D9620 Gist Feb 23, 2026 (Feb. 23, 2026)

Help Needed Mar1

ROTARY D9620 TREE PLANTING CHALLENGE – 26 APRIL 2026

This year, DG Mark Williams has agreed to another D9620 Tree Planting Challenge Day. This is planned for 9am – 11am Sunday 26 April 2026 - (Environment Month).

DGE Ian Hope has already indicated that he is keen to have a District Tree Planting Challenge Day in his year.

For Brisbane and surrounding area Clubs, Brisbane City Council’s Offsets and Restoration Team is looking at a site in Bald Hills which they have already started work on.

The site is part of a Glider corridor and has Rakali on it which they are really excited about.

They have assured me the site is nice and flat with no steep banks as there were last year.

They have allocated 6000 plants to this site and would like our help to get as many as possible of these plants in on the day. Last year we planted 3000 plants at the White’s Hill site.

If you, your family, friends, schools or other community groups would like to join our team and help meet this challenge, please let me know at dkals@aussiebb.com.au.

This will help us work out how many scones we need and determine how many plants we think we can get in the ground on the day.

There will be more information about the site and site access as we get closer to the day.

For the non-Brisbane area Clubs, if any of your Club members happen to be in Brisbane on the day, they would be more than welcome to join the team at Bald Hills. We will need all the help we can get.

We are incredibly lucking to have the continuing support of Brisbane City Council for what has become one of the highlights in our Rotary year.

Participating in this event allows all Clubs to continue to contribute to Rotary’s latest area of focus “Supporting the Environment”.

We are looking forward to your help in taking up Council’s challenge and making this another successful District Planting Day.

GROW MORE, DO MORE

David Kearney

Coordinator - D9620 Tree Planting Challenge

Kenmore Rotary Club

dkals@aussiebb.com.au 0419700647

RC Brookfield Trivia Night

DISTRICT GRANT APPLICATIONS CLOSE 31 MAY

ROTARY D9620 DISTRICT GRANT APPLICATIONS

Is your Club considering making a District Grant application for the 26-27 Grant year?

Applications are open now and the closing date is 31 May 2026.

Information regarding D9620 District Grants is available on the D9620 website. Just Google d9620 district grants and open the Foundation - District Grants page.

You need to consider the timing of your project as the 2026-27 District Grant funds are not likely to be available before August.

Please note that any funds expended on the project before the date of the Grant approval letter cannot be claimed against the Grant.

District Grants are available to all Clubs in our District and are a great way to boost the funding you have for a planned project.

DG Mark has set a target of 50 applications for the next round of Grants so your application will help meet this goal.

Please contact the District Grants Committee d9620districtgrants@gmail.com if you have any queries or would like assistance in preparing an application.

I look forward to receiving an application from your Club.

David Kearney

D9620 District Grants Sub-Committee Chairman

SUPPORTING THE ROTARY FOUNDATION MAKES DISTRICT GRANTS POSSIBLE

Conference Golf Day 1st May

RCGS Date Claimer Mar 21

Make an Impact with ShelterBox

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY EVENT Mar 7

Mitchelton Rotary Club is hosting an International Women’s Day event on Saturday 7^th March 2026, as part of the Rotary campaign to say “Yes to Respectful Relationships” and “No to Domestic Violence.”

We are facilitating a free evening seminar with guest speakers presenting options and supporting services for those experiencing domestic violence.

This free public event will be held at Arana Leagues Club, 247 Dawson Parade, Keperra in the upstairs Foundation Room, from 5.00pm to 7.30pm.

Young people aged 15-18 years are welcome to attend with parental consent.

The Guest Speakers will include the following:

Jo Neary, Zephyr DV Services

Helen Baxter, Love Bites

Eric Wood, Past Rotary District Governor, Caboolture Rotary Club

A speaker from the QLD Police North Brisbane Vulnerable Persons Unit

We look forward to welcoming you to this Rotary event.

For further details please contact Josephine Pritchard on 0412 421 023, our via email to

mitcheltonrotary@gmail.com

with the RSVP date being Friday 27^th February 2026.

Click for Event Details.

The Taipei R I Convention 13-17 June 26

Flyer and registration for RPC Class 28 Mar 26

Dear colleagues and friends of the UQ Rotary Peace Centre,

We would like to invite you to our annual Peace Fellows’ seminar, taking place on 28 March 2026. The event is free of charge, but registration is required via the QR on the attached flyer. Please also feel free to forward this invite to anyone else who you think might be interested.

We look forward to seeing you there!

With best wishes,

Seb

Associate Professor Sebastian Kaempf

Director Rotary Peace Centre

School of Political Science and International Studies

The University of Queensland

Click For PDF

How to get your news on the district Facebook page

The GIST and How to Get your Article in it

Welcome to the Gist! Rather than send multiple messages per week to club officers in the hope that they will channel your interests and pass on what is important to you, we will be sending one digest email per week using the Clubrunner platform which lists new things in the top section, and reminders of old news in the bottom section. That way, you only need to scan the top half of one email per week to get the Gist, and everyone gets the Gist!

This e-bulletin is published by your District Administrator and Webmaster to let Rotarians and any other subscribers know about what is happening in the district. The GIST is for time-sensitive brief stories sponsored by the District, a Rotary club, or a Rotary RAG or Fellowship.

District Announcements
Club event announcements
RAG and Fellowship event announcements

Event notices will run once only in the "Breaking News" section, and events will continue to be published down below in the "Event Reminders" section until the event has passed.

Articles that report on past events and projects, anything of enduring significance, and anything else that does not fit the GIST publishing guidelines should be sent to the District Newsletter editor at newsletter@rotary9620.org.

How to get an Event in the Calendar

To get an event in the Calendar, please send the following information to gist@rotary9620.org:

Mandatory: The text that you would like to appear in the calendar entry. Should include a teaser as to why someone would like to attend the event, ticket prices, etc etc. The text cannot include potentially sensitive information like email addresses, phone numbers and bank account details. If you wish to communicate these, put them in an image or PDF file that can be linked as a download document.
Mandatory: Date, Time, Location. Please include the postcode in the location as this is needed to generate the location map. (Or the event could be online of course.)
Mandatory: Name of a Rotarian in the district who is the primary contact for the event.
Strongly recommended: An image to go in the calendar entry detail page. Landscape format works best.
Optional: Documents about the event like event flyers, etc etc. Max size: 5MB
Optional: Links that might be useful like bookings links, the home page of the charity you are supporting, etc.

How to get an event notice in the GIST

The GIST is published on Sunday. The deadline to get an event notice in every Sunday's GIST is midnight Friday. Requests coming in after Saturday morning will be handled on a "best effort" basis. To get an event entry in the GIST, please do the following:

Mandatory: Get the event in the Calendar (see above)
Mandatory: An image in square or landscape format to be the article. If you send an image that is in portrait format, it will be cropped to square according to the GIST editor's judgement. It's OK to send a PDF Flyer - the editor will just do a screenshot and use that.
Optional: SHORT explanatory text which will go under the image. 200 words max. Long explanations should go in the calendar entry.

Please send event info to: gist@rotary9620.org