February 2009

GOVERNOR’S GLIMPSE

Greeting from aboard American Airlines flight #1561  in route from Dallas to Jackson.  Toni and I have been to Tulsa for the South Central Regional Youth Exchange winter meeting.  With February being World Understanding Month, we couldn’t have celebrated that any better than to be in Tulsa with 257 students representing 42 countries from around the world.  You would have been proud too.  These young people are bright, energetic, bilingual and just plain sharp.  They love their native countries, but they have also come to love America, as well.  How good does that sound?

We can all better support World Understanding by becoming more supportive of Youth Exchange.  Only our Starkville Club currently has an active program.  Please consider activating Youth Exchange in your club.  It is truly a win-win program.

Rotary, Gates Foundation Announce $355 Million For Polio Eradication
            New challenge grant helps bridge critical funding gap, inspire other donors
            In global effort to end crippling childhood disease

SAN DIEGO, CA (1/21/09) Rotary International and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced they will contribute a combined $355 million in new funds for polio eradication.

The Gates Foundation is awarding Rotary a $255 million challenge grant, which Rotary will match with $100 million raised by its members and supporters over the next three years.  As a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), Rotary’s chief role is fundraising, advocacy and mobilizing volunteers.  The announcement came during the Rotary International Assembly, the organization’s annual leadership conference.

“Rotarians, government leaders and health professionals have made a phenomenal commitment to get us to a point at which polio afflicts only a small number of the world’s children”, said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation.  “However, complete elimination of the polio virus is difficult and will continue to be difficult for a number of years.  Rotary in particular has inspired my own personal commitment to get deeply involved in achieving eradication.”

In accepting the Gates challenge, Rotary Foundation Chair Jonathan Majiyagbe said the funding partnership will inspire other polio eradication allies, both current and new, to ramp up their support.

“With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we are on the brink of eradicating one of the most feared diseases in the world,” Majiyagbe said.  “This shared commitment of Rotary and the Gates Foundation should encourage governments and nongovernmental organizations to ensure the resources are available to end polio once and for all.”

“This partnership of Rotary and the Gates Foundation offers a historic opportunity to rid the world of a disease that robs children of their futures,” and RI President Dong Kurn Lee.  “It is a significant boost toward making real our dream of a polio-free world.”

Rotary will spend the grant money in direct support of immunization activities carried out by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which is spearheaded by Rotary and its partners, the World Health Organization, the U.A. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and UNICEF.  Rotary will distribute the funds through grants to WHO and UNICEF.

Polio eradication has been Rotary’s top priority since 1985, and since the Rotary clubs have raised nearly $800 million for the effort.  Although the initiative has slashed the number of polio cases by 99 percent, the wild poliovirus still persists in four countries:  Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan, and imported cases from those nations threaten to re-infect countries where the virus has been stopped.  The initiative currently faces a critical funding shortfall that must be closed if eradication is to be achieved.

This is the second challenge grant Rotary has received from the Gates Foundation for polio eradication.  In November 2007, Rotary accepted a $100 million challenge grant, which Rotary is matching dollar-for-dollar.  The two challenge grants represent a combined total of $555 million in polio eradication funds.  Rotary’s three-year effort to raise the matching funds for both grants is called Rotary’s $200 Million Challenge.  Rotary also invites the general public to participate by visiting rotary.org/endpolio to learn about polio eradication and contribute to the challenge match.

Rotary Theme
For 2009-2010 Is Announced

The 2009-10 RI theme acknowledges the important role individual Rotary clubs will play in shaping the future of Rotary.  RI President-elect John Kenny unveiled the theme, The Future of Rotary Is in Your Hands, on Monday during the Opening plenary session of the International Assembly, an annual training event in San Diego, California, for incoming District Governors.

“The future of Rotary will not be shaped at RI headquarters – it will be shaped in each and every Rotary club,” Kenny said, “because it is for each of us – as Rotarians – to do what is necessary to keep Rotary strong.”

Kenny acknowledged the foundation established by past Rotary leaders and laid the responsibility for building upon the success on every Rotarian.

“Each one of us is standing on the shoulders of generations of Rotarians past, and it is our responsibility to determine Rotary’s future,” Kenny said.

“The goals we set, whatever our action plan, it is in our hands to accomplish or not,” said Kazeem Mustapha, governor-elect of District 9125 (Nigeria).  “Everybody has to be involved.”

Chuck Cicchella, governor-elect of District 6710 (Kentucky), likes the theme’s emphasis on the future.  “I have always had a strong desire to nurture along young people.  It’s vital to us.”

Kenny emphasized that every Rotary club is and must be autonomous.

“Everything begins and ends with our clubs,” he said. “Our clubs can and do work together; they work through their own districts, in cooperation with other clubs and districts, and with the support of our Foundation.

“But at the end of the day, everything that we accomplish is done through the strength of our clubs.  And so each club must have autonomy to serve where and how it can serve best.”

At the same time, Kenny highlighted the importance of the RI Strategic Plan, adopted by the RI Board of Directors, as an essential tool in providing continuity.

“The plan is designed to strengthen and proclaim the core values of Rotary: service, fellowship, diversity, integrity, and leadership,” Kenny said.  The training sessions for incoming governors during the weeklong assembly are all tied to some component of the strategic plan, and final group discussion on Saturday will seek to tie all the pieces together and show the future district  leaders how to take the strategic plan to the club level.

Kenny concluded his remarks by sharing a favorite saying from his homeland, Scotland: “We must look beyond our own parish pump.”

“It means that we must look beyond our own home and our own community,” Kenny said.  “We must look beyond our own needs, and we must be aware that ours is only one community, of one country, of the many communities and countries in the world.

Membership

If there were a way that you could make the world a better place would you want to know about it?  The reason I ask that question is that there is a way.  You may not have thought about it this way, yet every time you invite a person who joins Rotary you have just made the world a better place.

World peace and understanding doesn’t come in one big lump all at one time.  It comes from each of us doing what we can in our own way through Rotary al little bit at a time.  I don’t have to tell you what Rotary’s humanitarian efforts are and what positive impact you and others have on countless lives through Rotary.  You know what fun and fellowship you have at your club’s meetings.  You know how many good friends you have made through Rotary.

But by golly I have to tell you that most of us are not doing a good job at extending the hand of Rotary to prospective members.  It is past time to get our ask in gear and invite a friend, future friend, colleague or neighbor to attend a Rotary meeting with us.  You can’t just ask once. One of my closest friends, Bruce Young, asked me on three different occasions to join Rotary.  The last time he said “try it for a year Harry and if you don’t like it quit.” I found out that he knew more than I did because nineteen years later I still love it.

Figure out right now who you are going to ask and make the call!  We are into the second half of our Rotary year.  Some clubs have met and others have exceeded President D.K.’s goal of 10% increase for the year.  Some clubs are neutral and others have decreased in membership.  Not all, yet most all, clubs have the ability to meet our President’s goal.  Are you going to seize the opportunity by giving of your best?   When you do you will be proud that you did.  And nineteen years later you can look at how you have made the world a better place through others.  Make that phone call.  Do it now!

A Rotary Foundation Thought About EREY

Every minute of every day, someone’s life is being improved by our Rotary Foundation. Wells are being dug in India, blind children are using Braille typewriters in Brazil, toilets are part of improved sanitation in Sri Lanka, and dental treatment is available to the needy in Nicaragua.  In a world where the divide between the haves and have-nots is growing, we as Rotarians must do our part and “do good in the world.”  Every Rotarian, every project, and every contribution makes a difference every year.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Rotarians

This article was first written for Rotarians on the Internet (ROTI) and has been published in over 150 Rotary club bulletins and translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and Thai languages after being on the ROTI website Dr. Jagdish is a charter member of ROTI.

Attendance
They always make it a point to attend as many Rotary meetings of their clubs and also of other clubs, as is possible.  They are aware that attending Rotary meetings is a very important part of being a Rotarian.  They do not miss any chance to attend such meetings.  They also attend meetings of various committees of which they are members and even some others if they are invited.

They are keen to attend various district functions and all projects of their club.  They are proud to attend the s=district assembly and the district conference every year.  They would try to attend the Rotary convention at least once in five years.

Fellowship
They enjoy meeting other Rotarians.  They often feel that in some of the Rotary functions meeting and exchanging greetings with others is often as important as actual transactions of the meeting.  They go out of their way to talk to those whom they do not know.

They go by the dictum that a stranger is a friend whom you have not yet met.  Even outside Rotary they enjoy meeting people and getting acquainted with them.  At large gatherings of Rotarians they try to meet members from other clubs, rather than fraternizing with members of their own club.

Vocation
They have respect for every vocation.  Vocation and classification are the basis or Rotary.  They firmly believe that each vocation provides a cog in the wheel and each one has its own importance, however insignificant it may appear by itself in comparison with others.  They firmly subscribe to the view that each person should try to excel in whatever he is doing and try to help others to reach a higher level of efficiency in their work.

Discipline
They believe that no useful work can be achieved in a productive manner without discipline, both within and outside.  They appreciate the value of self-discipline because they are aware that like charity, discipline begins at home.  Not only do they practice discipline but also enforce it when needed.

Time, Money and Energy
They know that they are in Rotary for a purpose.  They fully realize that they have to earmark a certain amount of time, money and energy for Rotary as a part of being a Rotarian.  They also realize that they are members of a society where all these three items are to be shared for their vocation, family and the community.  They see to it that a proper balance is maintained while rationing out these commodities.

Empathy
They put themselves in the position of the other person, especially if the other person is in difficulty.  They know that mere sympathy is never enough.  They feel the pain and experience difficulties of others themselves.
They also understand that what they are doing for the community is merely returning a very small part of what they have received from it.  They know that it is only human to expect some kind of recognition for what they are doing but do not hander after getting credit for it.

Image of Rotary
There may be moments when they feel that all is not right with Rotary.  They may feel that there is “politics’ in Rotary.  They know that there are some elements in Rotary who should not be there.  The, however, look at the good aspects of Rotary.  In public and outside Rotary, they always make it a point to project the best face of Rotary.  They would not like to let the public image of Rotary get tarnished.

The next two months will be big months for our Rotary year.  DGE Chuck and his multi-district team have put together an outstanding PETS that will be in Vicksburg, at the Vicksburg Convention Center, on March 6th and 7th.  To register, please go to www.rotary6840.org., then click on “online reservation”.   Also, don’t forget to you’re your hotel reservation.

Tom Tabereaux and his team of Rotarians from Meridian and Waynesboro are planning a District Conference Celebration in Meridian on the 17th and 18th of April.  I’m told we may even begin on Thursday the 16th with an afternoon two-person golf scramble to see which club in the District has the best golfers.  I hope this will mark the “first annual” so that we can carry this forward.  Registration material for the District Conference should be available within the next two weeks.  Meanwhile, please hold the dates.

Thanks for all that you do for Rotary, for your community, and for the world.

Make Dreams Real

Governor Joel

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