President's Report

Firstly, thank you for the support and encouragement I have been offered from members and friends and their partners. I sincerely thank you all as it truly has been a privilege to be President of our Rotary Club. I am astounded by not only how quickly this year has gone by but, more importantly, what we have all achieved throughout the year.

Each of the Directors and Club Officers will provide detail of their respective portfolios in this Annual Report and rather than repeat that detail here I would like to highlight some of the significant happenings that have occurred. We have continued to support many community projects, programs, events and fund-raising activities throughout the year such as;

  • Ride 4 Rotary

  • Rotary Park

  • Imagination Library

  • Citizenship Ceremony

  • Pride of Workmanship Awards

  • ARH PhD Research Scholarship

  • ARH Indigenous Health Scholarship

  • UOW John Chaplin Memorial Scholarship

  • RCWW Scholars Presentation Night

  • Numerous Guest Speakers

  • Numerous Bunnings BBQ’s

  • Charles Hotel Jag the Joker & Meat Raffles

  • Rotary International Annual Fund

  • Rotary District Grants

  • End Polio Train Ride

  • Workplace Learning VET Awards

  • Disabled Surfers Association

  • Wollongong Police Merit Awards

  • Centre for Missing Persons Aust

  • Rotary Youth Driver Awareness (RYDA)

  • Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA)

  • National Youth Science Forum (NYSF)

  • Rotary Program of Enrichment (RYPEN)

  • Science & Engineering Challenge

  • Rotary Clubs of The Illawarra Race Day

  • D9675 Schisto Project

  • SASSI

  • Women Illawarra

  • Our Community Project

  • Recovery Camp

  • Greenacres

  • Flagstaff Group

  • Red Shield Appeal

  • Interplast

  • Domestic Violence Walk

  • PCYC and the Fit for Life Program

  • City to Surf Volunteers

As with every year, it’s been another year of change for our club, which I think is always necessary to keep any organisation moving, hopefully in the right direction, which I think our club has in many ways.

At the beginning of the Rotary year, we made the purposeful decision to downsize our BBQ equipment, selling our trailer, fridges and freezer to simplify things and also be a little more selective in choosing BBQ events more in line with our capability. The only thing was Dennis Simpson didn’t realise he’d now be the designated equipment mover, and I didn’t realise all the other gear we held onto would now be stored in my garage. In the end though, I think it was the right decision. Monday BBQ’s have proven to be an ongoing success and seem to run pretty smoothly.

Another change happened mid-year to our format at the Charles Hotel. After an amazingly successful Jag the Joker draw, which saw us get to the very last of 53 cards before the Joker was revealed, we saw an end to our Friday Night Meat Raffle and a revamped Thursday Night Jag the Joker draw with the jackpot increasing at a much faster pace, which we hope will attract more patrons earlier on than before.

Overall, this year our club has raised an amazing amount of money which has allowed us to support the many organisations and projects outlined earlier. A great result for a club our size and a hearty congratulations to all our members, friends & volunteers.

Our membership this has decreased with two of our members retiring, one leaving due to work commitments who will hopefully be back when things settle and one relocating out of the area. To counteract this, we have several potential members from our Citizenship Ceremony held in May and also from our first-ever RCWW Information Stand at the Friday Farmer’s Market in the Crown Street Mall, organised by Annette Lavender. The stand really was a great success, with several genuine membership inquiries, whilst promoting our club and Rotary as a whole. We plan to do this again later in the year.

On 12 September 2026 we will host the RCWW Charity Race Day at Kembla Grange Racecourse, raising money for training programs at both Greenacres and the Flagstaff Group. The Race Day, previously a combined Illawarra Rotary Club event, looked as though it would not continue, however, as a club, we decided to take up the challenge and host the event ourselves. We hope it will be a tremendous success. Fingers crossed.

We committed funds to sponsor the Wollongong Police Merit Awards, to be held in August 2026. This is a new undertaking for our club, in its infancy, where we hope to grow our connection the Wollongong Police and look for ways in which we can support each other. The longer-term vision is to grow the connection to include other emergency services.

Also, we have committed club funds to an overseas project in Sri Lanka; the first overseas project for quite a few years. Whilst still in the planning stage, we hope to forge a connection with a Sri Lankan Rotary Club and, together with local community groups, provide low-cost housing to families in need. We hope this will develop into and on-going project for the club in the years to come.

We played around with our meeting format and in the end decided, as Rotarians seem to like a drink and to be social, to make our first meeting of the month a social night with partners. It has proven to be quite a success with a good turnout to those held so far. Combined with our pre-dinner drinks every 3rd meeting, we have quite a good time in Rotary!!

So, on that note, I think we have had a pretty good year. A busy year, a year of change but one that has seen us continue doing what we all volunteer for, supporting our community (near and far) and supporting each other, having some fun and a laugh along the way.

Of course, all these activities don’t happen by themselves, and I really have a lot of people to thank who have made my year as President so enjoyable and rewarding;

Firstly, to my Board of Directors - Kerrie, Ros, Rose, Marilyn, Annette, Barry & Ken. Thank you so much for the support you have given me and the amazing effort you have put in throughout the year in making your various portfolios successful.

To Dennis Simpson and the band of happy helpers who run The Charles Hotel Jag the Joker and Meat Raffle nights every week throughout the year. Thank you so much for giving up your time to organise, fund raise and promote our club.

Thank you to all those who have volunteered their time to make our BBQ’s the success this year. Especially to Dennis and Bob for doing the early morning set-up and late afternoon pack up, and to Rose for organising the roster every 4 weeks.

To Ken Potter and all his helpers for continuing to run the Rotary Youth Driver Awareness program throughout the year and for your fabulous poetry penmanship and recitals.

To Pat Roberts and Marilyn Phillips for organising our Citizenship Night. Thank you for putting on such a wonderful event, that every member looks forward to every year.

To Jim Christensen for almost single handedly organising our Pride of Workmanship awards and dinner. Thank you for all the work you do making this awards night such a success that gets better and better each year.

A huge thank you to Michael Crowley who continues to be our club photographer, guest speaker and club program coordinator, scholarship co-ordinator and probably the best person there is to review documents and records for mistakes or omissions.

Finally, to all members of the club, thank you for the support you have provided, no matter the extent, to the club and all the activities we have undertaken throughout the year. I continue to be amazed by the generosity and selflessness of our members. I wish our next Presidents and the incoming Board every success in the year ahead, knowing you will have the full support of our members, continuing to make the Rotary Club of West Wollongong a fun and productive place to be.

Thank you all for a fantastic year.

PHIL PECKMAN
Club President 2025-2026