Chartering the Rotary Club
I was 26 when I left my work as a country parson to take up the prestigious position as the Minister Cheltenham Church of Christ Victoria. This Church had the reputation of being a very large and alive Church. But that was a mirage. The reality was quite different as this young country parson was soon to discover. The life of a suburban Minister has some real surprises.
I was telling you that one of my major tasks as minister of the Cheltenham Church of Christ was to teach Religious Instruction in the two local high schools. The challenge to teach more than a thousand teenagers every week was indeed a thrilling one for a young minister keen to communicate the Gospel. The kids, by and large, were fairly responsive and we certainly made the presentations interesting. At the Cheltenham High School I taught with the local Anglican Minister as a team of two people preparing our work together and then teaching class after class with him doing the introductions and setting the scene while I did the teaching segment and handled the questions.
At the Cheltenham High School, a school of some 900 teenagers, the Principal was Mr. H.G. (Bill) Fowler. Mr. Fowler was a highly educated School Principal who had been recognised by the Education Department for his skills and abilities. He was Chairman of the Schools Examination Board, Chairman of the English Literature Board for Schools and Universities and was also Chairman of the Department’s Principals Association.
Bill Fowler was a dedicated educationalist. He was also a fine Christian, a member of the local Presbyterian Church. But the thing that came home to me as I worked closely with him over the years was his enthusiasm as a member of the Rotary Club of Moorabbin.
Bill always spoke warmly of his Rotary Club and had invited me to be guest speaker on one occasion. As I looked at the eighty or more members of that Rotary Club I realised what a great asset to the community of Cheltenham it would be if we had a Rotary Club.
I had always wanted to be a Rotarian ever since I started addressing community service clubs at Ararat some years earlier. The Rotary Club of Ararat was certainly the hub of the whole community. The Lions Club used to meet in the lower Hotel on the entry way into Ararat and was known for it’s heavy drinking. The Y’s men met at the YMCA and were noted for their physical fitness and dedication to team sports. The Apexians were usually composed of young school teachers and bank tellers who were keen on having barbecues and working on community projects. The Kiwanis were keen on community service and very strong on their American origins. But the Rotary Club of Ararat in those days was the power body behind the community. Here were all the key men – the businessmen, commercial and professional men. Here was the money and the political clout of the community.
When I spoke at the Rotary Club of Moorabbin I realised it was the same there. What Cheltenham needed was a Rotary Club.
I had gained by now the idea that unlike other clubs which enlisted good hearted and willing people to serve the community the Rotary Club was distinctive. The distinction which made Rotary different was called “The Classification Principle”. It meant there was one person only from each classification. For example, there was one doctor, one dentist, one lawyer, one builder, one undertaker, one school principal, one grocer and so on. I found out, however, that if there were two papers in the community there could be an editor from each paper and as for clergymen there could be one from each major denomination.
The point about the classification principle was that it was not just one person from each classification. It was the one person who was generally regarded as the outstanding practitioner in his particular field. For example the one lawyer would be the person who was best regarded by his peers in the community. The one doctor was the one generally regarded as the outstanding physician in the community. The one surgeon would be regarded as the outstanding surgeon and so on.
As a result Rotary brought together an incredible cross section of men who were dedicated to community service. And they were the most influential people in the community.
Not knowing anything at all about how a Rotary Club commenced, I decided the best thing to do was to learn by trying. I thought I would start the Rotary Club of Cheltenham. I didn’t know that there were very strict laws about how a Rotary Club could grow in an area. For example, the nearest Club to the area would have to cede the territory over to the new club and define the limits of it, because members of that new Rotary Club would either have to live or work within that area or territory. Then the District Governor who was responsible for the activities of fifty or more clubs round about the area would have to decide if the time was right to develop a new Club. He would then approach one of the neighbouring Clubs and ask them to undertake the program of extension that would lead to a new Club being formed. There would be two or three District Governor’s special representatives appointed who would have a task over a period of twelve months of getting to know the community well and getting to know all potential new Rotarians and then approach them.
Rotary does not accept as members people who just offer themselves. They have to belong to a classification for which there is no other present member in the Club. Then all members are entitled to nominate the person who would then suit that classification. Then a check is made on the person to see if he is of the ethical standard required of a Rotarian before the person was approached and asked.
I did not know any of this at all. But over a period of several weeks whenever the moment grabbed me I thought of significant people in the community who would make good Rotarians and wrote their names under their classification. Gradually the list that I kept in the bottom draw of my desk grew longer as I considered the outstanding men in the community of Cheltenham.
One day Bill Fowler rang me and asked if he could come and see me about a Rotary matter and introduce me to a couple of the fellow Rotarians from Moorabbin. It sounded as though I was about to be sounded out for membership in the Rotary Club of Moorabbin. That would have been a great honour but I felt it was more important that we have a Rotary Club for Cheltenham itself.
When the time of appointment drew near Bill rang at the door of my study and as I welcomed him into the study he introduced to me John Dack and Compton Hocking of the Rotary Club of Moorabbin. After some pleasantries and chit chat we came to the point of their visit. John Dack started: “We’re planning to commence from the Rotary Club of Moorabbin a new Rotary Club here in Cheltenham. We have come to you because you have visited the Rotary Club of Moorabbin and been our guest speaker and we had in mind that you would understand what a Rotary Club is all about. We had in mind we should invite you to become a Charter Member and wondered if you could recommend any suitable men in the community for us to visit about the idea of commencing a Rotary Club.”
Compton Hocking then joined the conversation and indicated to me that the task of starting a Rotary Club was a very serious one and involved a long procedure but the way to start was with a list of suitable potential members none of whom could be spoken to or approached until the Club was officially launched by the District Governor and then as his special representatives they would interview each man and ascertain whether they would be suitable for the new Club. Compton Hocking continued “So we’ve come to you to ask if you know one or two men whom you would consider would make good Rotarians in the proposed Rotary Club of Cheltenham”.
I paused for a moment and wondered whether I should reveal what I had been doing. I decided I should put all the cards on the table. Reaching down to the bottom drawer of my desk I pulled out a typewritten sheet. “I’ve put down on this typewritten sheet the twenty five outstanding men in the community of Cheltenham together with their current occupations and their telephone numbers and addresses. You will see that I have marked Geoff Chambers, a solicitor from Charman Road, as the best candidate as President. I’ve further marked Don Campbell, the Manager of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney on the corner of the highway, as the best of the bank managers in the community and one who would make an ideal Treasurer. Brother Theophane Quinnell, belongs to the Order of St. John of God and I believe he would make an excellent Rotarian. As a matter of fact each of those men there are really outstanding in our community. There is Harry Ramler of Ramler Furniture. He is a Jewish man and a fine character. And Daryl Davis – he is the Pharmacist up in the shopping centre and one I believe would be excellent in committing himself to acts of community service. You will notice that Arthur Rose the undertaker is mentioned there. I included him because his brother Lawrence is a member of your Club at Moorabbin.”
The three men looked at each other and nearly fell off their seats.
Bill Fowler merely turned to the other two and said “What did I tell you?” John Dack took the lead: “And you? Young man, what do you propose to do in the Club?” I replied “I will organise them. Probably Club Secretary would be best.”
The rest of the meeting dissolved into laughter as the men told me I had just broken every rule written about the establishment of a Rotary Club but they accepted my judgement and they would go about the business of visiting the people on the list.
That’s how the Rotary Club of Cheltenham began back in 1972. It was put together in record time and the District Governor was duly notified that suitable Charter Members were available. The District Governor’s special representative said it was the easiest Chartering of a new Club that they had ever been involved in.
Of the twenty five people on my list, twenty one became Charter Members. The District Governor for that year, Jock Andrews, was very proud of the new Club and in fact still keeps in contact with me. Today Jock lives in Sydney.
A couple of years ago I returned to Cheltenham as guest speaker for their twentieth anniversary of the Chartering. It was great to see a strong and virile Club still continuing with many of the same people I had originally recommended. A few weeks ago at a Melbourne District Conference where fourteen hundred Rotarians were attending I met some of the members of the same Club.
I have enjoyed every moment of my thirty three years as a Rotarian. But if you are a Rotarian you have to expect that you will be busy. Over those years I have been a Club Director several times, Secretary, Vice President, President twice, Past President, Director of Club Service, Director of International Service, Director of Vocational Service, Director of Community Service (twice), bulletin editor and printer, Chairperson of Classifications, Chairperson of fundraising, District Director, District Community Service Director, District Governor’s Advisory Board, Member of the Nominating Committee, Fellowship Committee, Public Relations Committee, Club and District Conference Organiser, Developer of the Rotary District Retirement Village, Awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship, been the recipient of the prestigious Rotary Club of Sydney Vocational Service Award, and speaker at several hundred meetings of Rotary Clubs, as well as Conferences, Assemblies and Conventions, at District, Regional and International levels.
Looking back upon this list of activities I suddenly realise that my fellows have never invited me to be Treasurer. I wonder what stopped them. Everyone of these activities has brought me satisfaction. Working together with teams of Rotarians either as a team member or a team leader has provided the means of acquaintance and an opportunity for service. I have been wonderfully blessed by the friendship of other fellows and spouses whom I would not have known but for working alongside each other. That involvement is a long term preparation for being President of a significant Club such as the Rotary Club of Sydney where I have been a member for thirty years. Twenty years after I was the President of the Rotary Club of Cheltenham, I became President of the Rotary Club of Sydney.
That is it for me. I am a non-destiny person in Rotary, believing the greatest privilege is being an ordinary member involved in serving the community, and the highest Rotary honour in Australia, is to be the President of the four hundred member strong Rotary Club of Sydney.
Outside of the Church the greatest pleasure I have found has been within a fine team of community leaders who have been members of the Rotary Club of Cheltenham and of the Rotary Club of Sydney.
That night in my study I spent some time writing up my journal and looking out of the window at the never ending stream of cars stopping at the traffic lights at the corner of Nepean Highway and Chesterville Road, that wide intersection that was dominated by the lovely white Church with the high white tower noting down the events of another day as a suburban minister.
GORDON MOYES