drew_sturgiss

We have an exciting few weeks ahead. Wednesday is our first evening meeting in our new location, the PSK Private Wealth offices in the Sydney CBD. On Friday, we have our first Friday Social event, enjoying the beautiful harbour we were named after at The Sporting Globe. On Sunday, we'll be back in the city to plant trees and then, after two weeks of recuperation, we'll be marshalling for the City2Surf on the 14th of August. There's a lot there for everyone, and the details for all those events are below. Please make sure to register for any volunteer opportunity, and visit our website for more information.

I know. I missed you too. I apologise for temporary hiatus in our newsletters. As discussed in previous editions, the Club needed to take some time to refocus, and work out what our future looks like. The past few years have held a lot of challenges which has made our work more vital, but also more difficult to do. And we've seen that difficulty play out across our partners in Rotary service, with different work-patterns impacting attendance and engagement. It was clear that Rotary generally and our Club specifically needed to make changes to remain vibrant, active, and above-all useful to the various initiatives we strive to support. I'm happy to report that our time has been well spent. With the easing COVID restrictions we have physical events in the pipeline, and partners eager to work with us to make the world a better place. Established Rotary programs like RYLA, MUNA and NYSF are continuing, and we look forward to supporting their work in the future. And with our evening meetings and subsequent casual dinners, fellowship will continue to be a core of what we do. Rotarians strive to be truthful, but I'd encourage you to review the agenda of our next event if you would like to keep me honest. As always, the core of this newsletter is our list of upcoming events for the next month. I would encourage you to watch this space, as the priority for this year's board is to ensure our calendar is brimming with opportunities to learn, grow, and be of service to other people.

Dear members and friends of the Rotary Club of Sydney Darling Harbour,
We’ve finally made it – this is the last newsletter of my first year as President. I feel like someone has called half-time in my Presidential journey. With a new meeting schedule, new venue and new projects underway, I’m

It's been a big few weeks. As you'd know, the Club has made the decision to change it's meeting time to evenings, and then ran into some challenges in finding a meeting venue. Being a Sydney CBD Club has a lot of benefits, but it also means that real estate and meeting venues come at a premium. Fortunately, we have a solution. Long-standing member John D'Alessandri has been able to secure the use of a board meeting room for the Club in his office at PSK Private Wealth, located at 44 Market St Sydney. This was vital for the Club, as it allows us to hold meetings in our private space without passing on costs to our members. PSK Private Wealth have done us a real kindness, and have provided as a real opportunity to pay forward their generosity in our efforts to be of service to other people. I cannot thank them enough. In our second exciting development for the week, our Changeover is scheduled for the 23rd of June at the Blue Eye Dragon Restaurant in Pyrmont. Ticket are $60 per person, and can be purchased at https://events.humanitix.com/2022-rotary-club-of-sydney-darling-harbour-changeover. I look forward to seeing you there. Lastly, this month will see a few changes to our schedule. There will be no meeting on the 22nd of June, with us instead catching up at the changeover. Due to stiff competition from the State of Origin, our meeting on the 13th of July will be held virtually, with the 27th of July being a physical meeting. We will have drinks in the CBD on Friday the 29th of July. Thereafter, we'll be returning to our normal schedule of physical meetings on the 2nd Wednesday, virtual meetings on the 4th Wednesday, and CBD drinks on the last Friday. As always, our website, Facebook and this newsletter will always contain our accurate calendar. With the new Rotary year about to start and our new format finally decided upon and established, I've never been more optimistic about the future of this Club. Thank you for your patience as we worked out the logistics, and please enjoy the triumphant return of our traditional newsletter format.

Dear members and friends of the Rotary Club of Sydney Darling Harbour,
Last week I gave the important announcement that the Darlings were moving to evenings. We were hoping to have our first evening meeting on Wednesday, but unfortunately the transition is proving more difficult than we anticipated.

As such, I regret

I'm breaking format today to provide a few important updates. At our most recent evening meeting, board meeting and morning meeting the Club has been focussed on one subject - it's future. In the new world that COVID has ushered in, our previous ways of doing business are no longer as relevant. To that end, the Club will be implementing the following changes during a pilot period, which will last until the end of the year.

Much like our country's political parties, I've spent much of the past week analysing opinion polls. Though not as contentious as the election, our Engagement Survey has already yielded a lot of information about the relationship between our members and the Club in a post-COVID world. We've learned that our members now attend the city on a variety of different days, making scheduling more delicate. We've seen a split between members who much prefer Digital Meetings for the convenience, and members that would like to return to purely physical meetings for the fellowship and camaraderie they encourage. Most significantly, we've seen that responders want more events, projects and initiatives to put them back at the forefront of being of service to others. Coming out of COVID's lockdowns and social isolation was always going to involve some growing pains. The board has discussed the survey results thus far, and would like to discuss the proposed changes to the Club's format at our next meeting, occurring online on Wednesday morning. Your presence would be greatly appreciated, and would be of tremendous service to the Club and its future. If you've not done so already, please complete the Rotary Engagement Survey to ensure that your voice is heard.

It's no exaggeration to say that the world has changed in the past two years. Things that we previously saw as constants such as our commute to work, ability to travel and work locations have been dramatically and permanently changed. This has flow-on effects to all other aspects of our lives, and Rotary is not immune. For the past few weeks, we've seen lower than normal attendance at meetings, with five Rotarians attending our most recent meeting. This isn't anyone's fault or an indication that anyone has done something wrong, but it does suggest that our traditional format does need to change with the times. For that reason, I'd like everyone to fill out our Rotary Engagement Survey. Your input will help ensure that the Darlings remain an accessible, vibrant and thriving Club, and will guide us in making changes to help make the Club even more effective. I would greatly appreciate your support in this matter.

If you've not done so already, please register for District Assembly on Saturday. This is going to be a great opportunity to plan for the year ahead, and to discuss strategies and successes with our colleagues in different Clubs. Otherwise, I'm looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday with our guest speaker, Shirley LePlanche. Shirley will be talking about her experiences as a self-published author and selling copies of her book "The Fatal Path", a psychological thriller which quickly becomes impossible to put down.

After a two year absence, it was great to spend ANZAC Day volunteering with our friends at the Rotary Club of Sydney, as well members of UoW Rotaractors and volunteers from the public to run a traditional ANZAC Day BBQ. Aided by Lynne's spirited spruiking, we quickly sold out of ANZAC biscuits raising valuable funds to continue in our important work. It's been great to get physical events back after two years of intermitent lock-downs, and if you'd like to suggest, plan and help execute future events I would love to see you at this week's Evening Meeting. Otherwise, I hope you're doing well. After two consecutive long weekends, we now begin the long march of full weeks until the Queen's Birthday. Also, from this week we will be requiring pre-registration for morning meetings to ensure we provide accurate numbers to our meeting venue. I'll be sending a separate email about that later in the week. To be clear, our prices have not changed, but we will now be asking that members pay for their morning meeting attendance for each in-person morning meeting.