The Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) is a grassroots education and learning development program conducted in many Rotary Districts around the world. Although RLI is not an officially endorsed Rotary International program, it continues to gain support and provide a valuable experience that helps Rotarians understand the wider world of Rotary.

In District 9800, RLI is a District Managed Program that provides participants with a high quality experience, that engages and involves them in the education and learning process.
RLI is now a four part program in 2018-19 over 2 days, that will enlighten and help you understand how the world of Rotary works, and equip you with the knowledge, understanding and skills to take on future responsibilities within Rotary. It is a great learning experience!

For more information visit www.rotaryleadershipinstitute.org & RLI International on Facebook

Dates (2018-19)

Metropolitan Program (Part 1 & 2): Sunday May 5, 2019
Metropolitan Program (Part 3 & 4): Sunday May 19, 2019

Rural Program (Part 1, 2, 3 & 4): Sunday July 28, 2019

Venues:

South Melbourne: Montague Continuing Education Centre, 100 Montague Street, South Melbourne
Bendigo: Golden Square Primary School, 19 Maple Street Bendigo

On Tuesday 16th April 2019, Rotary Club of Southbank had its fourth (4th) and final face-to-face board meeting for 2018-19. We had observers (club members) who came along to discuss on the nine (9) months that past (Jul'18-Mar'19) and plans for the remaining quarter (Apr'19-Jun'19).

Various topics surrounding the five (5) areas of service which includes club administration, membership, community, international and youth was discussed to understand the opportunities taken and what lies ahead. This includes preparing the transition from President Amritpal Singh to President-Elect Sally Page before 1st July 2019. Key call out from the board meeting is to submit the Rotary District 9800 Recognition forms as the club deserves recognition on the work that all club members, friends of Rotary and others have done throughout 2018-19. 

 

President Amritpal Singh thanked all board members for their contribution and efforts plus encouraging everyone to finish the 2018-19 on a high! After the board meeting, we caught up with Rotarian Stephanie Woollard / Seven Women from Rotary Club of Melbourne who happened to be at the Belgian Beer Cafe, Southbank - such a delight to see her after a long time since the fundraiser for Seven Women last year in December 2018.

On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank the following observers for coming:

• Nicholas Kane (member)
• Jasmin Dhillon (member)

Remember to keep the following dates free and to RSVP on our website:

• 23 April - Sally Page (Member behind the Badge)
• 30 April - Club Planning Day @ Belgian Beer Cafe
• 2 May - Ambassadorial Scholar Katie Wilford (event of Rotary Club of North Melbourne)
• 4 May - Fundraiser for The Father Bob Foundation (event of Rotary Club of Melbourne South, Rotary Club of Port Melbourne & City of Port Philip)
• 4 May - Oh Kolkata! (event of Rotary Club of Central Melbourne)
• 5 May - First Friends of Dandenong Creek 20th Anniversary Celebration
• 7 May - Rotary & Rotaract Joint Meeting
• 11 May - Forum Day (event of District 9800)
• 14 May - Community Building for Better Business
• 21 May - Southbank Conversations & Meetup (informal meeting)
• 26 May - District Assembly 2019
• 28 May - Club 20th Charter Anniversary (Details to be confirmed soon)

I was given a wonderful opportunity to share my story with Rotary Club of Southbank on Tuesday 9th April 2019. As always after our lovely gathering and talking about some inspiring work that our club has contributed recently, I had the opportunity to share my story.

Prior to the event I was struggling to find a perfect speech. Being a perfectionist, being perfect all the time is one of my core goals. However something inside me kept saying that I should share my raw self and be open and honest and share my journey; failures, mental struggles of becoming what I'm today.

After so many hours of self talk, that's what I exactly did I opened about my struggle with mental health and being lost as a teenager in this country and having to leave up to the highest expectations from my parents. Not knowing where to go and how to get help and almost certainly not knowing that I actually had a mental health issue that I needed help.

Coming from a Sri Lankan background as a family we didn't talk about mental health. It's almost certain that my parents believed that as children we had everything. Yes we did we were given lots of amazing opportunity to succeed, financially looked after and loved and cared for but never given opportunity to talk about how we felt inside.

And that cycle of patterns plus struggling to make my way up in a country ( Australia) that I'm new too and working really hard to finish my education and live up to my parents expectations put me in a very dark place. I remember one day close to the age of 18 and telling my mother that "I don't feel okay inside and nothing brings me joy anymore" (in reality all I wanted to tell her was I'm ready to give up life). She looked at me deep in the eyes and said "But you have everything".

That's all she knew. As the saying goes your a product of your own culture for someone like my mum mental health was never a important issue. I never blamed her for that because you don't know what you don't know.

From that moment I made a promise to myself I'm going to figure this thing out. The first step to healing was to understand that I had "major depression" and needed medication to fix my serotonin levels in my brain. Being a stubborn teenager I refuse to believe that I needed medication and remember walking out from the doctors room saying "I can fix myself " and that's exactly what I start doing. I read every single piece of article I can find about depression and learn about the importance of "gratitude". I learned I'm the master of my own ship and I took looking after myself as a greater responsibility. I hang out with inspiring people and learn how to properly meditate and listen to positive podcasts and affirmations everyday, I learn to appreciate small things in life from morning sunshine to a warm hug.

Although I was struggling inside, from the outside world I was a high achiever. I completed my higher education with high marks, created a successful business by the age of 25 and start building a school while sponsoring 7 children in Africa and Sri Lanka while trying my very best to look after myself. Giving back to the community and knowing that I had the opportunity to change someone's life was a great part of my healing journey.

So here I'm at the age of 29 being pregnant with my beautiful baby, married to love of my life and living the life that I always wanted. It's not because of I was lucky but only because of I made a choice to not to give up.

I hope and pray who ever reading this; "May universe give you the power to understand your own potential and believe your journey is unique and inspiring exactly as you are and you have the power to become the best version of your self!".

Our club had the pleasure and honor in inducting our newest member for 2018-19, Jaqui Clark who was referred by a common Rotary family friend of President Amritpal Singh who happens to be Past President Peter Durrant and Rotarian Kay Durrant from Rotary Club of Karrinyup, District 9455 Western Australia (W.A.). Jaqui's vocation is in financial services and part of her New Year 2019 resolution is to join an organisation to give back to communities locally and worldwide. We are so pleased in having Jaqui in our club and with her induction, she has increased the club's male:female ratio being closer to 50-50.

    

We like to acknowledge the Guests that came:

• Guests of Zeenath Zareen
  • Lucy Owens
  • Lily Chuah
  • Hong Tan
     
• Guest of District Governor Nominee Philip Archer
  • Sandra Murray

Rotaract Club of Melbourne City paid a surprise visit to our Southbank Conversations & Meetup on Tuesday 2nd April 2019 - what a lovely thing to do and all of them made us happy without a doubt! Special thanks to President-Elect Sally Page, President Nominee Jasmin Dhillon and Kay Ledson for looking after the Rotaractors.

On Sunday 31 March 2019, three (3) members from Rotary Club of Southbank (Immediate Past President Liam Jones, President-Nominee Jasmin Dhillon and our newest member Jaqui Clark) and two (2) friends of Rotary participated in the MS Melbourne Cycle + 1/2 marathon, Run/Walk to fight MS.

The team were inspired to participate after a talk from Martin & Diana Taurins from Rotarian Action Group of Multiple Sclerosis Awareness (RAGMSA) in December 2018 last year.  Where they shared their story and tireless work they do to raise awareness of MS and fundraising for research into a cure, and support services for sufferers. Some of the participants also helped out at the RAGMSA BBQ fundraiser on the day, which was a great success.

MS is a silent illness, that mostly affects young people with the average diagnosis between the ages of 20-40 years, although children as young as 10 years have been diagnosed.. It also affects more women than men with 3/4 of MS sufferers being female.

The team had a goal of fundraising $1000, and have managed to raise over $3000 and counting. It is not too late to support the team's fundraising efforts, just following the link and select a participant to support - click here!

Rotary Club of Southbank look forward to contributing further to RAGMSA and the overall cause, of raising funds and supporting people with neurological conditions. By example, our very own Past President Stuart McArthur recently redesigning the RAGSMA website and Kay Ledson (Warrior Mumz) raising a substantial amount for people suffering from spinal cord injuries.

Stay tuned for further initiatives in this space.

On Tuesday 26th March 2019 evening, we had Hao Teo, the founder of iDibs, gave an insightful talk about EASE (Evolution of a social enterprise). A social enterprise has adapted and changed into different models over the past decades. Hao has provided us with the conventional model of a social enterprise which relied heavily on rich donors or large contributors. He talked about the new different models which are sustainable in nature.

         

         

Hao discussed the business model where social enterprises are moving to a balance between sustainable financially and developing social good in Australia or the world.
He also talked about his business, idibs. iDibs helps internationals to find services they require in an environment of Accountability of services providers, convenience and trust. Being a social enterprise too, he also explained the financial sustainability of the business model and how it brings value to internationals in Australia.

Hao finished off with a positive note on working with Rotary and how iDibs can work with Rotary to introduce volunteering to Internationals and benefit both ecosystems with a cultural exchange and social good.

We like to acknowledge the iDibs team who came:

• iDibs
  • Hao Teo (Guest Speaker)
  • Linhan Li
  • Angie Duong Thao Nguyen
  • Alwy Christyo

Twenty (20) of us gathered on Tuesday, 12th March 2019 at the Belgian Beer Cafe in Southbank to hear Warren Sparrow talk about Angel Flight and how they assist in transporting rural Australians to medical appointments in major cities. Warren Sparrow (Earth Angel) retired from Air Traffic Control in 2010 and has been volunteering with Angel Flight for 10 years. He has completed over 300 missions and also volunteers as driver for a local Doncaster community health group. He shared some stories where patients he helped in transportation were grateful and blessed to have people like him and it goes a long way in being a giver than a getter. 

     

Angel Flight is a charity that coordinates non-emergency flights to help country people trying to deal with the triple trouble of bad health, poor finances and daunting distance. All flights are free and may involve patients travelling to medical facilities anywhere in Australia. Angel Flight pilots do not carry aeromedical staff or medical equipment so do not act as an alternative to the Royal Flying Doctor Service or Air Ambulance in that capacity. With its current resources Angel Flight can coordinate up to twenty flights per day and complementary ground transport from and to airports. It was launched as an Australian charity in April 2003, is the initiative of Bill Bristow AM a successful businessman, experienced pilot and very proud winner of the Australian of the Year Award Queensland 2005.

1. No upfront cost - Memberships are provided on consignment, so you pay as you go. The Melbourne Edition sells for $70, and you keep $14 per sale.
2. Easy to sell - The Entertainment Books practically sell themselves, as the average household saves $1,000 a year with their Entertainment Membership! It's the product people purchase year after year.
3. Marketing materials and support - All materials are provided free of charge. 

Entertainment Book invites us to join them to celebrate the launch of the NEW 2019-2020 Entertainment Memberships where we will get the first chance to see what's new this year, mingle with fellow fundraisers, and win prizes - be sure to RSVP by clicking on the image below. 

We also celebrated the formal nomination of Assistant Governor (Batman Cluster) Dale & Maureen Hoy from Rotary Club of Brighton as District Governor for the 2021-2022 Rotary calendar year - fifteen (15) days after the nomination was announced on Monday, 25th February 2019. Not forgetting, we also welcomed Rotarian Victor Augusteo from Rotary Club of Cupertino, California, USA (District 5170) who is here on a short visit and he works for Apple, USA! You can check out Victor's website for more information and perhaps you can try to Apple perks from him.

     

We like to acknowledge the visiting Rotarians & Guests that came:

 

Just a friendly hello and updates! Hope your training is going well.

We have raised $1910 which is really great as we had set our fund raising goal at $1000 but let's see if we can triple it and get to $3000 (that's $1090 to go - if you get corporate donations who do matching donations that would help a lot as the fundraiser is matching eligible).

Big shout out to Dion who has received 33 donations (maybe a future Rotarian!)

Team
We have 4 team members currently Dion, Liam, Amber (replaced Katie) and myself (Jasmin), and a fifth or sixth (Jacqui & Phillip) might be joining us! We have team members doing the 5km & 10km.

Fund raising Effort
It's not too late to raise more funds with 17 days to go! The event has only raised  $112,493 so far (which will no doubt help many people), so our contribution as it stands is pretty significant just under 2%. From experience and knowledge sharing, Dion has advised that email appears to be most effective way to fund raise (more so than social media and other promotions).

Group pic
On the day, Rotarian Action Group of Multiple Sclerosis Awareness (RAGMSA) are holding a BBQ to fund raise and Martin & Diana will be there. Both of them lost Jacob mid last year (2018) and they work tirelessly to raise awareness of MS plus fund raising for continuous research/treatment. We will meet him after the run to get a group picture and maybe to compensate our energy expenditure with some protein and carbs :)  Martin & Diana is still looking for a few more volunteers so if you know anyone who can help, please let Martin know at taurins3@vegas.com.au.

Start Times
The 5km starts at 8:30am and the 10km starts at 9:30am, both are taking place at Flemington Racecourse.

Map
Here is a map of the course: https://assets.donordrive.com/msmelbournecycle/files/$cms$/100/3561.pdf

Training
I have not organised any team training days as everyone lives in different directions, but if anyone wants to get together after work or on the weekend to run the Tan or Albert Park Lake, just let me know and I will organise (or respond to this group email to coordinate).

DONATIONS OF ALL AMOUNTS COUNT but just to put it in perspective here is the social impact our contribution will make (all tax deductible).

• $50 could help pay for a person living with multiple sclerosis to attend a wellness workshop and learn how to live well with the disease.
• $75 could pay to educate a health professional about multiple sclerosis to enhance the quality of care and outcomes for people with MS.
• $150 could contribute to the cost of training an MS Peer Support volunteer to provide countless hours of support to many people living with MS.

Any other questions, please sing out.

Keep up the great work everyone and see you soon!

What do you reckon was the strangest item pulled out of the Yarra River on Clean Up Australia Day? Have a go!

On Sunday, 3 March 2019, the Melbourne City Rotaract Club organised a Clean Up the Yarra event for Rotaractors, Rotarians, and community volunteers. This annual event coincides with Clean Up Australia Day, a nation-wide initiative to inspire and empower communities to clean up, fix up and conserve the environment. Forty-five passionate "People of Action" stepped forward to clean a portion of the Yarra River from Princes Bridge to Punt Rd. Volunteers were organised into three teams to tackle separate areas of the shoreline and surrounding green space.

     

Fifty-seven different recyclable and rubbish materials were collected and categorised. The top three were:

1. Foil/confectionary wrappers 18.9%
2. Pieces of glass 11.6%
3. Bottle caps 9.6%

Nine syringes were also collected and disposed of properly.

The Melbourne City Rotaract Club greatly appreciates all the help from the community and local Rotary clubs that made this event a huge success!

Have you had a go with the strangest item pulled from the Yarra? It was a fully-functional trolley!

On a warm and beautiful Tuesday evening on 26th February 2019, we had Ayman Barbaresco who presented his topic on Limitless Boundaries. At birth, Ayman has dealt with many medical complications during his young years including two brain tumours and ongoing medical complications with a genetic disorder called Neurofibromatosis.

     

Born in Sydney to a Jordanian father and Italian mother and relocating to Coffs Harbour (Northern NSW) at the age of three (3), living in a regional town for most of his life was a challenge not only for his medical conditions but also for access to services and organisations to support him during the time he was 'coming out'. In 2013 after his second brain tumour operation, Ayman relocated to Melbourne, Victoria where he commenced working at Professionals Australia in their Outbound Call Centre, became involved in many organisations including JOY 94.9, Victorian Aids Council and GLOBE Melbourne as well as completing a Diploma of Business in 2014.

Most of times people with difficulties find it hard to overcome or share their challenges, however Ayman reminded us that he is not a person with disability, he is a person with DIFFability. We also celebrated Rotarian Kay Ledson's Rotary Hero award for her commitment, dedication and superheroic spirit to promote Spinal Cord Injury (SPI) awareness through her Warrior Mumz international support group.

          

We like to acknowledge the visiting Rotarians & Guests that came:

• Guest Speaker
  • Ayman Barbaresco
     
• Rotary E-Club of Latitude 38, District 9820
  • Anthony Meyer
     
• Guests
  • Peter Jacobsen
  • Jaqui Clark
  • Chris Wallis
  • Adam Breman

Remember to keep the following dates free and to RSVP on our website:

• 5 March - Southbank Conversations & Meetup (informal meeting)
• 7 March - International Women's Day Breakfast
• 11 March - Moomba Parade 2019 BBQ (event of Rotary Club of North Melbourne)
• 12 March - Angel Flight transporting rural Australians to medical appointments in major cities
• 19 March - Southbank Conversations & Meetup (informal meeting)
• 21 March - More Lives Than Your Average Cat (event of Rotary Club of North Melbourne)
• 26 March - EASE (Evolution of A Social Enterprise)
• 31 March - Team Rotary @ MS Melbourne Cycle + 1/2 Marathon
• 9th April - Zeenath Zareen (Member behind the Badge)
• 11th April - Rotary Club of Glen Eira Fashion Parade
• 16th April - Club Board Meeting
• 23rd April - Sally Page (Member behind the Badge)
• 28th April - Club Planning Day @ Tallarook