Greetings 5170 Century Builders,
I am writing this early in the AM since yesterday when we got back
to the room Cindy wrote some emails to some friends and I laid down
for a minute with the idea that as soon as Cindy was done I was going
to get up and write to you. Once my head hit the pillow I was gone to
the world until this morning.
Yesterday was the first day of the 2004 International Institute and
I thank my classmate who suggested that I should attend. Only around
500 Rotarians from all over the world attend the Institute. I think
that to attend you must be at least a DGN. This is a meeting of the
leaders of the higher levels of Rotary. One gets to discuss issues with
the President of Rotary International, Past Presidents of Rotary International,
Directors of RI, Past Directors of RI, Past District Governors, and
of course some of our District Governor Classmates.
The Institute opened with a Talk from our President, Jonathan Majiyagbe
followed by approximately a ½ hour open forum session where people
from the audience could go up to one of the 2 microphones and ask our
President some very interesting questions. I was so impressed with the
openness of the whole process. Jonathan talked mostly about the Strategic
Plan which the results of they are hoping to adopt at the council of
legislation. The entire plan is talked about on the RI web site which
as you all know is www.Rotary.org or you can get linked from our own
District web site. There are 7 Major points to the Strategic Plan of
which 3 of them will be points we will be dealing with in our District
during the Centennial Year.
After our coffee break we returned to see a marvelous panel on the
stage. It was made up of Cliff Dochterman, Past President of Rotary
International from the USA; Bill Huntley, Past President of RI from
England; Julio Sorjus, Past Director of RI from Spain. The Presider
of this section was Arturo Uribe who comes from District 4130 in Mexico.
(Some of you may remember that District 4130 is the District that we
are having that wonderful Building Bridges Award partnership with the
San Jose Rotary Club). Each of the members of the panel made a presentation
about the Strategic Plan.
Cliff gave an overview of each of the 7 points. Bill Huntley gave an
overview of the methodology and process of how they determined the points
of the Strategic Plan. Julio talked about all of the criteria which
would be used to determine Rotary’s next corporate project. He
shared with us that it was determined that when asked if Rotary should
adopt a new corporate project after polio they voted 12 to 1 to adopt
a new corporate project. What it will be is another question and Julio
shared with us the 15 criteria which will be employed in deciding on
the project.
The Open Forum after the panel presentation was quite a rousing discussion.
It ranged all the way from Dr. Judy Prather who asked “where are
the women in the upper echelons of Rotary?” to Carlo Ravizza,
Past President of RI and incoming Person in charge of the Rotary Foundation
who said that we must change the representation on how to make the voting
on the council of legislation fairer. It was very exciting and I tell
you there was nobody sleeping at this meeting. It ended with a comment
from Matt Caparas who was at our District Conference as the President’s
Representative. He said that he objected to the idea that we would only
have the best Rotarians on the Board of Rotary International. He said
that if we do that then someday we will only have women on the Board.
Then he went on to say that we must be open to change and not let ourselves
be bound so tightly to a strategic plan that we do not have the ability
to evolve. It was absolutely fascinating to be exposed to this level
of discussion. All of you out there who will someday be District Governors,
I suggest that the International Institute is another one of those secrets
about the benefits of this position.
This session was followed by a fellowship luncheon which was absolutely
delightful. We sat with 4 couples whom we had never met before. Two
couples from District 7210 in New York, Adeniji Raji and his wife Lara,
from Nigeria, and Blanche from Illinois and her husband Fred (Blanche
is a classmate of our Carolyn Schuetz). This was an amazing lunch. We
had no idea how many courses were coming. We thought that we were through
several times and then all of a sudden more food kept coming out. The
fellowship was grand and we talked about someday having a table reunion.
After lunch we ran into Sam Okudjeto, Directory of RI and he remembered
about how we are trying to start a project in Rwanda. He grabbed me
by the arm when he saw someone who could help and he and I chased him
down. Sam introduced me to Ambroise Tshimbalanga Kasongo, he is a lovely
man and Sam introduced him as a man who can get things done. He is the
Chairman of the African Regional Polio Plus Committee and he mentioned
how there is a Past District governor on the ground in Rwanda who should
be able to help us.
Following that I went to the Vocational Service Breakout Session. The
Vocational Service evolved into quite a rousing discussion. Some of
you know that I have a passion for this area and apparently there are
some of others who are of like mind. At the end of the session a Japanese
man stood up to talk through a translator. For the entire session the
translator was talking to him and reporting what was being said. He
is the Director for Vocational Service at RI and we listened as he told
us that …..”Our Vocations give us tools to serve our needs.
What is most important is how one does one’s vocation. The better
we do our occupation then the more we improve the level of our society.
Vocational Service should be practiced individually yet clubs can assist
members to improve their vocations. The group sat for a while to absorb
what he said as the session was quickly coming to an end we got a report
from Chris Joscelyne who is the President of Rotary eClub One. They
developed a Rotary Vocational Study Team. This is similar to GSE but
different. I will share this with Richard Flanders, our Vocational Service
Chair.
I then attended the Membership breakout and people shared their success
stories and their failures. One success story which was a membership
recruitment as well as a membership retention success was the commitment
which each member made in a Rotary Club to the following 3 points.
1. I will bring a new person to my Rotary Club,
2. I will activate a new member by getting him involved and getting
to know him better, and
3. I will reactivate a non-active member.
When this session was almost over Frank Devlyn, Past President of RI
could hardly contain himself and he jumped up to make a passionate speech
about membership.
The day ended and we milled around and we talked with several persons
for almost 2 hours. We met up with Chris Joscelyne who is the President
of the eClub. He lives in Sidney, Australia and the club is in the Colorado
District. This certainly adds some interesting complexities in trying
to get people to the District conference from all over the world. He
said that if they were to get together for a meal the eClub would have
to find a venue that would seat around 1700 people.
Finally it was time for a relaxing dinner with 2 of my DG classmates
and their spouses and PDG Del Rabe.
After dinner I collapsed into bed and Cindy wrote some emails and now
I have to dress for the next day of the Institute. Cindy is just finishing
her workout routine, made me some tea, and is telling me it is time
to get ready.
Saying goodbye from Osaka, Japan
Until we see you on the web site tomorrow.
Ron and Cindy
