It was great to have an increase in numbers last week!

And what moving and informative stories we had from Debbie Campbell and Mark Rawles about their own experiences with Leukaemia! For both of them, six years of suffering must seem like forever, so we hope they both hang in there for many more, with minimal suffering.  Don’t forget to diarise the Leukaemia Foundation’s “Light the Night “fundraising event which is to be held on the foreshore lawns after dusk on Friday evening 25th September 2009. We’ll have a roster the next couple of weeks for Rotarians to support them; setting up on the day and for the provision of a BBQ tea for the attending public in the evening.This week we have Committee meetings. We have not organised a guest speaker for such nights, so we can get away a little earlier for our fireside meetings. The way the weather is at present, we still need those fires burning to keep us warm!In our committees, we need to be considering what all of us can do to assist Rod Patterson with his GABR project on the 16-18 September. Also, Peter Myers our Auction Chairman, is getting the ground work done for our Auction on Sat 7 November, so we need to support him, ensuring we get the advertisements into the press and on the radio and TV. Hopefully we can repeat last year’s efforts and results. Remember how we were all very careful in judging what articles we would accept when we did the pickups, and we ended up with very good quality “useful stuff” to auction. It’s to our advantage that St Joseph’s School are not organising an auction this year.Our Membership Committee have been busy compiling a list of people to invite along for our potential members night on Tues 20th October. Currently we have about 40 names, so I am very keen that we will gain quite a few new members from the exercise and follow up with a good working strategy to keep them active and retain them. The following is an extract from RI Recruitment info on the latest RI weekly web bulletin:Something for all of us to keep in mind!

The new RI membership slogan "Reach One, Keep One." emphasises the need for Rotarians to focus on recruitment and retention in their membership growth efforts. Each one of us became a Rotarian because someone invited us to attend Rotary. We all have a responsibility to grow our Rotary family so that we can continue to provide service to our local and international communities." Reach One; reminds us that because Rotary membership is by invitation, it's essential that each Rotarian reaches out and invites someone new to join.Keep One; reminds us that it's not sufficient to simply sponsor someone into Rotary; we must see that new members become and remain active and involved Rotarians.

Don’t forget: Please fill out the roster sheets for GABR and ‘Light the Night’.

Invocation:

For food, faith and fellowship and every opportunity of service we give you thanks O’Lord.