Friday 26 August 2022

Getting Down to Business

The National School of the Arts, Fundraising and Membership Engagement were the focus of discussions at the meeting this week and judging by the brief feedback by the team leaders (Julian Nagy and Brenda Sakellarides for the NSA, Linda Vink for fundraising and Joan Sainsbury for membership engagement) after some lively discussion, a lot of ground was covered.

The NSA has the potential to become a flagship project for New Dawn and a group of members, including Judy Symons, Adele Dabbs and others have done a lot of work in renovating music rooms.

         The team discussing the NSA take a break for a photograph

New Dawn donated the money for some more paint to paint the passage in the section where they are working, which could become a focus point for a meeting the NSA is planning with the Oppenheimer Trust towards the end of September. This could also be a showcase for what Rotary can do. We're all holding thumbs.

This group agreed to put a task list together of what still needs to be done at the NSA from the New Dawn side.

         Members engaging on membership and that's what Rotary is all about

During the discussion on membership a lot of emphasis was placed on the importance of members being at meetings to more fully engage in club activities, directions and efforts. A pity then that only about 20 out of our present 56 members were either present or on Zoom (all three of them) on Wednesday.

It was discussed that it may be worth making it compulsory, except in extreme cases, for  members to  attend at least one meeting a month at Parkview and to put incentives in place for attendance. 

Formal apologies to the secretary for non-attendance at a meeting, whether in person or on Zoom, should be reinstated as well as explaining how make-up meetings work, it was felt.

          The fundraising discussion group

The fundraising team gave a report back on the Power of Pennies (about 30 people contribute regularly, not all of them New Dawn members) and urged those that do take part, to try to recruit at least one new participant to push that up to 60 or more people.

Until now the winner has netted more than R5000 and with more people participating, that figure could be substantially more.

There are only about 25 people actively connected to the MySchool Card, which is a very easy and passive way to raise funds for New Dawn. Enrolment forms for both these efforts will be available at meetings. 

         Nyami Khanyile, Mbali Zulu and Adele Dabbs enjoying the fellowship

The main New Dawn fundraiser remains the annual Golf Day, which this year is on Friday, 21 October. Each member should be finding ways to contribute either by arranging four balls of players, by arranging hole sponsorships, by sponsoring things like the halfway house meal, by contributing some quality products to the barrow of booze, by volunteering to help out on the day, or all of the above.

Looking ahead: There is no meeting on Wednesday, 31 August but there is a Power of Pennies function that evening. It's at 6.30 pm at the Parkview Golf Club and a few snacks will be served. There is a cash bar and members can stay on for a meal at their own expense if they so wish.

The next club breakfast meeting is on 7 September and it will be followed at 8.15 am by a board meeting.

We've already booked the bowling club hall at Marks Park for the annual festive function on Saturday, 3 December which will take the form of a dinner we cater for ourselves (turkey and all the trimmings and lots more) and lots of fun such as a turkey carving competition, Secret Santa gifts under the tree and an auction to raise funds for the club. We'll decorate the hall ourselves as we did in the pre-Covid years and have live music. Start saving!

A Thought for the Week: Hope is such a bait, it covers any hook. - Oliver Goldsmith (1728 - 1774)


 

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