Members Val Howe, Peter Borner, Victoria Borner and Angela Woods with Val Sabin at the Education show helping to promote our Learn2Give project to rebuild Sagkahan Elementary school in the Philippines.
Read MoreRotarian Peter Borner visited Sherrington School to talk to the children about Typhoon Haiyan and the Learn2Give project.
Read MoreHere's an interesting video perspective of the progress made rebuilding life in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan. Our club's project Learn2Give is helping raise money to rebuild Sagkahan Elementary School in Tacloban.
Read MoreThinking about becoming a Rotarian? Read Val's thoughts on why she has decided to join us.
Read More
I joined the Rotary Club of Towcester a little over 6 years ago. My biggest reason for joining Rotary was that I wanted to give something back to society. I’ve worked hard and I am comfortable but there are so many people out there who are not so fortunate. It was time for me to do my bit.
I chose the Rotary Club of Towcester for many reasons not least of which was a good friend was currently their President and when I visited I was always made to feel welcome.
For six years I worked very hard to be an active member of the team. I sat on several committees and eventually chaired one or two. I also volunteered to be a member of Club Council, the committee that oversees the running of the club. Soon I was a member of the District Foundation team, helping to administer Rotary’s own charity, The Rotary Foundation, and I was in line to be the clubs next President.
Everything, you would think, was going well.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. As I said, I joined Rotary to be an active Rotarian and I was itching to do more. I tried encouraging younger people to join the club but was singularly unsuccessful. I did, however, manage to organise a fundraising cycle ride, Bike2Give, and get a team of younger people to ride 1,000Km in 6 days to raise over £15,000 for Charity.
Bike2Give was a huge commitment that everyone in the team and all of the supporting cast made so quickly and completely. So, why can they find time for a charitable project but not time to be a Rotarian? The question vexed me for several months. I asked around for more help on another project, to raise money to help rebuild a school in the Philippines (Learn2Give) and, again, all are willing to help… but I still couldn't get them to join our Rotary Club!
And then I figured it out… there just isn't an appetite for weekly meetings over dinner and a drink. Time is precious for younger people so we need to adapt our approach.
A few of the more active Rotarians got together and floated the idea of an E-Club. A Rotary club that meets online that is focused on service projects, locally, nationally and internationally. Our E-Club is in the process of being born. We have 19 prospective members, seven of which are current and former Rotarians. We need 20 members, 10 of whom are current or former Rotarians to achieve Charter… but we are close… and the average age of our membership is around 38 years old with the youngest being only 25.
We are going to be a young, vibrant and highly active Rotary club. We will have a short online meeting every week and will aim to get together once a month in the flesh. We welcome anyone that wants to join us.
Isn’t it about time that you made a difference to someone’s life?
To find out more about our club and how you can get involved click here.
We are in the process of starting a new Rotary club. Our club is going to operate primarily online with a monthly "get together." This type of club is a hybrid E-Club. A pure E-Club is not limited by geography and meets only online. A hybrid E-Club is normally associated with a Rotary district and is required to physically meet one a month.
Standard Rotary Clubs meet weekly for a meal. They have less overhead than an E-Club because E-Clubs have the additional cost of video conferencing, etc. So, is it more expensive to be a member of an E-Club than a standard club?
Here is the calculation:
A standard UK Rotary club typically charges each member approximately £100 per year in membership fees. This covers club administration costs, fees due to RIBI (Rotary in Britain and Ireland) and fees due to their Rotary district.
An E-Club will typically charge a little more. Our club's membership fees are approximately £140 per member per year. The additional fees are for the online services, video conferencing, etc., that are a necessity to allow the club to operate.
So, on the face of it, it costs 40% more to be a member of an E-Club.
However, if you take into account the weekly cost of a meal at a standard club, say £10, plus a drink say £5. If you attend 40 meetings per year you have an additional cost of £600 per year.
The comparable costs are:
Standard Club: £100 membership fees + £600 weekly meeting costs = £700 per year (£53.33 per month)
Hybrid Club: £140 membership fees + £150 monthly meeting costs = £290 per year (£24.17 per month)
Pure E-CLub: £140 membership fees + £0 monthly meeting costs = £150 per year (£12.50 per month)
On the 8th of November 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan swept across the Philippines wreaking havoc in its wake. Over 6,200 people were killed that day and 3,000 were so badly mutilated that they now lie unidentified in a mass grave in Tacloban’s city cemetery.
Haiyan destroyed an estimated 33 million coconut trees and in consequence affected the lives of more than one million coconut farmers.
The devastation resulting from the typhoon was of a scale that warranted a worldwide appeal. Rotary immediately responded and within a few weeks £37,000 was raised or donated by clubs in District 1070.
The generosity of the public and the unselfish approach to the needs of others was overwhelming.
As part of ensuring this aid reached the needy at the earliest opportunity, funds were transferred directly to a Disaster Appeal set up by Rotary District 3860 in the Philippines. This immediate help was later followed by sending containers filled with less critical, but still essential items, which included dry packed and tinned food, electrical generators, clothes, books and crockery.
14 months later and the world seems to have forgotten. No longer do we see or hear of anything about this tragedy in the news or on TV. This is the time when Rotary always steps up and our club is taking its turn to help in this time of need.
In April 2014 we showed what can be achieved simply by having the desire to do something. We put together a small team and, with sponsorship from HSBC Bank, Percipience and several other generous firms, we raised over £15,000 by cycling 1,000 Km from Towcester to Southwest France in 6 days.
Phase two of our fundraising is now underway. With the help of School PE Specialist, Val Sabin, we have created a unit of work for Key Stage 1 and 2 Schools to help raise money to rebuild Sagkahan School in Tacloban. The Schools pay a small sum for the OFSTED compliant unit of work, the children learn a dance in their year groups and at the end, bring it all together in a performance that tells the story of Typhoon Haiyan from the children’s eyes. Money raised from the performance is then donated by the school to the project.
If you would like your school to get involved please visit www.rotarylearn2give.org and sign up.
Learn2Give – Children Helping Children
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