The Board reviewed several key aspects of club activity, including member attendance, finances, projects and upcoming events at its meeting February 26th. While the club remains in a sound financial position and recent Farmers Market results have been encouraging, concern was expressed about low attendance among some members, with steps agreed to better recognise volunteer “make-ups” and to understand members’ circumstances. The meeting also endorsed a number of upcoming activities and community initiatives, including support for bushfire relief, ongoing service projects and the near-completion of the Sierra Leone school water project. Membership growth, youth programs and future club events were also highlighted as positive developments for the months ahead.
Summary – Board Meeting
Thursday 26th February 2026
Attendance (Alex/Anita)
Discussion followed on the very poor attendance record (below 50%) of some members and the negative effect that this has on the attendance of other members.
Anita advised that our Membership committee had discussed this at length and put forward several suggestions. Our Almoner Paul was asked to contact 8 members with under 30% attendance and find out why this was happening and whether we could help in any way. The issues were: Work commitments, Health issues and Family commitments.
It was recognised that some of these members make up for this by volunteering for many projects. This led to a discussion on the benefit of including “Make-ups” in our attendance records. It was pointed out that this is a requirement of Rotary International. It was agreed that in future Board members will enter attendees at committee meetings and working bees on ClubRunner. Don offered to circulate an instruction sheet on this.
It was mentioned that we should have more different types of meetings. It was suggested that it would be good to do another mini survey asking our members what they enjoy/not enjoy about the Club Dinners and what could be made better, i.e. take out the guess work.
It was also mentioned that “Friends of Rotary” might be a better fit for non-attendees.
Peter Moore was granted a further six months Leave of Absence from (1/3/26) to (1/9/26) due to ill health.
Alex Marshall was granted Leave of Absence from (17/4/26) to (24/5/26) for OS travel.
Treasurer (Thelma)
Thelma reported that the Club is in a sound financial position and all expenses over the last two months were within budget.
Motion: That the Board close the WISE account and cancel the card issued to Thelma Hutchison. Carried
Motion: That the Board resolve upon maturity of the Term Deposit of $18,773.68 on 9 March 2026 to re-invest $8,773.68 plus the interest due at the best available
interest rate and transfer $10,000 to the Bendigo Bank Operating account for project expenditure. Carried
Motion: That the Board resolve to make a payment of $5,380 to Boroondara Council for outstanding toilet hire costs since the June 2025 quarter. Carried
Farmers’ Market (David)
Motion: “That David and Helena contact Council and put forward Wayne and Peter’s proposed changes to the Deed of Variation and wait for the Council response.” Carried
At the most recent BFM Committee meeting various suggestions for tweaking the roster for the second half of 2026 were discussed. The problem is that the setting-up and
packing-up can be particularly onerous and time-consuming.
BFM results have been pleasing with December and February over $5400 and both markets in January over $4200.
Club Service (Alex)
- BBQ on the Terrace will be held on Tuesday 10th March.
- The 2026 Multi District Impact Summit will be held in
Horsham from 27-29 March 2026.
- Motion: “That we hold our meeting on 24/3 but cancel our meeting on 31/3 in support of attendance at the Multi District Impact Summit” Carried
- Motion: “That we hold our Changeover Dinner on Tuesday 23rd June.” Carried
- Motion: “That we hold our Christmas Dinner on Tuesday 8th December.” Carried
- Alex reported on the survey that he conducted on the popularity of the Boathouse for this function. 30 Rotarians attended the function and 26 responded to the questionnaire: 87% response. Support for the 2026 function to be held at the Boathouse was high.
Motion: “That we hold our 2026 Christmas Dinner at the
Boathouse” Carried
Community Service (Wendy)
- A donation request was received from the Western Emergency Relief Network (WERN) Appeal following the recent bushfires. The committee agreed to donate $2,000 from the Community Service budget on behalf of the Glenferrie Rotary Club.
- Salvation Army – we started a six-week men’s cooking program on Wednesday 18 February. Volunteers are required for upcoming sessions.
- Power Assist - Program temporarily moving to Rossbourne School. Two volunteers needed for the March session.
Environment (Thelma)
- Clean up Australia Day: Paul is leading our 1st March 2026 event. Sunday Morning 9:30-12. Lunch to follow.
- Recycle Books – we will continue this at the Farmers’ Market for two more months.
- Soft Plastics: David Fallick update: The bins are behind the desks at our Farmers’ Markets. It is hard to keep coffee cups and the like out of them. “Recycle Smart” is our contractor.
- Foundation (Jo)
- Christmas pudding sales generated a profit of $1,472, which is $300 higher than last year. This increase was mainly achieved through a 20% rise in the margin rate on the indicated price even though sales were lower. Should we consider replacing the Christmas pudding sales with a one-day Bunnings sausage sizzle fundraiser next Christmas. The workload on members would be a lot less. Foundation committee will discuss this further.
- International Service (Amelia)
Sierra Leone School Water Storage and Reticulation System. $A36,000 has now been successfully sent to the Rotary Club of Bo in Sierra Leone. Our water tank and washstand project is almost finished. Solar panels have now been installed on the water-tower roof, enabling water to be pumped from the well up to the storage tank, from where it can be gravity-fed to the school’s troughs and taps. They hope to finish the job this month.
Membership (Anita)
- Rod Patel was inducted as a new member of our Club at our last meeting. His sponsor and mentor is Geoff Widmer.
- Laura Schembri has applied to join our Club. Laura has been introduced to our Club by Maria Pantling and she has attended the recent “Clean up Australia Day” working bee as well as several Club Dinners.
- Social Media Champion - Our social media experiment with Kersha Chettri, to determine whether potential new members can be attracted via this avenue, will kick off soon. In the interim, Kersha will be attending our Club Dinner Meeting on Tuesday 24 February 2026, to get a better feel about Rotary Glenferrie.
Youth & Vocational Service (Chris)
- National Youth Science Forum (NYSF). Our Club sponsored two students to attend this in Brisbane in January. The two girls gave excellent presentations at our meeting on 10th February, and both made it very clear that they had gained very valuable experience in the different areas of science. Both were extremely grateful that our Club had sponsored them to make this opportunity possible.
- Mock Job Interviews for high school students are a common Vocational Service project to assist students prepare for the real thing. They are generally organized by Careers Staff at each school. We will be approaching local schools to see if they are interested
- Interact Club – Loreto Mandeville Hall
We have a good relationship with Loreto Mandeville Hall. This is mainly due to their involvement in MUNA & recently the Peace Pole project. Talking to the Principal she thought, Mandeville would be open to us forming an Interact group at the school. We will approach Mandeville Hall at the beginning of 2026 to discuss setting up an Interact Club. We now need to find a champion to guide this process.
Other Business
Honorary member John Hudson has donated 5 GRC jumpers to the Club. We will look to sell these to Club members. Also, it is time that we put in another order for GRC clothing such as Polo shirts and Jumpers.
Don Heath
Secretary