Notes of meeting on 16th July 2025.

About half of the club attended our meeting last night, and we were joined by Dilli Upadhayaya and his wife Prush.  Dilli is a former Rotaractor, and a prospective member of the club.  He is Nepalese and was in Rotaract in his home country.  He was sitting with Heather and Ian, and Ian told us that he had been involved with Nepalese Rotary years ago.  It is common in Rotary for District boundaries to cross international borders, and this is not always acceptable for the people involved.  Such was the case with Nepal, and Ian told us about the sequestration process which took place to correct the situation.

President Rob explained that as a result of the recent Council on Legislation, there is a new Standard Club Constitution, and we are obliged to adopt it.  The Qld Office of Fair Trading has to approve any changes, and the changes have to be approved by club members.  The club voted to amend the constitution in accordance with the new Standard Club Constitution.

Rob also announced that he has made some contributions to The Rotary Foundation to recognise our long-standing Board members as Paul Harris Fellows.  Except for Deb, all of last year’s Board members have been serving on the Board for many years, and it is some time since this was last recognised by the presentation of PHFs. 

It is difficult to imagine how the club would function without Ian Wilson.  He has his hands on everything we do and is a tireless worker for the club. 

Robyn has the thankless task of sorting out our numbers for every meeting and has looked after our Youth portfolio for years and years.  This is a massive contribution, when you consider that 60% of our budget is spent on youth.

Both Robyn and Ian are new PHFs.

Rob mentioned that some of our members make regular personal contributions to the Foundation.  Greg has been quietly doing so for 20 years, and this, together with PHF recognition by the club, has resulted in his recently attaining the status level of PHF+7, or two rubies.  This represents a massive commitment, and we should all be lauding his generosity to our charity.

The same applies to Brian, who is close to Major Donor status.  Both of them are very modest about their efforts.

Rob showed those present some options for a club shirt which is dressier than our current polo shirts. Anyone interested in these shirts should discuss it with Rob.

After Rob, Deb took the floor to discuss our aspirations for the coming year.  Her report follows.

Scribe:  President Rob Deshon

ASHMORE ROTARY CLUB PLANNING WORKSHOP

CLUB TRANSFORMATION INITIATIVE

HELD WED 16TH JULY 2025

Our planning workshop was primarily focussed on the Club’s fundraising efforts for the coming year and if there was time, to any projects we might like to investigate as options for our Club moving forward.

Highlights of the session:

• Copies of ideas submitted by email by various members were distributed as discussion starters.
• In his role as Treasurer (for previous years and this current year). Ian was best placed to give us a view of fundraising efforts from last year as well as a summary of the initiatives and projects we directed those funds towards. A copy of that summary will be distributed to all members.
• The draft criteria proposed for Club projects and funded initiatives were accepted and will be used to guide project and funding decisions in the future.
• The two raffles (Easter and Christmas) are still our biggest fundraisers.

• It was brought to the attention of the group by both Ian and Brian, that some sources of income that we have come to rely upon may be at risk of diminishing significantly moving forward.  These are:
  • The funds derived from Containers for Change (due to Café Brazil no longer allowing us to take their empties plus increased competition for empties on the Golf Course near where Brian lives).  For the past two years we have earned over $4000 a year from this single initiative. We will need ideas to either protect this source of funds or replace it with something else;
  • Bunnings BBQ spots have become much harder to secure over the last 12 months, and we are hearing similar feedback from our Men’s Shed. The Men’s Shed get more spots than us because they are nimble enough to take advantage of last-minute cancellation spots.  Again, we need to think of ways to improve our options here.

• There was consensus that we should not be relying on members to continually put their hands in their pockets to fund our initiatives – generous donations and gifts are always welcome but are never expected. 
• There is also recognition that we must be smarter about fundraising now as our membership is aging and not up to the heavy lifting, they may have indulged in 30 years ago.  Until our membership profile changes (through attraction of younger members), we must work within our existing capacities and be smarter.

• Ideas for consideration:
  • Seeking corporate sponsorship from large businesses on the Gold Coast either as specific project sponsorships or as part of a Corporate Social Responsibility/Governance program that larger businesses may have in place.
  • Special Event Family Days – Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, Valentine’s Day, Christmas Market – on the sports field next to our Club. Could include bingo, gumboot throwing, BBQ sausage on bread, snakes and ladders competitions and face painting for kids.
  • Halloween Fair – on the oval again and as a Family Fun Day.
  • Multicultural event – cooking/food from different cultures.
  • Inter Club events where we bring a group of Clubs together to raise funds/awareness for a specific cause.
  • Look for ways to extend our BBQ program – offer to cook and co-ordinate BBQs for P&Cs at school fetes, sports days – with a share of the profits to the club.
  • Large scale raffles working with other Clubs – selling tickets at major events such as Boat Show, GC Marathon – funds raised for a particular cause of import to our broader community.

As well as specific fundraising activities, there are also profiling/awareness raising activities where the focus is on showcasing Rotary in general or showcasing our specific Club (and maybe attract new members). Any fund raising is limited to a donation tin.  Ideas include:

• Information booths at shopping centres on a Saturday morning.
• Information events at Club Rooms that offer “How to..” sessions of interest in the local community e.g. “How to recycle effectively” with a guest speaker from GCCC Waste Management Area or “How to reduce your power bills” with a suitable guest speaker.
• Or “Morning Tea with your local Pollie” – and host a morning tea on a Saturday in the Club Rooms with a gold coin donation – invite Angie Bell, Brooke Patterson, John-Paul Langbroek or Rob Molhoek (1 pollie per event) and they can have a 15-20 minute talk and invite questions.

We ran out of time, so no details about projects were discussed.  The conversation continues!

Deb Daly