We are now in the peak of club changeovers and DGE Dale, DGN Amanda, DGND Ron, partners and I have been greatly enjoying every event. I know I speak for all the G-train members when I say how amazing it is to see the incredible spread of Rotary activities across the District; to take in the atmosphere of every club; and to learn about the many successes that clubs have achieved during the 2020/21 year with the projects they have undertaken that make such a difference in the world. We are also buoyed by the plans that club leadership teams have for the year ahead.
I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all Centenary Presidents and club leadership teams for your incredible efforts in ‘Opening Opportunities’ through what has been a challenging year.
My gratitude also goes to the District Board and Leadership Team for all that you have contributed to ensuring the incredible work of Rotary in D9800 has continued over the year, despite the pandemic…you have been inspiring!
To the Networker team…every week you have ensured Rotarians have been kept informed about the many projects, clubs, members, and partnerships happening in our District and I thank you for this and to accommodating my communication strategy in a year that has seen us in lockdown and in need of connection. It has been a tremendous team effort and I know first-hand from the many members such as PDG Des Hosking and Rotarian Elaine Bird from Rotary Williamstown (pictured), how they look forward to reading Networker every week with interest and pride.
I would also like to thank all District 9800 Rotarians for giving me the opportunity to be your Governor this past year. While it has been a year of challenges, especially under COVID, it has also been a fantastic year because of each one of you and the passion you have for Rotary. Tricia and I have so enjoyed the last three years as I have moved from District Governor Nominee to Governor. I have no doubt that we will continue to enjoy our Rotary journey for many years to come.
To District Governor-elect Dale Hoy and Maureen, I know you will have a tremendous year ahead. I also know that the District is in very good hands as you both “Serve to Change Lives.”
Again, thank you to all and…enjoy the week in Rotary service!
Contributed by: Peter Boudville, President 2019/21, Rotary Brunswick-Tullamarine, Vocational Service Champion Gateway Supercluster
In May 2020, The Rotary Foundation, along with the Rotary Club of Brunswick-Tullamarine and the Rotary Club of Kew, partnered to provide a grant to the Spinal Research Institute (SRI), a for-purpose organisation working to improve the health and wellbeing of people with spinal cord injury. The grant was used to fund the development of an online video series to connect with the spinal cord injury community during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria.
People with spinal cord injury have supressed immune systems and compromised respiratory function and are vulnerable to severe symptoms and complications from COVID-19 infection. The videos share insights on the physical and mental health impacts of the pandemic while also capturing fascinating stories and perspectives of the remarkable interviewees.
Six videos were produced over six months and included:
Rhiannon Tracey, businesswoman and public speaker, who discusses the challenges and successes she has experienced since acquiring a spinal cord injury, as well as managing her health and wellness while in lockdown isolation.
Jason Ellery, SRI Ambassador, who speaks about how wheelchair rugby impacted his life post-injury, lockdown, and developing resilience in difficult situations.
Stefania di Paolo, SRI Ambassador, shares insights into her life juggling the roles of mum, wife, and carer for her husband Max who acquired a spinal cord injury at work, and how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their family life.
Dr Diana Dorstyn, psychologist and senior lecturer at Adelaide University, reflects on mental health and the importance of social connectedness during the pandemic.
Professor David Berlowitz, physiotherapist and researcher at Austin Health, and Dr Mario D’Cruz, who live with spinal cord injury, talk about COVID-19 and how it affects people with spinal cord injury, particularly in relation to respiratory function and the impact of wearing face masks.
Brooke Wadsworth, physiotherapist, and Tim McCallum, a classically trained tenor with quadriplegia, speak about their research collaboration to improve the poor respiratory prognosis for people with spinal cord injury.
The videos have been greatly received by the spinal cord injury community and to date have reached over 10,900 people on Facebook.
“When face-to-face contact wasn’t possible, we knew it was critical to connect with this at-risk community during this stressful and uncertain time. We are very grateful for the support of The Rotary Foundation District Grant and the support of the Rotary Clubs of Brunswick-Tullamarine and Kew, with whom the SRI has long-standing relationships,” said Kristine Hendry, CEO of the Spinal Research Institute.
It’s not so surprising that Sandi Fulcher has had a long involvement with Rotary with many achievements under her belt – one could say she was destined for it. After all, both her father and stepfather were Rotarians and her mother was a member of Rotary Melbourne, becoming its first female president in 2004/5.
Initially the Charter President for Rotaract Donvale in 1984, Sandi joined Rotary in 2003 whilst working in London as the General Manager of Burberry Airports. It was her mother who influenced the decision when visiting Sandi and suggesting that they attend a club meeting at Rotary Heathrow. Witnessing the 18-member powerhouse, Sandi had no hesitation in becoming a member. Returning to Australia, she felt the same energy and enthusiasm at Rotary Chadstone/East Malvern and joined the club in 2005. What struck her most about both clubs was that all members were fully engaged, committing to projects and events without a moment’s hesitation, and that the members of both clubs enjoyed so much fun. What’s more, members never missed a meeting.
Since then, Sandi has held numerous Rotary roles from Club President to Assistant Governor (twice) and District Secretary for Foundation and again for Membership & Marketing. She has also been a club visioning facilitator for many years, not to mention her role as Project Administration Coordinator for the Rotary Australia-wide project EndTrachoma and previously executive assistant for Stephanie Woollard at Seven Women. Sandi is someone who seizes opportunities and has relished the experiences that Rotary has given her. She has been to India, Papua New Guinea, Nepal and Timor-Leste as part of Rotary teams for various projects, and has seen the amazing connections that being a Rotarian provides – connections that have also allowed her to explore different career opportunities outside of her long and successful career in the retail sector.
Now Sandi is taking on the role of Club Service Chair in the new Rotary year, eager to assist clubs enhance the passion for service in their members. She believes that Club Service is “the mortar between the bricks that make up a Rotary club” and her mission is to strengthen that mortar. She would like to see all clubs have a Club Service Chair/Director and that those who hold this role fully engage with members to ensure the health of the club. “Club Service is a partnering role,” says Sandi. “Understanding what a healthy club looks like is so important and Club Service is pivotal to making sure existing members are fully engaged and have fun too,” she adds.
Sandi has a great ‘mud map’ that is driving her plans for the year ahead. She is focused on making sure that clubs use District as a strong resource and support. Her stints as Assistant Governor have given her a good insight to how clubs differ culturally, but still have the same goals around member engagement and the need for strong underlying fundamentals that hold clubs and their members together...that mortar between the bricks!
Rotary Balwyn has run The Four-Way Test Public Speaking Showcase over many years with the objective of providing a competitive outlet for secondary students attending schools within the City of Boroondara to hone their public speaking skills and promote the Rotary Four-Way Test as a moral compass. In this competition students can speak on any subject that they feel is current, interesting or important. Their speech must however, be based on the application of Rotary’s Four-Way Test, with its principles running either expressly or implied throughout the entire speech.
The following transcript is from one of the four finalists, Ben Zhou.
Should artists be separated from their art? (Cancel Culture)
Introduction
Think back your school days…when you had a class project. You bring it to your teacher…she loves it. She even gives you an A for it. But the next day at school, Ms Smith decides to downgrade your A to a ‘fail’. She even removes your project from display, whilst your classmates’ projects are all presented. How would you feel? How would you feel if this happened to you 7 times?
This is the analogy that Kanye West, the famous singer and Yeezy designer, used when he was asked to describe how it felt being cancelled 7 times. In his interview, he especially highlighted the fact that it was his Christian Hip-Hop album, “Jesus is King” which was attacked and boycotted by the media and streaming services. His album was targeted due to the strong references to Christianity, which many people took offence or found a distaste to the music. Furthermore, the sales in his trendy clothing apparel brand plummeted during the same period. Now I use Kanye West, as an example, because although he didn’t do anything unlawful or to hurt others, his music and art was still brought down, with him, just for expressing his beliefs.
Ladies and gentlemen. I will be using the Rotary 4-way test to analyse whether or not, cancel culture deserves a place in our modern society.
Question 1, Is it the truth?
Now, you may be telling yourself, “This cancel culture business is all fake, and it is just a Tik-Tok trend, even Gen-Z propaganda…” yet, there have been countless celebrities that have been cancelled. Firstly, when addressing the question, “Is it the truth?”, there must be evidence of cancel culture thriving in our society. Well, the list of cancelled people range from talk show hosts, such as Ellen and Jimmy Fallon, to the dead- YES, you heard me THE DEAD. Michael Jackson was cancelled in 2019, when the HBO documentary, “Leaving Neverland” aired. The two-part series outlined Jackson’s sexual assault claims. Now, I’m not here to talk about whether he is guilty or not guilty, but a fact is many news outlets, such as the Guardian and ‘The Washington Post’ wrote articles about Jackson’s cancelation, you can search it up. Now come on now. This ain’t it. Furthermore, these articles also outlined that Jackson’s music were also negatively affected. So, my answer to the initial question is, Yes, cancel culture is real and is clawing its way onto our society.
Question 2, Is it fair to all concerned?
Which brings me to the next question, “Is it fair to all concerned?”. Well no, because by cancelling artists, it is also cancelling their art. And by doing so it is ignoring all the other parties involved in making the artwork itself. For example, Harvey Weinstein, we completely condemn and reject his heinous actions, but then why do we also need to reject his films such as Paddington, Shakespeare in Love or Pulp Fiction? Consequently if your answer to that is yes, then I pose another question. Then is it fair to the cameramen who filmed these movies? How about the actors? Should Gwyneth Paltrow and Dame Judi Dench be stripped from their Oscar titles because they performed in a movie produced by Mr Weinstein? Now come on now, of course not.
By cancelling both the artist and their art, we are ignoring all of the efforts and achievements provided by the countless other parties who were involved in the creation of the artwork. As Oscar Wilde once said, “it is the spectator, not the artist, that art reflects”, an idiom which encapsulates the true consequences of cancelling artworks – one does not effect the artist, but wider society.
Question 3, Will it build goodwill and better friendship?
Lets go back to last year when my friend was complaining to me about how J.K. Rowling was being cancelled, for supporting a transphobic researcher. Now this wasn’t the main conflict, my friend was actually being cyber-bullied by online trolls, for running a Harry Potter fan page. Now, my friend wasn’t the only one who reported of this behavior. Last year an article from the ‘DailyMail’ explained that kids in the UK were being harassed at school for the same exact reason. Lets talk about that. Due to J.K. Rowling’s cancellation, her popular series, Harry Potter, was being cancelled, thereby allowing fans of her wizarding world to also be victims of vicious abuse. No, that behaviour does not deserve a place in our society, nor do I think it is building goodwill or better friendships.
Question 4, Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
“Will it be beneficial to all concerned?”. I think we all know what I’m going to say. No, it is not beneficial to all parties concerned. Within the past 5 minutes or so, I have just outlined examples of cancelled artists and their art, and how it has affected all manners of life. You might be going “OKAYYY, what does this have anything to do with me?” Well, this culture is discouraging young people to work hard to obtain a high-status position in society, in fear of being cancelled. Especially since cancel culture also digs up anything from an individual’s past, which could cause their careers to end.
So, I leave you with this, question: do you want to live in a world where your kids fear being cancelled next?
Things happen on riverbanks. On Monday 8 June 1835, John Batman wrote in his journal “…that I am glad to state about 6 miles up found the river all good water and very deep. (sic) This will be the place for a village”.
That river was of course the Yarra and the village, Melbourne. Unsurprisingly, the south side of the river became South Melbourne and supported the young city with breweries, engineering works and food processing while shipping utilised the newly constructed docks and warehouses.
But over time the area became a shabby collection of old buildings and disused docks. The immense Trocadero dance hall complete with windmill and artificial lake was closed and demolished in the 1950s and the cleared site eventually became the Arts Complex, which marked the real beginning of the Southbank neighbourhood.
By the end of the 1990s, Southbank was evolving into a vibrant area for the arts, hotels, offices, shopping, eating, drinking, promenading and of course, quality gambling at Crown Casino. The expression “Arts and Leisure Precinct” was coined to give Southbank prestige as a place to be seen. The high-rise, high-density residential development was on the verge to surge to provide Southbank with a permanent population and not be just a place to visit.
As an integral part of this accelerating evolution, Southbank Rotary was chartered on 3 June 1999 with a membership largely sourced from the fundamentally new community of Southbank. Hitting the ground running, it hosted the RYLA Awards in its first two years and organised and ran the ‘World’s Biggest Garage Sale’ at the Melbourne Convention Centre.
Community service projects included assisting with the running of the Street Soccer program and the 2008 Homeless World Cup. The Club continues to sponsor Steps Outreach Service and provides volunteers on a weekly roster basis to help other volunteers hold a BBQ for the residents at the Launch Housing Crisis Centre in Southbank.
The “Bags of Love Christmas Event” (pictured) was a landmark club project last Christmas in the packaging and distribution of hundreds of bags of essentials and gifts to female victims of family violence.
With the belief that the Millennials are the future, Southbank has chartered an Orbit Satellite Club with young business people as members with the will to “give back”. The Club also chartered the CEO Satellite Club this Rotary year to capitalise on the experience, networks and strengths of senior executives and bring them into Rotary. It has also run a Business Leaders Boot Camp together with regular business breakfasts with the emphasis on the role of business having to be responsible members of the community.
And, in this landmark centenary year of Rotary, club charter member Philip Archer has been the District Governor. This huge commitment always puts extra responsibilities on a club in supporting the DG and it goes without saying, the COVID crisis with its on again, off again lockdowns and its enigmatic rubbery restrictions on movements and gatherings, did not make it easy for the club and particularly DG Philip.
Your correspondent congratulates President Jasmine (Minnie) Dhillon, the Club and DG Philip for their above and beyond efforts in super successfully riding out the COVID storm.
The Rotary Fellowship of Leadership Education and Development is a new, vibrant and extremely promising group. The idea for its establishment came from 3 three energetic and committed Rotarians who live in different parts of the world but had crossed paths with each other. One is from Silicon Valley in the US, another from Germany and the third from Australia.
The Fellowship was chartered by Rotary International in May 2021, possibly making it the most recently formed. The three Rotarians initially advertised online for expressions of interest in their proposed Fellowship. As a result, over 500 Rotarians, Rotaractors and Rotary Program Alumni joined them in their initial charter request to Rotary International.
The main aim of the Fellowship is for Rotarians and Rotaractors to have the leadership skills and knowledge to create positive change in their local and global communities. They believe that leadership capacity can be enhanced by the provision of education and connecting like-minded people through digital resources and leadership events. The instigators of the Fellowship have already thought through and designed an outline of the programs they intend to implement, including online courses or events approximately 4-12 times a year, considering cross generations and different countries and cultures. The aim of these events is to share the concept and education of leadership globally.
A week-long retreat will be organised during which teaching and other methods of experiencing leadership will occur. The retreat will be designed to recharge and reinspire learning through courses, discussions and creating vision and content by means of workshops akin to the concept of RYLA—in other words,” RYLA for Rotarians”.
An event known as the Change Makers Program will also take place. This involves mentoring a group in the Fellowship who will work on a community project for a period of 6-12 months. Finally, the annual Rotary International Convention provides an excellent platform to showcase this new Leadership Fellowship (as it is known for short), and to encourage more members to join.
Rotary District 9800 Inc.
To view our privacy policy, click here.
Comments / Questions & Support in producing Networker and keeping our club and district websites
up-to-date are always welcome. Contact us at networker@rotarydistrict9800.org.au.
By Tricia Reardon
Speech by, Ben Zhou, Camberwell Grammar
