Club Bulletins

Welcome to 2014 and what better way to start the New Year, than with a change to your club newsletter.
The Bulletin this month is being delivered to you via our club website which means there will be some changes in layout which you may have already noticed. 
All future Bulletins will be delivered in this way. You won’t notice much difference, apart from the layout changes. It will still come via your email inbox but you will have easier access to past editions should you want to look up something.
Some of the benefits of this delivery method are:
•    Easier member access: If you can’t access your email for some reason you can just log on to the website and read it anytime.
•    Automatic archiving: You don’t have to keep copies in your inbox or elsewhere. If you want to look up or refer to something that was in a past issue, you will be able to log on to our website and read it.
•    Access by others: People who are not club members eg; “Friends of Rotary”, who wish to keep abreast of what’s happening in Mossman Rotary Club, will also be able to receive the Bulletin via email just like members do. 

January is Rotary Awareness Month:

This should be an important focus but Rotary takes a break in January and it always seems to take a few weeks to get back into the swing of things when meetings resume.

There is also the matter of whether the emphasis is on making the community aware of Rotary or improving the knowledge of Rotarians about Rotary. 
The answer, of course, is that it is both. 
For the community at large Rotary is seen through our good works and contribution to society. 
Even then much of what we do is invisible to the wider community or not necessarily attributed to Rotary.
How many times have you seen a media report on polio eradication wherein Rotary is not mentioned at all or rates barely a passing mention, or, when we support local causes but don’t receive any recognition at all. 
We have to concede that Rotary as an organisation, as a club and Rotarians as individuals, have not been effective at creating that awareness that we should be achieving. 
Companies selling into the consumer market apparently spend as much or more on brand recognition than they do on the particular product they are trying to sell.
Rotary does not have a lot of money to put into promotion and brand recognition and it might be said 
that much of what has been spent has not been effective.
We occasionally see street promotions employing people wearing “sandwich boards” or funny suits.
 Rotarians can also be a walking promotion, but with far less inconvenience. 
When we are serving the community we should at all times wear Rotary apparel – shirt, jacket, cap or hat or on more formal occasions, our Rotary pin
 All of us should be ready to talk about Rotary. 
When someone asks you; What is Rotary? What does Rotary do? 
What would you say?
These are questions that each of us should always be prepared to answer. 
So a simple but effective exercise for Rotary Awareness month might be for each of us to work on 
how you will answer those questions.
Members should also be aware that they have a responsibility to make themselves and the public aware of local Rotary activities. Don’t rely on one or two people to record or publicise events. 
Anyone can take a few photos of an activity and share them, especially now with all the digital options that are readily available.
Members need to make sure that upcoming events are known to all members and remember that we don’t always have to do big things to do worthwhile things. 
January may be “Rotary Awareness” month, but like all theme months, the activity does not stop just because a new month arrives. 
Rotary awareness is ongoing

Past R.I. President Richard L Evans (1966/1967) once said 
“A man may have a great truth, he may produce a good product, he may make a great discovery,
 but if he does not share that and dies, then no one benefits, it is because he did not share.”

Meeting Program for January: 
No meetings scheduled.
Club is in recess
Meetings resume Monday 3rd February

 Dates to Remember:
Feb 03: Club Meetings resume
Mar 01: PETS Cairns
    “   02: Group Assembly Cairns

Youth Exchange Program:
During January our latest Youth Exchange Student will be arriving.
Her name is Maria Theodora Schmidt. She is 16 and comes from Brazil.
She is scheduled to arrive in Cairns on 25th January and will initially be staying in Port Douglas.
 
Club Website: 
Our new website www.mossmanrotary.com.au is now live.
It is being progressively updated and the new members page will soon be operational.
Check it out to see what’s happening in your club.

          
  
Food for Thought:

          

•     The area that is covered by snow in Australia in winter is larger than Switzerland 
•     Australia has more beaches than any other country—about 7,000 of them 
•     21% of the world's gambling machines are in Australia. We have a mere 0.003% of the world's population! 
•     The so-called 'dingo fence' in Australia is the longest fence in the world, and is about twice as long as the Great Wall of China. It has a gate every 19kms 
•     Australians are the world's biggest buyers of 4WD vehicles. 
•     Zinc cream, the sun-burn retarding mixture, was invented in Australia in 1940