The International Toast (at right) on Monday night was to the Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln of which our Rotary International President Holger Knaack is a member. Holger has been a Rotarian since 1992 and has served his Club, District, Zone and Rotary International with great commitment including as District Governor; Zone Coordinator; on the Council on Legislation; Co-chair of the Host Organization Committee for the 2019 Rotary International Convention in Hamburg; and currently, as an endowment/major gifts adviser. Holger and his wife, Susanne, are also Major Donors to The Rotary Foundation (TRF) and members of the Bequest Society. That's an impressive track record.

Our guest speaker on Monday night was the vibrant, energetic and just as impressive District Director For Public Relations and Social Media, Rotarian Sharyn McKaskey (pictured below with Club Chair David Honeychurch) from the Rotary Club Of Baldivis. She was  accompanied by her close friend Davina Reid.

Sharyn is a well respected, award winning social media manager who owns her own boutique agency, with clients including branches of businesses owned by the John Hughes Group and City Farmers. In a very forthright and entertaining way Sharyn gave us the benefit of her deep knowledge of and experience in the use Social Media to market, promote and communicate. This centred around the use of a Facebook Business (not Personal) Page to get the most out of our Rotary Marketing.

Sharyn explained that the use of Facebook is Social not Selling and that everything we do in life is based on emotion and judgement so we need to make sure all our messages are positive and highlight our achievements so that visitors can see as Sharyn put it, "how awesome, inclusive, fun and proactive Rotary is". A well run and attractive Club Facebook page will definitely help achieve this especially when combined with cross promotion via the umbrella of the RottaryInWesternAustralia Facebook page plus: Podcasts on rotarywesternaustralia.podbean.com; Linkedin for professional connections; and Rotary In Western Australia on You Tube. If the positive reaction of our members was anything to go by, a great deal of good will come out of Sharyn's advice.

We were delighted to hear from our Outbound Exchange student, Emily Fisher, during the week. Happily she is safe and well and now into her eighth month in Belgium. To read her email Click here. 

This coming Saturday, 19 September 2020. District Chair Simon Cubitt with the help of a number of Club members, will be interviewing around twenty four (24) applicants to attend the next National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) in early 2021. NYSF management has ruled out interstate travel and will run the program locally. The fee has also been reduced from $3,250 to $1,900 and that gave the Club the opportunity to sponsor a second student, the highly credentialed, Rohan Kumar,  from Willetton Senior High School (WSHS). We wish him and all the other applicants, every success.