Our President, Margaret Brede, introduced David to the members by saying that she met David and his wife Marilyn at a Rotary conference just before she took on the president’s role and thought they were very friendly and welcoming.
Then Margaret found out a little bit about David – that he joined Melville Rotary in 1985, holding numerous positions, including President and Memberships Officer, where he grew the membership from 15 to 52.
During David’s Rotary journey since then, he has been awarded multiple Paul Harris Fellows in 1995, 2004 and 2011 and has served as District Governor for District 9460, Chair of RAWCS, Director in the Rotary Corporate Alliance Program and member of the National Vocational
Advisory Committee.
He is therefore well credentialled to be appointed Rotary South Pacific’s Membership Director.
The Zone 8 Regionalisation Pilot Program was instituted in 2022. It involves Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands, and has recently been extended to 1st July, 2028. Its aim is to effectively grow Rotary membership, increase community impact and adapt to change in society and members’ needs.
Its role is to look at how clubs are best served – for instance, Broome club has folded but by extension to another club, can attach itself to club initiatives and events thereby building up interest and numbers and eventually becoming a club within its own rights again.
One of the program’s key ambitions is to recruit younger members and with this in mind, David has tasked Matty of the Elizabeth Quay club to engage with people in their 20s and 30s and find out what a younger generation would want from its Rotary involvement.
The majority of Rotary members are now aged between 70 and 80 and we must get younger people on board in order to continue Rotary’s community and charitable work. Membership is declining world-wide except in India. There are now only 1200 Rotarians in WA.
In time, there will be a cadre of Rotary specialists to assist clubs in their quest to become fit for purpose and appeal the wider community. In our Rotary community of 11 clubs, we must work as one, while retaining our own character, to talk and cooperate together.
Examples of Group 1 projects are the Mobile Dental Van to assist the Homeless, the Rotary Tree Mission and Wireless Hill environment and community events.
David was a knowledgeable, passionate and fearless Rotarian speaker, and brought home to us the spectre of declining membership and a renewed keenness to show people the community spirit and the great things that strong clubs can achieve for their local area and beyond. We need to push the Rotary message so that people know just what we can achieve. To do that, we need lots more young people, balanced with the wise heads and experienced heads of existing members.
Maybe Clive 1 and Clive 2 in the order of joining the club 
Shortened version, C1 and C2?
