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District Digest 9350

Monthly newsletter of DG Cecil Rose. Issue 1, July

TIME TO MOVE ON Induction season amongst Rotary and Rotaract Clubs is now over and new presidents and leadership teams are focusing on the ahead. During this period Lesley & I were honoured to be invited to no less than 33 Rotary and 3 Rotaract Club inductions. What a pleasure it would have been to share all these important events with so many Rotarians but due to conflicting dates and sometimes difficult logistics we were only able to attend 17 Rotary and 1 Rotaract inductions. We were thrilled to be able to share and witness the inductions of the new presidents at the Rotary Clubs of Bellville, Blouberg, Cape of Good

Hope, , , Goodwood,

Gordon’s Bay, , Helderberg Sunrise, DG Cecil and his wife, Lesley Rose Kromboom, Newlands, Gun, Roggebaai,

Sea Point, , Swellendam and

Wynberg as well as the Rotaract Club of Bellville.

What a wonderful experience that was. Each

EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT function was different with its own style and

highlights and reflects the diversity of character A PRIORITY FOR OUR DISTRICT and practices of our Rotary Clubs. We are just so sorry that we were not able to accept all the

kind invitations we received. We also thank all

Those of us who were fortunate enough to hear Dr David those clubs who hosted us at such wonderful

events and wish all the new presidents a very Harrison of the DG Murray Trust speak at the 2013 District successful and rewarding year. Conference at on the lost potential of nearly

half the children born in metropolitan Cape Town could not have helped being struck by the urgent need for proper Mini-Conference in Swellendam development opportunities for these children. Rtn Alan

Jackson also touched on this matter at the 2014 District The mini-conference for 2014 is scheduled to take

Conference at Knysna when he quoted extracts from place on Saturday 18 October in Swellendam. This year it will be a little different. It will feature a couple Harrison's original presentation. What is very clear from these of parallel break-away sessions and there will be a two presentations is that many in our communities are being short after-lunch session not just a morning session. seriously disadvantaged by the circumstances of their birth AG Marc Stuyck and the Swellendam organising team under President Stephen Young will be adding a and will remain disadvantaged for their entire lives. whole lot of cultural, sporting and craft activities to make attendance at the mini-conference an exciting Continued on next page experience. There is a provisional list of 15 activities

to choose from. President Stephen has also negotiated a 20% discount on accommodation for Rotarians from the B&B industry in the town.

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THE YOUNGER THE BETTER Continued from previous page

The acronym FLoSS was used by Harrison to describe the four key factors necessary for the human brain to develop naturally; Food, Love, Security and Stimulation. He highlighted that the critical stage for this development to occur is the first 1000 days of life. Starting some 90 days before birth this period covers roughly the period to the of 3 . Harrison showed that development that does not occur during this period limits the further development of the individual throughout their life. For all the people of our country to rise to their full potential it is imperative that all children are given the right developmental opportunities from birth. Certainly there are many governmental and non- governmental organisations working in this field. I also know that many Rotary clubs have got projects in support of ECD facilities and are making a real difference but it is clear that there is need for even more. To try to help this shortfall to be addressed I have decided to make ECD the focus of my year. I am in the process of establishing a District committee on ECD who will have four primary tasks. These are: 1 Raise the profile of ECD needs and emphasise its importance 2 Encourage more clubs to set up ECD projects 3 Be a vehicle for the sharing of experience, guidance and knowledge on ECD 4 Seek out and facilitate partnerships between Rotary and other organisations in this field. To get this under-way I have asked PP Henry Septoe of Claremont to chair the committee and I am calling for knowledgeable and passionate volunteers to join the committee. One who has done so is Rtn Alan Jackson of Wynberg who presented the start-up of a new ECD project that his club is developing at the District Conference at Knysna. In fact Alan helped me start the process of seeking partnerships by setting up meetings for me with officials of the National Development Agency (NDA) and the Western Cape Department of Social Development (DSD). The response at those meetings was very positive and I am confident that this will lead to good cooperation between Rotary and these two critical departments of South African national and provincial government. Partnerships could well develop. Plans are also being made to make similar approaches to the Namibian government during my official visit to the clubs there. My appeal is to those Rotarians who have knowledge and experience of ECD projects and are passionate about Rotary Lighting up the Lives of the next generation to volunteer to serve on the ECD committee. Please forward your name and contact details to either me ( cecilrose@.co.za ), Henry Septoe ( [email protected] ) or the District Service Centre ( [email protected] ). Your involvement and contribution will help Rotary make a difference.

‘All SA government schools will be changing over to the use of ‘Please try to buy only iPads for schools. They are more iPads as soon as 2015, and as the money becomes available. expensive to begin with but they give few technical problems Babies as young as four should already be introduced to and most education packages are developed for use on iPads,’ iPads.’ Dr Rene Nathanson, speaking to Helderberg Sunrise Rotary says Dr Rene Nathanson, of Stellenbosch University, ‘But before Club on July 22, 2014. giving them to children, the teachers have to be trained first.’

New Member Details PDG Mike Ochse and IPDG Vyv Deacon sent welcoming letters to new Rotarians that had joined clubs during the year. IPDG Vyv sent out 106 letters during his term. I will be continuing this as I believe that it will be encouraging for new members to see that they are recognised and welcomed into the Rotary family beyond their own club. Club Secretaries please ensure that the name and email address of all new members of your club are forwarded to the DSC as soon as possible so that I can send out that letter and recognise your new members.

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The Rotary Foundation Contributions

In IPDG Vyv's last DG News he mentioned three contributions that have been made to Foundation via the Fiscal Agent, PDG Metcalf Fick but for which it is not possible to identify the Rotary club or Rotarian who made the contribution. This makes it impossible to recognise these valuable contributions. A further unidentifiable contribution was made in late June. If your club or a Rotarian in your club was responsible for any of these contributions then please advise PDG Metcalf at [email protected] so that the appropriate recognition can be assigned.

R2 000.00 8 November 2013 Polio Plus Ref: 'Polio campaign' R8 000.00 4 December 2013 APF Ref: 'Annual Giving/Paul Harris' R17 000.00 30 May 2014 Ref: 'Found. Cont. Club 17' R5 275.00 25 June 2014 Ref: 'Rotary'

Getting To know You…

Sharing a first “in office” at Rotary Club of induction: President Bev Frieslich, Assistant Governor Michelle Anders, District Governor Cecil Rose and Lesley Rose.

Improve your Club’s Public Image The Public Image Committee want to remind all new club presidents who haven’t already done so to send a picture of their induction to their local newspaper with a caption to announce that they are now in office, what their vocation is, what their plans for the year include and where people who are interested in giving back to society can contact their club. If you are reluctant to being in the spotlight, you could have a picture taken with your board as long as it is a picture of five, six or maximum seven people because otherwise the caption will be bigger than the picture! And having sent it to the local press, after it is published you need to upload it to Facebook, your club’s web page, etc. Make yourself known and Light Up Rotary. There have been some great ones published recently but there must be many presidents that haven’t done so yet.

THE CLUB LEADERSHIP PLAN This is to strengthen the Rotary club by providing the administrative framework of an effective club. Current, incoming, and club leaders should develop a long-range plan that addresses elements of an effective club and set annual goals using the Planning Guide for Effective Rotary Clubs. 2

Club Board members’ responsibilities

A matter that was raised at some of the POETS sessions and as feedback from clubs at the District Leadership Team meeting in May, was the need to improve communications between District committees and club board members. To help facilitate this it is important to know which club board member has responsibility for Membership, Rotary Foundation, Youth Services, Public Image and so on. This will allow those specific committees to direct communications to the board member most likely to be interested. This will spare the club secretary and/or president from having to handle these communications and only to have to hand them onto the relevant board member. As soon as we are able to get ClubRunner fully operational it will be possible to record this information simply by assigning that position to the relevant club member in the database. No external notification will be necessary. It couldn't be any easier!

RI Presidential Citation The RI Presidential Citation for 2013-14 has been awarded to the following clubs: Rotary Club of Am Kap, Rotaract Clubs of Bellville and Claremont, Interact Clubs at Herschel Girls High School Knysna Secondary School Knysna Montessori School Rustenburg Girls High School Congratulations to these eight clubs for following the theme of Engage Rotary Change Lives. The challenge for 2014-15 is that there will be more of each type of club achieving the Citation to Light up Rotary and make a difference.

International Significant dates to Diarise WHAT’S GOOD IN PR District 9350 Upcoming DG's Club Visits Experience has shown RI that clubs District Digest July who have been the most successful 23 are promoting these types of Rotary Stories. Angola 28 Pinelands & Roggebaai • Outstanding volunteers 29 Paarl • Interactions between people 31 Goodwood in developed and developing August countries. 05 Kleinmond • Local Rotary and Rotary Namibia 06 Stanford Foundation projects 07 Hermanus • Rotary International studies 12 Oostenberg and exchange programmes • 14 Helderberg Human interest stories about people who benefited from 19 Melkbos Rotary service 20 Wellington • Project activities. 21 Blouberg Newsletter for DG Cecil Rose 25 Somerset West Please send your news to DG Cecil [email protected] 26 Claremont for possible inclusion in this Digest. 29 Upington (Taken from effective public relations, a Rotary guide.) Edited by Cheryllyn ‘Chip’ Michie [email protected] ALL IN A DAY’S WORK Ph: 021 851 9254

For RI District 9350 information, A Rotarian (whose club will be nameless to spare his blushes) was driving contact the District Services Centre towards Franschhoek with his wife when they came upon a quaint little village Monday to Friday, 9am to 1pm with the interesting name of Pniel. ‘I wonder how you pronounce this name,’ at +27 (0) 21 686 4499 he said to his better half. ‘Let’s stop at that garage and ask,’ she suggested. So fax +27 (0) 21 689- 3970 or send they pulled into the nearest petrol station and he asked the lady Jockey where an email to [email protected] they were? She looked at him strangely for a and then replied, ‘At or post to PO Box 255, Newlands, 7725 Caltex, Sir.’

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