Rotary International District 9790

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ROTARY AUSTRALIA WORLD COMMUNITY SERVICE LIMITED (RAWCS)

Rotary Australia W.C.S. Southern Region Record

Issue 1- June 2011

At the last Regional Meeting held on Sunday 22nd May 2011. Our information Officer asked a question that had been asked of him at a Rotary Club following a presentation he had made.
Your Editor thinking about the question realised, that it is important enough require a whole edition of this little paper.

What is the question you ask?

The question was and is WHY SHOULD MY CLUB USE RAWCS???

The answer you may be surprised to learn is that THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON FOR YOUR CLUB TO USE RAWCS - PROVIDED that your club can answer all of the following questions in the affirmative.

Here dear reader your editor has assumed that your club is embarking on an international project in a developing country That he project contains a modicum of donations in Kind to be shipped to the site, that a number of your members and possibly members of the general public (your partners for instance, and or trades, professional people) will be accompanying you, and that you are working with either an NGO or Rotary Club based in the country. He also assumes that your club is funding the whole project, or that if you have applied for a Foundation grant that you know all of the Foundation's requirements.

1	Is the local community fully aware of the project and agrees that it meets their needs?
2	Has permission been obtained from the government of the country for the project to go ahead?
3	If there is a local Rotary Club(s) in the country have they been informed of your intentions and are they happy for the project to proceed?
4	Do you know the regulations governing shipment of goods overseas?
5	Do you know the current regulations and import duty implications applying to the goods in the Destination Country?
	NB we were advised recently that Fiji has changed its rules and that one container load of donated goods had received an import duty bill of $5,000. Within the last month or so. Obviously the container would not be allowed to leave the wharf until the customs bill was paid and additional wharf charges would begin to accumulate at a daily rate. The responsibility for these charges will all fall onto the organising Club. IF YOU HAVE A CONTAINER ON THE WATER AT THE MOMENT TALK TO THE GEELONG DIK TEAM AS THEY HAVE DEALT WITH THE PROBLEM.
6	Have you appointed a shipping agent to handle the customs clearance and shipping to final destination in the recipient country?
7	Do you know that transport facilities are available in the recipient country to ship your goods to their final destination? Bullocks and elephants are good at shifting containers into remote locations but roads' building becomes a tad expensive
8	Do you know how much it will cost to ship the goods from the wharf to the final destination?
9	Do you know how you and the other volunteers are going to get to and from the worksite?
10	Do you know what accommodation is available at the worksite?
11	Do you know if women volunteers will be allowed on the project?
12	Do you know if the accommodation is suitable for women members of the team?
13	Do you know the costs of transporting the team members to and from the site?
14	Are you able to obtain a tax deduction for the money spent for transport by members of the team who have a taxable income?
15	Are you aware of the current rules governing the amount of the claim that you may make for a tax deduction?
16	Are you able to obtain a tax deduction for donations made by taxable entities to purchase/supply the goods being used in the project?
17	Do you have full insurance for each of your team members and does it include medivac components in the event of a significant trauma such as a heart attach or serious accident.?
18	Have you arranged to notify the relevant Australian Authorities of your intention to be located at, and the duration of your stay, at the worksite?
19	Have you made arrangements to advise RAWCS of you project, supplying details of total volunteer manhours worked, monies expended and benefits provided to the local community ? THIS INFORMATION WILL BE OF GREAT BENEFIT TO YOUR FELLOW ROTARIANS AS IT ADDS TO THE TOTAL FIGURES PROVIDED ANNUALLY TO OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND ENABLES US TO CONTINUE TO LOBBY FOR ADDITIONAL TAX BREAKS FOR THE ROTARY MOVEMENT WITHIN AUSTRALIA.

If you are unable to answer any of the above questions in the affirmative I strongly advise that you type RAWCS into your favourite web search engine and read up all of the detailed knowledge given on the national web sites.
Or if you do not have access to the internet please look up your District handbook and talk in the first instance to you District RAWCS Chairman. He will be delighted to assist you and your Club. I can assure that he as a voluntary Rotarian just like yourself will not wish to take over your project.

RAWCS as all District sponsored bodies has been set up by the District Governors to assist Clubs and Rotarians in the various avenues of service. Each of us serving on the RAWCS Regional and/or District Committees are volunteers with a passion for International Service. Many of us have been involved with this aspect of Rotary Service for many years and want make it easier for Clubs/Rotarians new to the game to do satisfying successful overseas projects taking advantage of the collective experience of the past 50 years.

We are here to serve you and advise you why there has to be a modicum of report writing and form filling, believe me we all try very hard to keep this to the absolute minimum for we are also all volunteers whose time is precious.

John Gander PP PHF
Rotary Club of Croydon
Publicity Officer, RAWCS Southern Region
Email: rednag@westnet.com.au

rawcs@rotary9790.org.au

Click here for copy to print

Tony Thomas (Alicia)
Rotary Club of Yarrawonga-Mulwala
Chair District RAWCS Committee
(H) (03) 6744-1121
(M) 0418 597 727
Email: rawcs@rotary9790.org.au

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Last modified: 9 Apr 2012 23:43