Reports From Community and International

At last Thursday's meeting, International Chair, Murray Henderson and Community Chair, Martin Mackay provided an overview of their committee's strategic objectives for the coming year - given the limitations imposed by the pandemic. The International committee certainly has plans to provide funds for an overseas project and re-introduce the toasts to an international Rotary club, but, after discussion, they will explore even some projects they thought might be shelved such as a movie night, not in the movie theatre, but possibly through an online streaming service. The Community committee will push ahead with a number of their projects, but after a long discussion, there were concerns expressed about the club's legal vulnerability and status for any projects where our Rotary sign implies ongoing responsibility for the cause e.g. at Dowie Park and the section of the Highway that Rotary cleans up. The feeling of the meeting seemed to be that we can safely have a sign that says we donated something, but we should remove all signs and get out of agreements that suggest an ongoing arrangement. This follows criticism of our club on Facebook because the Ballarat road looks messy. This doesn't stop our club members from "doing good" by still cleaning up the area, but we need to be careful with signs.