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District Governor’s Newsletter | Edition 14 | June 2021

Congratulations 2020-21 Champions

Outstanding Assistant Governor of the Year John Oomen – Casino

With nominees Eric Lewis – Cluster 2 & Anne Farrell – Cluster 1

Outstanding Past Governor of the Year Neil Maxwell – Warwick Rotary

Awards Chair Amanda Ryder Grafton Midday MC – Ken Clark Burleigh Heads

Rotary Foundation Meritorious Award

PDG Michael Irving - Southport

Outstanding District Chair of the Year

YEP Chair David Kenny - Jimboomba New Club of the Year – Currumbin Beach

New Club Advisor Rowan Johnstone

Rotary Foundation Distinguished Award PDG Graham Jones Griffith Gold Coast

Club of the Future for highest number of under 40’s - Gold Coast Passport

President Candice Oliver

President of the Year DGN Dave Harmon with wife

Robyn -Ballina-on-Richmond

Club of the Year – Burleigh Heads

President John Clark

Brian and Nancy Knowles Award PDG Brian & Val Heaton

Runaway Bay

Interactor of the Year Maya Parer – Interact Club of Hills

International College Jimboomba

Best Local Fundraising Project of the Year - Rotary Club of Illuka-Woombah Best Local Community Service of the Year - Rotary Club of The Granite Belt

Best Rotary Branded Town of the Year - Yamba Rotary Best Rotary 100 Baton Relay Activation - Ballina-on-Richmond Rotary

Best Rotary 100 Baton Relay Media Exposure – Grafton Midday Rotary

Rotaractor of the Year Candace Lee

Rotaract Club of Burleigh

New Paul Harris Society Members with DGE Jeff Egan

PP Annie Brownjohn – Kingscliff PP Ken Clark OAM - Burleigh Heads

DGN Karen Thomas – Burleigh Heads DG Andy handed over the leadership

of District 9640 to DGE Jeff Egan, saying to be a

Rotary Governor is a “piece of cake”.

Youth Exchange Students of the Year with PDG Darrell Brown

Taylor Randal – Nerang State High Jorja Bellis – Palm Beach Currumbin High

Kyah Anderson – Somerset College (Absent): Anna Henderson – Stanthorpe State High

Elisa Muscat – Kelvin Grove State College Lily Taylor – Coomera Anglican College

Outstanding District Leaders with Harrison Howick, Amanda Ryder, PDG Michael Irving & Ken Clark: David Baguley – Gold Coast, Jodie Shelley – Ballina-on-Richmond, Sue Randel – Ballina-on-Richmond, Sandra Doumany OAM – Hope Island,

Phillip Fairweather – Hope Island, Mark Twyford - Surfers Sunrise, Rowan Johnstone – Currumbin Beach, Lisa Hunt – Coomera River,

Gareth Hunt – Hope Island, Darrell Brown – Surfers Sunrise.

Club Growth

Ballina-on-Richmond 75 (+38) Burleigh Heads 47 (+12) Hope Island 54 (+12) Currumbin Beach 30 (+10) Warwick 15 (+8) Varsity Lakes 15 (+7) Griffith Gold Coast 26 (+6) Boonah 40 (+5) Grafton Midday 31 (+5) Jimboomba 36 (+5) Surfers Sunrise 35 (+5) Iluka Woombah 18 (+4) Murwillumbah Central 23 (+4) Casino 28 (+3) Currumbin-Coolangatta-Tweed 24 (+3) Kyogle 8 (+3) Mermaid Beach 23 (+3) Stanthorpe 26 (+3) Warwick Sunrise 28 (+3) Alstonville 16 (+2) Broadwater Southport 31 (+2) Coomera River 22 (+2) Coomera Valley 26 (+2) E-Club of NextGen 24 (+2) Goondiwindi 41 (+2) Mullumbimby 18 (+2) Robina 10 (+2) Summerland Sunrise 9 (+2) Yamba 19 (+2) Evans Head 21 (+1) Fassifern Valley 17 (+1) Gold Coast Passport 31 (+1) Mudgeeraba 11 (+1) Nerang 15 (+1) Surfers Paradise 18 (+1)

CONGRATULATIONS

Champion Clubs

with + 1 and over growth

DG Andy’s Annual Report to Rotarians in District 9640

In January 2020 at the Rotary International Training Assembly in San Diego California USA, then-incoming World President Holger Knaack inspired us 540 District Governors-Elect from 182 countries with his annual theme, "Rotary Opens Opportunities". In February, when we boarded our flights to return home ready to lead our Districts, none of us ever dreamt that we were flying into a global pandemic where every door of opportunity kept closing on us. By March, International and National borders closed. The world went into lockdown. No living Rotary Governor or a World President before us had led a Rotary District of volunteers during a global pandemic. So each of us had to innovate our own style of "crisis leadership". I believed that "no one went blind by looking at the bright side." That’s what I did all year long since taking office on 1st July 2020 as your District Governor of 9640. I looked for new opportunities in a global crisis. My amazing District Leadership Team and my coach PDG Prof. Michael Irving believed in my vision and backed me.

Look what we did together as a team! 50 of our clubs and members like you contributed A$421,000 to our Rotary Foundation. This is our charity. This year we joined mega service projects by supporting 4 Global Grants as an overseas partner for Indian Districts of 3232 and 3000 to obtain a US$1.2 Million grant from our Foundation to operate 100 vision centres in South India to prevent avoidable blindness of 1 Million people over the next 5 years. With support of these Indian districts, we lodged a Global Grant application for US$60,000 by 3 of our Rotary clubs and a Rotaract club to equip a medical centre in Vanuatu. We gave AU$70,000 as district grants to 13 of our clubs for community service projects in Australia. With support from the Rotary Foundation, we supported the "Give Every Child a Future” project led by Melbourne Rotary Club to vaccinate 100,000 girls in the Pacific Islands to protect them from cervical cancer.

You and our 58 Rotary clubs and 5 Satellite Rotary clubs opened opportunities to attract 378 new members to Rotary this year. No Rotary District in 100 years of Rotary in Australia has attracted so many new members to Rotary in one year. This resulted in a growth of 200+ members this year. This is a new benchmark in Rotary in Australia. We are one of only 71 Rotary Districts in the World to record a growth of over 200 members in 2020-2021. This is also the highest membership growth recorded in a Rotary year in the 38-year history of our District 9640. Rotary is a membership organization and our members do wonderful service changing lives. Membership is the lifeblood of every Rotary Club. With more members, we can reach more and do more to impact more lives. Every new member brings new skills, new passion, new ideas and new leadership to clubs. Clubs that grow, do more!

This year we started 5 of the 10 new Rotary Clubs formed in Australia. No Australian Rotary District has formed 5 new clubs in one year since 1960. We started 2 new Satellite Rotary Clubs. Ballina Lifestyle Satellite club with 25

Excellence in Leadership Award 2021 to Club Presidents with +3 Net Growth with DG Andy, Awards Chair Amanda Ryder & Rotaractor Harrison Howick. Dave Harmon - Ballina-on-Richmond, John Clark - Burleigh Heads, Doug Bryce - Warwick Sunrise, Sara McMillan - Griffith Gold Coast, John Giuricin - Currumbin-Coolangatta-Tweed, Cliff Harmsworth - Mermaid Beach, Geoff Austin – Casino, Tony Lines - Coomera

Valley, David Parkins - Jimboomba, Candice Olivier - Gold Coast Passport, Steven Behn - Iluka Woombah, Robert Blanchard - Grafton Midday (Absent): Rebecca Lancaster – Warwick, Nic Rone - Varsity Lakes, Charles Thomason - Surfers Sunrise, Joe Wilkinson - Hope Island, Kristine Grayson – Boonah, Graham McCrae - Murwillumbah Central, Julia Hassal – Stanthorpe, Graeme Jones - E-Club NextGen, Peter Clark – Kyogle

members is the biggest Satellite Rotary club in Australia. Now we have 62 Rotary clubs in our district to choose from to fit our lifestyles. We started 3 new Rotaract Clubs out of the 9 new clubs formed in Zone 8 this year. Today we have 4 Rotaract Clubs with 78 members all under 30 years of age. In 2021 we started the only Rotex Club in Zone 8. Rotex engages returned Youth Exchange Students with Rotary service. In April we started our first Interact Club in the NSW side of the District in Ballina. We have 12 in Queensland. Does your club sponsor a school-based Interact Club?

Our Rotary clubs are now home to 521 female members and 140 under ’40s. We can be proud to have the highest number and percentage of under ’40s in a Rotary District in Rotary Zone 8 of Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands and with 38% we have the highest percentage of Females in our Zone. 64% of our 378 new members to join are female. 26% of new members are under 40. Our Rotary 100 year celebration Baton relay with a cause “Rotary says No to Domestic Violence” was one main factor for this huge engagement of females and younger members with Rotary as they connected with our cause. Our member retention is at an all-time high of 93%.

All these were possible because 35 of our Rotary Clubs led by amazing Presidents supported by my energetic 10 Assistant Governors, recorded a +1 or more growth. We are the only district in Rotary Zone 8 to have over 30 clubs record positive membership growth this year. Of them, 19 clubs recorded a +3 net growth. In a year like this, it is an excellent performance and a great example of Leadership by the 19 club presidents. Ballina-on-Richmond Rotary Club led by our District Governor Nominee 2023-2024 Dave Harmon, recorded a +38 member increase. With 75 members it is now the 7th largest Rotary Club today in Australia out of 1060 clubs. With 1400 members as of today, we are now the 7th largest Rotary District out of 25 in Zone 8 and the 6th largest giving District to our Rotary Foundation. It was a

wonderful opportunity last Saturday to appreciate and recognize our brave club and district leaders at the gala District Awards and Governor Changeover ceremony in Gold Coast.

Every July a new Rotary year starts with a new leader, new enthusiasm, and new energy to do better and do more than the year before. That is performance. And performance is the only measurement of leadership. On 1st July I hand over the leadership of our vibrant district with confidence to incoming Governor Jeff Egan who will improve on our performance this year. In a negative situation, to be positive is not naïve. It is brave leadership. This is what 74% of our clubs in our district supported by my brave District Leadership Team demonstrated in this most challenging year of human history. Rotary Leaders across Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, United Kingdom & Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, USA and Canada are admiring the resilience and leadership our members and clubs have shown with our performance right through a global pandemic year. You can be proud of being part of our Rotary District as you are part of our amazing team and our success.

Rotary International has invited me from 1st July to take on a challenging new role in the Zone 8 Regional Leadership Team as the Assistant Rotary Coordinator (ARC) to assist in starting new style Rotary clubs across Australia, New Zealand and 14 Pacific Countries. I am looking forward to this opportunity to work under the leadership of Rotary International Director Jessie Harman and Rotary Zone 8 Coordinator PDG Adrian Roach. I thank you and your families for the commitment and time extended to Rotary this year and for believing in my “One Goal, One Focus, One Vision” strategy that gave our district a 360-degree growth to be a world-class team. Together we showed the world by example how to grow Rotary in a developed country. So please accept my invitation to share this success and be part of the action in the coming Rotary year!

GET YOUR MEMBER DISCOUNT NOW! Rotarians under 30 years and partners of Rotarians receive a $70 discount.

Club Presidents apply to District Secretary Sue Randel by 5 July suecoo2@bigpond.com.

DISTRICT CHANGEOVER DG Andy and DGE Jeff wish to say a big thank you to everyone who attended the District Changeover and District Awards last Saturday on the Gold Coast. A very special appreciation to Sue Randel & Janette Glynn for managing the welcome desk, Carey Cam for the Photography, Serving Wenches and Honorary Wench Glenn Nott from Mt Warning AM and their helpers Jodie Shelley, Robyn Harmon and Diane Lance and MC Simone Wong. We enjoyed the Toasts by PDG Michael Irving, PDG Ross Smith and introduction of incoming Governor Jeff Egan by PDG Wendy Scarlett. Sue Randel made a delicious Changeover cake. Well done to MC Ken Clark OAM, Awards Chair Amanda Ryder and Stage Manager Harrison Howick for the smooth and efficiently run District Awards Ceremony. Congratulations to all Award Nominees and Winners.