Governor Euan Miller 9520 jokingly refers to himself as the weekend Governor.
Because he is working full time in his year he has decided to try some innovative steps to cover Official Visits to clubs and the myriad other duties governors are expected to perform as they lead their districts. Governor Euan is particularly conscious of reorganising his time priorities to take advantage of the additional activities associated with the Centennial year. |
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The most radical change has been to drastically reduce his Official Visit schedule by asking the clubs to meet with him in Groups. In this way he has been able to reduce his Official Visits to the 57 clubs to 10 occasions.
These Visits have been spectacularly successful occasions of celebration. Up to 200 Rotarians and partners have attended on each occasion. There has been a party atmosphere with some Groups going to great lengths to dress the rooms and the tables for the occasion. This has not only enhanced the fellowship but has encouraged clubs to work together in partnership on a range of other activities.
Another bonus has been the vastly increased media coverage and attendance by Mayors and MPs. Not only have the media attended the meetings, there has been a lot of pre and post media coverage, both press and electronic, to coincide with the visit. Because of the numbers attending and because the occasion involves a whole region, the Official Visit has gained a status that otherwise would not have occurred. This has allowed the Rotary message to reach a very wide audience.
One surprise was how effective each occasion became in raising money through raffles and fines. Each one raised many hundreds of dollars for the Foundation or the Health Research Fund. The record was set in Mildura where a Rotarian, whose firm was also celebrating its centennial, offered a dollar for dollar challenge. $1500 was raised on the night. At another occasion in Adelaide, one of the Mayors offered a similar sponsorship challenge for Youth Opportunities, a life skills school retention program for disadvantaged youth. Four clubs within the city responded.
So that each club does not miss out on an individual visit Governor Euan has challenged the clubs to put him and his wife Jill to work. He modelled this on RIPP Bhichai Rattakul's challenge to his own club in Bangkok at the end of his Presidential year. With 52 weekends and 57 clubs Governor Euan reckons he can work on a project with them all. So far he has done a fair bit of cooking and tree planting, will be running a quiz night in October, assisting in duck race in November, working at a Christmas Pageant and a Lunar Festival and, with more than a little trepidation, riding a bull at the Yankalilla rodeo. |
