Mr Szwed said it was a great honour to take on the leadership of the Rotary Club.

"Since 1953 more than 200 members have raised many hundreds of thousands of dollars to support community projects locally as well as elsewhere in Australia and overseas," he said.

"Over the past year, under Garry Rodoni's leadership, our club has been involved in more than 40 projects, mostly in our local community.

"Around $20,000 has been contributed to projects such as Daylesford Primary School's Kitchen Garden, Toys for Bushfire victims, the Murray to Moyne Bike ride, Spa Country Deb Ball, the School's Music Night, Scholarships for local students, Daylesford Brass Band, Hepburn Kindergarten

and the Community Health Christmas Appeal."

Mr Szwed said Rotary International was the largest charitable organisation in the world and through the Rotary Foundation more than $US1.9 billion had been raised in support of programs around the world.

"The largest international project that our club supports is the Polio Plus project, which has been eradicating polio across the world over the past 23 years," he said.

"More than $US650 million has been raised to immunise more than two billion children.

"Polio infection rates have dropped dramatically from over 300,000 infections in 1988 to just over 1000 in 2008.

"Our club is proud to support international efforts on projects such as this and others aimed at improving health, reducing world conflict and hunger and providing education to build stronger, healthier communities."

Other board members include: Garry Rodoni, secretary Lee Manning, treasurer Stephen Millard, vocational director Alan Harrison, public relations director Anna Szwed, community service directors Warren and Karen Maloney, foundation and membership director Bronwen Scarffe,

international director Danny Moynihan and program director Joe Rozen.