With diversity being a core value of Rotary International, the pioneering efforts of an Australian initiative, “Women in Rotary”, has sought to provide aspiring women with greater access to networking and mentoring opportunities through Rotary amongst both male and female business and community leaders.
Women in Rotary's signature event, The International Women's Day Breakfast in Melbourne on 5 March 2015 draws over 1000 men and women and supports charities helping disadvantaged.
Rotarians, you are asked to consider the following clip from Rotary Australia; and how we can spread the word that women are welcome in Rotary and encourage female membership of our Club?
Yours in Rotary
Conrad Martens
President 2014-15
“In Search Of Women In Rotary
After more than 20 years since women were first admitted into Rotary, the perception that women are not allowed or welcome in Rotary continues in many regions. Perhaps this explains the alarming statistic that just 18 per cent of Rotarians worldwide are women.
Why does this matter?
The low number of women in Rotary matters for two main reasons.
First, women represent a large, untapped pool of potential volunteers.
At the heart of each Rotary club are its volunteer members. However, over the past decade there has been no growth in the total number of Rotarians worldwide, with many clubs struggling to maintain members. In fact, were it not for the increased number of women Rotarians during this period, Rotary would have over 115,000 fewer members than a decade ago!
Gender diversity is thus vital for maintaining and expanding Rotary’s membership base. This is particularly so given that in some places the rate of volunteerism among women is higher, and growing faster, than that of men.
Currently, we have about 1.2 million Rotarians worldwide. If we had a 50/50 gender split, we could arrest the decline in the number of Rotarians and build up a volunteer base of more than two million Rotarians. Imagine what a difference that would make!
Second, more women in Rotary is likely to help us better deliver our services.
It is not that women make “better” Rotarians. Rather, increased diversity yields better outcomes, and clubs that reflect the communities they serve may be able to better engage those communities and meet their needs.
In the corporate world, research has repeatedly linked greater gender diversity on companies’ boards with better financial returns: of Fortune 500 companies, for example, those with more women board members outperform those with the least by 53 per cent in return on equity! One of the key reasons for this, it is thought, is that women offer a differing and complementing perspective to that of men. Put simply by the former Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, William Donaldson, “monolithic backgrounds are destined to foster monolithic thinking”.
What next?
Increasing the number of women in Rotary is not about fairness or equality. It simply makes sense if we want to continue doing what we have been doing for more than 100 years.
There is a large and growing number of women in senior business and community roles with a great deal to contribute through Rotary. Why are they not gravitating towards us? This is our loss.
The questions remain: How do we change the perception of potential women volunteers? How do we attract them to Rotary? What strategies do the District Governors and Presidents of today have planned, and what are their ideas for tomorrow?
We need to work hard to encourage more women to join Rotary and dispel the myth that they are not welcome. The future of Rotary depends on enthusiastic membership.
In Melbourne, for example, over the past two years we have celebrated International Women’s Day with a large breakfast, which we hope sent a strong message that women are very much a part of Rotary, while also raising funds for local causes. After just two years of running the event, we had nearly 1000 men and women attend in 2013, with other successful events in the UK and Canada.
As a fellow female Rotarian I throw this challenge to both men and women: How do we increase female membership and spread the word that women are welcome in Rotary?
What a wonderful morning! Organized by Graeme Isaacson in his usual professional manner, our ladies, Youth Exchange Students and several guests joined us at the Marriott Hotel in Surfers Paradise. What a feast!
There were no formalities, just good ol' Rotary fellowship. Good to see that John Ellemor, who had been unable to attend in recent weeks due to a medical condition, obviously is on the way back to the top. His charming daughter Lynne gave him a lift into Surfers. John assured me that he is planning to be back at the Yacht Club in the new year.
Our Exchange Students Laura Burtscher (incoming, from Austria) and Felicity Cooper (shortly leaving for Finland) together with her mum Sarah (see below with Sergeant Andy Bell), were joined by Gaelle Ameye (n picture with Laura) who hails from Belgium and is currently on Exchange at Yamba. And, in addition to our partners, it was great to meet again with Debbie Cohen and Jan Lutz.
Thank you, Graeme, for organizing and seeing this event through with your usual impressive precision.
Following up on the report in last week's bulletin, Principal Mark Blackshaw and his charming Marketing & PR Manager Allina Leal joined us for breakfast to bring us up to date on what will happen. An happen it will!
But this is not just for charitable purposes, but also very much involves the fostering of leadership skills, social conscience and even providing a vehicle for students to work hands-on when the school will be built. A fundraising dinner (to be held on Tuesday 3rd December at the Sharks) aims to raise some $25,000. Our club will participate with a table of 10 attendees. Our member Mario Fairlie again put his shoulder to the wheel by donating a bottle of Grange Hermitage valued at about $1,000 for auction or for a Raffle Prize. Thank you, Mario!
Mark also outlined some statistics of his school: there will be some 700 new students coming in to make a total of 2,400. 50% of the students come from outside the schools traditional boundaries. And with leadership like that and projects like that, no wonder!!
Download the latest of Isabelle's reports from France (see link on right), including pictures. Visiting Taizé in Eastern France, new host parents, playing Wednesday Addams in a Haloween Party...
There is a German Proverb: "Wenn einer eine Reise tut, so kann er was erzählen", roughly translated "when somebody has done some travels, he has some stories to tell". Doug and his charming wife Sue visited India around July, in conjunction with their involvement with Inspire India, a charitable organization with the aim "to make youth strong, skilful and socially concious". Doug took one of our wheelchairs with him which he duly presented when he and Sue visited one of several schools in the Hyderabad region (see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2GHcNGFbXA) .
If you look very carefully at the photo above, you will see Doug and Sue immersed in a (relatively small) group of madly exuberant school kids... "Relatively small"? Well, you see, the schools are just a tad bigger than what we are used to over here: at one High School, there were some 9000 students, in another 5000... "We were treated like celebrities", Doug exclaimed (see, what privileges being a member of Rotary can bring!) - Red carpet, band. And time... if you think it takes one hour, it takes three! Doug also introduced the locals to some good ol' Aussie Slang, such as the meaning of "getting the raw prawn", or "the rough end of the pineapple..." Every toilet has a person at the door, water is flowing on the floor. What for? To wash your feet!
Obviously, the High Schools Doug and Sue visited are a cut above the norm: they teach at least 3 languages and annual fees are somewhere in the vicinity of $10,000 - $12,000, which would be a huge sum for many (according to Wikipedia, India's nominal GDP per capita is $1,626, as against $62,822 for Australia. Yet, (according to Forbes), the 100 richest people in India are all Billionaires. And India has one of the highest percentages of women in business (and in politics, with Indira Ghandi one of the first three women in the world to become Prime Minister). The Hyderabad Region is India's centre of High Tech: All the major firms from Microsoft and Cisco to IBM etc to rows of Indian technology upstarts. By contrast, at the other end of the scale, people cannot afford to bury their dead, so they are left out in the street in body bags for the Council to collect them.
Back in August, Doug introduced a student from that region, Vishaka Balakrishnan (see right), an exchange student sponsored by the Rotary Club of Meenambakkan in Chennai(see photo left). This club can boast of the 2nd highest donation in the world to The Rotary Foundation - one man alone donated $175,000.
"I got into trouble for being rude to Doug Lipp" our Sergeant opened up, "I said that he was fat." OK, I'll pay the fine... (I think Doug was expected to - and did - pay anyway...) President Conrad was collecting at the Polio Plus do. His comment that "certain types, like Asians, never donate". So, Andy went out of his way to challenge this view, and proved him wrong! They did, actually one put in a nice fat bill! Daryl Sanderson on the other hand was rendered speechless: a nice young lady approached "with not an awful lot of clothing on, and no money..." Gerald East abused the Sergeant because there was only one pad with the members' names to tick off at the door? Do we really only have one pad? Yes, only one per year, confirmed Neil Thurlow... Larry Murray: trying to imitate Ray Charles? (he referred to the sunglasses, not the voice... ☺) Terry O'Shea, have you forgotten how to use a telephone? There I was waiting and waiting for you to call... And, there was a certain game of Rugby on last Saturday, in which a certain team again achieved glory. Anyone who did not support the All Blacks, pay up!
At last Wednesday's meeting, District Governor Wendy Scarlett officially announced Darrell Brown's membership to the illustrious Paul Harris Society. Membership is awarded to people who gift the at least $1,000 US annually to The Rotary Foundation. At the same time, Darrell Brown received his Paul Harris Fellowship pin with 3 Sapphires, indicating that, in effect he is a quadruple Paul Harris Fellow. Congratulations, Darrell!
Wheelchair Trust Chairman Daryl Sanderson is looking for more volunteers
OK, so you have gone through your list of potential future Rotarians... but not everyone may want to commit to be an active Rotarian, for various reasons, be that time commitments, financial etc.
Daryl Sanderson needs more volunteers at The Shed! They meet every Saturday morning. Perhaps you could bring it to the attention of a couple of your friends? Communicate with Daryl directly on 0408 729 118 or by email to daryl.sanderson@gmail.com.
were joined by Gaelle Ameye (n picture with Laura) who hails from Belgium and is currently on Exchange at Yamba. 
And, in addition to our partners, it was great to meet again with Debbie Cohen and Jan Lutz.
Following up on the report in last week's bulletin, Principal Mark Blackshaw and his charming Marketing & PR Manager Allina Leal joined us for breakfast to bring us up to date on what will happen. An happen it will!
There is a German Proverb: "Wenn einer eine Reise tut, so kann er was erzählen", roughly translated "when somebody has done some travels, he has some stories to tell". Doug and his charming wife Sue visited India around July, in conjunction with their involvement with 
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At last Wednesday's meeting, District Governor Wendy Scarlett officially announced Darrell Brown's membership to the illustrious Paul Harris Society. Membership is awarded to people who gift the at least $1,000 US annually to The Rotary Foundation. At the same time, Darrell Brown received his Paul Harris Fellowship pin with 3 Sapphires, indicating that, in effect he is a quadruple Paul Harris Fellow. Congratulations, Darrell!
