AGM: Secretary's Report

Annual General Meeting

Secretary's Report

Carl Cardey - Secretary

Dear ICUFR Members,

Welcome to our Annual General Meeting (AGM).  This year we are using a new procedure and completing it on-line on our Forum.  We now show 819 total members.  Far from being static we have added 55 new members since January 1, 2010 and it is picking up steam since July 1.

The question often arises, How truly international are we? So here is our current list of countries.

Yes, It’s true that the USA & UK have more than half the membership, BUT  there are 367 members from 62 different countries.   A shift of only 21 or 22 would make it equal, and that certainly shows that we are truly an International Rotary Fellowship.

When we started the Fellowship 20 some years ago, online computing was just beginning.  We developed the vision of how we might benefit Rotary members by helping them become competent, in using computers and the internet, and to assist in their Rotary vision.

But what about now?  We have had a very spirited discussion on the Taranto Mail List called “What’s Next”.  It is concerning what a few of our members see as to where the place of ICUFR should be in the future.  The internet has undergone major changes: Social networking; Facebook Page and/or Group; You Tube; LinkedIn: Blackberrys;  Twittering; quick texting etc. etc.  We are greatly interested in communication methods and how ICUFR should deal with them.   These spirited discussions are highly beneficial in helping us develop our Goals and Objectives, so come join in.  

For your member benefit we provide:
Website at www.icufr.org with News, Newsletters, Resources, Archives, Pictures, Officers etc.

For communication between members, Irwin Taranto, supports two email lists for our use:
1. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for serious Computer and Rotary topics;  
2. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for any friends and fun topics.
Send an email to Irwin at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. telling him who you are, your Rotary connection, and that you would like to join.  He will advise you when it is ready, and you won’t have to do it again.

And finally we have the Forum at www.icufr.org/forum You need to Register and fill out all the questions.  There are some other instructions in the Chairman’s Report, so I won’t repeat them here.

So I put some questions to you:  Why do you belong to ICUFR; What do You want us to provide for you;  what do we do well;  what don’t we do well… PLEASE take a few moments and hit the "POST REPLY"  button below and give me  your ‘comments’.   Or if you prefer, send them to me: ccardey at verizon.net    Remember, without your input, we are only guessing as to what you want from us.

AGM: Chairman's Report

Annual General Meeting

Chairman's Report

Roger Siddle - Chairman

The 2009/10 year commenced with the resignation of our secretary and a lengthy discussion on the mailing list about the future of the ICUFR.  Peter Sotheran couldn't access the old forum after trying for three months, and our old home: Compuserve had been finally shut down.

It's fair to say the fellowship started the year in a gloomy mood and it seemed unlikely that it would survive much longer.  The number of paid up members dropped at the end of each year as dues went unpaid, and the membership appeared to be fragmenting as social networking sites attracted members from the mailing list and the web forum.

Despite the doom and gloom, the fellowship took a crucial step forward in September 2009. Following a review of our finances the board approved a proposal to reduce the annual dues to nil for the current and future years.  At a stroke this retained current members and opened the way for past members still on our database to be welcomed back as full members.

The new status as a free fellowship focussed our attention on the cost of our web forum.  Our host had supported us well over the years, but was uncompetitive in the current market.  The software was an old version, and we were pleased to accept an offer from Malcolm Miles in Australia to host the forum at a reduced cost on a modern system.  We gave our previous host three months notice and began the move to our new home in mid-October.

The next step was to tackle the great mailing list / web forum divide.  With Malcolm's approval we developed scripts to scan the mailing list postings and repost them to the forum and vice versa.  This has been unreliable on occasions, but the gateway continues to operate and is a good way for members to sample the mailing list without subscribing, or to catch up on current discussions.

That brought us to Facebook - could we link this into the forum hub?  Technically it's possible, but postings to the ICUFR group's wall are so few as to be not worth reposting. And the stream of social trivia and pictures from members would not really be welcome on the mailing list or web forum. The board discussed social networking at length without identifying any useful action we could take.

Active Facebook members are doing fine on their own, enjoying social contacts across a wide spectrum of family, friends and fellowships.  James Pitt-Payne's article in the August 2010 newsletter extolled the 'Joy of Facebook', but also showed how members are staying in touch.  He posts regularly to the mailing list, checks in each morning for 'Daily Meaningless Banter' on the web forum, and is an active Facebook user.  Concerns about the fellowship fragmenting may be overdone - if members want to keep in touch they will.

The one channel of communication for all members every month is the newsletter.  In recent years this has been hosted on our website, so when Robin Chapple indicated that he wanted to retire from the job of webmaster it opened up the possibility of moving to a content management system (CMS) site.  These create web pages from text articles, lay them out automatically, and allow them to be reused in newsletters.

After testing three systems we chose Joomla as the basis for our new web site.  It proved quick to develop with many free or low cost applications and themes.  The year for the fellowship came to an end with our new web site running in test mode, and the news that our chairman Stella Russell had been asked to be Vice Chairman of the RI Fellowships Committee.

All in all it was a year of changes and the ICUFR finished in a much better position than seemed likely at the start.  The new web site - after tweaking to respond to criticisms -  is settling down and beginning to deliver the promised improvements.  There is a steady flow of new members from the site and members can once again buy our pin.  Please do - it's our only income at the moment  .

There are still heated discussions on the mailing list. I hope there always will be, that's what it's there for.