In a week or so you will be asked to sign up if you wish to attend our Club Changeover night on Monday July 4th. This is the night that this year’s club leaders hand over to the group who will guide the club next year. It is a Rotary tradition, just like moving day for dairy farmers!! This year Bernie and I agreed to hold the night at the Town and Country on Monday as usual, as they have missed out so much with us not meeting regularly, not to mention the fact that word is out about the great food there!! It will be a fun night where we summarise the year just gone, plan the year ahead and enjoy some first class entertainment all for $40.00 per person. Please get along if you can as we will have a bit of a Chicago theme going on. To get the club facilities to ourselves and therefore more space it will be 6.45pm drinks for a 7.15pm start.
I will provide some detail at changeover about what has been achieved this year despite us not meeting face to face very often at all. I continue to be amazed at the work we get through and the difference we make to so many lives. That is why I am a Rotarian.
On that note we have another 100 trees to plant and we are aiming to do that (weather allowing) on Saturday June 18th. Fin will be asking for volunteers. Jackie already has a signup sheet out for help at the Lego Display and we have been asked to provide some help at the Infinite Energy Light Up Cromwell night on July 9. The opportunities to help just keep coming!!!
Many of you may not be aware of the Internationality of Rotary but you are one of about 1,200,000 members in 220 countries around the world. There are another 600,000 Rotaractors and Interactors in about 160 countries around the world and goodness knows how many people who have participated in Rotary programmes and events over 108 years. In 2022/23 the President of Rotary International is Jennifer Jones from Canada and believe it or not she is our first woman President. She will be awesome, but I will leave that story to Bernie.
Part of the Rotary International programme is an international convention which has just finished in Houston, USA. Next year it will be held in Melbourne May 27-31. These events truly show that we belong to something a whole lot bigger than Cromwell Rotary and at the last convention in Australia held in Sydney there were 18,000 registrants. Anyway Ade and I are thinking of going and hope we might get a few from our club interested in joining us. It will never be easier to see the real internationality of the organisation.
This is me signing off but before I do I just want to say a genuine thank you to you all. This club is amazing and there are so many people who just make it work. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to have been your President in 2021/22.
Stuart