Well, fingers crossed the coldest days of winter were a few weeks ago and spring will soon be in the air.

Doesn’t time fly!  It’s hard to believe almost two months of this Rotary year has passed by.  Elaine and I are now enjoying carrying out the official club visiting programme.  Thus far we’ve met with 13 clubs and it has been a case of renewing acquaintances and meeting many new faces.  The warmth and hospitality shown to us has been overwhelming and makes visiting clubs such a memorable experience.
 
 
 
August has been Rotary’s Membership & Extension month.  To me every month is a Rotary membership month as bringing in new members is necessary for the lifeblood of our organisation.  A good number of the clubs we have visited are doing their bit to introduce the good things about Rotary to like-minded people.  We need to continually welcome in new members, if for no other reason than recognising the departure of older members who have dutifully served as the backbone of Rotary in past years.
 
Visits to both Rotary Whakatane Sunrise and Rotary Lake Taupo were special occasions as both these clubs inducted two new members on the night and also awarded two PHF’s – wow, what do you think of that as a challenge to match or beat!  Visiting Rotary Hamilton Central was a very positive experience as the club embarked on a rejuvenation exercise and its success can be measured by the membership being up 15 on one year ago.  
  
Each year the Rotary Foundation makes available a pool of money for Districts to allocate to clubs to assist in meeting the cost of worthy projects, either overseas or locally.  The scheme is called District Grants and it is a once a year exercise.  Our annual allocation for this year is $44,000.  Closing date for receiving applications from clubs was 31 July and I’m pleased to say clubs applying should be pleased with the decisions they will receive fairly soon.  Only 10 applications were received, being down from 15 applications last year.

Congratulations to the team at Rotary Tauranga who accepted a challenge to provide specialist equipment to furnish an ophthalmology clinic aboard a ‘mercy’ ship.  The exercise involved seeking a Global Grant of USD72,500 from the Rotary Foundation and this has now been approved.  This is amazing news for Rotary and the people of the Pacific who will benefit from the facility.  A great example of Rotary Serving Humanity.

Have you visited our District website yet?  Why not go in to www.rotary9930.org and be impressed.  A page is dedicated to all clubs in our District so they can promote themselves and the good things they do in their community.  The good news is 29 clubs have taken advantage of this facility but sadly 25 clubs still have blank pages.  If you’re from one of the clubs with a blank page, why not rattle the cage of your club leaders and encourage them to take advantage of this promotional opportunity.  
 
Looking forward to catching up next month and sharing some more news with you
     
Regards    
 
Keith Owens
Governor 2016/17
Rotary District 9930