On the evening of 17 October, there were some very excited people gathering at the main hall of the Springfield Central State School.  It was time for the Rotary Junior Community Awards for 2019 to be presented to the Grade 6 students who had successfully completed the Awards program during the school year.  Not only were the children excited to be receiving certificates and acknowledgement of their hard work, their parents and siblings were equally excited to be part of that success.  And not to mention the excitement and pleasure experienced by the School staff and the Rotary members who had partnered to make this all possible.

       

   

            

• bridge the generation gap by helping older and younger people following four areas: Community Service, Social experiences, Skills and Physical recreation
• learn about the joys and challenges of volunteering
• find out that people are different and that that’s a good thing
• learn how community decisions are made
• practice new skills
• gain confidence and a feeling of self worth
• develop healthy attitudes towards physical fitness
• ……… and much more.

Global Rotary volunteer contributions estimated at US$850 million a year.

A special report prepared for Rotary International by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies estimated the value of Rotary member volunteer hours at US$850 million a year.

That Rotary members log a lot of volunteer hours should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the organisation. But a new report just released by Johns Hopkins University provides a powerful look at the impact of all those volunteer hours.

The special report prepared for Rotary International by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies found that Rotary members had volunteered a total of 5.8 million hours within a four-week survey period. Extrapolating those results over an entire year, the report gave a conservative estimate of nearly 47 million hours of volunteer effort generated by Rotary members in a typical year.

The report then analyzed the economic impact of all those hours and estimated the value conservatively at $850 million a year, if communities had to pay for the services that Rotary volunteers provide.

Rotary, with the help of Johns Hopkins University, is the first global service organisation to conduct an empirical analysis of its volunteer’s impact using an internationally sanctioned definition of volunteer work. The authors of the report noted in their conclusion that at each stop, the analysis had chosen the most conservative estimates.

“This makes the results reported here all the more remarkable,” the authors noted. “Translated into economic terms, Rotary is annually generating a scale of social and economic problem-solving effort that is worth nearly nine times more than it costs the organisation to produce.”

Rotary General Secretary John Hewko said the figure doesn't even include the in-kind contributions and the money that Rotary clubs and the Rotary Foundation raise every year. In addition, the figure doesn’t include the volunteer work of the many relatives and friends of Rotary that members often involve in a project, or that of members of Rotaract, Interact, or the Community Corps, that would easily double the estimate of Rotary’s economic impact

After the challenge of its first year in operation, the Rotary Club of Greater Springfield, though a provisional club, is keen to engage others through its effort and commitment to provide service above self to change lives and provide a better place for our local community.

The club commences 2014 with a determination to succeed and engage Rotary by utilising its talent, skill, experience and enthusiasm to add value to the lives of others in the local and international community.

The members of the Rotary Club of Greater Springfield are very excited to celebrate the official chartering of the club by Rotary International on 12 April 2014 at the Brookwater Golf and Country Club. To do so, the new club needs a prerequisite minimum number of 25 members in order to join the Rotary family. Currently the club has 20 members so has approximately 3 months to encourage local citizens to join our passionate team prior to charter.

We need local people young and old, male and female to join this wonderful organization of like minded people driven by passion and united by a common vision to make the world a better place. Together we can achieve more with an attitude of service to apply to whatever we strive to achieve.
Maybe you have never thought about Rotary, maybe you have never been asked. Maybe you could potentially be one of tomorrow’s Rotarians joining with like minded people to make a difference to our local and the international community. Just give us a call and come along to a meeting. You will be most welcome.
Rotary needs strong clubs focused on serving their local and international community with significant projects, clubs which promote Rotary and publicize action-orientated service, clubs which plan with determination to change the world for a better place and finally clubs that are prepared to accept change and challenge their own comfort zones. This vision the Rotary Club of Greater Springfield hopes to achieve.
Rotary is 108 years old and open to people of all cultures and ethnicities in almost all countries of the world. Rotary recognises that in order to be around for another 108 years it will be required to accept change and embrace and capitalise on change for the benefit of a successful organisation going forward.
The Rotary Club of Greater Springfield (prov) holds its meetings every Thursday evening at 6.30pm at the Brookwater Golf and Country Club, 1 Tournament Drive Brookwater. For enquiries, contact Club Secretary Lachlan Clarke on 0409 711 199, visit us on Facebook or email us on greaterspringfieldrotary@hotmail.com .

What in the world does Rotary do? We’re helping to eradicate polio worldwide, we’re providing disaster relief, improving literacy locally and globally, and we’re doing so much more…
It feels good to do some good. Simply by turning conversations into actions. Once a week groups of people get together, leave their egos at the door and help others in the wider community. Its life changing. And we’re probably around the corner from your place. In fact a new club is now meeting at the Brookwater Golf and Country Club.

The Rotary Club of Greater Springfield (prov) holds its meetings every Thursday evening at 6.30pm at the Brookwater Golf and Country Club, 1 Tournament Drive Brookwater. For enquiries, contact Club Secretary Lachlan Clarke on 0409 711 199, visit us on Facebook or email us on greaterspringfieldrotary@hotmail.com .

The members of the new Rotary Club of Greater Springfield (prov) are keen to encourage all Rotarians and friends to get dressed up and have a ball when the District Governor’s Spring Dance is held this October.

Three of Rotary’s newest clubs, Rotary Club of Brisbane Rocks Riverside, Brisbane Taylor Bridge partnering with the Rotary Club of Greater Springfield (prov) will join forces to raise funds to support Rotary’s two great programmes the Australian Rotary Health and the Rotary Foundation.

Bill Gates said in support of the Rotary Foundation “‘The world would not be where it is without Rotary, and it won’t get to where it needs to go without Rotary”.

The Rotary Club of Greater Springfield knows where its going so its young membership is mobilising to ensure this event is a success for the sake of these two great Rotary programs.

For this exciting event to happen the Springfield based club needs to encourage local business to consider sponsorship and raffle prize donations. Catering sponsorship is of high priority with the sponsorship goal for the club in the order of $800.

If you are a business or individual who wishes to assist your new energetic local Rotary club in this venture, please contact our secretary. Your kind donation will be gratefully accepted to aid these valued international community initiatives.

The Rotary Club of Greater Springfield (prov) holds its meetings every Wednesday evening at 6.30pm at Central Tavern Springfield, Education City, USQ. For enquiries, contact Club Secretary Eva Lewis on 0408528085, visit us on Facebook or email us on greaterspringfieldrotary@hotmail.com .

Shelterbox is an international Rotary managed disaster relief charity that provides shelter, warmth and dignity to those who have been affected by disasters worldwide. Rotary delivers boxes of aid, each of which provides an extended family with quality survival equipment and shelter to use while they rebuild their homes. Rotary Shelterbox response teams accompany the boxes into the disaster zones to ensure efficient delivery to those in need of assistance. The Shelterbox goal is to help 50,000 families every year. Since 2000, the Rotary project has sent out more than 127,700 boxes.

The members of the new provisional Rotary Club of Greater Springfield have challenged themselves to raise the funds to purchase a Shelterbox for AUD$1,000, this being the new clubs first community service project. The club Shelterbox coordinator Lyndal Kisnorbo said she was excited to learn that each box can be tracked by its unique reference number so the club will be able to find out where and when the clubs box has been sent.

At the local clubs last meeting Shelterbox director Greville Easte gave the club members an informative presentation on the Rotary humanitarian initiative which has been responding to earthquakes, volcanoes, flood bring essential lifesaving aid to Syria, Myanmar, Haiti, Somalia, China including Tasmania and Bundaberg just to name a few.

The Provisional Rotary Club of Greater Springfield, which held its first meeting last month, is seeking to build its membership prior to charter in order to make a contribution to the local community and to communities throughout the world through the likes of Shelterbox Disaster Relief and other international programs and service opportunities.

The Provisional Rotary Club of Greater Springfield holds its meetings every Wednesday evening at 6.30pm at Springfield Lakes Community Center Room 1. For enquiries, contact Club Secretary Eva Lewis on 0408528085, visit us on Facebook or email us on greaterspringfieldrotary@hotmail.com .