner Wheel club of Delhi. Through the SATARK Consumer Club they organised a seminar at PGDAV College to address women on their empowerment and to understand their rights in the Will being left by their parents. Students of the college were the audience to his seminar and leading advocates / lawyers were the presenters.

Women’s Property Rights, even after a lapse of 68 years since the independence of the country, and the status of Women in general have been a source of serious concern and a major topic of discussion in India. The makers of the constitution, executive and judiciary have been trying to enact and implement laws, but a lot needs to be done regarding spreading awareness in the society.  This interactive session held in the college premises on 12th January 2015 commenced with the introduction of the esteemed panel headed by Mrs Mala Rishi. Mrs Priyam Agarwal, Mrs Meera Khanna and Dr. Rakesh Gosain were the key note speakers, who informed the participants about the rights of women as enshrined in the constitution, laws relating to inheritance, enforcement of these laws and the effect of these laws on the society.

Different religions also have different inheritance Laws and these were also elaborated on by the august panel. Preparation and enforcement of Wills were discussed. Finer basis of inheritance such as patriarchy, patrilineal and patrilocal nature of societal norms were dwelled upon. The participants included the Principal- Dr. M.M.Goyal, Rotarian Dr Sunil Prakash, teaching staff of PGDAV College, members of SATARK, as well as students from many streams, with a preponderance of the fair sex.

Naturally there were several questions by the participants which were aptly answered by the panel. This interactive session, apart from raising awareness about the issue of Women’s Property Rights”. also helped to clarify several questions which may not have been possible.
Report by Mr. Vinay Katyal, B.Com- III Year, PGDAV College
Posted by Rtn. Dr. Sunil Prakash, member Click 4 Action eRotary in India.

Congratulations to the young writer – isn’t it exciting that Oliver,  a pupil from King’s Hawford School in Worcester, who was a winner in our Young Writer’s Competition has gone on to win the District 1100 Young Writer’s Competition. Oliver’s story is called ‘Light Up the Community’ – he writes about a boy who was abandoned in a chapel in an Abbey as a baby on Christmas Day 1441 – he’s bullied at school and feels safe only in the Abbey. The town is sad because Baron Archibald’s son went missing some years before. The boy volunteers to help folk prune their willow trees and gets ribbon and scraps of fabric with the money he earns, he ‘borrows’ candles from the Abbey and anonymously ‘lights up the community’ for Christmas bringing joy and happiness to the town.

Next week President Janice will be going to the event on the 7th February when the prizes will be presented. So well done to Oliver. Rotarian Polly is now working on our next competition in partnership with the Worcester LitFest & Fringe for their week in June 2015.

Roll Up, Roll Up, to start the New Year are you involved in our eDraw?

For the start of 2015 we’ve made it easier to buy your year’s worth of luck, now you can use Paypal or a cheque, for just £12 per year you are part of our eDraw. 12 chances to win, as each first day of the month the President makes the eDraw. The other winners are the Charities we donate the funds raised to: you can now choose between The Rotary Foundation (Rotary International’s own charity) or SOS Children’s Villages or both.

Looking for a real challenge to start your 2015 Year? Join some of our members who are involved in the Walk for Water exciting walk across the MILLENNIUM DOME, visit the site and get your sponsor form and see London from a new height.

Interesting how our President wants to get noticed!

Great fun was had by our Bog Standard Team from the RCC who took part in the Christ Church Community Hall Event to raise funds for Toilet Twinning. Click 4 Action eRotary wants to provide more toilets across the world, as 2.5 billion people still do not have use of a toilet. The Bog Challenge was a really fun evening and raised over £800 towards more toilets. As you know Rotarians love to play Golf, so President Janice shows her skills while sitting on the toilet! I hope you wiped the golf club after use….

Have you ever been rolled up in toilet paper, well this is Mummy Janice

To remind ourselves about the need for more toilets, please watch the video Mr.Toilet. We will be announcing more initiatives to help with Toilets in the world and our Uplands Interact Club is to work on projects to help raise awareness and funds to help in this work. Watch out for details of our next project to raise funds to twin toilets, planned to run in May.

As we move forward we are in top gear to Light Up Rotary –new people are joining us, we have plenty of projects to get on with and we a planning to change our branding and website. Click 4 Action eRotary is about having fun, learning new things and above all giving Service to help build a better world.

Want to join us or know people who may be interested please visit Come and Join the Magic                                                                                  

I can’t hear you!

A special edition of our Click for Action eRotary Newsletter, to celebrate our work being undertaken by the Rotary Community Corps Let’s Loop Swindon Team

Lin, one of our RCC members, writes about her recent visit to have a coffee – “I’d like to share with you my experience at Costa in the West Swindon Centre this morning. It was really noisy in there, a lot of people chatting and all their machines were rattling and whooshing. I saw their portable loop on a shelf at the back of the counter and I spent a few minutes whilst waiting in the queue, wondering whether I should ask for it to be switched on. There were a few people in the queue behind me and even though my confidence has grown since joining Let’s Loop Swindon, I felt the same old feeling of should I ask and run the risk of the staff not knowing how to use the portable loop, or of it not working. Anyway, when it was my turn to be served, although I could guess what the barista was saying I couldn’t hear her because of the background noises, I bit the bullet and told her I couldn’t hear and asked if the loop could be switched on. She took the portable loop off the shelf and switched it on but then put it back on the shelf. I explained that it needed to be placed on the counter as it only had a short range. This she did and she then made sure she spoke directly towards it and her colleague who was at the till also spoke towards the loop. It worked really well and I could hear them both clearly. The staff members made no fuss over using the loop and I felt no embarrassment at all. And just to complete the experience, another of their colleagues carried the tray over the table. What a wonderful place!! I’ll certainly be going back there. Thank you Costa.”

Creating Public Demand

Lin’s example shows we need a lot more people to use Loop systems when they are in shopping centres and public buildings. Our next phase of Let’s Loop Swindon is to ask everyone, even those who can hear, to help us increase public demand for Loop Systems and to get know what they do, why they are needed and how they help. To find out more we are putting on a Launch and Awareness Event on the 25th February, 2015, please download the invitation and book your placeAwareness and Launch Event Booking.

Buying Food could be so much easier

Steve helping to undertake the audit of supermarkets

Steve our RCC volunteer who has become our Press Officer writes

Nearly two thirds of Swindon’s supermarkets have no hearing loops installed to support their hard-of-hearing customers. This is the key result of an audit conducted by volunteers of ‘Let’s Loop Swindon’, an organisation dedicated to improving the provision of inductive hearing loops. The survey’s ‘secret shoppers’ discovered that where loops are available they are generally working, but that signs pointing out loop availability can be very poor. In one case the sign was entirely hidden behind a display of sweets, because ‘there is nowhere else to put the sweets’.

Where there are looped tills, supermarkets often only have a few of their tills equipped with loops, but there is little evidence that managers prioritise these tills. In many instances volunteers found that the tills equipped with loops were not in operation.

This survey follows hot on the heels of a check of loop provision across the town’s pharmacies – which found that only 10 of 29 pharmacies checked had working loops.

Hearing loops providing a wireless signal which can be picked up by a hearing aid when it is set to the Telecoil (T setting). Hearing loops cut out exterior noise and ensure that a hearing aid wearer can hear without any confusion.

Let’s Loop Swindon plans to carry out further surveys in the New Year, and plans to help those who should provide loops, and those who would benefit from using the ‘T’ setting on their hearing aids, to make communication work where it matters – in the public and commercial premises of the town.

Another opportunity to learn more of what we do and help us raise some funds

The Let’s Loop Swindon project is a partnership of Voluntary Action Swindon, Swindon Borough Council, Swindon Equality Coalition, Zurich Community Trust, The National Trust, Click 4 Action eRotary and Hearing Link. Please share with friends and let’s us all help hearing in our communities to be a provision which is working and widely available.

 

Blood, Sweat and Tears

Have you signed up for the eDraw? Please can you help us promote the eDraw with friends and family over Christmas. For a ticket of just £12 per year we are able to raise important funds for our Rotary International Charity – The Rotary Foundation. This small gift will help others enjoy life, whilst during the year a chance for ticket holders to win in the monthly draw. The Rotary Foundation gives so much to help ensure our world becomes a better place. Visit our eDraw Page for more information, let’s help wipe away the tears and despair and help others.

Talking Crap many of you will have visited our programme in the week commencing 20th November 2014 about the fact that 1 in 3 of the world’s population are without toilets. If you haven’t seen it please at visit and see President Janice sitting on her throne. We are proposing to buy 5 toilets at £20 per toilet, we want to use the this slogan to encourage others to help Buy a Toilet for Christmas it is for Life.

This project is really developing and our Rotary Community Corps volunteers are now undertaking audits of various places to get a picture about the availability of Hearing Loops throughout Swindon. Please visit our new webpage Let’s Loop Swindon (also please help to share it on Social Media) and read all about our recent audit of 29 Chemists throughout Swindon. We are still looking for volunteers and have a number of other activities planned for this project in the coming months to include:

• A stall at the Voluntary Action Swindon Christmas Community Fair on the 6th December, in Swindon Central Library
• Let’s Loop Swindon Launch and Awareness Event on Wednesday 25th February, 2014
• Cheese & Wine Tasting on Saturday 14th March, 2015 at Christ Church Community Centre, Old Town, Swindon 7.30. – 10.00.p.m. we will need help to sell tickets as all funds raised will be for the Let’s Loop Swindon project.

Let’s Loop Swindon, our eAwareness work with Autism and Mental Health, plus our involvement with the Showmetheaccess website can be highlighted on Wednesday 3rd December as we celebrate the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities the theme is Sustainable development – The promise of Technology

New Members and Blood Camps

It has been very good to welcome two new Rotarians to Click 4 Action eRotary who have joined us from Delhi, India, Rotarians Alok and Poonam, whose membership has been sponsored by Rotarian Sunil. In the true Rotary Spirit last week they ran a very successful Blood Camp in partnership with another Rotary Club. We look forward to supporting their future service in Delhi, please do visit this weeks programme where Rotarian Sunil is talking about his ambitions and vision for Rotary to give more Service in our communities.

We hope you will have enjoyed reading this News Update. As always we are looking for new members, please view Come Join the Magic of Rotary, as we are very excited that Click 4 Action eRotary is about making a difference in our community, networking with the Rotary International organisation of 1.2 million members and enjoying the Service we give.

I’m sure you wondering where the sweat comes in. Well we are all busy people taking part in Rotary of the 21st Century, we do it when we can, when time allows and because we love being part of a giving team!

Together we can help make a difference.

When the going gets tough, the tough keep going!

New Team takes Click 4 Action eRotary Forward

Cheers to every one in Click 4 Action eRotary

We are pleased to announce our new team as from the 1st November, 2014 President Janice Mason takes over the reigns, to support President Elect Mary as she prepares to take on the President mantle in 2015/16. Janice will also lead the new Treasurer Team that will help manage the eRotary finances, becoming the Treasurer with a team in 2015/16. James Lovatt has been elected President Nominee for 2014/15, James brings a wealth of experience in Rotaract, RIBI and website/social media, we are pleased and excited that he is eager to help take our eRotary forward. James will also continue as part of the Webmaster team for us and we are in the stages of upgrading our website as we move forward. Tim continues for now as the Secretary, but is planning to hand this on in 2015/16. Debbie Vance has agreed to help coordinate a Mentoring Team to help new members feel art home in eRotary, whilst learning more about eClub involvement. As we continue to develop our team we hope other members will join in with the teams we are creating to ensure that our work is a team effort and no one member is having to carry the burden. We remain committed to ensuring that our eRotary engages our members and responds to their passions as we develop Rotary for busy people in the 21st Century.

What we’ve achieved so far

So far we have already achieved our plans including the involvement in Peace One Day in September and in October a really good Mental Health Awareness Day at the Cafe Bliss in Worcester as part of our efforts for World Mental Health Day. We were please to see the launch of the Malmesbury and District Foodbank which we are a co-partner in and the launch of Safe Places Swindon, where we are partners in the Steering Group. Plus we’ve launched this year’s Young Writer’s Competition (please help us to promote). Rotarian David has been busy helping District 1100 with our bid for a Vocational Training Team and a Global Foundation Grant to send a team to help the FSCI Charity in Bulgaria with developing Social Enterprise for young people leaving care.

There is still much to do to complete our plans for 2014/15

We intend to put achieving the District 1100 Equality and Diversity Charter Mark as one of our goals for 2014/15, so we are leading by example in making E & D Central to all eRotary achieves. As part of that we want to make eAwareness a key part of our programme, particularly in raising awareness about Disabilities in our Communities and how we can ensure needs are catered for and that everything is accessible. We are already committed to Autism Awareness, Mental Health Awareness, Let’s Loop Swindon for people with Hearing Aids and we want to assist with the website development of Show me the access.

We’ve had the ambition to develop an online shop, as mentioned above our website is to have an overhaul, as part of this we hope to have a Let’s Loop Swindon page and incorporate an online shop to help organisations we support sell their goods and help us raise funds. Hoping we can sell some lovely things made out of ties from our Tied Up with Rotary project helping to support charities and End Polio Now.

We will run our annual virtual balloon race to help raise funds to purchase a Disaster Box, we intend to continue to support Roll Out the Barrel and with our Christmas Song project we hope to help water sanitation in Gambia. We will continue to develop our eDraw to help raise funds for the Rotary Foundation and a new charity to be announced.

Environmental Issues still remain a key priority and we hope to get involved in Earth Day whilst encouraging all our members to be extra practical when recycling at home. Above all we want to learn more about the transition movement and encourage this kind of community enterprise and sustainability.

Membership Development remains a key to all we do

We will continue to develop our menu of opportunities in joining eRotary, especially Family Membership and our offer of provisional membership for those who are interested in seeing if eRotary works for them. A key to our community efforts will be the Rotary Community Corps, in Malmesbury with the Flood Defences and in Swindon with Let’s Loop Swindon, our hope is that we can encourage other Rotary Clubs to adopt this way of forming a team to volunteer where there is a need or project in our communities. We will also continue our relationships to develop support for Uplands Educational Trust and our Uplands Interact Club, plus support PN James to develop the Rotaract Hub.

We believe once you’ve become a Rotarian you’ve joined a network of 1.2 million members in over 200 countries. Learning and experiencing International Rotary is really important for our membership, so we intend to arrange some international exchanges and encourage members to attend international opportunities.

Together we will working to 

eRotary does it Sewing, Writing and in the Loop

We continue to work on our development of the Rotary Community Corps, a Rotary International programme that allows us to get more involved in our communities through Service and with partners to make a difference in a world where more caring by us all is needed.

Swindon RCC now has 15 members set to make Swindon a Champion Town for Hearing Loops in the national campaign by Hearing Link to Let’s Loop the UK. Rotarian Dave King this weekend is speaking at a District Conference to encourage other Rotarians to get involved in this important work, whilst our RCC Team have been hitting the shops this week starting our audit.

RCC Volunteer Steve

Monday saw RCC Member Steve on the trail completing the audit form, RCC Members Lauren and Lin were out mid week and in heavy rain RCC Member Lynda was determined to ensure on Saturday she was doing her bit and it was encouraging to find that out of six locations visited, two had working Hearing Loops. What is apparent is that we need to create more demand from hearing aid wearers and more knowledge about what Hearing Loops are and how they work. You can help, please ask whether public buildings or shops have a Loop System and please help us share articles from our Let’s Loop Swindon Facebook Page. Plus we still need volunteers and opportunities to give talks about why we are dong this work.

Help us encourage those future Writers

Do visit the competition page for entry details at WorcesterLitFest, wouldn’t it be good if we had loads and loads of entries from our creative young people? please encourage schools, youth groups and individual young people to get involved.

Sewing In for Polio – yes RCC members and eRotarians continue to Get Tied up for Rotary, sewing those ties and being creative is the order of the day, plus plenty of chat, whilst helping to raise vital funds to End Polio Now

We are still looking for groups who would be interested in working with us on this project.

Making a Mug Rug now that’s a new design

We will supply the ties and patterns, you help with the sewing, sales of items on a 50/50 basis with our 50% going to the End Polio Now funds to close the gap.

eRotary wants to encourage everyone to keep Mentally Fit 

First of all help promote the need for open discussion about Mental Health and get people learning more about the issues and helping it to become a top topic like Physical Health is. You can find good articles on our Mental Health Facebook Page

Get people involved in different creative activities in their communities so that they can relax, share without the stress and be part of a caring community of people. We hope to encourage this on our day in Worcester at the Cafe Bliss, great food, a warm welcome and plenty to take part in, as we Celebrate together World Mental Health Day – see you there?

Finally

• Don’t forget to visit this week’s eClub programme from a very talented woman. Mary Cohen thinks Rotary is a Can Do Organisation, what she can help us do in the community could be quite exciting.
• Have you bought your tickets this year for our eDraw, a Win Win situation awaits you, 50% to Rotary Foundation which aids some really amazing causes and a chance for yourself to Win 50%.
• This week in Swindon we see the relaunch of Safe Places, Click for Action eRotary is supporting the work to re-establish this excellent scheme across Swindon.
• Please help eRotarian James promote the establishment of the Rotaract Hub, an initiative to get younger people 18 to 30 involved in online work with the Rotary Family.

Come and join us and do Rotary, as we can offer opportunities for busy people in the 21st Century…Opportunities to Join

 

Community Action is Fun

Members of Click 4 Action eRotary continue to plan, deliver and have fun while they undertake Service in their communities, two months already into the new Rotary Year and there is so much underway.

Saturday 30th August Rotarian Sunil Prakash involved his eRotary connections in a well attended seminar, he reports: “The seminar cum workshop by IPC was a grand success. The volley of questions for clarifications from the audience were well tackled by the panel members consisting of Rtn. Dr. Sunil Prakash representing Consumers Forum, Rotary Eclub 1100 and International Alliance of Patients Organization, then By Mr. Arun Kumar of Dignity india and finally by Dr. Toda Prasad of Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission.

This was not all. The students of IMS law college and members of Consumer Club organised a competition on ‘EBOLA’, the deadly disease going around the world. 10 students spoke very well with a lot of material and information on the same.  Three students, bagged the First , second and third award. First position went to Ms. Swati Chakravarti, second to Ms. Shrishti Guha and third position to Mr. Anmol Singh. Congratulations to them. Other students also spoke very well. We congratulate and thank all the participants for speaking on a common subject and with full confidence.”

Senior Vice President Mary coordinating meeting

Saturday 6th September saw members of Click 4 Action eRotary meet at Cafe Bliss in Worcester to start planning this year’s Health & Wellbeing Day as part on the World Mental Health Day on the 11th October.

So many ideas being put forward, the day is going to be fun

This year we are holding it at Cafe Bliss in Worcester, an art workshop venue with good food and lots of different art forms to try, enjoy, relax with, meet others and talk. So please book Saturday 11th October in your diary and come along between 2.00 – 4.00.p.m. to see what’s on offer while putting Mental Health and Wellbeing at the centre of our activities.

Let us Talk About Mental Health and find ways of exercising our Mentality to keep it Fit.

Help us spread this message using your Social Media skills a really good way for busy people to give Service through eAwareness.

Rotarian Ray Chair of MAD Foodbank Steering Group helping at Commissioning Service

On Sunday 7th September some of the Click 4 Action eRotary members were pleased to be at the Commissioning Service of the Malmesbury and District Foodbank at the United Reformed Church. On the 8th September the MAD Foodbank opened and it is with fun memories we remember our visit to the Trussell Trust in July 2013 where the seed was sown and the idea of the eRotary helping to support the work of Foodbanks first began. Two of our Rotarians are trustees of this project and are pleased to be working in partnership with the Churches Together in Malmesbury.

Please visit our MAD Foodbank Facebook pages and help by sharing the posts. Don’t forget to let us know how you are helping the Foodbank movement in your communities.

NEWS IN BRIEF

• We are looking for a Rotarian to be a judge in our Young Writer’s Competition, please contact Rotarian Polly if you can help.
• Young Photographer Competition, we are looking for a volunteer to help coordinate this within Click 4 Action eRotary.
• Don’t forget the Get Tied Up for Rotary day on the 4th October, come and sew to help us raise more funds for End Polio Now, please contact Rotarian Janice if you or friends can help.
• Senior Vice President Mary has suggested every-time we go out for a meal in October we donate 50p to the World Greatest Meal Appeal to End Polio Now, this sounds a great idea.
• Take another look at the last News Update we published which shows our Let’s Loop Swindon RCC Project, Cheese & Wine for Enterprise, and Our Song for Water.

Don’t forget to help promote eRotary and anyone wishing to join us should visit Come Join the Magic and see the menu of opportunities we have on offer.