To: Gordon McInally - President Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland
Dear President Gordon,
Greetings from Sydney, Australia.
Keith Barnard-Jones suggested that I should contact you in my role as President of Rotary eClub One, the first Rotary club chartered to operate on the World Wide Web.
As a Past President of the Rotary Club of Sydney, I expected that my transition from Australia's largest Rotary club to the Internet-based Rotary eClub One would be a culture shock, however my concern was unfounded. Rotary eClub One is a highly productive and very friendly Rotary club where members join an international "family" of likeminded people.
With members in USA, Canada, Australia, Italy and Oman, Rotary eClub One is achieving wonderful results with the following projects ... building a health clinic in East Timor, fresh water for a village in Rwanda, literacy programs in poor communities in the Pacific Islands as principal sponsor of the Ranfurly Library, youth training in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, hospice support in Oregon, Advanced RYLA in Australia, a blood bank for Nigeria, vocational training in carpentry for unemployed youth in East Timor, a computer lab for Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and an optometry suite (in conjunction with our Centennial Twin Club) for a needy community in Malaysia. Our Centennial Twin Club is the Rotary Club of Turramurra in Sydney, and we have one contact club ... the Rotary Club of Dili in East Timor.
Probably our most exciting project has been our proof of concept pilot of the first Vocational Study Team. The vocation was dementia care management and the VST members were selected on merit from Canada, Colorado, California, Western Australia and the United Kingdom for 10 days of concentrated professional development with Alzheimer's Australia in Sydney. Differing in many ways from GSE, this pilot was completed last week. A second VST with the vocation multiple sclerosis care, is in the planning stage. Some of our Rotary colleagues have described VST as the most exciting new Vocational Service initiative in two decades.
Our website at www.rotaryeclubone.org is our central information and management centre. Over 3,000 Rotarians visit for 30 minutes or more each week to claim a make-up. Our website is very information rich, and hundreds of Rotarians write to us each month saying how much they have learned about Rotary by visiting our web site. They state consistently that much of this information is not readily available through their own clubs. (It takes me considerable time each month to read all the incoming comments from visiting Rotarians)
Rotary eClub One is an effective member retention mechanism. Experienced Rotarians, otherwise lost to Rotary due to travel or professional commitments, have joined like-minded workers to continue to give Service above Self. Fellowship is thriving too, via Firefly voice over IP, teleconferences, Glance on-line collaboration and face-to-face meetings in various parts of the world.
We are very keen to induct the first Rotary eClub One members from the United Kingdom and New Zealand this year.
Bill Boyd is acting as our "talent scout" in New Zealand, spreading the word to District Governors there, and I would appreciate your help in spreading the word in the United Kingdom about this effective Rotary membership retention option.
We would welcome any experienced Rotarian who must resign from his or her current Rotary club due to travel or professional commitments. Experienced Rotarians are a valuable resource we can use for Rotary service.
If any of your District Governors in RIBI would like further information, I would be most happy to respond.
With kind regards,
Chris Joscelyne ________________________
Chris Joscelyne PHF President 2004-2006
Rotary eClub One of District 5450 "ROTARY eCLUB ONE"