Well, here we are nearly 10% of the way through the Rotary year, and it’s already been quite a ride.
The District Changeover saw 130 people enjoying a stylish Rotary High Tea as we transitioned from the 2024-2025 leadership team to the new team for 2025-2026. IPDG Sue sums it up admirably in the changeover report!
I have also been getting to as many of your changeovers as I can, but even though I’ve driven 4,000 km in the last 3-4 weeks, I still didn’t get to as many as I would have liked to. I’m experiencing at first hand the breadth and diversity of our district.
The next exercise in breadth and diversity is my official club visits. I am very much looking forward to meeting each and every club in the district over the next 11 months, and I hope to see most of you before the end of this calendar year. To that end I have sent an email to each of the clubs in Queensland asking your clubs to propose a good date for the DG club visit. As of writing this message we have locked in visits for over 20% of the mainland clubs. DGE Ian Hope and I are planning to visit Papua New Guinea twice this year for club visits – in November and May and I am looking at options for the Solomon Islands and Nauru.
On the 20July I had the privilege of attending the District Interact Conference which also celebrated the 40th anniversary of Interact for the Interact of St. Aiden’s Girls Anglican School. It was wonderful to see such a professional event put on by the committee – it made me proud to be a Rotarian. It was also inspiring to see the enthusiasm, commitment, and above all, solid achievement by Interact clubs around our district.
Almost everyone has heard the 2025-2026 presidential message: “Unite for Good.” This is one of those messages that can be interpreted in many ways, and it is a great mantra for meditation. The message was coined by former Rotary International President Mário César Martins de Camargo, and with this message he called on Rotarians to embrace growth, service, and connection, asserting that Rotary’s greatest asset is its people. Unite for Good underscores the power of human connection—welcoming diverse members, collaborating on service, and partnering strategically—to expand Rotary’s impact across communities worldwide. There will be a number of events and practical initiatives throughout this Rotary year that will encourage strategic collaborations. Some of them you might already be aware of, and some of which will emerge as the district team executes them in the year ahead.
On 25 May this year IPDG Sue Mulraney kicked off an extremely important membership initiative for Rotary in our district. PDG Stephen and his wife Carol O’Connor presented a workshop entitled “Membership Action Plan” at District Headquarters in Bostock House. Just over 70 Rotarians took part in workshop sessions designed to teach us how to recruit new members, engage and retain the members we have, and generally to become the clubs that our prospective members would like to join. This plan (and framework) was developed in District 9790 in Victoria and has been in operation for over a year there. Clubs that have participated in their workshops and follow-on program have typically seen about a 20% increase in membership.
Following on from the workshops clubs there is a multi-year action program with mentoring and coaching from the District, and other sources. The program entails a number of simple, practical, and measurable steps and actions that clubs can take to increase their membership fitness. In order to take part in the action program, clubs need to have had at least one member attend one of these workshops, and District will invest most effort and help in those clubs that are already helping themselves by following the membership action framework.
By popular demand, the introductory workshop is being repeated on 9 August at the Hope Centre in Rothwell. You can register now by scanning this QR code or by clicking on this link: https://rotary9620.org/events/membership-action-plan-workshop/ .
I attended the workshop on 25 May and loved it. I’ll be attending the workshop on 9 August and strongly recommend it to all club executives and indeed all Rotarians interested in revitalising their clubs.
Another important Rotary workshop is the Rotary Leadership Institute. This is a 2-day workshop where attendees experience a “Rotary 101” experience, learning about Rotary’s entities, core values and processes as well as gaining some understanding of the vast array of opportunities for service and leadership within Rotary. This workshop, despite its name, is especially suitable for newer Rotarians. The course runs several times per year, and the next RLI event will be run on two Sundays on the 31 August and 14 September. There will be more publicity to follow very shortly.
I look forward to meeting many of you soon in person either at the workshop or at official club visits or at one of the hundreds of Rotary events throughout the year, either to renew old acquaintances or meet new friends.
Together in Rotary Service,
Mark Williams
District Governor 2025-2026
