Thought for the week: Service above Self
District Governor Martin, Assistant Governor Martyn, members and guests welcome to the Inaugural Meeting of the District 1100 eClub. President Elect Tim Mason would like to introduce our members to the DG and AG:-
Secretary’s Notices
Saturday 4th February Tim and I will be at the Wheatstone Inn, Gloucester and invite all members, mentors and anybody else who is interested in joining the eClub, to meet up for a drink/lunch (it’s a Chef & Brewer inn with a Costa Coffee). We will be there from 11am to 2pm-ish. There is free WiFi there, so we will take along iPad/laptop if you want some help navigating around the eClub website. Address is Wheatstone Inn, Centre Seven, Barnwood, Gloucester, GL4 3HR: it’s on the Gloucester bypass, if coming by M5 come off of at junction 11, it’s in the Leisure Park where the ten pin bowling is. Look forward to seeing all those who can make it.
President Elect – Tim Mason
It is with great pleasure that I introduce Assistant Governor Martyn Harwood who has been my mentor during the process of setting up the eClub. He will say a few things as sponsor and then request that the DG formally constitutes the District 1100 eClub as an interim Rotary Club.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Hi4f6ll_4&w=480&h=360]In the video the District Governor in his reply is emphasising the importance of the task with which the new Rotarians have been entrusted, i.e. to build District 1100 eClub into a strong club and to operate within the obligations of Rotary. He is happy that the preparatory work has been satisfactorily completed. He then will then sign the Inaugural Resolutions form, which is part of our application to Rotary International for membership.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0g1Alrl224&w=480&h=360]The DG in his speech declared the due formation of the new club, welcomes the Rotary District 1100 eClub Rotarians to the movement.
Rotary District 1100 eClub Members Agreement
It is proposed by Tim Mason and seconded by Conrad Shail and all the members agree that:
1. The club will be known as the Rotary District 1100 eClub.
2. The Rotary District 1100 eClub will be a member of Rotary International (RI) in association with Rotary in Britain and Ireland (RIBI).
3. The Standard RI Constitution and the Association’s Standard Club By-Laws shall be adopted.
4. The club will meet weekly 24/7 via the web. The chosen Founder President Tim Mason, Senior Vice President Conrad Shail, Treasurer Emma Harman and Secretary Janice Mason accept the principles of Rotary as expressed in its objectives and agree to comply and be bound by the Constitution and By-Laws of the Association.
Election of The Board (Council)
It is proposed by Janice Mason and seconded by Conrad Shail and all the members agree that the following members are elected to the Rotary District 1100 eClub Council.
- President Elect – Tim Mason
- Vice President Elect – Conrad Shail
- Secretary – Janice Mason
- Treasurer – Emma Harman
- Assistant Treasurer – Ricky Elliott
- Membership Lead – Shelley Jenkins
- Assistant Projects Lead – Debbie Vincent
Election of two representatives to District Council
It is proposed by Shelley Jenkins and seconded by Mark Burke and all the members agree that the following members are elected to be representatives for District 1100 eClub to District Council.
- Tim Mason
- Conrad Shail
Substitutes
- Janice Mason
- Emma Harman
On behalf of the District 1100 eClub, let me thank you District Governor Martin for your inspirational speech and I know all our members will take every opportunity to put your words into action as we go about out our Rotary Business.
Address by the founder President
As I’m not so photogenic as the District Governor and Assistant District Governor, my speech is written and illustrated by a photograph (of course using facebook), a much better image of your president.
Today is a very exciting milestone in the history of the Rotary District 1100 eClub, we have become members of Rotary International, congratulations to you all on becoming Rotarians. When I joined Rotary over 30 years ago, as a 27 year old Divisional Youth & Community Officer in Aylsham, Norfolk, as usual I was excited, but wondered what it was all about. At that time I had a really good mentor who supported me to discover and continue that excitement. Therefore over the next few months it is important we learn together how our eClub will best work for everyone and how we can learn together about Rotary and its different areas of work and service. Whilst the eClub is so new I would like to say a big thank you to those Rotarians who are offering their support by mentoring our eClub members.
I say ‘together’, because even though I’ve been in Rotary off and on for 30 years, I’m still learning each day about Rotary. A good example of this is when myself and Janice attended the Rotary International Convention in New Orleans last year, 18000 Rotarians were present and it was WOW this is Rotary! As part of that learning we were inspired to help move Rotary forward into the 21st Century. Many of the key messages were about ‘Marketing & Promoting Rotary’, ‘reaching out to recruit generation X & Y e.g. getting younger people involved’, ‘eClubs and how to start them’. We came back fired up and determined to do our bit – what’s the point of attending a convention if you don’t take action when you return! Another aspect of our trip to the USA was to meet up with my Rotary friend on facebook Mel Powell, he also is in the process of forming an eClub (Greater San Fernado Valley eClub) which I hope we can twin with in the future, doing joint projects together, such as the Danceathon to raise funds for the Eradication of Polio. 
From our experiences in New Orleans there is still more action to take; we’ve developed the District 1100 eClub, now it will be important over the next few months of our new eClub to put Public Relations and Club Membership at the forefront of all we do, especially to many people who don’t associate Rotary with a dynamic, vibrant, young image. Through our activities both online and offline let’s demonstrate that Rotary District 1100 eClub offers a new innovative way of being a Rotarian. Let us also demonstrate this to the traditional Rotary Clubs in our District 1100, by working in partnership with them to help with activities and events, so that they can experience for themselves that our eClub offers them loads of opportunities for achieving their Club aspirations as members of Rotary International.
When talking to Shelley, our Membership Group Lead, last weekend I was emphasising the need for our eClubs to be a caring organisation, supporting members to achieve in both their personal life, work life and in Rotary. So I want to conclude my address with a method for achieving all I have said today, in the coming months we need to remember the word CARE.
C – Contact – let us use the eClub Website to contact each other, communicate our ideas through conversations and discussions.
A – Activities – let us get involved with eClub and other District 1100 Rotary Club activities, to have some fun, do some service for others in our communities, develop a greater understanding of world issues and how we can help.
R – Relationships – let us build these relationships amongst ourselves through our conversations, contact and activities together, learning to work as a team, listen to each others ideas, and helping to take the eClub forward as a team.
E – Engagement/Encouragement – let us encourage each other in our Rotary journey and how we tackle everything we do. If others see our Rotary spirit, engagement with them will become a natural way of telling them why they might think about joining Rotary and our new eClub.
Above all let us remember our eClub embraces our wider families and friends, our vision needs to be that they can be involved in this exciting and innovative adventure together in Rotary. I look forward very much to working with you all on our journey together.
Tim Mason, Founder President.
For members and visitors please post your comments and greetings below so this can be a fantastic record of this momentous occasion.
Finally all Rotary meetings end with the final toast, please charge your coffee cup, glass of water, whatever is to hand, the toast is ‘Rotary around the world together with the Rotary Clubs of Severn Vale, Stroud and Greater San Fernando Valley eClub’.
ENJOY YOUR ROTARY…..
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZTx69GxO-A&w=640&h=360]
I raise my coffee cup and on behalf of every member of Worcester Vigornia congratulate the District 1100 eClub on the opening of their inaugural meeting. Greetings to all of you from all of us. The toast is ”Rotary around the World’ with Worcester Vigornia, the new eClub and friends’. We celebrate the occasion and wish all new members success in this marvellous new venture. Members of Worcester Vigornia are delighted to be mentors for some of the new members. We admire the dedication, determination and enthusiasm of Tim and Janice in getting to this stage so rapidly. Cheers!
I’m raising my 9.30am cup of Rooibos tea to celebrate! Well done Tim and co on bringing things to this point. I look forward to a gently increasing level of involvement as the club goes from strength to strength, and of course to meeting you Tim on 1st March, and supporting the eClub’s online activities.
At 2.15pm I’m on my afternoon cup of tea prior to picking up the kids from school – I raise my mug and toast our new Club and of course Rotary around the World. Congratulations Tim and Janice on such a superb start….we have a very exciting future ahead.
It is 8.55pm and I am just toasting our eClub wih a glass of white wine. We are now on our way to making a difference and I am so happy to be part of it. Tim and Janice you are a marvel all your hard work and dedication has come to fruition. I look forward to meeting some or all of the members on Saturday. Cheers to all of us and Rotary around the World!!!!!
My coffee cup has been raised and the coffee consumed. So I will raise another and consume that. I drink too much coffee! The eClub train has left the station and now on its way, with a good fire of enthusiasm and everyone on board. I wish it luck on its journey and to all who board it as it travels through time. I for one is glad to be on board and would like to raise yet another cup of coffee to Tim and Janice for putting the wheels on and preparing everything for the off.
Conrad
Am really delighted to see firdt meeting underway. I hope everyone enjoys being part of this e club.
Very cold here in Wiltshire today – hope everyone is keeping warm.
Fantastic that we are now fully official!!
I too toast the Eclub (with the flask of coffee I prepared in case I got stuck in snow!) onwards and upwards – great to meet such positive rotarians (old and new!) this morning.
I hope the p-meet (physical meet) went well today, have enjoyed this first meeting and wish all members of the new club well in your endeavours.
Now you can tell Tim that at last I have seen the inaugural meeting! I rasie my cyber glass of something to all of us as we start on what hopes to be a really exciting adventure! I hope I manage to find wi-fi next week to update myself on the news!
It was great meeting everyone today and hope to meet even more of us at the ‘lunch’ that the revolutionaries will be planning – no gong insight! We could hold it at McDonalds or something – bet that has never been done before!
A pleasure to meet so many enthusiatic people at lunch today. Off to a terrific start, I believe great things lie ahead
I raise a glass of Baileys to toast the new club
I raise my glass to toast the new club & congratulations Tim for an excellent start…