Past District Governor Dennis Shore: RICON23 – Counting down to the Melbourne Convention
Conventions have been part of the Rotary calendar since 1921 and each one of them is literally years in the planning. These are big events so there are realistically only a limited number of countries in the world with suitable facilities to host a convention. Australia has done well with two previous conventions in Sydney, one in Brisbane and one in Melbourne 30 years ago.
Program elements are managed by Rotary International and from this convention also the House of Friendship. There is a Host Organising Committee (HOC), which for this convention has representatives from the five Victorian districts whose main jobs are to organise and manage the welcome event and other hospitality events, recruit a volunteer team to support all of the events and promote Melbourne as destination. The HOC assists in finding sponsors and manages the entertainment program at the House of Friendship as well as providing tours and experiences via a commercial tour company.
This presentation will bring you up to date with what is happening as we enter the home straight to staging the 2023 Rotary International Convention from 27-31 May.
Dennis is a Chemical Engineer and has spent his working career in the pulp, paper & packaging industry. He joined the Rotary Club of Aspley in Queensland in 1980 and subsequently has been a member of the Traralgon and Hawthorn clubs. He has served in numerous positions at club level and was President in 2002-03.
Dennis will be a Trustee of The Rotary Foundation from 2023 to 2027. Currently he is District 9800 Governance Director and also Vice Chair of the RI Convention Host Organising Committee and Promotions Director. He is also Vice Chair of the Rotary Foundation Australia and a recipient of The Rotary Foundation Distinguished Service Award.
He was District Governor in 2012-13, GSE Team Leader to D5520 (New Mexico) in 2005 and was District GSE Chairman for 4 exchanges. Dennis has also served as District Secretary, District Finance Committee Chair (twice), Global Grant Scholar Committee Chair, Club Vision Chair and District Chair for Leader Training. Dennis was Endowment and Major Gifts Adviser for Zone 8 from 2019 to 2022.
Outside Rotary, Dennis has been involved in a number of community activities, including the Australian Shareholders’ Association of which he was a director for some years. He served in a number of community and industry roles associated with Monash University for more than 25 years and was honoured to receive the University’s Sir John Monash Medal for distinguished service to engineering education. He has also been involved with Scope and a community retirement village.
Dennis is married to Lynda and they are proud parents to 2 adult daughters and grandparents to four perfect grandchildren – well they think so. Other activities include golf, walking, photography and travelling.
President Rohan opened the meeting. After the Acknowledgement to Country Chair Roy Garrett toasted Rotary International. President Rohan welcomed guests Kerry Hicks and Patricia Poynton. Roy made the following announcements:
Member’s Birthdays
Darren PARK, 24 Feb
Steve HALLIS, 27 Feb
Partner Birthdays
Maria Fragomeni, partner of Ignacio INCHAUSTI, 24 Feb
Wedding Anniversaries
Russell & Heather ROLLS, together for 55 years, since 24 Feb 1968
Roger & Pippa THORNTON, together for 52 years, since 26 Feb 1971
Date Joined Rotary
Allan DRIVER, Rotarian for 27 years, since 28 Feb 1996
Roy Introduced Past District Governor, Dennis Shore who gave a presentation on the upcoming District Convention in Melbourne on 27 – 31 May. He made the following observations:
Conventions have been part of Rotary since 1910, and we held in USA until June 1924 when a convention was held in Canada. The first convention held outside mainland America was in Belgium in in 1927. The largest convention was held in Osaka, Japan om 2004 with 43,381attendees.
Melbourne last hosted a convention in May 1993 and Sydney held one in 2014. Australia has also hosted conventions in Sydney in 1971 and in Brisbane in 2003.
Melbourne beat London in the bid for the convention in 2016 – 2017, Neville John was Governor, however the event is a collaboration between all 5 District in Victoria.
There are currently 20 members of the convention team in Melbourne, fine tuning the event.
The opening and closing ceremonies will be held at Rod Laver Arena, as will the plenary sessions. The Melbourne Convention Centre will host the House of Friendship and Break sessions as well as various luncheons. The house of friendship is an exciting place to be as it will be a gathering place for Rotarian from around the world and there will be plenty of entertainment to keep everyone occupied.
A shuttlebus will be available from hotels and there will be extra shuttle trams between the two major venues. Public transport will also be free for convention attendees.
There are a number of people involved in the Host Organising Committee (HOC) from all 5 districts, with Mary Barry from RC Melbourne being the Chair of the committee.
Sponsorship opportunities are still available through Murray Verso, who can be contacted via the following link: verson@netspace.net.au
For visitors from interstate and overseas there are a number of tours and experiences which have been organised plus there are a number of events planned for attendees of the convention, including a golf day, visits to the home of the Melbourne Cup in Flemington and an opening dinner at the Melbourne Museum. There will also be home hosted and club hosted events.
Prior to the event there has been significant promotion, particularly at the Rotary Convention in Houston, the International Assembly In Orlando and the Zone Conference in Canberra. There are still opportunities to register to volunteer at the Convention through https://ricon23.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=54179 and now is a good time to register for the conference, before the cost and exchange rate goes up.
Announcements
Campbell announced that the Port Melbourne Bunnings BBQ raised a record $2,300, which in part was thanks to some drinks stocks being used and the donation of 30 loaves of Bread. He also thanked the volunteers on the day.
He also announced the next raffle, which will be drawn at our meeting on 28 March and proceeds will go to Medical Aid for Ukraine, an organisation which supplies much needed medical supplies via Germany.
President Rohan made the following announcements:
On Saturday 25th February there was a working bee at RIMEN and he thanked the volunteers Nev and Bec, Ignacio and Allan Driver. The next opportunity to volunteer will be Saturday March 25th. If any club members has goods to donate contact him and he will give information on collection or delivery of those goods.
There is also an opportunity for members to volunteer at the Melbourne Flower Show to help Travellers Aid to assist people with mobility issues. The Show will be held between 29th March and 1st April.
A raffle will be held for 5 tickets for the Rotary convention (if you have already registered you will get a refund) Entry to the raffle will be via donating amounts to the Rotary Foundation over the next month – one raffle ticket for every $20 donated.
A Membership Engagement Survey was conducted from Tuesday 29th November for 2 weeks, in order to seek feedback on how members were feeling about their Rotary experience half way through this Rotary year.
Thank you to the members who were able to provide their feedback.
The response rate (29 or ~50% of our active members) was lower than the survey in 2019 and may reflect when the survey was conducted.
Whilst the response rate was lower than desired, the feedback provided some useful in-sights on factors impacting engagement, what members like about their Rotary experience and suggestions on actions that we could take to further improve the experience of our members.
The key themes identified in the feedback were:
1. Desire for greater interaction amongst members
2. Need for multiple pathways for members to find their place in Rotary
3. Strategic direction of our club given societal changes
However, given the low response rate, the Board concluded that more member feedback was required before making significant changes.
With this in mind, the Board agreed that a Club Planning Day be held to discuss the feedback and review the strategic direction of our club, in order to guide our future plans.
