Annual Report 2020-2021

 

 

 

 

During the Covid pandemic use of Rotary Hall was severely affected. We purchased and installed a hand sanitising station and 5 hand soap dispensers.

As restrictions eased hall users were again able to use the facilities on offer.

Regular users are as follows:

Adelaide Bluegrass Cloggers                            Monday (weekly - school terms)

Brixton St Tennis Club                                       Saturday (weekly)

Christies Beach Contract Bridge Club             Monday and Thursday (weekly)

Christies Beach Weightwatchers                      Wednesday (weekly)

Fleurieu Harmony Chorus                                 Friday (weekly)

Life Without Barriers                                          Tuesday (quarterly)

Noarlunga Probus Club                                      Tuesday (twice/month)

Studio 58 (Dance school)                                   Tuesday and Friday (weekly)

Rotary Hall was used for several club functions including the 2019/2020 Changeover lunch, ‘Lift the Lid’ High Tea fund raiser and the Community Raffle draw.

Casual hirings included birthday parties and a wake.

In April the parquetry floor was resurfaced.

Plans are being made for a community garden in partnership with Community Living Australia.

We applied for and were approved a grant to upgrade the ‘bar room’. And as we have now received this money work can begin with the leadership of Ian Rowley and his committee.

 

 

The new Rotary year began with the threat of Covid still present but the club has been able to still have active youth projects happening. This year our work with local youth has continued. In a first successful project, we were able to donate goods to Backpacks for SA Kids in response to an appeal for items to help fill backpacks for children in domestic violence situations in South Australia.

We have once again provided a great experience for two students to sail on the One and All: Ricco McFarlane from Wirreanda High School in Sep 2020 and Liam Matheson from Aberfoyle High School in April 2021 took part in the sailing event. Both these students then came to a club meeting and spoke of their life changing experiences and the friendships they made.

Several club members did the sunset cruise in November and were thrilled to see Ricco had volunteered as part of these trips.

We also sponsored Jamie Grose to attend the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) in December and he came with his parents to a club meeting and thanked us for the experience especially in regard to future career opportunities. Although the Forum was originally to be held in Canberra, due to Covid restrictions this was then held in Adelaide via Zoom with some site visits to the Adelaide Uni.

Another youth activity was awarding of certificates to juniors in Tugra Shan Martial Arts Club which  culminates their year with a trophy presented by Merilyn Russell.

As in other years, book vouchers and certificates were awarded at the Pimpala Primary School year 7  graduation, to students chosen by the school.

Susan Podger took on the task of our club sponsoring and managing the RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) held at Nunyara where 31 young people attended with Nelson Petersen being sponsored by our club. It was an experience of 6 days of leadership based activities, culminating in a graduation dinner at Glenelg Golf Club.

Unfortunately the ConocoPhillips Science Experience in November was cancelled for our nominated student due to Covid.

Our club did well to achieve a total of over $6,000 spent on the above projects, and I would like to thank the club for their support during the year.

 

 

This Rotary year has seen much activity thanks to the diligence and hard work of our Directors and members.

We began the financial year with ample balances in both the Project and Hall accounts which are the driving force of our Fundraising and Community donations.

Our club has a unique way of fundraising combined with community giving as we reward community groups whose members help us with fundraising events by giving donations to the respective clubs.

Noarlunga Bunnings have given us their continued support with the BBQs, albeit quite different to former years with continuing Covid restrictions still in place today with the location of our cooking now a long way from the entrance door making it harder to attract customers even with that delicious aroma of cooked onions. The money raised has gone to many local groups such as Foodbank, Spirit of Woman, Tugra Shan Martial Arts, McLaren Vale Visitor Info Centre, Pimpala School students, Morphett Vale Country Fire Service, a president collar for Woodcroft Probus Club, to name a few: a total of over $3,500.

Our super Mother’s Day Raffle, run by our incoming President also combined fundraising and community, in the form of donating back the value of tickets each organisation sold which this year totalled $4,540 plus a tidy profit of $3,374 for the club.

The Australia Day Breakfast for the Council also rewarded the local clubs who helped on the day with predetermined donations of $1,600.

The Vintage & Classic event at McLaren Vale is an annual Club event in support of McLaren Vale Hospital bringing in $1,367 apart from a few hundred dollars paid to the Hospital on our behalf by the V&C committee.

Our High Tea proceeds donation of $1,436 went to Australian Rotary Health.

On the International front we have made donations totalling $4,300 to ShelterBox, Disaster Aid, and Interplast for Nursing, plus we have supported Donations In Kind and Care Sumatra.

For our Youth we sent two young men on the One and All sailing ship, we were the sponsor Club for the  annual RYLA event (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) paying for one attendee, and we paid for a student to attend the National Youth Science Forum. This made a total of $6,548 outlaid for Youth.

Our Hall account has generated income of $8,755 to date and a recent grant deposit of $6,580 through Federal Member Amanda Rishworth’s office is enabling us to upgrade the small kitchen in the Hall (this work is to commence soon).

In the absence of providing a balanced financial statement, this year’s donations as noted above were in excess of $22,124 and funds coming in to the Club were around $23,279 (made up of $3,417.50 from Footy Gates, $9,912 from City of Onkaparinga Council for Aust. Day, $1,200 from Rope sales, $200 from  Hackham West Community Centre, $230.45 from Ring Pulls, $6,952.59 from Bunnings BBQ’s and $1,367 from V&C). We also generated income from, donation boxes and EMIB medical books.

This report was written at the end of May and there may still be money paid to Rotary Foundation yet to be decided by the Board.

We go into the next Rotary year in a good financial position and well able to continue to serve our local and overseas communities.

 

 

July 2020 began with the unique challenges of Australia wide COVID restrictions and no ‘face to face’ club meetings. Fundraising and recycling were curtailed as was the opportunity to develop the teambuilding and friendships that Rotary relies on to achieve its aims.

 

Communication became essential to inform club members and maintain connections built over years. ‘COVID Special bulletins’ were sent by email to all members and friends of our club. These contained the most recent authenticated information on COVID19 and its impact on our members. State and national Government restrictions varied from day to day, so the special bulletins gave helpful web sites and news of the pandemic in other parts of the world. It also included jokes and funny cartoons to lift member’s spirits in these uncertain times. Members were also invited to attend ‘ZOOM’ meetings where a laptop, tablet or phone could be used to attend a ‘virtual’ meeting. Less IT savvy members shared meeting access at a close member’s house.

 

In August, the Board decided to invest in a ‘ClubRunner’ subscription to enable the club to manage its own website and produce a web based calendar, also accessible by QR code, and bulletin. The first newsletter produced by this system was launched in January 2021 and a live website soon after. Our Public Facebook page was augmented by a ‘Member’s only Forum’ Facebook page.

 

Other methods used to share information with members are the ‘President’s Report’ giving updates from board meetings and this is also shared in the bulletin and on the website. Local Radio stations, community Facebook pages and flyers spread news of our community events to the public. ‘Word of mouth’ is one more tool members use to inform our community of our activities. District publications are also shared, the ‘District Classifieds’ to advertise club events and the ‘Rotary Matters’ used by the District 9510 President to share regional and Rotary International updates.

 

Effective Communication is essential to raise the image and profile of our club, to advise the public of upcoming events and to encourage new members to join Rotary and continue to open opportunities for ourselves and others.

 

 

2020-2021 has been a challenging but interesting year for our club

The club has inducted 5 new people this Rotary year: unfortunately we have lost Sue & AB and Jody so we still had a net increase for the year. Membership is the responsibility of all club members, so I can only encourage everyone to bring along a friend or business associate to our new ‘home’ at the South Adelaide Football Club for them to learn more about our Rotary Club and the wonderful programme of fundraising events, speakers and fellowship we experience in the club now.

Unfortunately we have had to cancel several of our Business Breakfasts due to unforeseen circumstances. We have not scheduled another event, at present, as we are endeavouring to rethink how we can promote our club in the community.

Due to Covid-19 it has been difficult to plan and enjoy Vocational visits this year, however we did visit PacknSend at Lonsdale which proved to be quite interesting and we enjoyed dinner at the Lonsdale Hotel afterwards.

Coffee and Chat mornings have been enjoyed by quite a number of members when they have been available to attend.  We have visited 6 or 7 different cafes in the area so we have been supporting local business. The next Rotary year Coffee and Chat mornings may take on a different slant, so when the programme is in place I’m sure you will enjoy these outings.

 Our meeting programme has changed dramatically over the past 6 months to include speakers each meeting, members of the club presenting “Who Am I” segments and because we have an excellent communication system in place now, our Directors and members have 2 minutes to update the general membership with any information relevant their specific portfolio at each meeting.

Meeting programmes will be continually modified to ensure we have smooth running productive meetings.

Your productive feedback is appreciated and if at all possible we will trial your suggestions and if it works we will adopt it into the meeting process. Not everything can work but we will give it a go. Please be understanding that all meetings are not going to be the same while we are working thru these suggestions.

Assisting President Susan, we have been offered some fabulous Fundraising opportunities for the coming year, for which we have announced some details and more will be available soon. A new challenge is exciting for our club moving forward.

 

A presentation was done under very difficult circumstances earlier in the year, and some short updates will be given over the next 12 months also. The club donated $2k to Interplast for the training of Nurses and Interplast was very grateful for our clubs assistance.

 

Thank you for the opportunity to work within the Rotary Club of Morphett Vale, it has been a challenging year, but a rewarding one. We will be very busy again in the 2021-2022 year while having lots of fun.

 

 

 

After a difficult start to the year due to COVID 19 we had a resumption of Bunnings BBQs, albeit it with much changed conditions making it more difficult for us, especially the requirement of having 10 volunteers each day with a designated BBQ captain.  However, Due to Bunnings cancelling some BBQ’s due to COVID 19 lockdowns they made some very generous donations of vouchers which we have been able to use to purchase raffle prizes.

In September we were able to do the SFL Football gates. It was a good money earner for us with no outlay, COVID restrictions in place.

Our Rope Winding sessions continue, which is an excellent source of funds especially if more sales outlets can be found. 

Our Rotary Hall is back being used so we now have rent coming in.

We tendered for the Australia Day Breakfast with the Council and won the lucrative tender for the next 3 years, an assured source of income for the club. So on Jan 26^th this year, we ran a very successful breakfast with strict COVID conditions. Our food estimations were very close so there was little left over food and an excellent profit.

The Vintage and Classic Car Weekend breakfast was on again this year after being cancelled in 2020. The morning went well with delicious breakfasts served to the car drivers as they paraded in some amazing costumes and drove some incredible cars and vehicles.

The ANZAC Day Gunfire breakfast at the Morphett Vale RSL was held again in April and the club provided a breakfast of yummy egg and bacon rolls to the patrons.

We have run another successful Community Mother’s Day Raffle this year with some wonderful donations as prizes such as the 4 night holiday at Wallaroo Holiday Park. The raffle drawing night was a fun night at the Rotary Hall with the DG David Jones and his wife attending along with local politicians

A huge thank you to all Rotarians and other volunteers who have helped with these events and all Fundraising during the year

 

 

Fellowship between members is an important part of Rotary and in our club it helps us to relax and enjoy each other’s company. It provides the opportunity to make lasting friendships both inside and outside our club. There is certainly evidence of this in our club with connections and friendships dating back many years as clubs have reformed and people move between clubs. Fellowship also provides the opportunity to attract new members to Rotary especially if they can see there is fun and laughter to be had.

Our club always endeavours to include past members and friends and families in our activities. Our Christmas celebration dinner at Horndale Winery was great fun as humorous awards were given out amid much laughter had by all.

Our trip to Kangaroo Island by 10 club members in  August last year was a big opportunity to mix socially outside of the club and spend time together relaxing, sightseeing eating and laughing together. This year our trip to Quorn and the Pichi Richi railway in August will be another enjoyable social opportunity.

 We have had great fun playing Croquet for several nights at the Coromandel Croquet club…so funny and good exercise.

And our Christmas BBQ at Old Noarlunga one evening in December is becoming a rather fun tradition.