The District 6860 All Hands on Deck Dispatch

Transcription

1 The District 6860 All Hands on Deck Dispatch Georgia Medori August 2009 John Kenny District Governor International President Dear Fellow Rotarians, The new Rotary Year is underway and District 6860 Rotarians are moving ahead at full speed with projects, fundraisers and membership drives: Eleven District Simplified Grant applications have been submitted and approved! A District 6860 GSE Team has been selected for the Exchange with District 3132 in India. Applications for a new Interact Club (sponsored by Bham Sunrise) and a new Rotaract Club (sponsored by the Huntsville Clubs) have been submitted to RI. Additionally, new members are being inducted weekly across the district.. And it is only August! Many past District Governors have said that their favorite aspect of being DG was visiting each of the clubs. I understand why. My first official Club visit was particularly special for me: the Eastwood Irondale Club was where I was first inducted as a Rotarian sixteen years ago! My sincere thank-you to President Linda Robertson, and to all the members who made me feel so welcome! How special it was to share 1993 memories with my mentors, my fellow Eastwood Rotarians. Also, I applaud Eastwood for their efforts to fight Literacy by having 100% participation every year with their donations to the Dolly Parton s Imagination Library! My thanks to all of you for your efforts toward making this year a successful one. I'm encouraged that our energies will build and our enthusiasms will increase as we devote ourselves to this cause. Let s continue our wellbegun focus on membership all this year - so that we can, as President Kinney challenges, secure the Future of Rotary. Yours in Rotary service, Georgia Medori DISTRICT EVENTS Sept 25, 2009 District Membership Seminar Gardendale Civic Center Oct 10-12, 2009 Annual Trip to RI Headquarters Evanston, Illinois Oct 16, 2009 District Foundation Seminars Huntsville Country Club Oct 23, 2009 District Foundation Seminar Bham Botanical Gardens Mar 18-21, 2010 AG Institute and PETS Nashville, Tennessee Apr 15, 2010 District Rotary Conference - U.S.S. Rotary Cruise Apr 30, 2010 District Assembly -Birmingham August 2009 The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands.

2 Rotarians Must Have Integrity It is our daily actions, and our daily decisions, that determine the course of Rotary for us all. My fellow Rotarians: I have always thought it important to bear in mind that Rotary is a voluntary organization, composed of people who are all themselves leaders. When addressing such an audience, I have never thought it fitting to exhort or demand. Every Rotary club is and must be autonomous: The leadership of Rotary International exists not to control, but to motivate and guide. And so when we in Rotary speak about the importance of membership, I believe it of the utmost importance to bear in mind that the primary experience of Rotary, for the overwhelming majority of Rotarians, is of the club: of club meetings, club projects, and fellow club members. When Paul Harris began the first Rotary club 104 years ago, he did not initially think of service. instead, he had in mind a place where people of good character, intelligence, and morals could enjoy each other s fellowship and friendship. The service came later, as a natural outgrowth of the gathering of such people. Every good Rotarian, every member who shares our core values, will make a club that much stronger, and that much more attractive for others to join. Unfortunately, it is also the case that bringing in the wrong person can have the opposite effect. Rotarians are and must be people of a certain caliber people with the capacity to do great deeds, the sense to do them wisely, and the strength of character to do them honestly and well. In the end, I believe that the best way to bring new members into Rotary is the way it has been done for generations: One member invites a carefully chosen friend, client, or colleague to a meeting and, if the match is a good one, proposes that individual for membership. This is the way that our clubs remain harmonious; it is the way that new clubs become old clubs, and new members become Rotarians for life. The membership challenges that we face today are considerable, and in many ways new. There is no denying the difficulties posed by the current global financial situation. But in the words of Henry Ford, If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability. And as long as we all do our jobs well, and bring in new members carefully, this is a security we in Rotary will never lack. John Kenny President, Rotary International August 2009 The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands. 2

3 August 2009 The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands. 3

4 2010 Council on Legislation Update ON LINE Proposed Legislation The next Council on Legislation (COL) will be held next April 25 to 30. There are 219 items of proposed legislation that will be considered. These items of proposed legislation are available for review online. The Rotary web site provides a link under announcements or you can click on: The 2010 Proposed Legislation book is available for download. Our District 6860 Representative to the 2010 Council is PDG Ty Robin ( , robinty@mindspring.com ). We recommend that you review the proposed legislation over the next few months and provide feedback to PDG Ty on whether you recommend he vote for or against any proposal. Also, any club or district can submit a statement in support or opposition to any particular item. This statement would be provided to all COL representatives to consider before voting next April. This process specifies that the club s statement is limited to one page and must be submitted to the general secretary no later than two months before the opening of the Council (i.e., by February 25, 2010). PDG Ty can help you develop statements of support opposition. Please let him know. August 2009 A Message from the chair -- Fighting polio with urgency and hope The Rotary year we have just begun will be pivotal in determining the course of our Foundation in this, Rotary s second century of service. There are new challenges before us challenges that we must rise to meet in order to keep the promises we have made. The first of those promises, of course, is to eradicate polio. This is our number-one priority as an organization, and it will remain so until the job is done. Last year, more than 1,600 cases of the disease were identified around the world. This is a great improvement from the worst days of polio epidemics, which many of us remember from decades ago. But it is not good enough, and it will not be good enough until the number is zero. We cannot pause or slacken our efforts. We know all too well what happens when we do not reach every child. We saw it in Nigeria in 2003 and have seen it again in the Horn of Africa. In March, Rotary approved US$500,000 in emergency grants to UNICEF and the World Health Organization to help contain the outbreak of wild poliovirus that had spread from war-torn South Sudan into parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. This funding allowed for increased immunization activities in the three countries affected by the spread, and separate rounds of immunization have continued in South Sudan to halt the source of the outbreak. We are optimistic that this outbreak will be contained, and remain confident in the viability of eradication. These recent events only serve to highlight the importance of our continued work. It is not enough merely to keep the number of new outbreaks low. We must bring it to zero Glenn E. Estess Sr. Foundation Trustee Chair August 2009 The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands. 4

5 ALL HANDS ON DECK DISTRICT 6860 ROTARY MEMBERSHIP SEMINAR Cruising the Ins and Outs of Membership Growth Featuring: Johnnie Aycock, Keynote Presenter Sue Mitchell, District 6860 Secretary Club Membership Success Stories Friday, September 25, 2009 from 1:00 4:00 pm Gardendale Civic Center REGISTRATION FORM Name Address Phone Rotary Club Current Club Membership Office/Responsibility Please complete the registration form and return to: Pat Cross, 107 Spotted Fawn Road, Madison, AL Or completed form to MEMBERSHIP ANCHORS ROTARY CLUBS! GOAL: 2-3 PARTICIPANTS PER CLUB August 2009 The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands. 5

6 Ambassadorial Scholar Experiences August 14, 2009 Carson Land shares her experience as an Ambassadorial Scholar: My greatest joy is the service project in which I have been participating for the past month. Soon after I arrived, Dr. Indumati took me to the inauguration of a Rotary mid-day meal project. This project provides healthy lunches to school children in one of the slums. I enjoyed the visit very much and wanted to be involved on a daily basis, but the site is far away from my campus. By good fortune, I soon received an from Carlin Carr, a Ambassadorial Scholar who began an English teaching class at a nearby YMCA. At Carlin s suggestion, I spoke to the YMCA director about continuing her classes. I am now traveling to Juhu Beach each day to teach 25 boys, ages six to fourteen. The boys live at YMCA and are very eager to learn English (and to teach me Hindi words and cricket!). Dr. Indumati recommended that I coordinate a medical program for the children of the YMCA with the Juhu RC. In the coming weeks, I will finalize project plans with their club. Additionally, I plan to coordinate a book and supply drive with my sponsor RC in Decatur. Besides reading and teaching, I have made time for sightseeing in Mumbai. I have jumped onto a speeding train to reach downtown to see the Hanging Gardens on Malabar Hill; Banganga Tank, a cluster of temples, a large bathing pool for pilgrims, and narrow, quiet streets; and Mani Bhavan, the house in which Mahatma Gandhi composed his philosophy of satyagraha. I have watched the sun set over the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and eaten terrific street food on Chowpatti Beach. I have woken early to experience the quiet of Juhu Beach before the people come and the shore springs life. Though classes have not yet begun, I have met other students from all over the world who are here for school and research. At restaurants across the city, I have told friends from India, Germany, Tanzania, the UK, Colombia, and the U.S. about the Rotary Foundation, the Ambassadorial Scholarship program, and my home state of Alabama. Next week, my friend Alexandra from Oxford and I will be traveling to Udaipur in Rajasthan to visit the acclaimed Lake Palace and temples. During the long weekend, we are planning to tour the historical sites and take a cooking class at our guest house. I am looking forward to using my school holidays to travel to New Delhi and Agra, and perhaps elsewhere in India. This year as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar is certainly the experience of a lifetime! Carson Land District 6860 Sponsored by Decatur Daybreak RC Mumbai, India District 3140 August 2009 The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands. 6

7 Uganda Water Project May 2, 2009 saw cornerstone setting for the Uganda Water Catchment Demonstration Project. The project was designed by the Greater Huntsville Rotary Club of Huntsville, Al and jointly managed with the Kampala East Uganda Rotary Club. The project, a composting community latrine with four toilets and water catchment system is located in Bakusu Village, Luwero District, Uganda. Kampala East Rotary Club President Ninyikiriza David Dansor and Greater Huntsville Rotarian Project Engineer Rodger Qualls Latrine Underground cistern the latrine, and also for clothes washing. Most homes do not have latrines and the village well is quite some distance away. Cholera outbreaks are common in Uganda due to poor sanitation. Therefore the sanitary and useful method of disposing of human waste, and the proper use of the clean water from this project, will promote a more healthy environment.for the inhabitants of Bukusu the children. The latrine and cistern are constructed of soil stabilized interlocking brick - which are then covered with plaster. The brick are made onsite, mostly from soil. This method requires substantially less amount of cement and no trees must be be cut to fire the brick. The urine and feces are separately diverted by a plastic insert placed in the floor of each toilet. The separating of urine and feces allows the immediate use of urine to fertilize food crops and then the feces composts for a year before being used as fertilizer on the crops. The land is nutrient- depleted, but commercial fertilizer is too expensive for most people to purchase. The cistern is placed underground to discourage algae growth and is filled by rain run off from the latrine roof. Clean water is then available for the villagers to use for washing their hands after using Bukusu children who helped dig the cistern and move bricks August 2009 The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands. 7

8 District 6860 Leadership Team Georgia Medori.. District Governor John Valieant.. District Governor Elect Martin Uptain.District Governor Nominee Sue Mitchell District Secretary Lee Weinman. District Treasurer Kenneth Schuppert District Parliamentarian Martin Uptain.Coordinator-Administration/Membership Bo Porter... Coordinator-Rotary Foundation Sallie Bryant.Coordinator-Programs Scott Stone Coordinator-Communications Thomas Greene..Coordinator-Trainer Jim Hammond.. Coordinator-Assistant Governors Assistant Governors Mary Morgan Group A Douglas Barclay Group B Thomas Whitten..Group C David Burch Group D Bruce Henderson.Group F Paul Redgate Group G Arthur Young.. Group H Jim Hammond.Group I Jeffery Murphy.Group J Phyllis Hall...Group K Doral Atkins Group L Thomas Greene Group M Aaron Box Group N District Contact Information Georgia Medori 2079 Stone Brook Drive Birmingham, AL Office: (205) Cell: (205) Rotary International The 4-Way Test - 1. Is it the Truth? 2. Is it Fair to all concerned? 3. Will it build Goodwill and Better Friendships? 4. Will it be Beneficial to all concerned? August 2009 The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands. 8