In 2019-2020 Mark Maloney will be our next President of Rotary International. At a plenary meeting in Seattle Mark stated that in his year our challenge will be to strengthen the many ways that “Rotary Connects the World”, building the connections that allow talented, thoughtful, and generous people to unite and take meaningful action through Rotary service. Not one to reinvent the Rotary wheel this seems like a sound course of action for a lowly President at the club level. In Marches Rotarian magazine Mark tackles the evolving nature and trends that exist for Rotary.
A Kelowna’s city counselor, and community supporter, Mohini Singh was our feature presenter on Tuesday meeting. Mohini’s topic was East meets West and her presentation imbodies Mark Maloney’s slogan “Rotary Connects the World”. In her presentation Mohini identified her Rotary family and how integral and necessary those relationships have been in accomplishing her world vision. Rotarians like Raghwa Gopal, Lois Serwa, and Sharron Shepard to name a few who’s talented, thoughtful, and generous support helped make her projects successful. We have at our disposal countless ways to form friendships and networks.
Back from his travels in Central and South America, Chuck Cey, never far from a Rotary Club, gave us an update on his recent experiences and search for a Rotary project. Like Mark Maloney, Chuck sees Rotary clubs around the world facing the same societal and cultural problems but answering them in different ways. Unimpeded by politics Rotary’s ability to connect us remains unique and unrivaled.
Rotary and its billion-dollar foundation and generates a huge amount of good in the world in its corporate order. In part this corporate order must rely on its membership and membership growth. Mark Maloney and every other president are prisoners of these two thoughts; foundation and membership growth. Here is where I think we can have both/and at the club level. Rather than focus on increased membership I believe that if our existing membership feels significant and are having fun their purpose and meaning in Rotary will grow the club. I believe that our human capital is the tool to generate our good works. If we do membership right, it would be huge, whether we will do it right is another matter. We need to be open to other answers to our questions and as Tony French affirms “the answer is in the room”. For example, our Rotary club has sixty committees at last count creating a crisis of social solidarity, to much isolation, and fragmentation which is the opposite of the richness of community life. The book that explains all this and many people have read it is Thomas Kuhn’s “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”. Kuhn coined the phrase “Paradigm Shift” and I think it is appropriate for where we need to move.
I have talked with Peter Schultz, Tony French, Kathy Butler and Raghwa Gopal who would all like to facilitate a club assembly for the April 2 meeting. We would have table discussions based on a few topics and then a break out session. These discussions (the first of several) like the Bollywood Fundraiser is the foundation for action and not the substitute for inaction. If you have any topics you would like addressed, please send them along. As a starting point, Kathy Butler and I have identified membership questions, as it relates to the individual and to the club.
Susan and I thoroughly enjoyed our selves Friday night at Rosemary Kean’s with the gang from Rotary Now. Apies, wine and risqué board games. We laughed for hours.
Hope to see you all Tuesday at Rotary! “The place to be in Kelowna at noon”