Ian Renshaw sought to put some meat on the bones, suggesting (I think) that a Regional model (10 to 25 clubs) might be considered as a more efficient and appropriate model for governing Rotary in place of the current District model and suggesting that the very nature of Rotary and member engagement could perhaps (if it's OK with all of us) be re-imagined. And if, everyone likes what is imagined, the unthinkable might become at the very least thinkable, and some change for the better, providing a more solid foundation for the future of Rotary, might possibly emerge.

 

I've been in Rotary for a while, but I discovered from Ian that as well as being in a District, we're also in a Zone. I don't know how many zones there are, but we're in zone 8, so there's at least that many. And Zone 8 is one of two Zones in the whole world that have been given the green light by Rotary International to do the imagining, and perhaps do a bit of experimenting so they can provide feedback to RI about how Rotary might change.

 

In typical Rotary fashion, given that clubs generally don't take being told what to do all that well, Zone 8 can only proceed with imagining stuff, let alone trying stuff, if a minimum of two thirds of the clubs in the zone say it's OK. Ian and David would like our clubs to vote YES.

 

By voting YES we're not committing ourselves to actually going along with whatever is imagined or eventually suggested, so there is, they assure us, no existential threat to the club if we say YES, other than the possibility that we may not like something that's imagined and will have to go through the process of arguing against it when, if by some miracle, RI actually wants to do something.

 

Now, to be fair, Ian didn't actually say any of this, it's what I think he meant. And if he didn't mean this then I apologise.

David Egan then took the floor to answer questions where for most cases there are no current answers.

 

Nathan White asked David to explain precisely what they were asking us to agree to? A fair question I thought. David talked for quite a while in response without answering the question. I think the problem is that Nathan, like all of us want to know what they think they're going to imagine before committing to say it's OK for them to imagine. And if David doesn't know what they're going to imagine he couldn't say too much. Also if he has an inkling about what they're going to imagine, then he doesn't want us to say anything because we might say NO to them imagining it.

 

Brendan Kenny observed that this seems to be about members, clubs and districts and asked if other parts of Rotary like ROMAK would be impacted. David Egan said they may be impacted but it's mainly about clubs, not changing them, but supporting and supplementing them.

 

President Tony from Eastwood suggested there isn't a lot of risk in voting YES, if it doesn't work it doesn't work. He asked how the voting system was going to work because Clubs Vote and so do Districts. 

 

Clubs will receive information about voting and this is all happening soon. The votes will be handled by RISPO (another acronym new to all of us and hopefully not required again - Rotary International South Pacific Office - presumably the office for Zone 8). Clubs that don't vote will be assumed to have voted NO. District Governors would vote as their clubs had voted which makes you wonder why they have a vote.

 

Trevor McGuirk suggested that nothing had come from previous studies into amalgamating clubs. David said a bit but didn't really address the question. Why would he, he isn't responsible for previous inaction.

Saturday Thrift Shop Roster

 

ALL the Bunnings Mile End Barbeque shifts are from 8am to 5pm

A Special Entry for Music Buffs