This week we have a very exciting programme, as one of our own members Yzanne has done something I suggested last week a ‘My Job & Life’ talk, thank you Yzanne, I hope others will volunteer for future weeks, as it will help us to get to know each other.

We see this month of March very much as a consolidation period, so as well as reading Yzanne’s contribution, can I ask each one of you to revisit the last two weeks’ programme (week commencing 23rd Feb and week commencing 16th Feb) and consider if you’ve undertaken the actions in relation to the website e.g. profile and updating messages, etc. The President has asked the eClub Administration Forum to write some more information about using the website, so when people visit they can find recent posts about activities and the trail of replies, we all need to ensure we follow some kind of protocol, so that members know exactly where things can be found. The Secretary has also added an eClub Notice Board to the buttons that run underneath the logo, so important notices and activities are easy to find, we also hope to add under this button an eClub Directory, so members can see who are members, where they live and a pen picture of who they are at a glance.

Also within this consolidation period, how is your learning about Rotary coming on? Have you visited the Induction Programmes, plus some of the programmes on the eClub Blog Page which give loads of information about Rotary. So have you any burning questions about Rotary? If the answer is YES, have you asked your mentor? We also might ask our mentors about how long they’ve been in Rotary, what is their Club like, what are their aspirations for Rotary in the future. It is important we use their experience of Rotary to help us develop our own eClub, adapting ideas to suit the online environment.  In return we could help them understand and promote the eClub and use of Social Media.

Finally we need to consolidate our focus and get some plans in place. On reflection there is a lot of exciting ideas out there about fund raising, however maybe we are putting the cart before the horse a bit, in traditional Clubs, a lot of the weekly programmes are from speakers who talk about their charity, projects or activities. As Rotarians become aware of this kind of work and want to help, that is when they think up Fund Raising Ideas. So do we need to do more about finding the projects we want to support, then learning more about them and then planning how we can help?  I wonder if Shelley perhaps could tell us about the City Farm in Gloucester and maybe we could arrange a visit? Could Rachel Davis and Rachel Ashley tells us more about the British Heart Foundation? Perhaps Dave could tell us more about the Stroud Canal, alongside Katharine explaining the work of the Stroud Valleys Partnership. This will help us build up a programme of talks about possible projects we want to help and perhaps other members have other projects we may want to consider.

I hope some of you will be able to call in to the President’s Drop In on Sunday 4th March, between 11.00 – 4.00. We are also reverting to using the News Update as exactly what it says, weekly programmes for members will no longer appear here, only if they are of interest to promote the District 1100 eClub, thus encouraging members to come inside the website to engage with the weekly programme. Please enjoy reading Yzanne’s Talk which follows….