At its meeting held at the Star of the West Hotel last night, members of the Rotary Club of Port Fairy were delighted when President, Andrew Long, awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship to Bill Moore in recognition of his services to the Club and community.
Bill, a former Club President, has been a Board member for many years, primarily fulfilling the role of Membership Director.
Arguably, his role is the most challenging of all Rotary club roles as Rotary Clubs across the world battle to maintain or grow membership numbers. Bill has carried this role tirelessly and helped maintain the Port Fairy Rotary numbers around the long-term average of 20 members.
In an effort to boost membership, Bill developed a program and guidelines to introduce a new class of membership - Corporate Member. He was also instrumental in signing up the Port Fairy Community Bank as its first corporate member.
Currently, Ashley King now represents the Bank at Rotary meetings as the Club strives to develop joint, community programs withe the Bank. To this end, the recent planting of gardens along the walkway from Gipps Street to the walking bridge is one such a joint project. Additionally, the Club recently matched the $1,000 donation made by the Community Bank and made to the Port Fairy Consolidated School to help sustain the "Fresh Fruit Friday" initiative at the school. A total of $2,000 will therefore help establish this valuable program.
Members of the Rotary Club congratulated Bill on his award and joined him for a group photo at the end of the meeting.
