Over the coming weeks, it would be great for us to really focus on building our membership and Friends of Rotary.  We all know that “many hands make light work” and there is no doubt that we can achieve so much more with greater resources in our Club.  Not only do new members aid our ability to take on more projects, but they also bring fresh ideas, different perspectives as well as broaden our knowledge base and networks.

With membership in mind, we should also reflect on the many wonderful benefits and opportunities that being a Rotarian brings.  Our membership brochure highlights these, but perhaps some of the key reasons that are uppermost in my mind are:

The Opportunity to Serve ~ Rotary is a service Club.  Its motto is "Service Above Self". Rotarians provide community service locally and internationally. This is perhaps the best reason for becoming a Rotarian: the chance to do something for somebody else and to experience the self-fulfilment that comes from the process. It is a richly rewarding activity.

Friendship ~ In an increasingly complex world, Rotary provides one of our basic needs: the need for friendship. It is one of the two reasons Rotary was founded in 1905.

Personal Growth and Development ~ Membership of Rotary continues to provide opportunities for growth and education in human relations and personal development.

Fellowship ~ Every Rotary Club and District has fellowship activities that provide a diversion from business life. Conferences, conventions and assemblies also provide good entertainment in addition to information, education and service.

I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday!

President Philip

Last Week's Meeting

(Geoff Kelly's presentation)

Meeting 515 Scribe Notes

We had a very good attendance this meeting and the atmosphere was fantastic.  It was great to catch up with some members I haven't see for what seems like a long time (although it might only have been a couple of weeks).

We had special guests from RC Docklands and it was wonderful to have them visit us and there is already talk of doing a "raid" on each other's club!

Our guest speaker, Geoff Kelly, gave a very interesting presentation on communications.  Geoff highlighted the problems of communications every at the highest levels of the corporate world.

It is difficult to catch people's attention these days.  One way of doing so is to generate an emotional response from them.  That is, telling them something that interests them.  It could be as simple as talking about their favourite sport or hobby.  Those leaders who could communicate well have an "unfair" advantage over others - but it is a skill that can be learned.

A communicator's approach can fail at three levels:

(1) Empty headed language - these include "quality service", "best practice", "innovation" and many others.  This is especially apparent in an organisation's website or other public information with a heavy emphasis on themselves.  Indicators include frequent uses of 'I', 'we', 'us' etc.  If we are trying to send a message to someone about ourselves, the first reasonable assumption we can make is that there is nothing inherently interesting about us to our target audience.  Frequent references to 'us' and 'we' simply means 'we' are not talking about something 'they' want to hear.

(2) Stuck in our own viewpoint - talking about yourself without understanding the context in which the listener/reader receives your communication could result in a rapid loss of interest - however relevant the message actually is.

(3) Showing verses telling - this is more about one's delivery technique.  If we 'tell' someone something, it is akin to laying down a commandment.  Success of this approach depends on the 'teller's' authority, standing and stature but even with these it may not be enough to persuade your audience.  'Showing', in contrast, guides your audience to come to a conclusion you want them to reach.  This is a much more convincing technique and much more likely to give you a desired result/outcome.

The best communicators evoke a response that is already in the audience's mind.  As Robert Collier puts it, "to persuade anyone of anything, you must first enter the conversation already taking place in their minds".

"It's not what you say; it's what people hear" - Frank Luntz

PP Rhys gave a very interesting account of his recent trip to the UAE and his appointment by one of the royalties there to assess the possibility of setting up a volunteering organisation.  PP Rhys, of course, came highly recommended and did a tremendous amount of work there in just a few days.  It remains to be seen whether the project will go ahead and I have no doubt PP Rhys will keep us informed.