Key changes in the life of Rotary have been spelt out by an incoming club president. Newly elected Shrewsbury Severn Rotary Club president John Yeomans said one of those key changes would involve the collection of money from fundraising activities such as the popular Santa sleigh.
John told a club zoom meeting on the occasion of the presidential handover: “One of the issues we will have to address in this changing world is the previous reliance on the collection of cash for Christmas events. “Cash is out of fashion as everyone is now used to swiping a card to make payments. We will have to look at technical opportunities to gather in those monies, adaption and improvement of the website, as well as looking at the way other organisations collect money to find the right way to collect our monies in. I am sure we will meet those challenges head on,” John told fellow members.
He said the club was hoping to have its first face to face meeting on July 27. “In advance of that there is work to be done – the first meeting is very important to us all. “It is 15 months since we last all met together. We will have to conduct a risk assessment and hopefully all those present will have had their two injections. But we will still have to act with caution. The first meeting will be a joyous engagement, but we shall be going through the key pointers on how we proceed and look after members. I feel sure that within the year we will have a full and active time and hopefully get some good members.”
Outgoing president John Law gave a review of what he described as a ‘very unusual year’ and that he couldn’t have anticipated a presidency quite like it. He said an interesting statistic in terms of communication via technology was receiving well over 1,000 emails during the year.
Newly appointed Rotary District Governor Robyn Davies joined the zoom meeting and told Rotarians that Rotary needed to modernise and become adaptable, increasing membership through service and working together. “Your ideas on associate membership and Friends of Rotary are excellent,” she commented. “Covid has made us all think about how we adapt. My message for the year is a personal message to look after each other, make sure membership is safe, comfortable and wants to move forward.” She added that another key area of focus for Rotary going forward was the environment. If each Rotary family in the District stopped buying one item per week packaged in plastic, then 67,600 plastic items would be saved from use in a year. The environment, and our impact upon it, must become a key consideration in everything we do in our every day life.
Anyone interested in learning more about Shrewsbury Severn Rotary Club can contact secretary Gareth Watkins gdmw@hotmail.co.uk
