Hello Daybreakers,
For our first official Winter meeting we almost managed to fill the tables, after a hiccup with numbers having meals, Barry Moran re-introduced our visitor Geoff Wake, who has been a regular at recent meetings.
During the meeting we spoke about our third EPN movie night and what a great movie it was. Cheryl, Leni, Janey and Alison did a great job on the night coordinating tickets, selling raffle tickets and giving away lollie bags. Let’s not forget the role of Foundation Chair, Sue Cassidy who organised the printing of tickets and the supply of lollies, sorry Sue but departure and re-entry tax may be extracted in fines when you return from your well-earned holiday in RIO.
Glenn Rundell has been the club’s archetypal quiet achiever during this Rotary year. One of the many roles Glenn has taken on is Chair of Daybreak’s Care Program. As per a previous club forum Glenn provided the data required for us to review the Care Program. It was great that we had so many members present to discuss and review our commitment to this community service. In general, we agreed to continue the program with a couple of tweaks and perhaps get some outside guidance from Brophy or Anglicare. The board will discuss your feedback at its meeting on Thursday the 13th of June.
President Elect Liza lead our forum on moving forward towards the 2019-20 Rotary Year. Liza introduced her incoming executive and then discussed the remaining Board of Directors, allocated committee roles and responsibilities, as emailed prior to the meeting. Liza spoke at length on each Committee chairs role and the role of each subcommittee.
Rotary Information:
Value of Rotary volunteering
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 $850 million a year.
 | Cosmos Segbefia, a member of the Rotary Club of Sekondi-Takoradi, and Derrick Ababio Kwarteng, of Global Communities, assist with the construction of a borehole in the Western Region of Ghana in 2018. A report by Johns Hopkins University prepared for Rotary International estimated that Rotary members provide about 47 million hours of volunteer effort a year at an estimated value of $850 million. |
That Rotary members log a lot of volunteer hours should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the organization. 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 organization 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 organization 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.
Stories of service from around the world
“I feel like I’m taking people on a journey we all belong to”
Deli Levi-Jensen. 1 June 2019, Hamburg, Germany.
Deli Levi-Jensen, Rotary Club of Herning International, Denmark as told to Diana Schoberg. Photos by Monika Lozinska
 | “After I moved from Israel to Denmark, my life felt like it was missing something. I was successful at what I was doing. I have a great family and a lot of friends. I realized that in order to get fulfillment in life, I needed to contribute to something bigger. “My father-in-law is a Rotarian and suggested I join. I thought Rotary was mostly old men who sat around and smoked cigars. Later that year, though, when I was visiting Israel, I became intrigued. Poliovirus had been found in the southern part of Egypt in 2013, |
and I saw in the media that there were tons of children standing in line to get drops of polio vaccine. I saw that the people doing that were not doctors, they were people with yellow vests. I found out these people with yellow vests were actually Rotarians.
“It really touched my heart. I found my purpose. When I returned to Denmark, I partnered with the expat community and started a new English-speaking international club. I’ve made so many friends in Rotary and I simply love it. I am looking forward to making more lifelong friends at the Rotary Convention this year in Hamburg.
“I couldn’t let that hunger in me to do something about polio eradication die, so I produced wristbands for children that say, “Bye Bye Polio.” The fundraiser and other efforts were a beautiful success. My next polio activity involves public speaking. I’ve put together a presentation that I can offer to Rotary clubs who would like to have greater insight about what Rotary and our partners are doing, and why we need to continue fundraising. It’s something I’m very passionate about. I don’t feel like I’m selling the idea of making a donation. I feel like I’m taking people on a journey we all belong to.”
June: Fellowships Month
- Care Program – Sunday 9th, 16th, 23rd & 30th
- Thursday 13th - Transition board meeting – 6 Pm at flying Horse Hotel – Function Room
- Wednesday 26th Club Changeover
Thank you all for your ongoing support
Steve