Rotary Central Melbourne On-Line Meeting and AGM held by Zoom on Tuesday 26th November 2024 at 7:30pm
Chair: David Jones
Reporter: Allan Driver
Photographer: Roy Garrett
Greeter: A/President Neville John
Following acknowledgement of Rotary International with a toast, including the fact that RI is the organisation that brings us together for service, dedication and collaboration to achieve incredible things to make the world a better place.
Chairperson invited President Rhys to open the meeting.
President
President Rhys opened the meeting with an Acknowledgement of Country, including we respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we meet, their cultures, knowledge and their continuing connection to their Country and recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded.
AGM
The AGM process was completed successfully with a quorum achieved. All relevant motions were passed including President 2025-2026: Rohan Williams, President – Elect Nominee for 2025-2026: Paul Fowler, Immediate Past President and Chair of Foundation Committee: Rhys Williams, Vice President Nominee: Neville John, Secretary: Ignacio Inchausti, Treasurer: Doug Robertson, Director Community Service: Rebecca John, Director Fundraising: Bruce Heron, Director International Service: Fleur Maidment and Director Vocational Service: Warwick Cavell with 2 vacant Director positions. Mention was made that the President and the Board would welcome further nominations.
Guest Speakers: Kerrie Hicks, Neville Taylor and Rana Ebrahimi
Title: What’s our Piece of Peace
Peace starts in the heart and home. Our recently established Peacebuilder Committee told the story of how Rotary Central Melbourne became an officially established Peacebuilder Club and shared what this means for each of us as Rotarians and our sense of community and belonging.
Neville commenced the discussion as it was the closing of November – Foundation Month
Discussions post Paul Harris Breakfast with guests where one person
asked me ‘What does Rotary Do for peace in thinks like the Gaza Strip?
The response was to mention with all the global activities of Foundation Peace Area of Focus which led him to ask what does a Rotary Club here do which led into wondering what is our Piece of Peace?
Neville wondered how our RCM members would respond to that was to get the Rotary Club formally acknowledged as a Rotary Peace Builder Club.
Kerrie explained that:
Peacebuilder Clubs are a Rotarian movement creating energy and momentum for peaceful conflict prevention and resolution around the world.
The Peacebuilder Club program is designed to help Rotarians maximise the peacebuilding impact of every Rotary project, and
enhance Rotary International’s mission of, “advancing world understanding, goodwill and peace” through the promotion of programs and projects that align with our organisation’s Seven Areas of Focus.
Rotary Central Melbourne was successfully accepted to be a Peacebuilder Club on 18 September 2024.
The Peacebuilder sub-committee has been strategically placed under the Club Service Director. Peacebuilding isn’t about more committees and governance, it is a mindset for all Rotarians to consider in their dialogues and projects, promoting positive peace in themselves, their families and their communities. Rotary Central Melbourne already does this incredibly well, becoming a Peacebuilder Club formalizes our approach.
More often than not, when we think of peace, we think of Negative Peace: being the absence of violence, or fear of violence.
Positive Peace is defined as the attitudes, institutions and structures that sustain peace. It describes an optimum environment for human potential to flourish.
Kerrie went on to explain Rotary’s 7 areas of focus which includes “Peace Building and Conflict Prevention” together with the Pillars of Positive Peace.
Rana then explained that to drive success to each of these Pillars, you can flip it to the definition of Diversity, Equity or Inclusion. A top priority for Rotary is growing and diversifying our membership to make sure we reflect the communities we serve.
We're creating an organization that is more open and inclusive, fair to all, builds goodwill, and benefits our communities. We want people with differing perspectives and ideas who will help Rotary take action to create lasting change in communities around the world.
Through Rotary, you'll find unique opportunities to get involved. Everyone is welcome in Rotary.
Neville summarised that the RCM Peacebuilder Committee’s current focus is to educate and empower our club members on Positive Peace. There are a variety of options to learn more, starting with:
- Reflecting individually, what’s my piece of peace?
- Read the Primer: FINAL-Primer.pdf
- Complete the free online training at the Rotary Positive Peace Academy: Rotary Positive Peace Academy
- Every Club project in all seven areas of focus contributes to building community and peace.
Members of this committee [Neville, Rana and Kerrie] would like members to get touch with us if you’d like to explore the Positive Peace framework against your current project maximise the community-building and peacebuilding impact of every project.
Mention was made of the VicPol Legacy with Legatees working on projects in Cambodia.
President Rhys mentioned that Youth Service would take up the challenge.
Announcements
Doug Robertson
Silk Miller Scholarships
Doug highlighted the following good news:
For the 2024 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards (Australian Institute of Criminology (aic.gov.au) held on
12 November 2024, 9 projects were recognised for their contribution to the prevention of crime and violence in Australian communities.
The awards were held at a ceremony in Parliament House, Canberra. The winners were presented with their awards by the Hon. Mark Dreyfus KC MP, Attorney-General.
Youth Crime Prevention and Early Intervention Project – Silver Winner – Acting Sergeant Stephen Turner
VICTORIA POLICE
The Youth Crime Prevention and Early Intervention Project is a joint initiative led by Victoria Police in partnership with West Justice, Victoria Legal Aid, the Youth Support and Advocacy Service, the Centre for Multicultural Youth and Youth Now. It aims to reduce the rate of offending and reoffending among children and young people by diverting them from the criminal justice system, minimising their contact with police and the courts. The project focuses on supporting police to issue warnings, cautions and fast-tracked diversion, and on improving referrals for children and young people to appropriate support services that can help address any underlying causes of offending behaviour.
“This study has absolutely informed my work” – Steve Turner
President Rhys congratulated everyone and indicated that 19 out of 25 recipients of the Scholarship were still with VicPol and that Melbourne University was exploring funding requirements.
Christmas Breakfast 10th December 2024
Emphasis was placed on the need to register for the breakfast as soon as practicable.
President
Mention made that John Ilott has updated the Club History.
The family of Richard Mitchell were extremely grateful for the support from RCM provided at his recent funeral.
Further fundraising sources are being explored.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be an in-person meeting on Tuesday 3rd December 2024 commencing at 7:40am. After the meeting, members and guests are encouraged to connect over breakfast, coffee or tea at the RACV Bistro.
Our speaker/s will be Dr Jane Leong, Director, Development Australian Centre for AI in Medical Innovation, at LaTrobe University.
The meeting closed with reminding members about celebrating “The Magic of Rotary”.
