August is Membership and New Club Development Month. The Club Development Committee has come up with an innovative approach that encourages Clubs to increase membership while offering a Club two free registrations to the District Conference in New Plymouth in April next year.
 
 
The 60-day membership challenge runs from 1 August to 30 September 2016, with Clubs needing to advise our District Secretary, Carol Green, by 14 October 2016 of the percentage increase of completed membership over that time period. 
 
Denise and I are getting a real sense of the uniqueness of each Club we visit.  This was apparent in the Club Changeovers we attended.  We were treated to everything from informal to formal, from student theatre to barbershop to entertainment provided by a Rotarian and friends in a band.  One particular highlight was Changeover on a marae.
 
We all create the Club that is most relevant for our members and our communities, so I guess it is not surprising that each Club is quite different, even in the same town.  You know your own communities and whether your Club is representative of your community.  I encourage Clubs to consider involving more people in Rotary by inviting them to your Club or creating a new Rotary Club or Satellite Club or Rotaract Club or Interact Club in your communities.  Last year one Rotary Club, one Rotaract Club and two Interact Clubs were created.  I congratulate those Rotarians who drove those initiatives and I am encouraged to hear of others who are already working on initiatives like these in their communities.    
 
I am writing a blog at http://d9940.blogspot.co.nz/ which is trying to capture some of the varied activities of our Clubs in the District.  And you can search the blog for references to your Club, people or District Committees.  Last month, for example, I wrote about the arrival of our Rotary International Youth Exchange students and the Gold Award for Community Collaboration won by the Wairarapa Clubs for their work with Rotary Youth Driver Awareness (RYDA). 
 
Keep an eye also on our District Facebook and join this group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/703773629750924/ to keep up with the play on all sorts of initiatives and events – from helping orphaned elephants in Borneo, to building a charity house, to celebrating the chartering of our new Club of Rotary Kaukau. 
 
We really are involved in a diverse range of activities and it is important that we continue to encourage diversity in Rotary in our communities so we can strengthen our connections and relevance to our communities.