Club Assembly and Handover

26 club members attended the Club Assembly which was also attended by AG Libby Seath.

Incoming Preseident Douglas introduced the proposals for the Rotary Year 2020-2021 saying:-

"Despite Covid the club has achieved a lot in the last year and it is now up to me to try and steer us through the next one

• making a meaningful difference in our community,
• attracting new members and retaining existing members
• delivering a club in which friendships can be made and strengthened.

"I would like to think that the next 12 months can be the most fruitful for our membership and be equally satisfying. Incoming RI President Shekhar Metha asks us to dream big, plan, set goals and inspire rotarians to reach goals.

"While these goals include serving internationally our focus has to be on the building blocks that could support our local community and react when needs arise.

"We should not be afraid to share ideas, and collaboration with other rotary clubs makes good sense.

"While we hear all the overtures made by District and RGBI about expanding membership, I feel that new members will only be attracted if the club has worthwhile projects that potential members would want to be part of. We need to focus on what matters and what we can do.

"Priority has to be in setting up projects and, with fundraising a tough task, the less financial resource required the better. However it may be tricky finding hands-on projects that members will be comfortable getting involved in. Neil will say more about this under his Community Service report.

 "As I mentioned at our AGM our newest member Janice has agreed to join the Club Council without portfolio but with a watching brief. The Convenors see a reshuffle with Morag moving to Membership and Mark moving the other way to Programme.Brian will take on fundraising and Robert moves to Youth Services. Roger will chair Communication and PR and the other convenors, Secretary and Treasurer remain the same.  My sincere thanks to every one of those Convenors and office bearers who readily agreed to fulfil those roles and especially to Aileen who accepted my invitation to be President Elect"

Those convenors then presented their initial thoughts from their committees and outlined what stage they are at in their planning for the year ahead.

The Strategic plan is to establish projects and in doing that attract and invite new members. We need new members capable of taking on tasks and leadership so that we can be an active club showing the public what we do and being immersed in local community projects. It would be good if there can be new projects that could be added to our list of local beneficiaries. So as the RI President puts it Do More, To Grow More.

Membership
RI President wants Rotary to grow from 1.2m to 1.3m and to do that he suggests 'Each on bring one'.  Douglas added:- "If we are going to attract members then our service projects need to meaningful and respected. We need to raise our profile and attractiveness through them."

Agreement was confirmed to support Rotary in Fife - 
Natural Connections programme looking after Fife Carers, the sum of £125 and Disability Sports Fife programme, the sum of £100.

Seeds for Social Action is a District 1010 pilot, an initiative based on an idea born out of O2 and then Rotoract that is already a success for the Rotary Club of Guernsey.  West Fife Rotary are investigating support for this project and offer support in our area for young people between the ages of 11-25, to access up to the value of £200 for a project of their choice. The intention is to cap that support at £1200.

Youth Service Robert North
Robert presented a packed programme for the coming year that would be ready for launching when scholls returned. Youth service can attract members from parents, aunties and uncles. As we turn the Rotary wheel we need to sweep up potential members.

International Service and Foundation

This club has a very proud record of support for Rotary Foundation and I would propose that support continues.  Donald plans to hold a zoom meeting of the committee soon where we can hopefully get agreement on our direction for the coming year.

Shoe Box Appeal and an International project that ties in with an environmental theme would be considered.. There are a number of groups supporting the growing of trees, clean water, cleaning up plastics. It would be good if our chosen project could be mirrored in West Fife through the work of members and associated groups, again such as schools, West Fife Woodlands et cetera.

 Donald also suggests that we have in reserve some funding for emergency purposes. Unfortunately such situations come around with sickening rapidity e.g. Syria, Lebanon.

Entertainment & Sport

House

After surveying our membership we established a strong desire to continue meeting face to face with a meal. There was also an acceptance that we may need to change our format to give us an opportunity to attract new members. Settling for evolution rather than revolution

 Fundraising
PP Brian proposed a campaign to raise £12000 in the coming year.

 Public image and PR

In the past Rotary quietly got on with projects and did not seek publicity. That has all changed and we must make sure that we are telling our stories.

 Programme

 Douglas thanked all the convenors for their reports and closed by saying:-

"The incoming RI President Shekhar Metha has announced the theme for his year to be ‘Serve to Change Lives’. He urges club presidents to lead by example. I will try to encourage as many West Fife members as possible to support our projects and programme. I will need your help but you would not be on zoom tonight on such a lovely evening as this, if you were not already committed to Rotary, 27 members thank you for that commitment and I trust that will be with me for the next Rotary year."

Libby Seath representing District gave her reflections on the club's plans outlined in Club Assembly.