DG Weekly Message – Australia day Edition
January Is Rotary Awareness Month
Australia Day Celebrations – Rotary on Show
What a perfect day Australia Day was this year with great weather, lots of national pride and many Australia Day activities including award ceremonies and dinners, BBQ’s for breakfasts, flag raising ceremonies, with lots of community activities and events celebrating this special day. Many of these community activities were run by Rotary Clubs in conjunction with their local Australia Day committee’s and other service groups. Rotarians were out in force doing what was necessary to make the day a great success. What a perfect day it was to showcase Rotary and to make our communities aware of Rotary and the work we do.
I was privileged to be invited to Rochester to give the address at the Australia Day Flag Raising Ceremony and saw firsthand the value of Rotary’s participation in these community celebrations. The township of Rochester came alive at 7:30 am for the Lions Club BBQ breakfast followed by a flag raising ceremony in the RSL Gardens organised by Rotarians, members of the Australia Day Committee and supported by the Rotary Club of Rochester. At every function throughout the day, including the evening Community Awards Dinner, there were many opportunities to talk about Rotary and show the public what we do.
I came away thinking that we really do have lots of opportunities to get our message out; perhaps we don’t recognise many of them because we are so busy looking for the big one, the high impact, the overt, or the in your face message that seems to be the way of marketing an organisation these days. Maybe there are other ways we can do it.
The announcement, at a community awards ceremony, that your Rotary club has just won the award for best local community activity may have more ‘impact’ with the general public than any big advertising campaign in the local paper. It’s certainly food for thought.
This week I have asked Networker staff to include an open letter from RI President John Kenny asking us to support a major public image project on the 23 Feb 2010 and promote the End Polio Now campaign. Please support this very important initiative.
Before I finish on Australia Day I would like to quote something that General Peter Cosgrove said in his address this year. I thought it was very appropriate considering our theme this year, when he said:
Australia is a nation of good fortune and a good future – and that’s a cause for celebration!
So my closing remark this week will have to be:
The Future of Rotary and the Nation is in Our Hands.
Colin Muir
District Governor
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