Like the most recent on-line Club meeting, the Board had an online meeting using the Zoom app on Monday 30 March.
Several matters were discussed including a decision to redirect funds that had originally been committed to assisting pronunciation classes run by the Salvation Army to now be used for emergency food in programs run by the Army.
Funds will able be provided to purchase generators for victims of the Gippsland fires who are living in temporary containers what do not have running water.
Ted Waghorne submitted a proposal to help with the setting up of a water pump in the Philippines. This proposal was supported and options are being examined to raise the necessary funds.
Rob Anderson joined the meeting and outlined a proposal about using online facilities to enable Rotarians to connect.
The broad outline of the proposal is a short term (next 4-5 months) two stage project to firstly help Rotarians to connect within their Clubs during these times of Social Distancing by empowering Clubs and their members to use technology such as Zoom web conferencing to run Club Meetings/Social Gatherings and Facebook closed groups to stay connected.
The second stage is an Online 60+ day Marathon ‘unConvention’ starting 1 June 2020. with 3 Streams:
- Rotarians Connect - where clubs from around the world present a 15 minute overview of their club and its projects to attendees. These presentations would be recorded and be available to Rotarians and the wider public on an ongoing basis.
- A stream for Rotary Projects to be similarly presented to Rotarians and the wider world
- ‘The Festival Of Good’ a grassroots event to encourage people and organizations to share events of social good
Rob proposal was very well received and a small project group has been established to develop the next steps.
President Lili-Ann advised that the planned Guinness Book of Records Waggle Dance attempt in May is possibly unlikely to proceed due to the social interaction restrictions. However, a concept is being considered to use online facilities to still stage the event to align with world bee day - more to come in few weeks.