In May Rotary acknowledges and celebrates Youth and Education and all our accomplishments in this area of Focus. As President in 2019-2020 I would like to carry this theme through out my year. During the past few months we have had students and educators put on some of our best presentations. Last weeks presenter from UBCO was another example of the innovations that are coming forward from youth and education. From our questions and responses these presentations had a dramatic effect and showed the human connectedness we can have. Rotary’s greatest strength will always be the individual and no other organization has more effect at combining the power of human resources. As I have prepared and planned for our new Rotary year, one of our most pressing issues in our membership is age. In his RI Presidency James F. Conway suggested that, “Rotary must be renewed constantly at the club level to avoid stagnation and at the International level to avoid retrogression, but Rotary at all levels depends on the individual Rotarian. With this in mind, I hope to move forward with a willingness to try something new, not being bound by the past and confidence to take a risk.
To ensure a strong and sustainable Rotary Club we need to address the question of youth, not only for today but for our future. To sustain growth club’s need to know why young business and professional people join and why they stay. If invitees don’t join or members do not stay our club may not be meeting or exceeding their expectations. To ensure our club is worth belonging to, your responses at the assembly was a starting point for improving our clubs’ future direction, to attract new members and engage existing members. From this idea our three questions where asking: where we are now, what do we want to be and how do we get there. Whatever brought each of us to Rotary, we stay because we find value in Rotary membership and this membership should reflect the diversity in our communities and the world. Yet only a small minority of our membership reflect our youth. It is with our youth that we will build an enduring, sustainable and value-based organization that is Rotary. I look forward to your responses to the answers generated from the April 2 assembly, on our May 7 meeting. At this time, you will have an opportunity to collaborate on the best practices for our club’s direction.
See you all this Tuesday. The place to be in Kelowna at noon.