Once again, IFFR had its booth in the House of Friendship at the recent Rotary International Convention in Melbourne, Australia. The Convention brought around 18,000 Rotarians from around the world to Melbourne for 4 full days of activity, opportunities to meet old friends and new and learn about how we can be more effective at putting Service Above Self.
The set-piece events, including the opening and closing ceremonies, were held in the Rod Laver Stadium. The break out sessions and the House of Friendship were at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The House of Friendship is like a trade show, where you can find out about any and all of the Rotary projects, and where Rotary Fellowships and Action Groups can have their booths too. The IFFR booth is always a great place to spend time, to catch up again with old friends, to make new ones, and to introduce other Rotarians with an interest in aviation to what we do.
This year, we focused our message on what IFFR offers you: the opportunity for great aviation related fellowship, new aviation-related experiences, and valuable aviation-related service. That message is making IFFR very attractive to potential members. And we made it easy for them to join this year – a “Convention Special” membership offer/price, online registration, and a QR code so they could access it, sign up, and pay up on the spot, on their mobile phones. As a result, we were able to sign up good double digit new members during the Convention. If you are one of those new members who signed up, welcome to you, thanks for joining us.
And we were delighted to be joined for part of the time by our good friends from Ukraine, Rotarians Olha Paliychuk, and IFFR Ukraine Squadron Leader Ihor Zembovych. Our support for their efforts is ongoing, with their sponsors, the Swiss Section of IFFR currently working on a project for respite care for mothers and children living close to the front line in Ukraine.
If you’ve not been to a Rotary International Convention before, do think about joining us in Singapore next year. We’ll be flying the flag for Flying Rotarians once again.