My Role as Club President

It is a great honour to be chosen by your peers to fulfil the role of Club President of your local Rotary Club.

It is not a role that happens overnight as there are expectations that the incumbent will have been a member of the Board of Directors previously and have an understanding of Rotary and its role in the community.

Rotary has approximately 1.2 million members world wide and is represented in most countries. The world is divided into 6 Zones and there are 21 districts in Australia.

The overarching role of Rotary International is to promote peace, cultural understanding and service to the community

My role of Club President is to oversee and guide the Club during my year to achieve these mantras.

There are many facets of Rotary but basically encompass service to

1. Local  Community
2. International Community
3. Foundation
4. Vocation and Youth
5. Membership Development

Rotary Foundation is among the worlds largest charitable organisations and readily assists in times of need as well as initiating, fostering and promoting the likes of Polio Eradication.

My role within our Club is to appoint directors and office bearers and oversee the establishment of financial budgets to ensure our Club has the sufficient funds necessary to meet our respective Directors budgets.

Our Club has a wide range of members with diverse occupational skills and personalities which enhance the high level of involvement within a committee  structure and the Club in general.

During my years of membership with our Club we have been directly involved with student scholarships, both locally and internationally, funding the building of toilet systems in India, school desks in Pakistan, housing in a Fiji, supply and installation of dental equipment in East Timor, donating shelter boxes in Sri Lanka and the partial funding of building a birthing centre and child care centre in Bali to name a few.

During the bush fires in 2009 I was part of a team of Rosanna  Rotarians that replaced damaged farm fencing in the King Lake region each Friday for 18 months.

Without doubt Rotary has provided me with a greater exposure to community and international needs as well as enabling me to meet highly motivated, interesting and friendly community minded people from within our immediate community and across Australia and internationally as well.

I have had the pleasure of visiting International projects partially funded by our Club as well as projects funded by other Rotary Clubs.

I am proud to say I have made close friends within Rotary and learned from the experience of long standing members who have been Rotarians for over 50 years.

To be President of a Rotary Club is a very rewarding and challenging responsibility.

Neil Watt
President 2019-2020