Cheesed Off – Can eRotary give you a boost?

Have your heard about Let’s Loop Swindon?

Whilst so many people are on those much needed holidays, here at Click 4 Action eRotary we are excited to build our plans for the coming year. This week we have applied for our new charter for our Rotary Community Corps to help with our partnership project Let’s Loop Swindon.

We are pleased to be working with Rotarian Dave King who works with the national charity Hearing Link and partners Voluntary Action Swindon, Swindon Borough Council, Swindon Equality Coalition, Zurich Community Trust and developing links with the Great Western Hospital Audiology Department. Please help our new volunteers to promote this initiative and on Facebook as we are also trying to raise awareness, help by sharing the Let’s Loop Swindon posts.

Get Tied Up with Rotary continues during 2014/15 and we still continue to look for new sewers to help us turn over 1000 unused ties into glamour accessories. Calling all would be sewers, we are having a Sew In on Saturday 4th October, join Rotarians Janice Mason and Jill Harwood as we get creative and turn neckties into bags, necklaces, spectacle cases, pencil holders, a time for fun, chat and food.

Things planned in the pipeline

President Sinead and Rotarian Enda are soon to meet to get into place our plans for International Peace Day 21st September 2014. If ever the world needs encouragement for this, it is now.

President Elect Mary, Rotarians Martin and Polly are soon to meet to start working on preparations for World Mental Health Day 10th October, 2014 with the theme ‘Living with Schizophrenia’. We want to encourage everyone to talk openly about Mental Health and encouraging people to keep their’s fit.

Rotarian Polly is looking for members of Click 4 Action eRotary to act as judges in our Young Writers competition to be run in the Autumn and to help promote it through libraries and schools.

Our Youth Officer Pa Modou needs your help in the Song for Water. Have you read our programme for week commencing 7th August?

Plans are well in hand for the Malmesbury & District Food Bank to launch in September and the first every Rotary Community Corps in RIBI is helping with these developments along with Flood Defences. District Governor Martyn Harwood is to visit this team lead by Rotarian Ray Sanderson on 20th August, so it was good to see a great article in the August edition of Rotary Today edited by our own Rotarian Allan Berry.

Rotarian David Pratt is still working on the District 1100 plan to send a Vocational Training Team to develop a Social Enterprise Model in Bulgaria working with the Foundation for Social Change and Inclusion and linked to a Rotary Foundation Global Grant. So don’t forget everyone to help promote our monthly online eDraw. Rotarians David, Kate and Margaret are really keeping this going and need all our members and friends to help promote and sell, just £12 a year and you could be one of those lucky winners, plus help us to contribute to the Rotary Foundation.

Rotaract Hub is now under way again with one of our newest members, Rotarian James Lovatt using all his enthusiasm and knowledge to develop this online opportunity for younger people 18 to 30 years, who haven’t got a Rotaract Club they can join. New website can be found at Rotaract Hub.

Cheese, Wine and Bidding all to help Enterprise

Following up last month’s article, plans are well in hand for our Online Auction and we are still seeking items, so please continue to ask around and look out any items that can help us raise funds for Enterprise in the two charities Human & Hope Association in Cambodia and the Uplands Educational Trust in Swindon. Rotarian Maria who visited the project in Cambodia is working on a Ploughmans and Wine Tasting which will help celebrate and raise more funds for these worthy causes to be held in early October.So Click 4 Action eRotary is always seeking new people to get involved in our Menu of  Opportunities and join us in the Magic of Rotary. No need to be cheesed off, come and get involved in all our different activities that are done on and off line.

 

eRotary uses traditional Post

Click 4 Action eRotary chose a very different route to celebrate its change over and resorting to using traditional means to do its handover, Immediate Past President Janice needed to post her chain of office to our new President Sinead in Ireland. So as always let us have some fun doing it. President Sinead says “Our handover took place over a week and having seen the photos of Mary Nettle, our new Senior Vice President and the one of Past President Janice by the post box, I waited in eager anticipation, checking the postbox every day. As soon as Jason, our rather handsome postie, delivered the package I took the pic at my home in Ireland. I am very proud to have the honour of representing our club as President. I look forward to a great year, working closely with President Elect Mary and all our members. We are starting the year by contacting each member to hear their views on how the club is working, how we can make it easier for people to make contact and get their views heard.” As shown above at the DG’s Handover we found a corner to handover to President Elect Mary – President Sinead continues “she has undertaken to support me closely by being more visible at events I cannot attend. Both of us are new to Rotary and we are going to need advice and help from more experienced Rotarians so please don’t hesitate to give us feedback.” President Sinead will be outlining future plans for her year in one of our future Thursday programme slots on our website. IPP Janice and all the members of Click 4 Action eRotary look forward to another exciting year ahead.

Can you hear what we are doing?

Next week is Hearing Loop Awareness Week 12th – 20th July, Click 4 Action eRotary working in partnership with the national charity Hearing Links, Swindon Borough Council, Swindon Equality Coalition, Voluntary Action Swindon and Zurich are developing a team through using the Rotary Community Corps programme for volunteers, to help Let’s Loop Swindon.

Do you know hat this sign indicates? Help us make more people aware.

The Rotary Community Corps is looking for hearing aid wearers who want to make a difference to their community with a very small commitment. We are looking for the volunteers to act literally as our ears and eyes to check on the availability of hearing loops in Swindon and to check whether they are working. We want them to also check the signage and how aware staff are of the loop. As part of the awareness week next week we are having a training course for the new people we have recruited so far. It would be great if everyone reading this News Update finds out more about Hearing Loops and the need for our communities to be using them.

Online Silent Auction – can you please help by donating something we can auction online, Lucy and family have already donated this wonderful rugby ball signed by the Gloucester Rugby Team.

Maria is heading up a group to organise an Online Silent Auction to end up with a Cheese and Wine event to raise funds for Enterprise in the two charities Human & Hope Association in Cambodia and the Uplands Educational Trust in Swindon.

News in brief of future activities underway

• Ray is making great head roads in getting the Malmesbury & District Foodbank (MAD) ready for opening in September and also working with the Malmesbury Rotary Community Corps on Flood defences.
• Our new family members Nicky and Terry are starting to think about our Special Needs Young Chef Competition.
• Can you help us to sing for Christmas? Pa Modou our new eClub Youth Officer is going to help produce a Christmas Record to help raise funds, ideas of what words we might have in it would be useful.

Click 4 Action eRotary is using its activities to help 

 

eRotary People, Partnerships and Projects

At the beginning of the Rotary Year 2013/14 Rotary International President Ron Burton challenged us to Engage Rotary and Change Lives, our Rotarians have done this over the year online, offline and sometimes in their pyjamas.  They’ve had fun, introduced new ideas and showed that people who are busy can achieve great projects.

A quick resume of what we’ve achieved in order to celebrate, before moving onto another exciting year.

July to September we welcomed Rotarian Ed Cox, who works for Disaster Aid International, as a member of Click 4 Action eRotary and we presented him with a cheque for a Disaster Box to be used when needed. We visited the Trussell Trust in Salisbury, which set us on a course to get involved with Foodbanks and a Vocational Training Team in Bulgaria. We got excited about our new project Get Tied Up with Rotary to help raise funds for End Polio Now. September engaged members in the International Peace Day, our Rotaractors ran a fantastic Peace Photographic Competition.

October to December we enjoyed again packing Christmas Shoe Boxes for Eastern Europe, launched our eDraw to raise funds for The Rotary Foundation and highlighted the need to discuss Mental Wellbeing openly and keep your personal mental health fit. Our involvement in World Mental Health Day took the shape of a workshop in Worcester and a Facebook page. And that was just October! November saw us meeting the District Governor, inducting more new members and running a Young Writer’s Competition. For Christmas we were able to send 10 Roll Out the Barrels to the Philippines, to help communities affected by the national disaster.

 

January to March Rotarians got stuffed at Jimmy’s in Bath as part of their post Christmas get together, yes some of us do meet face to face. We started getting plans in place to set up the Malmesbury and District Foodbank. In February our Uplands Interact Club joined in with the World’s Greatest Meal to help End Polio and raised £63. Flying again across the internet were our virtual balloons as our Balloon Race raised funds for the British Heart Foundation and The Rotary Foundation. We launched our new pilot to attract families into Rotary with a Family Membership offer and held a President’s Event in London to share fellowship, where it was great to see some of our members meeting each other along with guests from other Rotary clubs. We were very pleased to continue our work to raise awareness about Autism, with our second Autism Awareness Workshop at Uplands School, Swindon.

Kirk Anderson explains the Autism Spectrum

April to June Really exciting in the history of Rotary International in Britain and Ireland we launched the first Rotary Community Corps in Malmesbury to help with Flood Defences and the Foodbank project in partnership with the URC. May saw the completion of the Duck Pond at the Gloucester City Farm, a great way to involve our new Family members. We enjoyed also taking part in the Festival of Rotary in Worcester, a great opportunity to tell the public about Rotary, our Tied Up for Rotary was a very popular stall. When you think the end of the year is nearly over and we’ve done it, June pops up and wow we’ve still much to do.

June

Uplands Interact Club’s plans come to fruition after over a year of planning to hold a Musical Event to raise funds to buy 10 more Roll Out the Barrels for Africa. A fantastic event with the help of the choirs from Uplands, Brimble Hill and Wroughton Primary School, they raised £233, thanks to Music teacher Paul Ashman and all the other teachers and staff to make this a very special event.

We start recruiting for our second Rotary Community Corps as we work in partnership with community partners to Let’s Loop Swindon. Do listen to Rotarian Dave Kings interview by Dave Woods on Swindon Community Radio which explains all about this exciting project.

Do you know hat this sign indicates? Help us make more people aware.

It was fantastic to be present at the launch of the Worcestershire Lit Fest and Fringe Festival and hear all the winning entries of the Young Writer’s Competition which we have been working in partnership with over the last two years.

Having ideas is great, turning them into actions is what Rotary is all about. How important though is the emphasis of working with the community to develop projects and the seeing the Malmesbury Foodbank attract loads of volunteers at the open morning on Saturday 21st June, was inspiring, the community cares and Rotary has helped. Today Sunday 22nd June, Rotarian Kate’s work with other Rotarians and the community will see the Spalding People’s Parade take place, we are proud to be associated with this event.

What Next – President Sinead looks forward to the new Rotary Year when RI President Gary Huang calls us to – Light Up Rotary. This week we hold our Assembly to hear the plans for 2014/15, these include:

• Continued work to build our Rotary Community Corps and help others to get these happening
• Continue developing our work with the MAD Foodbank, Let’s Loop Swindon, Uplands Educational Trust and Uplands Interact Club
• Continued partnership work with the Worcestershire Lit Fest and Finge
• Helping the District to undertake the Vocational Training Team to Bulgaria
• Helping the work in Cambodia run by the Human and Hope Association
• Developing our Rotaract Hub
• Writing and publishing a Song for Christmas
• Continuing to get Tied Up with Rotary
• Helping Rotary to grow by putting people and communities at the centre of all we do and yes Light Up Rotary by our actions and service delivered.

Rocking with eRotary

There was great interest on Saturday 3rd May in our new Rotary way of using the necktie, no not around the neck as would be expected of all Rotarians at a normal meeting. Our re-cycled neckties are helping to raise funds for End Polio Now by becoming beautiful bags, necklaces, glasses cases and bangles. We raised £70 towards End Polio and were able to show that Rotary Rocks as part of the Festival of Rotary in Worcester Guildhall, networking with other Rotary Clubs from the Worcester area. There was a lot of interest from visitors and an opportunity to talk to Clubs about plans for 2014/15, plus a young woman was interested to learn more about our Rotaract Hub, which our new Youth Team will be helping to create in 2014/15.

Rocking and Quacking to finish the job

On Sunday 4th May we were at the St.James City Farm in Gloucester, finishing the job (see Newsletter about this at Help us finish the job) started in our first year as an eClub.  It was great to be able to complete the Duck Pond, which is really looking good and the ducks were reluctant to leave while we planted the shrubs. This was a great opportunity to get our new Family Members involved in our activities, the Parkes family Lucy, Rob and Joe; The Parker family Nicky, Terry, Luke and Zachary; the Mason family apart from the boys as it was best they didn’t come as they might have liked the ducks! and Rotarian Katharine, all set to and had fun trying to herd the ducks into the shed, drilling the holes and planting. The pond is a real picture now and its construction was even helped by the Gloucestershire Fire Service, who supplied a Fire Service hosepipe to help drain the pond when required.

Talking of Ducks and Spalding Fun

eRotarians Cyril and Charlotte were helping to sell little plastic yellow ducks to the public in Swindon for the Famous Duck Race on Monday 26th May, at £1 a duck the Rotary Club of Old Town do a fantastic job and last year sold over 10,000 ducks.

For more details please visit The Rotary Club of Swindon Old Town Famous Duck Race.

Another of our eRotarians Kate Alexander has been working on the Spalding People’s Parade, for which our Click 4 Action eRotary are helping in a small way to sponsor the event.

Help us raise more to help others

 

Next Rotary Year we are intending to have a Silent Online Auction to raise funds for The Rotary Foundation. To start things off Lucy Parkes has donated a Signed Gloucester Rugby Ball, what can you donate to help in this activity? Let us know at info@1100rotaryeclub.org

Help us finish the Job

The story so far – Click 4 Action eRotary had a request in the early days to help a member develop a local project at the St.James City Farm, Barton, who needed a new Duck Pond. Ever ready to engage with our own members’ passions and supporting the community we started to get involved.

A great day out was arranged for members to visit Gloucester City Farm and see what the Ducks might need to have a happier life, in a past newsletter it explained:

“Members of the District 1100 eClub visited the Gloucester City Farm, St.James, Saturday 28th July to view the Duck Pond (see above). Shelley, one of our members, had explained how the City Farm was an important community facility for families and was now being run by a charity and not the Council. One of the projects that they’d like help with is to improve the Duck Pond, by landscaping and providing a better pond. So members of the eClub took the opportunity to visit the facility, enjoy meeting and talking with the animals and enjoying the time together over a picnic.”

The next thing was to consider how we were to raise the funds to help this project, Tim and Janice agreed to loose the pounds to fund the £££££, thanks to the Hairy Bikers Diet Book it worked. So our Duckometer was brought in to show progress to our target.

The Hairy Bikers made it so simple on TV, it nearly killed me!

Between them Janice and Tim raised the £500 and Jill Johnston helped complete the form for a District Grant from the Rotary Foundation to match it. We were set at last to get the pond underway. Katharine Hope has been coordinating things with the Farm and we are nearly finished. We just need to plant a few trees and plant some aquatic plants in the pond.

So can you help us finish the job?

Sunday  4th May, at the St. James City Farm, 10 -12.00, could be muddy, but really good fun.

Friends, family, supporters and people interested in joining eRotary would be welcome too, so don’t forget to invite them.

Please let Katharine, Tim or Janice know if you can help, the more the merrier and we will have finished the job for families in this community and those ducks who can have a quacking good time. Perhaps to finish off the work we could share a picnic together.

Whatever next? Cows on Wheels, Music for Barrels….

Uplands Interact Club are holding a Musical Event on the afternoon of Wednesday 11th June, 2014 at 1.30.p.m. to help raise money to buy 10 Barrels, for the Roll Out the Barrel Project. They would like help with raffle prizes, can anyone donate prizes? Please let Tim Mason or Mary Loran know if you can help. If you’d like a ticket for the event, please let Tim or Mary know.

Festival of Rotary – Worcester Guildhall 3rd May 10.30 to 4.00.p.m. come and see Click 4 Action eRotary and have some fun with the family at this special day. Janice will be there with others getting Tied Up with Rotary.

Now have you ever seen a Cow on Wheels?

Or been asked to sponsor a Cow Pat? Every year we have helped Max Leaning (Kevin’s son) to do his sponsored Scrumrun to raise funds for a good cause can you help this year to sponsor a Cow Pat?

Max says ‘Those who know me will know that I am a bit of a petrol head and as I looked for something to do with this passion a couple of years ago I stumbled across the Scumrun Rally.  I have completed it the last two years successfully and had such a great trip raising over £1000 as a team each year. This year we are raising funds for Tommy’s funds medical research into the causes of premature birth, stillbirth and miscarriage and provides an information service about health in pregnancy, all invaluable for expecting parents.

Click 4 Action eRotary has supported Max for the last two years and we hope to do so this year, please can others consider helping Max & Ben to undertake this excellent challenge to raise funds. You can contribute by:

at JustGiving  or by Text – Send “POSH90 £3” or another amount to 70070 or use our Click 4 Action eRotary Paypal letting Kate our Assistant Treasurer know you have done so at treasurer@1100rotaryeclub.org.

Other News:-

• It was with great pleasure District Governor Jan Harris presented the Charter Certificate for the first Rotary Community Corps in RIBI and District 1100 at the Rose and Crowns Malmesbury. Ray Sanderson holds the charter while other members look on, Ray will be speaking about this new volunteer force at District Assembly on Saturday 26th April, in Cheltenham.

• Currently members of Click 4 Action eRotary are helping District 1100 trial a Membership Skills Audit, as part of the new Membership Development and Retention Strategy 2014/17

• The Click 4 Action eRotary Annual General Meeting will be on Thursday 15th May, 2014 and President Elect Sinead will be holding her eClub Assembly on Thursday 26th June, 2014.

• We are continuing our fundraising for The Rotary Foundation (Rotary International’s own Charity) with our eDraw, have you joined up yet? Please visit the Click 4 Action eRotary eDraw and be a winner for Rotary good causes and perhaps yourself!

• Don’t forget if you shop online, you can help our Fundraising by joining Easy Fundraising, this soon mounts up and helps us to work in partnership with organisations in communities.

Members of Click 4 Action eRotary would like to wish all our readers a Happy Easter and hope they will continue to help promote our eRotary to friends, relatives and work colleagues who are busy people and may be interested in joining eRotary.

 

Autism at Work Let Us Celebrate

Rotarian Jackie Smith introduces the High Sheriff of Wiltshire

Today 2nd April we celebrate World Autism Awareness Day, well we’d like to share the highlights with you the C4AeRotary Autism Awareness Workshop held on Saturday 29th March 2014 – entitled Working with Autism – Understanding, Opportunities, Enterprise.

President Janice writes: ‘Thank you to everyone who supported the Autism Awareness Workshop, it was a very successful day.  It started with a welcome from the High Sheriff of Wiltshire, on his last day in office, who is passionate about supporting work that enables disabled young people to lead a fulfilled life.  With his contact with prisons he has seen far too many people end up there simply because the community they grew up in did not recognise their needs.’

‘Our eClub member Rotarian Jackie Smith also spoke passionately about the Uplands Educational Trust (UET) vision to provide ongoing education towards employment for Key Stage 4 students and post school education.  The UET university (as the post school provision is affectionately known) provides ongoing support for 19-25 year olds and includes working in enterprise projects to learn and enhance independent living skills.  For an attendee who had travelled up from Salisbury, Jackie’s passion ignited a realisation that so much more was achievable than was currently on offer and she is taking back with her the determination to drive forward a more entrepreneurial approach knowing that the UET is leading the way and can share their experience.’

Carol Povey from the National Autistic Society (NAS)

We were so pleased to welcome Carol Povey who is the Director of the Centre for Autism, National Autistic Society (NAS), to tell us more about the work of the society and how they are helping to get people with Autism into employment. How they can help companies develop policies and practice to employ more people with Autism.

Kirk Anderson explains the Autism Spectrum

Janice continues to report: ‘Kirk Anderson (do visit Kirk’s website Visual Supports and Beyond) lead 2 workshops which were very well received, firstly looking at the Autism Spectrum, what it is and how it manifests itself in behaviour, then he followed this up by looking at all the senses and how autism can either heighten or lessen a mixture of the senses and again the affect this has on behaviour.  Watching people listen to him nodding heads were perceptible as they recognised and made sense of what Kirk described.  One mother said to me “It was a relief to hear someone describe what I was experiencing and make sense of it, it was so much easier to understand it with someone describing it than reading all about it, I needed this kind of information years ago when I realised something wasn’t right, today has made a huge difference.”  The feedback from several others who attended was similar, the way the information was presented made it easy to understand and they now had a good foundation on which to find out more.  People who have worked for many years with people with autism were even heard to say, “Oh, I didn’t know that”!  All the feedback was superb and acknowledged how much better everyone understood autism from a practical perspective.’

Ann King from SEQOL showing how many Autistic People want work

‘Ann King, from SEQOL, gave an excellent talk about Autism and employment. Ann introduced Helena, who employs 15 people in her business, with half her workforce having autism. She explained how she was wary at first, but has been so impressed at the skills, attitude to work and ability people with autism have brought to her business, her productivity has increased so much, now when she employs new neuro typical people they are told that they have to “fit in with how things are done around here!”.

Helena Dunne showed how employers can really make a difference

Feedback was: fantastic, put things into perspective, understood what an autistic person can give back to an employer, peace of mind that there is hope for people with autism to find employment if supported in the right way.

As Click 4 Action eRotary we have put on these Autism Awareness Workshops for two years now to raise awareness in the community and with Rotary.

So  can we pose some questions to you on this very important event of the International Autism Awareness Day:

• Are Rotarians aware of what Autism is and how they can help people who have been diagnosed with it in their communities?
• Can Rotarians with their networks help find companies or businesses that will seek to employ people with Autism?
• If someone joined Rotary with Autism what steps would be taken to ensure that they could fully take part in Rotary activities and projects?

The Magic of eRotary

Today we launch our new promotional leaflet the Magic of Rotary. What might people find comes out of the hat if they join eRotary? We believe there are a lot of opportunities to be found through the eRotary Network to do things that you are passionate about or have always wanted to try, but have needed others to do it with. Help us promote the Magic of Rotary and how together we can conjure up a whole new world of experience, learning and opportunities through giving Service above Self. Malmesbury & District Food Bank It seems like only yesterday that a group of members of eRotary spent a morning in July learning about the Trussell Trust, its work in Bulgaria and Food Banks.  Since that excellent time together the Rotary magic has been working. Some of the members of C4AeRotary are now working with District Governor Elect Martyn Harwood to develop a Vocational Training Team (VTT) to visit Bulgaria and work with the Foundation for Social Change and Inclusion (FSCI) to develop a Social Enterprise Model as a basis for helping the Trussell Trust develop its support in Bulgaria. In Malmesbury our eRotary is working in partnership with the United Reformed Church and the community to establish a Food Bank for the area.  Currently we are helping to get the building ready. President Janice uses her magic to reach greater heights as she helps with the new roofing. Rotary Community Corps – could this be the magic which helps our communities to get involved with more projects? Click 4 Action eRotary is pleased to have launched the first RCC in the UK, which is ready to help with future Flood Defences in Malmesbury and the Food Bank work. On Monday 7th April, District Governor Jan Harris will present the Charter Certificate to this newly formed group. Now we need to wave the wand and spread the message far and wide.

President Janice Enjoys the Magic of Food and Fellowship On Saturday 22nd March, President Janice met up with some of our members to enjoy food, fun and fellowship at her President’s Event in South Kensington, London. What’s good about eRotary is you can do it online, offline and in your p-jams if you want, but doing Rotary is fun however and whenever you do it. During the weekend in London President Janice shared food with eleven eRotarians and it was a great chance to meet members from Scotland, Bournemouth, Cirencester, Swindon, and guests from London, plus Rotarian Jeevesh Augnoo from Mauritius, who is studying in London and is a member of the Rotary E Fellowship.

Dodo from Mauritius

Jeevesh presented President Janice with a little present from his country and told us about how he became a Rotarian: Because he was passing a school built by Rotary and he was so impressed, he looked Rotary up on the internet and applied to join, because he also wanted to make a difference in his community. President Janice and Secretary Tim also used the weekend to meet new provisional eRotary member Sam in Greenwich and catch up on old times and her future involvement in Rotary. It was really exciting for us all in C4AeRotary to see the finish line of the Virtual Balloon Race – the winning Balloon was Charlie owned by Secretary Tim who is donating the prize to the British Heart Foundation to be auctioned to raise even further funds for this great cause. Further activities over the horizon:

• Young Writer’s competition in partnership with the Worcs LitFest, see Piloting Change for more details.
• Autism Awareness Workshop on Saturday 29th March, at Uplands School
• A Family Day planting trees around the Duck Pond at Gloucester City Farm
• Festival of Rotary in Worcester on the 3rd May, coming and meet us at our stall
• Watch out for details of our Bear Hunt and Wine Tasting in aid of the Human and Hope Association in Cambodia.

Please help us to promote the Magic of Rotary, request a leaflet from info@1100rotaryeclub.org

Piloting for Change

At the Rotary International in Britain and Ireland Assembly 21st – 23rd February, 2014 we were reminded that membership was the key to Rotary’s continued success. RI President Elect Gary, with his theme for 2014/15 Light Up Rotary, places much emphasis on getting people to join and be part of a large team to make a difference in our world. To do this it will be important that Rotary is operating to meet interested people’s needs in the 21st Century – time, capacity, diversity, accessibility, affordable and flexibility all need to be part of a modern Rotary offer if we are to attract. Click 4 Action eRotary is already starting to put the opportunities in place so that we are able to be part of this drive. Let us be proud of what we’ve achieved so far and be partners with other Rotary Clubs to go for Lighting Up Rotary and seeing new people find the enjoyment and excitement we get from giving Service above Self in our communities.

Piloting Change

eRotary itself is already quite a change for some, so we ask all our members when the opportunity arises, to visit traditional Rotary Clubs and spread the message that we are Rotarians meeting in Rotary in a different way that suits our lifestyle, but we still hold dearly the Rotary ethos of the Objects and Four Way Test. Tell them what we achieve and why we can be good partners alongside how they operate, especially to help them:

• with retention when Rotarians need to move or leave the area due to work or family commitments
• or when they are recruiting and come across someone who would make a good Rotarian but time prevents, perhaps they could mention joining eRotary.

We want to continue to develop the idea of eRotary Hubs where 2 plus eRotarians can sometimes meet up.

Since the beginning of our eClub we have wanted to offer Family Membership, it has been agreed by RIBI that we can pilot this ability to join as a family. For a reduced cost two adult partners can join and their children, this will be £150 (initially including the one off £25 per person joining fee to RI) and annual subscriptions in future years of £100 per couple. Hopefully if the pilot works this could be a way we help increase our membership across Rotary.

For people who don’t want to become Rotarians, but do want to help with our projects and support our causes in specific communities, we are piloting the Rotary Community Corps programme. This is currently being launched in Malmesbury to help with the flood defences and the setting up of the Foodbank. We would like to see a similar scheme established in Swindon to help with the Education Life Centres and help Rotarian Dave King with the Hearing Loops project.

We are still very keen to enable younger professionals or students to join us e.g. between 18 and 30 years as Rotaractors. We offer them the the Rotaract Hub, as well as being involved in all we do as Rotarians online. For just £25 per year or £2 per month, become part of our activities and help us develop projects where fun, fellowship and doing good in the local or world community is what its about. Find out more and help us create this new way of doing Rotaract.

Doing Rotary through online and offline Service

Valuing your health and the health of others is really important to our eRotary members, so our current Virtual Balloon Race to help raise funds for the British Heart Foundation and the Rotary Foundation, is helping to provide these organisations with funds to ensure we can maintain their work. Join in the fun of the Balloon Race for only £2 per balloon you can support these charities. To help promote with friends see eClub Balloon Race A4 2014 to post up on noticeboards.

Last year we ran a very successful Autism Awareness Workshop to help promote the need to be an inclusive community, this year we are running a similar workshop building on the need to encourage communities and employers to offer voluntary and paid opportunities to people with Autism. Please help us advertise this event and encourage interested people to attend AA Flier March 2014.

This month March is Rotary Literacy Month.  As eRotary we are again this year working with the Worcestershire Litfest & Fringe to encourage young people in their writing skills. This is open to any interested young people in the age categories below:

 Final News in Brief

• World’s Greatest Meal read all about our Uplands Interact Club efforts.
• Rotary Prize eDraw Winner this month is Rotarian Debbie Vincent, join in for the opportunity to win and help raise funds for The Rotary Foundation.
• Rotarian Jacqui Horn joined eRotary and was inducted at the RIBI Assembly by President Elect Gary, welcome Jacqui. 

Dreams to Action Two Years On

Click 4 Action eRotary (District 1100 eClub) was chartered on the 8th February 2012. This weekend we are celebrating that a dream started at the New Orleans Rotary International Convention in 2012 has continued to achieve doing Rotary successfully now for two years. Who would have thought sitting in a workshop listening to how E-Clubs worked, would be turned into an action packed adventure that is delivering Service above Self through a team of like minded people who want to be able to do it in a 21st Century way, where time and capacity are restricted.

Less of the history, on with the action! What a scream we had last night as we tried for the first time a Skype meeting, talk about operating in the dark, but Tim, Mary, Janice and Allan spent a good hour talking Rotary. Sorry if others were waiting to join us, if you missed it our next Skype is on the 8th March at 2.00.p.m. and thereafter the 8th of each month at a time to be announced.

Uplands Interact – tomorrow District Governor Jan Harris is to attend the Uplands Educational Trust AGM, where she will present the Interact Club Charter to Jordon our Interact Club President. The Interact Club are currently working on the World’s Greatest Meal to help End Polio and a Musical Concert to buy Water Barrels, for the Roll out the Barrel scheme.

Do book your place on the meal as every £1 will be donated to End Polio and trebled by matching. Plus watch out for our concert date.

Young Writer’s Competition – Again this year we are working with the Worcestershire Lit Festival to sponsor this competition, please encourage young people to enter and use their creative talent, more details at Young Writer’s Entry.

Autism Awareness Workshop – 29th March, 2014

Please encourage people to attend, we aim to:

• help communities understand Autism more develop strategies to be more inclusive,
• help make opportunities for Volunteering, Work Experience or Employment available that are accessible and understand the advantages and adjustments that Autism can bring to Enterprise.

Book using this booking form AA Flier March 2014

Virtual Balloon Race – watch out for details of our famous Balloon Race in aid of the British Heart Foundation and the Rotary Foundation, we will run the race at the end of February.

Tied Up for Rotary – sees a new turn with our eRotarian Ray’s new challenge in Good Tieday, please help to collect ties.

Foodbank – our efforts to help start a food bank in Malmesbury and District are progressing see Newsletter-Feb 2014, Ray is the Chair of the Steering Group.

Internet Shop – it has always been our dream to have an online shop, thanks to Nicke this is nearly a reality, we just need a volunteer to help run it. We’ve plenty of goods to sell, through the Tied Up for Rotary enterprise.

eRotarian David describes his passion for the raising of funds for The Rotary Foundation, in his article in this weeks programme. Help us do that by joining in with our eDraw, more information can be found at http://www.1100rotaryeclub.org/monthly-edraw/

Easy Fundraising – is helping us to raise funds for charities and projects, can you help just by doing your normal shopping online, join in and help raise funds the easy way.

Mental Health – remains a key topic we want to encourage more discussion about it and to encourage all of us to exercise our Mental Wellbeing, do visit our Facebook page where eRotarian Maria keeps the conversation up-to-date.

Still to come – Our President’s Event in London in March; selling little plastic ducks for the famous Rotary Club of Old Town Duck Race; a possible twinning visit from our friends in Germany.

The best of all getting new people to join in with a dream and get involved in the ACTION. We welcome all interested new comers, we want to help you make a difference in our world, your time, capacity or where you live shouldn’t be a block to joining Rotary, we can promise you that catching the eRotary Bug is great fun, offers plenty of opportunity and we invite you to join us.