Paul Harris Fellow Michael Shields
Text provided by Ron Myerscough Pics by Joy Ferguson
Michael was a charter member of the Rotaract Club of Diamond Valley and its Charter President. He put huge effort into this and established and helped to train his board. Training is something he is particularly keen about and he has conducted a number of training sessions for other Rotaracters.
He attended RYLA and has helped since with subsequent RYLA courses.
In his second year in Rotaract Michael joined the board of Rotary District 9790 as the District Rotaract Representative, and has held that position for the last 2 years. During this time he traveled widely in the District and promoted Rotaract to as many Rotary Clubs as possible, with a view to starting more clubs.
He has been a speaker on Rotaract at our District Rotary Conference on 2 occassions. After attending the Australian Rotaract Conference in Sydney in 2010, Michael was appointed as the Director of The Australian Rotaract Conference in 2011. The conference was held in Melbourne and about 200 people attended from all over Australia and even as far away as Germany. It was an overwhelming success due to his enormous energy and that of his board. He has been appointed as the first ever Southern Regional Representative for Rotaract Australia, and this year in April, is attending the World Rotaract Conference and also the World Rotary Conference in Thailand.
He has enormous enthusiasm for Rotaract and Rotary, and their efforts to make the world a better place. He has also formed strong bonds with many local Rotary clubs, especially Greensborough,Eltham, Diamond Creek and Kinglake, plus many Rotaract clubs in several districts.
Michael also has many interests outside Rotaract with soccer being his main passion. He has coached junior soccer at Eltham Eagles for many years and plays with one of their senior teams. Last year he traveled to Kenya volunteering for a project called HOPE THROUGH SOCCER, and helped organise and run a soccer competiton for local youth in rural Kenya, in an area that had seen major political violence in recent years. He has previously been in scouts for many years and was also a Joey Leader.
Also at last week's meeting.
