COMPETITION TIME - WHOSE LOGO IS THIS?
Yes, it has something to do with Nurses and Midwives, but nothing to do with Florence Nightingale because there’s no lamp - well maybe the motto alludes to this, so 2/10. If you wanted more marks you needed to mention Rotary.
It’s the logo of the Global Nurses and Midwives Rotary Club (GNWRC), an E-Club formed in 2020 by a group of nurses and midwives in Queensland (10/10). Quite likely it is the first and maybe only Global E-Club in Rotary International.
And today we got to meet the incoming President, Rudson Al Barcoma, from Mandurah. Here he is with our guest speakers coordinator Dr Barry Mendelawitz. Rudson is a registered nurse who is certified to practice in Australia, New Zealand and the USA, as well as his original home, the Phillipines.
Dr Barry Mendelawitz with guest speaker Rudson Al Barcoma
GNWRC was conceived as a cause based Rotary Club to provide support and to raise the profile of nurses and midwives in developing countries, and to recruit them into Rotary International. One of the immediate issues was the need to resolve the question of membership fees, and the solution was to use the World Bank categorisation of countries as Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3 regarding capacity to pay membership dues. The outcome can be summarised with Level 1 and 2 countries providing differering levels of support to subsidise the subscriptions due from members in level 3 countries.
It was decided that the members would meet via Zoom twice a month, and there would be an Education Forum once a month. There are usually 40-50 members attending these sessions, and the only poorly attended one this year was the AGM. Just like lots of other Rotary Clubs!
Incoming President Rudson will be supported by Board members from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the USA, the Phillipines and Tanzania - home of the current President Sally Davitt. As President, Rudson gets to set the time of the Zoom meetings and after a year of meetings at 4am local time, he has decided to have his meetings at 4pm.
There is plenty of projects on his agenda - Shelter Box, an Educational Foundation for the children of nurses and midwives, and the control and future eradication of Dengue Fever.
All in all it was another very productive meeting, and a very good reason for our members to come together every Tuesday morning to learn how they can participate in activities that will make the world a better place to live and work.