Welcome to my first blog of the New Year – and the ongoing story of my virtual life!
I mentioned in my last blog of 2020 that on December 1st I was to attend the chartering of the new Rotary e-Club of the West of Scotland. It’s always great to see a new club formed, and it was a delight to be present at the launching of this new initiative in District 1230.
Two days later, we had a meeting of the Rotary GB&I Governing Council which may well turn out to be an historic event, as it was agreed to propose to the annual Business Meeting in May a major reform of the association’s governance. Governing Council agreed that instead of the governing body comprising, as at present, the Officers of Rotary GB&I and the 25 District Governors – an unwieldy body of 31 individuals, at least 26 of whom change every year – from 1 July 2022 we’ll move to a much smaller Board, comprising 12 members, most of whom will each serve a three-year term.
The lack of continuity in Governing Council has been a hinderance to Rotary GB&I, and the proposed reform will assist the association in taking a consistent multi-year, strategic approach to its work – vitally important if it is to be as effective as possible in supporting the efforts of districts and clubs to reverse our current membership decline.
Detailed proposals will come, as I have said, to the Business Meeting on 21st May, at which every club is entitled to have its say and vote. Governing Council will be looking to you all for support in its efforts to make Rotary GB&I more effective.
Around that time my part of Suffolk was still in Tier 2, so my club was one of those able to go out with Santa’s Sleigh – socially-distanced, of course, with children, sadly, not able to join Father Christmas on the sleigh, and with no knocking on doors collecting money.
People came out in their droves to see Santa and to donate to our charity fund.”
But if we ever had had any doubts as to the value of this annual project, this last December silenced them. People came out in their droves to see Santa and to donate to our charity fund. I’ve never been one to consider collecting and giving away money as “service”, but going around the streets in our community, cheering up young kids who have lost so much of their usual pleasures this year certainly is service and being People of Action!
Back at the end of last year I mentioned that on 21st December I was scheduled to attend the centenary celebration of the Plymouth Rotary Club – and what a great event it was!
Sad it may be that such a landmark had to be recognised online, but Plymouth made the most of it, and because it was virtual we had Rotarians present from Plymouths all over the world, and from the host club’s French twin, Brest Rotary Club. All-in-all a worthy celebration of 100 years of making a difference.
The rest of December saw a variety of enjoyable parties and social gatherings – all on Zoom, of course!
So what of 2021?
For me the year got off to a great start with a visit to Furness Rotary Club, at which I learned not only of the great work clubs in that area are doing supporting the mass vaccination programme, but also how well what Rotary is doing is recognised by the community. We heard many messages of thanks and appreciation from the NHS and civic leaders.
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I also had the pleasure of attending District 1190’s (Cumbria and Lancashire) District Council meeting, and I’ve had club visits in Leicestershire and Yorkshire. Not so many this month – and just as well, for I’ve had an unexpected opportunity to help out which is currently taking up a lot of my time.
The 2021 International Assembly – the event where incoming District Governors (DGs) are trained by Rotary International (RI) – was supposed to have been held in Florida. Alas, it was another victim of the pandemic, and is now a “virtual” Assembly.
Recognising that in such an event there is the risk of disruption to individuals’ IT systems, RI has recruited a group of experienced past Training Leaders to support the 2021 Training Leaders. I am one. Great fun to reunite with friends from all over the world, and as I write I’m looking forward to meeting many of the 2021/22 DGs. But I think I’ll have to give up sleep for a fortnight!
Finally – and very much not least – I was one of many, many Rotarians who attended the Rotary GB&I ‘Membership Summit’ on 27th January. An inspiring and informative event where our own Membership Co-ordinators, Lesley Sulley and Steve Martin, together with incoming RI Director Nicki Scott and two “visiting” DGs – Tom Gump from the USA and Sam Rajapaske from Australia – shared their ideas and experience.
A great event, and well-timed, for now in lockdown is the time we should we planning how we will get out into the community and Grow Rotary once the pandemic lets us.
