Our next meeting will be 6:00pm for 6:30pm on Wednesday 14 January at the Graphic Arts Club, 182 Coward Street, Mascot 2020.
Visitors are very welcome, please make yourself known at the bar!
President's Message
Welcome to this Newsletter of the Rotary Club of Botany Randwick Inc. Our club has been serving the local and international community since 1948.
Rotary promotes the ideal of service through fellowship. Attending our meetings allows members to enjoy the fellowship of other club members, enrich their professional and personal knowledge, and meet other business leaders in their community.
As a Club we support a wide range of projects. As well as having a broad range of local and international community projects, we are particularly focused on the Rotary projects, Australian Rotary Health, Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) and Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) together with The Rotary Foundation.
We welcome everyone to come along to any of our meetings to join in the fellowship and to learn more about what we do.
This will be a casual meeting, with no speakers or other agenda.
It will provide an opportunity to catch up and enjoy an drink and a meal with our members and visitors.
Our last meeting - the Christmas Party
A wonderful night, with 30 members and their guests enjoying a great night at the Graphic Arts Club.
Since the last meeting …
President Simon, and his wife Linda, together with Richard and Julie, attended a Christmas get together at The Deli Women and Children's Centre. It provided a great opportunity to see and hear about the vital service this centre provides to our community.
During the function, President Simon presented long-term Deli worker Jennifer with a Paul Harris Fellow. Jennifer attended a recent meeting to tell is all about services provided by The Deli, and all members were very impressed by her dedication to women and children in need. See the story below …
2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at the Graphic Arts Club,
182 Coward Street,
Mascot.
6pm for pre-meeting drinks and chat. The meeting, with dinner, starts at 6:30pm and normally concludes by 8:30pm.
Jennifer Wu, a long-term worker at The Deli Women and Children's Centre has been recognised for her dedication to women and children in need within our community.
Simon Van Wyk, President of the Rotary Club of Botany Randwick, presented Jennifer with a Paul Harris Fellow in recognition of her 20 years of service at “The Deli”.
Jennifer has provided a vital lifeline to women navigating the complexities of parenting after experiencing domestic and family violence. She has assisted women in these circumstances by
holding sessions on how to communicate with their children, what language to use, how to hold child centred conversations and how to repair fracture trust
Providing guidance on how to support their children emotionally
Restoring their sense of authority and the importance of safe, predictive parenting
Providing a safe and non-judgmental space for mothers to negotiate an increase in adolescent to parent violence
Managing emotional dysregulation in children.
Rotarians often designate a Paul Harris Fellow, named after our founder, Paul Harris, as a tribute to a person whose life demonstrates a shared purpose with the objectives of Rotary, and builds world understanding and peace. It is a well recognised and prestigious award, given to those who have made a sustained and positive impact on their community. Jennifer is a very deserving recipient!
The Rotary Club of Botany Randwick, and previously the Randwick Club, have been proudly supporting The Deli for over 20 years.
This project, by the Rotary Club of Botany Randwick (District 9675, Australia) in partnership with the Rotary Club of Kampala City (District 9213, Uganda), aims to renovate existing dilapidated classroom blocks and construct two new classrooms at Bukono Primary School in Namutumba District, Eastern Uganda.
The school, originally established in the 1920s, now serves over 1,500 students in severely overcrowded and unsafe learning conditions.
The proposed works will include the repair and replastering of existing classrooms, construction of two new brick classrooms with iron roofing, painting, and installation of water harvesting systems.
The initiative will be implemented by AMPE Foundation Africa (Uganda) under the supervisory oversight of the Rotary Club of Kampala City, ensuring transparency, accountability, and sustainable community ownership. Local community members will contribute labour, sand, and bricks, while Rotary and AMPE Foundation will provide funding, coordination, and governance.
Upon completion, the improved facilities will directly benefit over 300 students and indirectly impact more than 1,500 families in the surrounding villages.
Every month is dedicated to one of the major themes of our Rotary lives; this month the theme is that which RI is perhaps best known for, at least among non-Rotarians.
January is VOCATIONAL SERVICE Month
It all began almost one hundred-twenty-one years ago on February 23, 1905 in the windy city of Chicago. At that time the Chicago Rotary Club’s constitution had two objects. The first was the “promotion of the business interests of its members” and the second was the “concept of friendship.”
In 1910 at Rotary’s first Convention in Chicago, a quote of “As man comes into the light of wisdom, he comes to see that conduct toward others pays, that business is the science of human service and that he profits most who serves his fellows best,” became one of Rotary’s first mottos. Then two years later in 1911, at the conference in Oregon a second motto we all are familiar with -- “Service Above Self” was introduced. The idea of business as an object of Rotary was established in 1912 by the International Association of Rotary Clubs when it adopted a statement containing the 5 objects of Rotary. Both "mottos" were officially adopted in 1950.
No matter how much we would like to think that Paul Harris and his friends created Rotary for noble ideas of humanitarian service, goodwill, and world understanding – it was not the initial premise.
Paul Harris had the idea that friendship and business might mix and result in more business. In that era, most large cities like Chicago were in grips of growing business and industry, with fierce competition. Such slogans as “Cutthroat Competition”, “Let the Buyer Beware”, “Dog Eat Dog” and “The Public be Damned” were popular in the lives of giants in industry. Competitors were the enemy -- just making money was the goal. It was in this atmosphere that Paul Harris began to wonder if one person from each business or profession could actual work together in a non-competitive atmosphere. This is how classification came into existence. If they were not rivals or competitors, they could work together to help each other improve their business and income. Through the idea of friendship and business combined-the idea of Rotary evolved.
T.A, Warren, a British Rotarian who became RI President in 1945-46, made this statement in an earlier book on the history of Rotary in Great Britain: “The only unique feature of Rotary is vocational service; everything else that we do is repeated by some other organizations.”
In 1943, the Four Way Test as we know it was adopted to guide in sales, promotion, advertising and all relationships with dealers, customers and employees. Vocational Services emerged to guidance opportunities to assist young people in selecting their future business and professional career. The Group Study Exchange program now known as Vocational Training Teams fall in this area of service.
Our 21st century has come full circle in the question of business ethics. Large corporate executives are under indictment for unethical and illegal practice. But let us, as Rotarians, recall the Code of Business ethics and continue to tell the world the important message of business honesty, ethics, truth, and fairness.
The Four Way Test
The Four-Way Test is a non-partisan, non-sectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal and professional relationships.
Of the things we think, say or do:
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
To contact the Club, please email info@botanyrandwickrotary.org.au
Our next meeting will be 6:00pm for 6:30pm on Wednesday 14 January
