D9800 Outstanding Rotarian award

Outstanding

 

 

David Whiting was honoured at the District changeover as the recipient of the D9800 Outstanding Rotarian award

 

 

 

David Whiting is a model example of an outstanding Rotarian and one who has used his vocational expertise to support Rotary, contributing to the improvement and understanding within Rotary of legal, insurance, risk and youth protection matters.

 

In his 37 years as a Rotarian David has been a staunch supporter of all Rotary activities and involved in many community organisations.

 

As Governance Director for Rotary International District 9800 and a member of the D9800 Board for 5 years till 2019 and in the last 12 months as the District Protection Officer. he has supported the development of and updating of the District governance documents (Volunteer Declaration, Abuse and Harassment guidelines, District Protection policy, Youth Involvement documents, Sexual Harassment policy, Social Media policy, Mutual Respect, and Risk Management policies).

 

 

During this time David also lead the efforts for all Rotary Districts in Australia to develop the compliance documents and National policy for Volunteer Declarations (initially known as Form 3) ensuring the safety of all participants in youth related Rotary programs. This continued to him updating the form after changes to the process were championed by David and agreed after negotiation with the National Insurers.

 

This work also led to David developing the authorisation of the Victorian Youth Exchange Policy. This was negotiated with VRQA (Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority) and included specific legislation and the Victorian Child Safe Standards. Once again this took a few years to develop and implement and is now used by all Victorian Rotary Districts.

 

David has also supported President Elect Training at the Victorian Multi District PETS which has included 4 of the 5 Victorian Rotary Districts. David has facilitated the Governance section in 4 breakout sessions each year for several years. These sessions have focussed on Youth protection, protection, risk and insurance. David has also presented in other Districts across Australia at PETs or during club visits.

 

David has also facilitated and secured significant donations and bequests to The Rotary Foundation and Australian Rotary Health in excess of $1 million.

This year David undertook the development to update Rotary club Constitution and Bylaws specific for Victorian Rotary clubs. A large volume of work was required to complete the updates in line with the Victorian legislative requirements, and complete a package for all Victorian Rotary clubs. The package included a Victorian version of the Constitution, Bylaws, and documents explaining the process to ensure clubs adopt and submit the updated, endorsed documents to Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV). This has taken several months of personal effort by David to complete and it is being provided free of charge to all Rotary clubs across the state.  A saving of over $150,000 better used by clubs for their community projects.