The Rotary Club of Sydney
My life has fallen into a few stages.
As a child, I lived in Box Hill when it was a Village. I then became Pastor to the Slums of Inner Melbourne for eight years. I was then a Country Parson and a Teacher at a One Teacher Bush School out at Jackson Creek in Western Victoria and then for thirteen years, I was a Suburban Minister in one of Australia’s largest suburban ministries.
And now, for more than 20 years I’ve been Superintendent in Sydney of Wesley Mission, Australia’s largest church ministry.
I’ve told you stories of people in each of these places.
Tonight I want you to come with me into the heart of the city.
One of the first things I did when I came to Sydney was find where the Rotary Club of Sydney met. In those days it used to meet in the old Tattersalls club in Elisabeth Street. It had about 350 members and was regarded as one of the finest clubs in the nation. I duly went along as a visiting Rotarian and attended a luncheon and then a second and a third. A couple of members asked if I would like to become a member of the Rotary Club of Sydney and of course I indicated that that was my desire. My wife was in full agreement. She felt my membership in the Rotary Club of Cheltenham over the years had been one of the most significant experiences of my life and believe that meeting with a large group of men from various business, professional, political and religious affiliations would be good for me as Superintendent of Wesley Mission. I indicated to the friendly Rotarians International Vice President Doug Stewart and Fellow Howell Swanton that I would be pleased to be welcomed into membership. Rotarians cannot transfer from one club to another. The process of membership has to be undertaken the same as if the Rotarian who was presenting for membership was just another person in the street. Even though I had been a club president and was a Paul Harris fellow that didn’t mean a thing. I soon discovered how true that was. Six months went by and in spite of regularly attending the Rotary club of Sydney weekly meetings, no one approached me to say that the process of becoming a member was in hand. I paid my fees at Cheltenham where I continued to be a member even though I now lived in Sydney, and attended each week doing a “make-up” as a member of the Rotary Club of Cheltenham. Eventually after nine months had passed the process of being welcomed into the Rotary Club of Sydney was completed.
Rotary has always believed in doing things by the book. My first lesson about not trying to take any short cuts with Rotary occurred when the best part of ten years earlier I had decided to start myself the Rotary Club of Cheltenham.
At the Cheltenham High School, a school of some 900 teenagers, the Principal was Mr. Bill Fowler. 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 in 1963 and 1964. The Rotary Club of Ararat was certainly the hub of the whole 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 then 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 the potential new Rotarians would be 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 chitchat 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 few years ago I returned to Cheltenham as guest speaker for their twenty-fifth 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. Recently 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 twenty-nine 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, have been the recipient of the prestigious Rotary Club of Sydney Vocational Service Award, recipient of the Rotary International’s Distinguished Service Award, and speaker at several hundred meetings of Rotary Clubs, as well as Conferences, Assemblies and Conventions, at District, Regional and International levels. Being keynote speaker and addressing 25,000 Rotarians at an International Convention would be a lifetime highlight.
Looking back upon this list of activities I suddenly realised that my fellows have never invited me to be Treasurer. I wonder what stopped them. Every one 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 was a long-term preparation for being President of a significant club such as the Rotary Club of Sydney where I had been a member for fifteen years. Twenty years after I was the President of the Rotary Club of Cheltenham, I was elected President of the Rotary Club of Sydney.
To be elected as the president of the Rotary Club of Sydney was one of the proudest but most humbling experiences of my life. It was exactly twenty years to the day that I became a president for the second time. The year between the 1st July 1993 and the 30th June 1994 was one of the busiest of my whole life. It brought Beverley and I a great deal of personal satisfaction. I brought together a wonderful team of Rotarians in Sydney who would work with me in making it an outstanding year. I told my colleagues on my first day as president that I had four aims.
Firstly I wanted to confirm the Rotary Club of Sydney as Australia’s principle forum for public leadership. In order to achieve that I had already chosen 45 outstanding speakers from across the nation to address the club. Every one of the 45 was well known people in public life and leaders in their field. Furthermore I decided that we would aggressively develop our number of women members. Rotary had just agreed to have women members and many of our older members at the Rotary Club of Sydney were very opposed to that move. Three ballots about whether we would approve women as members had been lost. I received a letter signed by a number of men who indicated that if we were to push ahead with female members then they would leave. In my opening address I indicated that we would be very pro-active in seeking women members and if any member decided that they would leave because of that, then we would greatly miss them. As far as I was concerned there was no argument. We would rapidly increase the number of women members.
The second goal was to confirm the Rotary is on the cutting edge of social issues. That meant we had become a much more multicultural and heterogeneous community reflecting our nations diversity. In order to do this I would develop a whole range of programmes to help our membership understand what was happening in society. And that we would initiate a whole programme of hands on activities to involve our members with the homeless with building houses for people who’s homes had been destroyed by a hurricane in Fiji and in helping street kids in the heart of Sydney. The issue that I proposed that created the most publicity and indeed controversy was to bring work parties every Saturday into Everleigh Street Redfern and work with the Aboriginals in the community in rebuilding their homes and cleaning up Australia’s Street of Shame. The garbage men of South Sydney had refused to collect the garbage from Everleigh Street for some time because of the tax on their garbage trucks. But it was my plan to lead a team of Chief Executives professionals like lawyers, doctors and dentists, and CEO’s of large companies into Everleigh Street to shovel garbage, to clean up the community to clean bricks and to rebuild a house gutted by fire during one of the riots in that area. That was going to be one of the most gut wrenching and exhilarating experiences of my life. Many members in the Rotary Club of Sydney look back on those Saturday mornings as life changing experiences for them. Incidentally our club and my key man in this project, Past President John Randall received a world commendation for this as our outstanding Rotary project.
The third goal I had was to confirm that the Rotary Club of Sydney was the outstanding Rotary Club in the Southern Hemisphere. To do that would involve training Rotarians in leadership, involving members in our total programme and becoming involved in a number of high initiative programmes. One of those received front page attention on the papers when it was announced on my behalf by the premier John Fahey. He announced during the contest to win the right to stage Olympics 2000 in seven years time that the Rotary Club of Sydney had put forward a proposal to provide home hosting with free bed and lodging for the parents of every athlete who desired to come to the games. John Fahey said that that proposal was the one that tipped the balance in favour of Sydney being the host city in the year 2000. The Rotary Home Hosting Programme was one of the most significant voluntary projects during the Sydney 2000 games.
Our fourth goal was to confirm the fact that our Rotary club of Sydney had a sense of freshness about it. We would have new members, younger members, more female members and more members from a multicultural background. To help me in this I had two outstanding Vice Presidents, Steve Koroknay and David Greatorex. Both served with distinction. My friendship with Dr Greatorex grew and a short time later he became a member of the Board of Wesley Mission. When Professor Alf Pollard died in December 2000, Dr David Greatorex became the honorary Secretary of Wesley Mission and we work in an even closer partnership.
There was one thing that I did not promote. I had indicated that in spite of the fact that the Rotary Club of Sydney had raised usually about two hundred thousand dollars a year to help others in need that fundraising would not be my primary role and that we would have no special presidential projects and that the pressure to raise money that we had endured for several years would not be made during my year of office.
Not that I was shy on raising money because I had raised several hundred million dollars from Church members, the public and the community at large for some of Australia’s major charity projects but I felt that this was not the time for a major thrust in fundraising.
However one year later the club was to prove me wrong. For within that one-year without making fundraising a major emphasis in the life of the Rotary Club of Sydney, those members had raised more than seven hundred thousand dollars for the needy of our community. We had raised more than five hundred thousand dollars toward training unemployed youth through a programme with the YWCA. We gave money to Rotary health research, thousands to library development, to the Fred Hollows Foundation, Youth Insearch, heart research and bush fire relief. As well we received more than half a million dollars through people deciding to write to the Rotary Club of Sydney into their wills. There was one other final point, I was asked to go to Sri Lanka on behalf of Rotary in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan government to develop in that country the guidelines for a programme of helping street kids and young addicts as we had done in Sydney. That programme also received several hundred thousand US to help it get on its way.
It had been the most successful year financially in the history of any Rotary Club in Australia.
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 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.
The city of Sydney would grow to be one of the world’s great cities and Wesley Mission would grow to be one of the world’s great churches and I was privileged to spend each day in the heart of both.