The Rotary Club of Mt Warning AM was the third club to be chartered in the rural town of Murwillumbah which is situated thirty kilometers upstream from the mouth of the Tweed River on the Far North Coast of NSW. The Tweed Valley landscape is dominated by Mt Warning, a volcanic remnant, and the mountain slopes and surrounding caldera are covered in sub-tropical rainforest. The rich soil supports a wide diversity of agriculture including sugar cane, tropical fruits, small crops and cattle.
Our club has breakfast meetings and is named after Mt Warning which is the first place in Australia to see the sun rise every day. Established in 2000, Mt Warning AM currently has thirty seven members, the majority of whom are business women. We are a dedicated, happy, fun loving and caring club and through our shared goodwill and commitment, while working on our many projects, have established firm friendships with one another.
Our club has been selected by Rotary International to be a Pilot Club for the Innovation and Flexible Rotary Club Program.
Through the Pilot Club concept we have introduced new ways to encourage younger people to become active members of Rotary. Facebook has been incorporated into our every day running of the club, which is especially appealing to younger members as well as members on extended leave who may be granted ‘Pilot Leave,’ which requires them to engage with the club’s Facebook page weekly while absent. Additionally they are able to stay up to date, as an abbreviated summary of the weekly meeting is published in the emailed news letter. We are trialing a new category of membership called “Pilot Member” especially to encourage young people to become Rotarians. Such members are also required to engage with the club’s Facebook page weekly, assist with projects wherever possible; weekly attendance is not necessary but desirable and membership fees aren’t required until such time as they can afford it. This allows university students to become active members, also people such as the principal of Pokhara Primary School in Nepal (supporting this primary school is one our club’s main International Projects).
Last year our club accomplished forty five projects and we are justifiably proud that we received from Rotary International “The Changemaker Award for the Best Medium Size Club in Zone 8”. This award was in recognition of the club’s “extraordinary impact to change lives through their work in all Avenues of Service”.
As we firmly believe the future of Rotary lies with our youth, the club embraces many of the Rotary New Generation Programs including the Youth Exchange Program YEP. We sponsor an outbound student and host an inbound student each year. We also organize and host a farewell weekend for the international YEP students in our district before they return to their home countries. An Australian Bush Dance is the highlight of this weekend.