I saw a comment the other day that a Rotarian was querying what was happening at Rotary International level. RI staff are working from home till at least 30th April and there will be no funded RI travel before May 31st. The April meetings of the RI Board and the Foundation Trustees were both held virtually. Not simple because of time zones! All Peace Fellows were asked to return home if possible and somewhere in excess of 1000 Rotary Youth Exchangees returned home early.
Rotary’s worldwide membership at March 31st was 1,216,706 members, up 27,240 since July 1st 2019. Over that period the total membership in New Zealand fell by 70. Officially, District 9940 has 1489 members, a drop of 23 in the year to date.
District 9910 dropped 22 to 998 and District 9920 dropped 28 to 1355. One of the significances of these figures is the RI considers the minimum number of Rotarians needs to be 1100 for a District to be effective and D9910 is falling further below this figure. The leadership of that District proposed a merger of those two Districts but this has not been accepted at this time. Inevitably there will need to be some action unless District 9910 can find a way to grow.
Oceania Zone
The greatest growth by any District in Australia and New Zealand is in District 9640, which has added 90 members this year. That district is partly in Queensland and partly in NSW, which must creating challenges as Queensland has closed its border. Pity the District Governor!