DGE David Anderson has attended the annual Governors Elect Briefing weekend in Sydney at the end of July. The weekend brought together all twenty two Governors Elect from Australia as well as the six from New Zealand. It was the first time a combined Briefing Weekend had been held. It was convened by Zone 7/8 Director Stuart Heal, a member of the Rotary Club of Cromwell in District 9980, New Zealand.
In another first, the Briefing Weekend was attended by RI President Elect Kalyan Banerjee, a member of the Rotary Club of Vapi, Gujarat, India. He was accompanied by his wife, Binota. It was the President Elect's first official overseas assignment in the year and came five weeks after he was officially elected as RI President 2011-2012 at the Montreal Convention in June.
The content of the weekend is arranged by the staff at the RDU, Rotary Down Under, office in Parramatta and began with a briefing from the RI staff at the South Pacific and Philippines Office which is also located in Parramatta. A key focus of the briefings at the RI Office was upon The Rotary Foundation. A walk through the Parramatta business district from the RI Office to RDU House enabled the Governors Elect to reflect upon the task ahead.
RDU Chairman, PDG Des Lawson, introduced the Board of Rotary Down Under which includes, as Treasurer, District 9790 Past Governor Don Cox
Over the final two days, Governor's Elect and partners were introduced to eighteen of the in excess of 60 Rotary programmes operating in Australia and/or New Zealand or programmes which attract Rotary support. The latter category included presentations on Interplast and Medic Alert. Amongst the new programmes presenting was Disaster Aid Australia which was conducted by the former General Manager of Shelter Box in Australia Jenni Heenan. Her pitch to the Governors Elect was quite simple - from the same team which brought Shelter Box to Rotary Clubs, now they bring forward Disaster Aid Australia.
Four uniquely New Zealand programmes were included on the programme one of which, The InZone Experience, showed how vocational service and new generations could be combined to offer career guidance to young people.
The weekend briefing also covered the establishment of eClubs in Districts, insurance for Rotarians, Clubs and Districts and the very important area of public relations which identified upcoming public relations and marketing campaigns to ensure Rotary has 'brand essence'.
