A huge thank you to PDG Jessie Harman for taking time to come and facilitate our Strategic Plan Meeting last week and to all who attended.  A lot of ideas came forward and Jessie made it a fun night, as well as encouraging us to think of our Club's future. Thank you also to Geoff James for all his pre-planning and to Peter Haywood for offering to collate all the sheets into a manageable format. Committees will look at the results on May 30th and make their recommendations to the Board of their goals for next year.

Thank you to the Club for appointing me to vote on their behalf at the Special District General Meeting in Swan Hill next Saturday morning. I will vote to approve the new suggested  structure of the District Board.

Next Sunday, DG Anthony hands over charge of the District to Roseanne Kava from the Rotary Club of Swan Hill at the District Changeover Dinner, although he will still be officially DG until July 1st. As a club, we can be proud of the job he has done representing us, and those of us going will be sure to show our obvious appreciation and support at this event.

Next week we will thank our Conference Sponsors for their generous support and also hear from our two RYPEN representatives.

Bring your Partners for a good night, but be sure to let Derrick know numbers before Wednesday lunchtime, as we will have quite a few visitors.

Remember we are booking tables for the MATS dinner on June 1st. Buy your tickets at the Highland Society front desk under Rotary. Our own Malley Rowe is the Auctioneer on the night!

We have much to be inspired by!

The following issues were discussed and recommendations passed at last week's Board Meeting.

Six club members travelled through the wind and rain to Stawell last Tuesday to attend the final gathering of our Rotary Group 7 Clubs for the 2018-19 Rotary Year. Pictured are current presidents of the four clubs giving their reports: John Launder  (Stawell) Bo Munro (Ararat) George Kirsanovs (Beaufort) and our President Meryl.

Our Board will consider a proposed set of Strategic Priorities for 2019-23 on Monday night and if approved, the document will be emailed to members for further comment and tweaking in the next week. Once approved by the club, this document will form the first half of our new Strategic plan for the next five years. It will contain Vision and mission statements (in line with the latest Rotary International statements), a small set (e.g. 4) of overall goals (or strategic priorities) based on Rotary International's priorities and a set of general strategies for our club drawn from RI's own strategies and the recent strategies of our District. These general guidelines will firstly provide some ideas for our Visioning session next Thursday, and then will provide a framework within which we can develop our club Action plan of specific objectives for the coming year. The annual Action plan forms the second half of of our Strategic Plan document, and it will be updated each year as has happened over the last decade. So look out for this general document in your email this week, see what you think and have your say. And then be sure to attend next Thursday night when PDG Jessie Harman will guide us in developing some specific objectives for our club - this will be the important "pointy end" activity when we convert the general stuff (determined by RI and the District) into what we want to do in our club during Leigh's year as President.

The "Boom Time" group (remember the drumming experience at Conference?) presented our Conference Committee with a framed photograph of Conference attendees in full flight during their Boom time segment. Pictured are DG Anthony, with Conference Chair John, Boom Time Coordinator Tracey and President Meryl holding the framed photo.

Last Thursday, attending members completed the Rotary Club Health Check quiz as the first stage of our new Strategic planning process. The quiz has been emailed to all members, and we encourage those members who couldn't attend last Thursday to complete the test this week. You can either print the quiz out and complete it by hand, or complete it in Word and email it to merylandgeoff@bigpond.com by next Thursday (May 2nd). Pictured are Harold and Thea completing the quiz, and members having their Chinese or Fish and Chip take-away meals - the Havilah team were already booked with Anzac day commitments.

Early last Thursday morning, the birth date or Herbert J Taylor, members reflected on Taylor's "4 Way Test" of all the things we think, say and do. We considered the questions of what changes might occur if we followed the test as individuals, in relationships, as a workplace, as a community or as a world. A wide range of responses were shared and we all agreed it would be a far better world if people lived by the test.

Rotarian Murray was going to propose an International toast to the Rotary Club of Hamburg - the first stop of his recent European tour - but the web site was all in German! So instead of taking a crash course in the German language, he decided to toast the Rotary club of Launceston in Tasmania - well, it is technically overseas!

Last Thursday, club members enjoyed the hospitality of the local Girl Guides group as we met in their recently refurbished hall. CEO of Guides in this area, Lyn Curry (pictured), outlined the history of the Guide hall and of the recent renovations costing over $83,000.

At the recent club meeting at the Guides hall, DG Anthony presented Guides CEO, Lyn Curry with a cheque for $500 to say, "Thank You" to the Guides for providing our First Aid presence at the recent District Conference.