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.

 

 

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?

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.

One Wheel on my Wagon

Being part of eRotary you are reminded of being a pioneer in the wagon train which is rolling along, while we are singing that song ‘One Wheel on my Wagon and the Cherokees are after me, yes and we are singing a happy song’. Indeed we are really happy about how Click 4 Action eRotary is developing, as we will show in this latest News Update.

     Uplands Interact Club

At our first meeting of this term we started preparing our plans for the projects we are working on. We are continuing to help with the Rotary International campaign to End Polio Now and our Interact Club is to get involved with the World’s Greatest Meal on Thursday 27th February, 2014 from 12.00 to 2.00.m. Come along to Uplands School, Redhouse, Swindon and for £3 enjoy our meal offer, every customer will contribute £1 to ending Polio. As part of the week leading up to the meal, our Enterprise Classes will be planning and preparing.

Before the meal on the 10th February the Uplands Educational Trust are holding their AGM, some of the Interact members will be taking part in the fashion show, to advertise what we have on sale in the Uplands Shop. We have invited the Rotary District Governor Jan Harris to this event so she can present our Interact Charter and President Roland can tell her more about the Club. We are planning to organise after Easter a Musical Concert to help raise funds for Roll Out the Barrel, more about the event once we have it organised.

eRotary in Malmesbury

Current we have three eRotarians in the Malmesbury area, we would like to increase our numbers so anyone interested please come and Join Us . Working with the Churches Together in Malmesbury,  in January we started exploring the development of a local Foodbank (see article in local Gazette & Herald) working with the Trussell Trust.  We are also developing a new initiative to involve people in being volunteers with Rotary Projects, using the Rotary Community Corps programme, which we’ve called Community Act. Here we are putting together a team to help with community initiatives such as the food bank and flood prevention. For more information about the RCC please visit our website.

Autism Awareness Workshop

Please help us to promote this event as we approach World Autism Day on the 2nd April, we want communities to understand Autism and develop ways to be more inclusive of everyone. To download please click AA Flier March 2014.

London Calling

President Janice is looking forward to meeting members of Click 4 Action eRotary in London in March, no fancy dance floor awaits us, just some fun together offline and a chance to get to know each other and enjoy some of the London sights.

So how does eRotary work?

Many times this question is asked of us, well the answer is we are still exploring the different and exciting ways, however we have put Service above Self as one of our prime objects – members are asked to undertake this in three ways:

• Personal Service – stuff you do in you community on your own or with others e.g. I belong to Trusts and other things as a Rotarian. The other day an eRotarian was helping people in Kent who had suffered due to the floods. In the Mason household they are now on a recycle campaign, this is personal service around the environment which we could all do as a campaign within eRotary. We support our Rotary District with quite a high proportion of members holding District Office.

• Online Service – helping us to get out to the widest audience our weekly programmes, news updates and eAwareness Campaigns – like the Autism Awareness and Mental Health Awareness – a simple retweet or share post is fantastic for spreading the message. Plus helping raise funds through Easy Fundraising and eBay is great too.

• Community Service – when some of us get together to do projects together, this could be anywhere of course or it might be in conjunction with another Rotary Club. The Get Tied Up with Rotary is a good illustration of our service and the bush planting we’ve undertaken another.

We are Rotarians with a pioneering approach to New Ways of doing Rotary…

• We want very much to work in partnership with traditional Rotary Clubs to offer people who would like to be Rotarians, but time or other circumstances prevent them, to join us and do Rotary when they can.
• We want to involve younger people in Rotary, so we are exploring ways to ensure this is possible, we want to be affordable, accessible and inclusive.
• We do Rotary that offers flexibility, do it when you can and enjoy the contribution you make however limited.
• We want to help communities in the UK as much as those Internationally.
• We hope that we can help people to realise their aspirations, passions and give them opportunity to develop in themselves whilst they give to others.
• Read about why our Secretary Tim Mason is a Rotarian.

Yes we are eRotarians and we’re singing that happy song…….come join us

Come Join Us-EN from Rotary International on Vimeo.

Wow C4A eRotary does it in 2013

Over the past year Click 4 Action eRotary has enjoyed continuing to develop its activities as online Rotary for busy people in the 21st Century, we look over the year with pride in the Service we’ve undertaken and look forward to 2014 with what we can achieve further.

January 2013 saw our Post Christmas party at Jimmy’s in Bath, don’t miss our next one on Saturday 11th January, 2014. January also saw the launch of our Uplands Interact Club and later in February the RIBI President dropped in to do it officially.

February 2013

We launched the Virtual Balloon Race Up Up and Away for the British Heart Foundation, a great way to have fun without damaging the environment. We also launched the Young Writer’s Competition in partnership with the WLF. We welcomed our Group Study Exchange Students from North Carolina, they brought such fun to our Face Space meeting at Kevin’s or perhaps it was just doing Rotary on the iPad!

Have you seen this App, would you like to swap?

Don’t forget we also did the hedge planting, eRotary isn’t all in doors sitting at a computer its hands on in the freezing cold ensuring we help the environment!

March 2013 – We ran the Click 4 Action International Peace Symposium and the RIBI President visited Uplands Interact Club to help us officially launch this new venture.

President John meets members of our new Interact Club

Dave King our new Disability Officer talks about Autism at our awareness workshop

April 2013 – Do you remember the Autism Awareness Workshop end the end of March and the celebration of World Autism Day on the 2nd April. We have plans again in 2014 so keep Saturday 29th March available as we again raise Autism Awareness and report about what we’ve achieved since our last event. Dave King is now our Disability Officer in Click 4 Action eRotary.

May 2013 – Saw us all splashing away selling the yellow plastic ducks, for the Rotary Club of Swindon Old Town Duck Race thanks to Debbie’s efforts we sold over 1200 in this year. May also saw us helping to celebrate Rotary at the Festival of Rotary in Cheltenham. Finally celebrating being one year old at our President and Charter Event’s at Ola and Maria’s, where we learnt more about Maria’s exploits in India and our feelings about being part of Click 4 Action eRotary were summed up in the video made by Sinead:

Tim presents Ed with cheque for £400 for Disaster Box, the last target to be achieved in his year 2012/13

June 2013 – We inducted our new Rotarian Ed at the RI Convention in Lisbon and we saw the fruits of the Young Writer’s Competition at the Worcester Guildhall, a great partnership has been established with the Worcester LitFestival.

July 2013 – Janice becomes President and we present a cheque to Ed Cox towards his work with Disaster Aid International.

August 2013 – We launch the Get Tied Up with Rotary Campaign and have a really successful visit to the Trussell Trust in Salisbury, where we learn about Foodbanks and Young People leaving Care in Bulgaria. We are looking forward to following all this up in 2014, with Vocational Training Team going to Bulgaria and helping to start a Foodbank in Malmesbury.

September 2013 – Saw our second Face Space meeting at Kevin’s, this time we inducted Margaret from Scotland by Skype, while husband DGE Alistar looked on by Skype from Dubia and we all kept in touch with International Peace Day by internet transmissions. We were proud of our Rotaractors who’d organised an International Peace Photograph Competition for Peace Day.

October 2013 – gave us the opportunity to raise Mental Health Awareness as part of our contributions for World Mental Health Day, we wanted to get people talking openly about Mental Health and exercising their mental health. Our Facebook page continues to promote this eAwareness campaign, coordinated by our new member Maria.

October saw the launch of our eDraw to help us raise funds for the Rotary Foundation. Again this year organised by Debbie we packed Christmas Shoe Boxes for children in Eastern Europe, what a lot of presents collected to pack 100 boxes.

November 2013 – we organised Meet the Governor and ensuring members were aware of Domestic Abuse and how this affects families in our communities, plus continued to induct new members into the eClub, welcome Jill and Kate.

Rotarian Jill wife of a Rotarian takes the plunge and gets involved with enthusiasm

Rotarian Kate is inducted while proud Father looks on

December 2013 – at last we had the opportunity to sell some of those ties or is it bags to help End Polio Now at the Worcester Lit Festival Christmas Fair. 

We were pleased to be able to help with the Philippines Appeal by sending a cheque to purchase 10 Roll Out the Barrels for helping with Water Collection.

Of course there have been disappointments in the year, but membership has grown and it has been great to find different ways to induct new members, it was a pleasure to induct George a Rotarian for 60 years previously, whose Rotary came to an end because his traditional Rotary Club had to close.

We are looking forward to 2014, to continue our plan, undertake more projects and continue to develop eRotary, its a shame we can’t get everything on these pages, but WOW what we’ve achieved is fantastic and we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Easter E-Special

E-Rotary continues to make ‘We’re for Communities’ centre stage

Have your heard our District 1100 Festival of Rotary is happening this year in Cheltenham on the 4th May, 2013. Please book the date and visit our E-Rotary stand where we are holding our own Writers and Poets Corner to help promote our involvement in the Worcestershire Literary Festival.

Calling all young writers!
A FREE writing competition for young writers aged 7-17 years old.
Write 300 words or fewer, poetry or prose, on the theme: ’13’ (it will be lucky for some!)

Opportunities to:

• Win a cash prize
• Develop writing skills
• Read the work at WLF events
• Be published in an anthology
• Be published on the D1100 eClub website
Young writers have until 1 June 2013 to get competition entries in by email to youth@worcslitfest.com
Open to all Young Writers wherever they live in the age categories stated ~ see rules and guidelines for details.

Rotarians go quackers

The Swindon Famous Duck Race is with us again and eClubbers are now selling those lovely little yellow plastic ducks, at £1 a time. This is one of the few ways we as an eClub raises funds as we can undertake this activity  in partnership with the Rotary Club of Swindon Old Town.  We are going to try to sell 1000 ducks this year – Fundraising whilst having a quacking time.

Do you want to wish our President Elect Janice Happy 50th Birthday?

Join in with her celebrations by coming on the Walk 4 Wildlife 5 mile stroll in the countryside on Sunday 9th June, to help raise funds for the British Heart Foundation and the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, at the end of the walk we are promised Birthday Cake.

President Elect Janice is currently preparing for her Rotary Year 2013/14, putting plans into place, getting her eClub Team together, attending President’s Elect Training (PETS) and looking forward to the District 1100 Assembly, so that she can help our District 1100 eClub continue to support projects that demonstrate Rotary is We’re for Communities.

Membership continues to grow

We are pleased to welcome 12 new people as provisional members to our eClub, it is very exciting that our efforts in our community projects are encouraging others to join us. Please help us spread the message by telling others about the exciting way we are engaging in Rotary for busy people in the 21st Century.

What’s on the horizon for our E-Rotary?

Watch out for exciting details as to how one of our members supported by E-Rotary is to help raise funds for the Roll out the Barrel Project. More details in our next Newsletter.

Only last May 2012 we held our Charter Event at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, now on the 18th May 2013 we are planning our Charter and President’s Celebration Event at Dartley Farm, Nr.Cirencester to include Farm Walk, Bring and Share Picnic and talk by Rotarian Maria about her adventures in India.  Cost £5 per person for funds towards the Hope and Home Association in Cambodia 

Also in the pipeline another Workshop entitled Community ACT – Employment, exploring how to overcome the barriers some people in our society experience (e.g. veterans, ex-offenders, special educational needs, mental health), who need help in exploring their vocational aspirations.

We also hope to explore ways as to how E-Rotary can help Community Development through investment in community assets and local micro financing projects. One such group our eClub would like to support is HEALS in Malmesbury.

Follow-up work to our Autism Awareness Workshop includes helping to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day on the 2nd April – Understand It and Make it Happen. The international campaign is to turn buildings blue, so if you see blue buildings tell people it’s about Autism .  We will be supporting this campaign by going blue on the internet and posting about Autism – don’t forget to repost anything you see to spread the word.  After Easter we will announce other follow up actions to be taken forward as we indeed help to Make It Happen.

Look out for Debbie’s Cheese and Wine on Saturday 13th July, to raise the final pennies for our 2nd Shelter Box, also this will be our handover day for the new Rotary Year 2013/14, Engage Rotary – Change Lives 

We’re for Communities – Making it happen

Yesterday (16th March 2013) as people started to arrive for our Autism Awareness Workshop who would know what the outcomes would be, all we knew was that 50 people were with us on this journey.

Registration takes place in Charity and Coffee Shop

Without going into detail of the whole day, you can see that through the pictures shown in this news update it was a fantastic event.  This was due to our excellent speakers and our thanks go to Robert Buckland MP, Dave King, Sally Grubb and Oriana Morrison-Clarke from the National Autism Society, Kirk Anderson a Community Nurse, Simon Kitson a Senior Psychologist and Jackie Smith the Head Teacher at Uplands School.

So now this is where the work starts and outcomes to the day are being typed up, but here are the main outcomes that we hope others will help us work on:

Conference begins

• Raising Autism Awareness in our communities throughout the UK, please in particular help your local branch of the National Autism Society.
• Support the ‘turn the Blue Light on’ so it shines all over the world for International Day of Autism on the 2nd April, please do something BLUE on you social networks.

Dave King talks about the Autism Awareness Alert Card

• Help spread the Autism Awareness Alert Cards, first launched with the support of Wiltshire Police across other Police Forces in the UK.
• We intend to follow up the day with further workshops: one about a more in-depth exploration of the affects of Autism, expanding on brief introductions of yesterday; our eClub will tackle similar issues to encourage community action; we have plans for a workshop on Mental Health.
• We are setting up a Task and Finish Group to look at how the District 1100 eClub can work in partnership with others in the community, to develop a business scheme that accredits businesses and workplaces that are Autism Aware (with training), plus to encourage the further development of work experience and employment opportunities and social enterprises to provide real jobs for people with Autism.
• To work with our partners the Uplands Educational Trust to develop further opportunities in Swindon and Wiltshire.

Jackie Smith Head Teacher tells us about the projects the Uplands Educational Trust are developing.

There were lots of other good ideas, that once we’ve evaluated the day and produced a short report will detail other initiatives that will require partnership work to address.

Collecting the ideas and considering how we are going to Make it Happen

Can we help Max raise funds for the WellChild national charity

WellChild is the national charity for sick children. WellChild helps sick children and their families throughout the UK as they deal with the consequences of serious illness and complex conditions. Their mission is to reach as many children and young people as they can, year after year. WellChild focuses on three key areas – care, support and research – and their involvement in so many aspects of children’s health puts them in a unique position.

To raise awareness and some much needed money Max will be ‘racing’ around Europe in a group of 100 cars all of which have had to cost less than £500 each! They don’t have an idea of destination of the route at the moment, they are only told our next destination as they reach each checkpoint! But last year his team covered 2200 miles in 3 days and at their furthest point stopped in Spain at the famous bullrun in Pamplona! He will be leaving the UK with the other 99 cars on the 2nd of May from Dover and hopefully returning with the remnants of a working car on the 6th May after covering some serious miles! All costs are covered by Max and his team mate Adam Blanchard so that 100% of the money that they raise goes to WellChild Children’s Charity.

You can sponsor him through a few channels: JustGiving ; By Text – Send “GRYF88 £3” or another amount to 70070; at the Scrumrun Website; at the Wellchild website.

Please help the District 1100 eClub promote a new exciting project which we are developing in partnership with the Worcestershire Literary Festival

Calling all young writers!
A FREE writing competition for young writers aged 7-17 years old.
Write 300 words or fewer, poetry or prose, on the theme: ’13’ (it will be lucky for some!)

FREE workshop to help young writers prepare: Saturday 25 May at St John’s Library, Worcester, starting at 10:30.

Opportunities to:
• Win a cash prize
• Develop writing skills
• Read the work at WLF events
• Be published in an anthology
• Be published on the D1100 eClub website
Young writers have until 1 June 2013 to get competition entries in by email to youth@worcslitfest.com
Open to all Young Writers wherever they live in the age categories stated ~ see rules and guidelines for details.

Lewis the Treasurer of our Interact Club assisted by eClub member David, ensures that the Uplands Educational Trust serves the community before the Autism Awareness Workshop starts.

E-Rotary Sparkles with Action

 

When Sheila, Rachel and Lindsey arrived in District 1100 we sparkled

Members of our E-Club have been very involved in the first week’s hosting of the Group Study Exchange from North Carolina District 7730. It has been a delight to show our guests around, share our homes and even party with them, a great experience for our E-Rotary as we saw more of what Rotary International can offer and what the Rotary Foundation can provide. They sprinkled their sparkle amongst us and we are so grateful to the joy they brought us, we watch with interest as they continue their adventure and are so pleased we can call them friends.

Our programme this week in the E-Club is Janice our Secretary interviewing Lindsey Bush a member of that team

Why did you want to be in the GSE Team?

I thought it was an opportunity for a life changing experience, to see another country and learn through experience.  It’s not just the travel, it’s the opportunity to stay in someone’s home, experience the culture – the breakfast, lunch and dinner.  That’s true learning.

What were your expectations before coming?

I am very busy at work and the thought of having to give up a significant part of my income for a month and the control of my business scared me.  I was uncertain at doing this as part of Rotary, with their control of what I would do and being expected to wear a uniform.  I thought it would be a lot of work, no play and that I would be very tired.

I set my expectations low.  I knew I would be out of my comfort zone, but that you learn through growing.  By lowering my expectations, by expecting the worst which I knew I could handle, I left room to grow and learn within whatever I experienced. If it exceeded my expectations then it would be magical.

My father always said “Don’t promise to over deliver.”  It is better to under expect and achieve more.

So far the experience has far exceeded by expectations.  I was very nervous, getting everything ready, getting finances and my business in order, leaving my family and dog.  I was all a little scary.  It’s not even been a week since I arrived and it’s been the most amazing experience.

You own your own business, why did you think this would be important for your business?

I am working on empowerment, finding common ground between every human being.  To be able to travel across the World, visit a country similar to America where I can really communicate, is an opportunity of a lifetime.  A chance to see how you view things, how you feel about things, the demographics, find the common ground.  To research and compare is valuable.  We’re all the same no matter where we live of where we’re from, so to find where our common ground is opens up more potential to develop business.  By exploring diversity you find common ground and expand the breadth of your understanding to provide viable services.

Balloons Sparkle in the Sun

Our Virtual Balloon Race continues at a pace, as we endeavour to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation and the Rotary Foundation, thanks to everyone who has supported this, it is not late to get involved Buy Your Balloon Here. Currently Sapphire Blue is in the lead after travelling 4358 km, but competition for first place is fast and furious and constantly changing. Just look into the sky (virtual of course) and see the sparkles that this can help bring to many who need the support of the British Heart Foundation.

Uplands School Developments Sparkle

This week we launch our first Interact Club at Uplands Special Needs School, an exciting development as we build our links within the School.  This will followed on the 27th February by a visit of the RIBI President John Minhinick, where he will learn more about how our E-Rotary is helping with the Charity Shop project, the 19 to 25 years Vocational project. He will also help us launch the Uplands Interact Club and meet some of our E-Club members.

Have you booked your place on our Autism Awareness Workshop yet? Two aims of the day are a) an expansion of the Autism Alert Card currently operating in Wiltshire, b) a kite mark for businesses who are Autism Aware. Please book your free place Autism Awareness Workshop and help us take Autism Awareness to a new place in our communities.

Help us recruit for the Rotaract Hub

There is so much negative press about younger people, help us show that we can attract younger people 18 – 30 years who want to make a difference in their communities, who through being a member of the Rotaract Hub can learn new skills, develop their personal attributes and give Service above Self in a world where they care about peace.

Rotary International wants to invest in New Generations and our E-Rotary believes that the E-Platform can really appeal to young professionals, University and FE College Students and young entrepreneurs, please help us promote The Rotaract Hub.

Join us and become part of Sparkling E-Rotary

We continue to seek new members who can help us develop our modern, vibrant and inclusive way of being part of Rotary International. We are evolving so that Service above Self is, we believe, key to being a Rotarian and E-Rotary has been created to enable members to continue doing the basics of Rotary, whilst fitting with a busy lifestyle. It is understood that all our members are busy people, with work, business and family commitments.  Involvement in Rotary should enrich these commitments, not add pressure.

Join us and try out E-Rotary just email info@1100rotaryeclub.org for an application form and more information.

E-Rotary at the Heart of Fun Activities

February has been designated Heart Month by the British Heart Foundation, as E-Rotary we are working to help this important charity raise funds with the launch of our Virtual Balloon Race. With over 200 balloons already sold we hope others will join in the fun and buy a balloon for just £2 to support our efforts.

Younger People are at the Heart of our work

In February we launch an Interact Club in Uplands Special Needs School, Swindon, which will be linked to the work already being undertaken by the young people in their Charity and Coffee Shop. On the 27th February John Minhinick President of Rotary International in Britain and Ireland will be visiting the Shop to meet the young people, eClub members and to help us launch the new Interact Club.

We’ve made a really good start with recruiting for the Rotaract Hub, we now have 5 members and have some good links being followed up. As Steffy says “Do you want to be part of an amazing experience? Do you want to start new friendships and work together to make a difference in your community? Come and join us by becoming a member of the Rotaract Hub, a platform that aims to connect Rotaractors from all around the world while living in the UK. It is your chance to share new ideas and thoughts. We are young, full of energy and motivated to make a change. Are you ready to accept the challenge?” Steffy is about to embark on a placement at the UN as part of her course, but she will still be helping to take things forward with this project.

This week we launched our Young Writers Competition in partnership with the Worcestershire Literary Festival. A great opportunity to encourage young people 7 -17 to put pen to paper, please help spread to schools in your area.

During the 9th to 14th February eClub members will be helping to host students on the Group Study Exchange from North Carolina. A great opportunity to develop friendships and great world understanding, while these young adults learn more about our culture, customs and vocations.

The promotion is underway to encourage as many people as we can to attend the Autism Awareness Workshop on the 16th March at Uplands School.  Please help us promote this event. Guest speakers include Robert Buckland MP who is leading the Autism Bill through Parliament.

We’re for Communities at the Heart of our projects

Saturday 9th February we are holding another Facespace Evening, so eClub members can learn how to navigate more the cyberspace, we will be joined by our GSE visitors, another chance to laugh, eat and get to grips with Facebook.

Have you seen this App, would you like to swap?

Sunday 17th February sees some of the brave members returning to fields in the Stroud area to hedge plant, with the Stroud Valley Project.

Saturday 23rd February is Rotary’s Birthday and we are going to hold an International symposium on Facebook with the theme Peace through Service. Getting people to share how we are making this Rotary International President’s theme come alive during 2012/13 and what actions have been taken in our communities.

Service above Self is at the Heart of everything E-Rotary does. Why not encourage your friends to join us and be part of our beating Heart within the communities we serve?