A New Rotary Year Begins

I have been feeling strangely lazy this week after the exertions of Friday night, so the blog is going to consist of photographs from the Induction dinner, courtesy of Greta Schuler. A copy of the speech serves as a reminder of the direction the club is going.

TOP: Rudi Vink and Peet Kruger frame the festive table. BOTTOM: DGE Jankees Sligcher (the one with the mustache!) hands over the club Charter

Linda and the new president share a joke

Jankees and Ronnie Kasrils share a moment

Georgie Nagy and Frayne

The youth wing ... Sam and Rob with Kagiso Zwane

Steve, Debbie Nagy and Robyn Widdop listen to Julian

Jankees gave merit certificates and a gift to five members

Jankees and Judy

They new board: Debbie (membership), Carol (secretary), Joan (treasurer),
 Paul (Foundation), Jankees and Frayne (projects)

Jankees inducts Judy Symons as the newest member

Lucille Blumberg with Carin Holmes in the background

Practising what he preaches .. Paul did a whip-around for the Twickenham
Guest House staff for which they were very grateful 

Linda, Judy and Jankees

Ronnie brags about carrying Amina's suitcase!

Ian conducted the brag to great merriment, and a grand total of R1 900.
Here he strong-arms Julian into paying for Georgie's brag!

Ian fleeces the Smiths and Steve du Plessis

Paul, Frayne and Lucille also had their turn

Ian and Kagiso then sang Danny Boy, the first time Kagiso had ever
heard the song. Kagiso won

Graham Donet with Paul. Graham was the MC and had us in stitches

Linda, Ronnie and Judy

Past president Steve, now with the e-club, was looking
 sharp, even if Jenine couldn't make it

Nic Stier found a willing co-conspirator in Ronnie Kasrils, here with Amina

Address by President Mike Vink on his induction, 1 July 2015:

Thank you. All protocol observed, ladies and gentlemen welcome. Thank you, Jankees, for inducting me and for your kind words.

     It has been a pleasure serving with Jankees this past year. He’s managed to put the club on a better footing with his tireless – and often exhausting - efforts. He doesn’t like to sit still, or at least not when he’s without a glass in his hand. I served on his board during his previous presidency as well and speak from experience.

     As a matter of fact, I’ve served on the New Dawn board ever since Peter James-Smith’s presidency, back when Noah was building his Ark.

    I follow in the footsteps of eight presidents, each one of them a success in their own right. It has been a privilege.

     In that time, we grew from the original about twenty members all the way up to 37 and back again to 22.

     But it has been far more than just a change in numbers

     We all know there are people like Ian, Paul, Greg, Julian, even John and our newby Fana who are just dying to become president, and each of whom will do a damn good job of it, which is great for the club. We know that circumstances don’t allow for it just now for most of them, but be warned, excuses won’t hold forever.

     But there’s something else I feel I need to point out and that is that of the 8 presidents we’ve had so far, only two have been women. For the numerically challenged that translates into 25%.

     And of our present 22 members, no less than 14 are women, which is 64% of the club.

     It makes me wonder why the hell I’m the one standing here tonight!

     Come on girls, we know you can do it, you just need to show you’re willing!

     There are a few specific things I want us to focus on during my year, mainly fundraising and membership.

     We have a number of signature projects going and nothing prevents us from taking on more, except for the lack of resources, both human and financial.

     I feel the club is ready to grow again and district has set us a target of  growing to 25 members, or 3 more than we are at present. That should be achievable.

     Before we start daydreaming about all the wonderful projects we want to tackle, we need the money to realise them and as outgoing Treasurer I can tell you that we’re getting to the stage where we’re running out of money before we run out of those ideas.

     I’d like to dedicate the first club assembly in August to these two topics and how we can come up with practical solutions in both areas.

     My hope for the year is that we can keep our meetings as fun and interesting as they’ve been lately, and Carol is already working on a list of speakers, for instance, to achieve that.

     There’s a lot of other things we have to do, like focusing on youth initiatives within the organization, which includes the whole spectrum of short-term and long-term youth exchanges, the Rotary Youth Leadership Academies for schoolkids, and Interact and Rotaract clubs at school and university level.

     And we need to tell and keep on telling the Rotary story. We need to keep on reminding people about what an incredible organization we serve, an organization that can tackle a project to eradicate polio off the face of the earth and succeed, at the present to within two countries in the world.

    But we need to understand each other and the outside world needs to understand more about Rotary for us to reach out to a larger membership.

     I have always found the irritating use of acronyms in the organization to be alienating and it has become a bit of a pet hate. I hope you’ve noticed that I haven’t used a single one thus far.

     Just in the latest District Conference Directory there is a list of about 60 acronyms.

     I’m not alone in my obsession here. I came across a paragraph in a speech given at a training meeting for incoming District Governors a few years ago which says it all. Mark Kriebel, at that time Rotary International Training Leader and Rotary Public Image Coordinator, was giving a speech on speechmaking and told the incoming District governors:

     “As DGE, you’ll soon need to share (your) RIPE’s (Burton’s) goals with your PEs and AGs, with the help of the RID, PDGs, RCs, RRFCs, and RPICS.”

     Try to make sense of that.

     “One of the most deadly speaking habits we have as Rotarians,” he said, “is the use of acronyms.,”

     “You don’t want people who don’t know the language of Rotary to think that PETS is a gathering of domesticated animals. Call it what it is — presidents-elect training seminar — and avoid the other Rotaryisms.”

     Let’s let plain language carry a straightforward message across about our great organization.

     In conclusion I’d like to introduce the new board to you. Will the board members please come forward.

     They’re a mix of familiar faces, Jankees as Immediate Past President, Paul Kasango as Foundation officer, Joan Donet as Treasurer if she can prise the keys to the bank account from my grasp, and Frayne Mathijs, who will take charge of projects. The two new members are Carol Stier as secretary and Debbie Smith for Membership.

     I wish all of you a successful year.

     And just a final word. Although they’ll still be with us for a lot of the time, District Governor Elect Jankees and District Governor Elect Anns Judy Sligcher have embarked on a two-year journey that promises to be very exciting, although it is certain to be hard work. Their sacrifice brings honour to the club, for which we thank them.

Thank you

Thought for the week: Those who cannot forgive others break the bridge over which they themselves must pass. - Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)

And Finally: Please remember that we have a speaker on Wednesday, Diane Woodward of Harambee, who will be speaking on youth employment.