For the Attention of ALL MEMBERS – Discussion to be held at Club Meeting 23 Nov 2023
Over the last year or two we have started to struggle with continuing to accomplish what
we normally do as a Club to fundraise money, not only to support donations and grants but
also to raise money to support our basic Club commitments and we are definitely struggling
to get replacement Presidents and Directors as well as new members.
Discussions are currently being held around how we might mitigate these problems.
Moving to fortnightly meetings and working together with other local clubs like Lions, as we
are all facing problems with attracting new members, but the general theme is not having
members available to contribute their time and effort as they have in the past.
As Treasurer but also as a fellow member, I am witnessing that it appears our Club can no
longer sustain previous social and fundraising commitments. Therefore, I personally think its
time we bring our activities back to bare minimum so that we can more easily manage what
we do so that the problem with the 10% doing 90% of the Club work – and getting burnt out
in the process - can be addressed by literally starting again.
Everything we say we want to do requires members time and effort – I’m sure we all agree
we have some great ideas but sitting in a meeting and agreeing on a great idea is a long way
from getting the job done!
If we are unable to support our activities from our membership, then obviously we can no
longer continue those activities BUT we have financial commitments so my proposal is that
we look at what the bare minimum dollar amount is that we need for a year, ensure that we
cover that commitment, and then, if we are willing and able, we build back up to organizing
all the things that we used to do to provide Donations and Grants to our local community.
So, what are our basic CLUB costs:
Accounting fees - $62 per month plus $625 pa
Fiordlandrotaryclub Domain fees $900 pa
P O Box Rental - $215 pa
Changeover Badges - $200pa
President Honorarium - $1000pa
Changeover Costs - $500pa
Xmas Dinner Entertainment/Alcohol - $500pa
Table Cloth Hire – as and when required for special events @ $7.50 + GST per cloth
These costs come to approx. $5000 per annum and this currently comes from the money
raised each week from the Basket/Raffle and Fines as well as from our Annual Auction.
We are currently averaging approx. $2500 total income from Basket and Fines money pa
which is used to fund Club Expenses
NOTE: The absolute bare minimum required is $2500 – covering accounting, website fees
and the P O Box rental – everything else is not necessarily a commitment, rather just what
we’ve done in the past so this may well be covered by the Basket/Fine money alone this
year. But its our Annual Auction that provides the additional contribution to cover the full
expenses of the Club.
Without the Annual Auction, we will be compromising our ability to pay for and continue
some of our annual commitments within the Club, ie Presidents Honourarium and paying
for wine etc at changeover and Xmas.
ROTARY CLUB OF FIORDLAND CHARITABLE TRUST
Management of our Trust affairs has been lacking over the last few years as well. Following
my article in the last bulletin, I received 1 offer to step up and become a Trustee and at last
weeks Directors meeting, I believe more support has since been forthcoming.
May I point out that once again, those in the current Committee are the only ones who
appear interested in offering their support to the Club – I personally find this quite
disappointing as it once again confirms that the 10% are doing 90% of the Club work and
this is not sustainable.
However, with some new Trustees in the pipeline, I am encouraged that we can get our
affairs back in order with regards our legal reporting requirements as well as address the
changes needed in the next 2 years to our Constitution, as passed into Law this year, and
above all, get back to more closely managing our Trust affairs.
It is important that I remind members at this time that all the money we have on term
deposit in the bank DOES NOT BELONG TO THE CLUB, it is money raised by the TRUST and is
committed for TRUST expenditure for GRANTS and DONATIONS only.
Sadly, I will once again comment that we should not have this money in our bank; it is money
raised to give back to the Community and one of the first agenda items are our next Trustee
meeting will be how we put this money back to the Community asap, as per the basic
requirement of our Trust – this money should not be held in our bank, any fundraising money
should be allocated to our annual TRUST commitments after each event and anything left
over, donated out to our community within the financial year.
If we run out of Trust funds, then the whole purpose – in my mind – of Rotary, is to go out
and raise more money!
ROTARY FOUNDATION MONEY
Every year, the Rotary Foundation send a Commitment Note out to all Clubs. I will explain
what a Commitment Note is as opposed to an Invoice. Currently we commit $125pp to The
Rotary Foundation as agreed as at Club target at President Elect training. We also commit
$25pp to the Polio Plus contribution so that’s $150pp per annum – last year with 40
members that equaled the $6000 we paid.
“This is a reminder about your Club’s voluntary commitment to The Rotary Foundation and
the Polio Plus appeal. It is based on your club membership as displayed on the RI Website at
31 October. It is not an invoice. Please keep in mind that Club donations to the Foundation
affects directly the amount of funding available for District grants in future years”
“When considering the amount of your Club’s donation, please keep in mind that Club
donations made now will affect the amount we receive back for District Grants in future
years – so do be generous”
I’ll get back on my soap box ……
The whole point of the Foundation contribution is that we give this money to Rotary
International Foundation every year, they use the money for 3 years earning interest etc,
and then the money is returned to the District to fund annual Grant Applications and then
distributed back to the Clubs who have been successful in their applications.
This is a very clever use of the money ….. but we are not using this money – it is ours to get
back but lately, due to lack of understanding and then commitment to find a worthy cause,
that $6000 just goes to other Clubs in our District.
That in itself is a good thing, at least the money is going to good cause within Rotary, but
wouldn’t we rather get that money back for our Club to use?
Therefore, we need to review and consider our commitment to this funding.
We need to contribute, but we might be forced to lower the pp contribution
We need to make a concerted effort to present Grant Applications every year
We can work with other Southland Clubs and help them if we can’t find our own
project
BUT WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING EVERY YEAR
The is the role of the Foundation Director and his/her Committee to initiate and lead within
the Club as a project every year.
At the moment the Tankard money is the main contributor to this Foundation Commitment
– as you all know, you are invoiced $50 2 x per year so $100pp equals $4000 – but that is
$2000 short of our current commitment, the balance then comes from fundraising.
SUMMARY
If we are to cut back on all organized events so we only commit to meet the needs of our
current committed financial costs, then we need:
Between $2500 - $5000 for Club General Expenses
$2000 to meet current Foundation Commitment
Both of these amounts could probably be covered by the Chip Van but we need to be aware
that any money raised from the Chip Van is Trust money, so any money the Club needs for
Administrative costs should be approved by the Trustee’s – something we have not been
doing in recent years.
Moving forward, new Trustees should be tasked with reviewing where our regular Grants
and Donations are allocated for the next year or two, using current funds in the bank
including Term Deposits so as to distribute and lower our term deposits.
