Club Forum

Posted by Deborah Strassburg

on Jan 19, 2011

The Club Forum was held on Saturday, 15th January 2011 from 9:00am-12:00pm at the AL Thompson conference centre, with 28 Sunrise Rotarians in attendance. The aim of the Forum was to formulate the basis of a 3-5 year strategic plan for the Club and all Members of the Club were invited to attend to give voice to their ideas and concerns as to where they would like to see the Club in the next 3-5 years. Rotarian Bruce John facilitated the Forum and President Michael provided a brief overview of the SWOT analysis conducted at the Leadership Dinner held last year at Casanova's.

Discussions were lively, and after a quick coffee break, attendees were split into four groups, and each group was given one of the following topics to discuss:

i) Fundraising
• existing fundraising efforts
• alternative revenue sources / generators

ii) Projects
• current/future projects
• accessing/retrieving funds for projects

iii) Membership/Club Administration
• attracting/retaining members and size of membership
• new location for Club meetings
• Club operating costs, future technological, human resource requirements

iv) Rotary Foundation
• contributions to the Foundation
• funds from the Foundation
• Foundation projects

After 45 minutes of discussion, each group provided a summary of discussion points and issues raised. The main points raised were: (a) finding a new venue for Club meetings; (b) providing guidelines and policies for current and future projects; (c) accessing funds from the Foundation to assist with funding of projects instead on relying solely on the fundraising committee and membership contributions.

These topics will be further discussed with the Club's members at the Rotary Awareness (training meeting) on 16th February 2011. All members are encouraged to attend this meeting. The notes from the meeting will be shared with all of the Club's members once the notes have been finalised.

A big thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to the Forum.