Tony Heywood gave us plenty to think about on our Zoom meeting on 14 September. His talk was based on his on-going discussions with fellow Rotarians in Australia and New Zealand as a Zone 8 Coordinator. This group is looking at the future of Rotary and our regional structures. Tony is a PP in the Tawa Rotary Club and he took over from David Watt as District Club Vision Coordinator some years ago, spending some time with us facilitating a session on future directions for our Karori Club.
“Remarkable times that we are living in around the world requires remarkable collaboration and decision making”, he said. Over 800 Rotary International staff are based around the world, all affected by covid travel restrictions, international Rotary programmes in particular youth programmes are all on hold, however Rotary International and Rotary Zones are pushing on Shaping Rotary’s Future, looking at redistricting, new regional structures and building new look Rotary clubs and organisations into strategic plans. A pilot survey of clubs throughout the world will follow on from customer research into what Rotary needs to do to attract people in the 21st century and how they can better give effect to their aspirations.
Tony traversed some key topics for local clubs – building Rotary knowledge and experience for members. Rotary International will have a regular follow up strategy with new members, tracking their progress in Rotary, through a video link programme at 30 days and beyond. RI will look at building different Rotary Clubs from what we have now; focusing on cause base, not on meetings; doing projects and involving partnerships to achieve our ends.
Each Club should have a simple Club plan and objectives; have increased diversity, and more representation; meeting centric needs to change for Rotary to become service centric.
We enjoyed exploring Tony’s subject matter with him, more for consideration by our board and club, and also having our Area Governor, David Shackleton, on Zoom, taking a full part in the meeting