Club Visits Update

During March different members went visiting local Rotary clubs - we defined local as South-East Brisbane, some Ipswich clubs and in District 9630 (so not north of the Brisbane River including Indooroopilly, St Lucia, etc even though we have members living in these areas).

While our primary purpose was to put the word out about Rotaract and our club specifically as part of a member drive. But as Laura reported in the bulletin, "Our partnership with Rotary is an important one and visiting theclubs was also an opportunity to make contact with local Rotaryclubs and hear what they have been up to."

Laura did a great job of contacting clubs and organising for us to speak, either in short five minute segments or as the meeting's official guest speaker. Thanks must also go to Emily for putting together a powerpoint slideshow in presentations, Sharyn and Emily for putting together the very professional looking flyer and to all the members who volunteered their time to visit clubs.

We had some great feedback from the clubs and everyone seems exciting to hear about us. The Rotary Club of Ipswich City has very generously donated a gong to our club after seeing Bec and Tim in awe of the power of the gong to maintain order.

Not to be outdone, Sharyn reported that "the Rotary Club of Goodna have offered us the use of their 4 burner BBQ on a trailer, equipped with eskies and gas bottles. They are very proud of their trailer and would be willing to lend it to us to conduct BBQ’s in the community to raise some money."

The Rotary Club of Archerfield will spread the word to their returning Youth Exchange students and will consider sponsoring the joining fee and membership dues for anyone who is interested in joining our club but faces financial difficulties.

While I am sure we would welcome at many Rotary Clubs, the Rotary Club of Rocklea has extended a standing invitation to our members to attend any of their dinners and listen to their guest speakers. They have had some exciting ones on the program including a young man who trekked hundreds of kilometres through northern Italy (I think). They passed on their congratulations and say that we should be proud of ourselves for accomplishing so much in such a short space of time - they reckon they'd like to borrow some of our enthusiasm!

If anyone is interested in attending these meetings as a visitor they should contact Laura who has details of venues, times and phone numbers.