This week we took another major step in becoming an official Rotary eClub within Rotary International. Starting from our initial ideas back in August of forming the District 1100 eClub, thanks to much effort by everyone, the District Governor signed our application form this week to become a Provisional eClub. This means we are able to open a Bank Account and our activities are insured by Rotary (RIBI), however our members cannot still call themselves Rotarians.

Emma Harman who has agreed to be our Treasurer is now undertaking to open our Bank Account, she is being assisted by Ricky Elliott who has agreed to be the Assistant Treasurer. Once the account has been set up, Emma will also set up our Pay Pal Account, once this has been achieved it would be good to encourage other Rotarians to attend our meetings for ‘Make Up’ purposes which is now allowed under Provisional Club status.

Janice Mason has agreed to be the eClub Secretary and Conrad Shail the Vice President, over the coming months we will be asking members to join the various forums within the eClub to get activities underway. Janette Massey has agreed to be the Projects lead assisted by Debbie Vincent, they like ideas on what we’d like to do during 2012. Our next step is to allocate members to the different forums.

The next stage in our growing process is to become a Chartered Rotary eClub.  To do this we need 25 charter (founder) members, however to be a strong branch, we need more than just 25 members especially since our membership is more spread out. The best way of recruiting members is for either current members or Rotarians in other Rotary Clubs to introduce their family, friends, colleagues or people they know and think would make good e-Rotarians. To help you tell them more about Rotary please use the links Invitation to Join and Frequently Asked Questions or introduce them to the Rotary International Website.

This is a very exciting development, currently there are 52 eClubs in the world, of those 2 are in the UK.  eClubs are going to expand as they offer an alternative to busy people who want to be members, but time constraints restrict their attendance of traditional Club meetings. Please help us to expand our membership and the awareness of eClubs so we can all help in growing our branch of the Rotary International tree.

Tim Mason, President Elect.