Sunshine Coast Passport Rotary - ProvisionalWe know YOU would make a great member and volunteer!
Perhaps you need convincing?
Check out these two short video clips
Thank you for viewing the clips! We now look forward to meeting you at our next meeting. RSVP for the details.
Or perhaps, you need more information?
Of course if you agree that you would make a great member, you could go straight to our application form. We’d love to hear from you.
As you may already be aware, the provisional Rotary Club of Sunshine Coast Passport is the proposed new, innovative Rotary club based on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. While it is based there it is without any geographic boundary.
Passport Rotary is a new version of Rotary club that encourages members to engage in service in ways that fit within their family, work and life commitments.
It provides a passport into Rotary – for people who have busy lives and commitments – and access to other Rotary clubs.
It also encourages members to visit their local community and work out how we can all better work together to make a difference.
“You might ask what’s different – well plenty,” said 28-year-old member Stephanie Kay.
“Sunshine Coast Passport Rotary is designed for the 21st Century. It offers flexible, relaxed meeting formats and caters for the needs of busy people and families.”
Ms Kay said importantly, members decided how much time to give.
“Unlike traditional service clubs, you only need to attend a minimum of one meeting a year and only need to commit to a minimum of 30 hours service work during the year.
“Many of our members will want to contribute to much more, but it’s totally up to you – we all have unique and evolving priorities and this new format recognises that.”
Ms Kay said the Sunshine Coast Passport Rotary club was a mix of online and in-person meetings and would concentrate on project participation, focussing on initiatives that supported the Sunshine Coast.
“We are also keen to work very closely with other Rotary clubs in completing local projects.
“If you’ve always been interested in a service club but thought you didn’t have the time, or you wanted a more flexible approach to volunteering, get in touch.
“We still need more members to get off the ground and become a fully-fledged Rotary club but the opportunities Rotary can offer you are endless.
“Rotarians are volunteers who take action to create lasting change – who wouldn’t want to be part of that?”
It’s likely that you have heard of Rotary, but it’s just as likely you are not sure what it’s all about. Rotary International is a worldwide service organisation with the purpose of bringing together business leaders to provide needed humanitarian services and to advance peace around the world. The primary goals of Rotary include promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water, saving mothers and children, supporting education, growing local economies and supporting the environment. Lofty goals to be sure, however, the reason that the organisation is effective is because each club determines its own projects by applying the primary goals of Rotary to their own community. It’s also common practice for neighbouring clubs to work together to accomplish larger goals that affect a larger geographic region or population. For example, the Sunshine Coast Passport Rotary is aiming to work with other local Rotary clubs and not-for-profit community organisations on the Sunshine Coast.
In pursuing these meaningful goals through local projects, individual members of Rotary often find a satisfaction that comes from working with like-minded individuals to provide a hand up to someone in need. However, that is not the only benefit of joining Rotary.
Networking can be another important benefit gained through active participation. Even if you can attend only sometimes, Sunshine Coast Passport Rotary can be a great way to meet and chat with other current and retired business leaders in your community. In addition, members are encouraged to join a committee or two, giving rise to the chance to network more often in a smaller group. Often the benefits that accrue are longer term rather than immediate.
Rotary also offers many opportunities for business professionals to hone useful skills. Tasks such as organising events, contacting businesses to solicit support for the club’s efforts, writing articles, assisting with social media presence, and more, can all be pursued on a volunteer basis as members wish. The list of potential skills that can be refined or developed is unlimited. All club members are encouraged to develop and then spearhead new projects so leadership development shouldn’t be overlooked as a ‘side effect’ of joining Rotary.
Like the many local Rotary clubs, Sunshine Coast Passport Rotary welcomes and encourages new members. If you are interested in learning more, start here.
Adapted from an article in the Portland Press Herald
SAVE THE DATE – more details later.
Shifts available will probably be 7-11am, 11-2, 2-4/5pm or all day
Wanted: Gate keepers, tent erectors, Marshalls
There is also the opportunity to help with the set-up on the Saturday 2-4pm, and to assist with marshalling 6-8pm for the Kombi Parade
Members of Rotary intuitively know that the contribution and impact of the work by each of them is immense, but what they generally see is only what they and their fellow club members do, one hour at a time.
However, to see how the time contribution of each Rotary member adds to a world-wide total is utterly impressive.
None of the major service organisations has been able to gain a meaningful handle on the actual scale or economic value of the volunteer effort they mobilise until Rotary commissioned research by Johns Hopkins University into Rotary’s volunteer impact.
Here are some points:
For an introduction and where to download the full report go to rotary.org/en/value-rotary-volunteering
You will be impressed! This is the global organisation you could be a meaningful part of.
Interested? Learn more about Sunshine Coast Passport Rotary
It takes the donations it receives from Rotary members and the public in general and transforms these into service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world. Since it was founded in 1917, the Foundation has spent more than $4 billion on life-changing, sustainable projects.
Donations to The Rotary Foundation fuel service projects – projects that eradicate polio, promote peace, and improve developing communities. As the charitable arm of Rotary, The Rotary Foundation taps into a global network of Rotary members who invest their time, money, and expertise into the seven areas of focus, such as eradicating polio and promoting peace. Foundation grants empower Rotary members to approach challenges such as poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition with sustainable solutions that leave a lasting impact. Strong financial oversight, a stellar charity rating, and a unique funding model means that the very most is made of every contribution with 92% of funds spent on program awards and operations.
The Rotary Foundation partners with other organisations to increase its impact and make all donations work even harder. When a donation is made to PolioPlus, for example, every $1 Rotary commits to polio eradication is matched by $2 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Thanks to this partnership, all donations to end polio (up to $50 million per year) are tripled, providing critical funding toward creating a polio-free world.
Some quick facts to indicate scale (all amounts are USD):
Interested? Learn more about Sunshine Coast Passport Rotary
Rotary’s core values represent the guiding principles of the organisation’s culture, including what guides members’ priorities and actions within the organisation. These are:
Interested? Learn more about Sunshine Coast Passport Rotary
The work of Rotary begins in the community, and every community has its own unique needs and concerns. While Rotary serves in countless ways, efforts are focused in seven key areas – six listed in the image and the seventh being ‘supporting the environment‘ – to maximise impact, to build international relationships, improve lives, and create a better world to support our peace efforts and end polio forever.
These areas encompass some of the world’s most critical and widespread humanitarian needs, and Rotary has a proven record of success in addressing them. Rotary members planning new service projects are encouraged to consider these areas and the many opportunities for innovative projects within them. The extensive funding provided by The Rotary Foundation through its grant processes are aligned with these six key areas.
Most service projects are initiated by individual Rotary members within their clubs and take many forms. Ranging from a project of a club in their local community to a projects that involve other clubs, organisations and individuals.. Working in partnership anywhere in the world to achieve outcomes of a scale beyond that which an individual or individual club could ever hope to achieve. This demonstrates the internationality of Rotary at work: its global reach.
Interested? Learn more about Sunshine Coast Passport Rotary
These principles have been developed over the years to provide members of Rotary with a strong, common purpose and direction. They serve as a foundation for relationships with each other and the action they take in the world.
The OBJECT OF ROTARY is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and to encourage and foster:
The FOUR-WAY TEST is a nonpartisan and non-sectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal, professional and vocational relationships. The test has been translated into more than 100 languages, and Rotarians recite it at club meetings:
Of the things we think, say or do
The five AVENUES OF SERVICE are where we channel our commitment to service at home and abroad through, which are the foundation of club activity:
Interested? Learn more about Sunshine Coast Passport Rotary
Rotary’s motto, SERVICE ABOVE SELF, is as valid for today as it was in 1911 when it was adopted. This Motto embodies the humanitarian spirit of the organisation and its members and supporters.
Rotary’s Avenues of Service guides its activities:
Interested? Learn more about Sunshine Coast Passport Rotary