WELCOME TO THE WEEKLY MEETING

FRIDAY, June 24, 2016

In this meeting:

Rotary Minute
ABCs of Rotary
An Update on Polio
Lessons from Dr. Seuss
Looking ahead to the new year
Paul Amoury - Club President for 2016-7
Installation, July 2
Haresh - District Governor for 2016-17
What happened Wednesday
Altruism - Individual Serving
There's no limit to what we can do
What happened Saturday, June 18 - reprise
Humour
Foundation Corner
Rotary Anthem
Four-Way Test to close

NOTE: Where links are provided in the meeting, click the link to view the video. To return to the meeting, click either your browser's BACK button or click the previous window or TAB.

OUR GREETER THIS WEEK IS JOHN FULLER

President's Message

Dear fellow Rotarians and Guests,

Today is the last Saturday of Rotary Fellowships Month and will also be our last meeting for this Rotary year – 2015/16. As we close one year, we look forward to a new year with great anticipation and expectation.

The Rotary theme for 2015/16 had as its theme Be a Gift to the World. All of you have been given so many gifts. And you have now been given this great gift: one year to take all your talents, all your gifts, everything that you are and can become -- and Be a Gift to the World," said RI President Ravindran. I hope on reflection, we have all used these gifts to the betterment of others in all our words, deeds or by our actions.

DG Felix challenged our district to move from Success to Significance when he chose the District theme. He said Success represented the accomplishments and accolades we built up for ourselves. Significance represented the lasting accomplishments we attain for others and is the truest spirit of service. It will be our legacy and will be our gift to the world. As Rotarians, we will be remembered and judged not for how successful we were but for how significant we became.

In the following words quoted by PE John Germ

"I believe everyone recognizes the opportunity to serve Rotary for what it truly is: not a small opportunity, but a great one; an opportunity of a lifetime to change the world for the better, forever through Rotary’s service to humanity,” said Germ.

Rotary members around the globe are serving humanity by providing clean water to underdeveloped communities, promoting peace in conflict areas, and strengthening communities through basic education and literacy. But none is more important than our work to eradicate polio worldwide, he said.

In Wednesday’s HHH, we learned more about incoming RI President John Germ – his early beginnings in Tennessee and his involvement in Rotary since he joined in 1976.

It was indeed my pleasure surviving as your president, and I wish our incoming president and his team all the very best as we embrace our new theme – Rotary serving Humanity. Over to you now PE John.

June 25 – Weekly Meeting - Induction of Bonita Hart

July 2 –
Installation of 2016/17 President and Board
Installation of Assistant Governor for the Rotary E-Club

ROTARY MINUTE

QUOTATIONS REGARDING ROTARY

by Rotary International Presidents

1973-74 William C. Carter (law – general practice), Rotary Club of Battersea, London, England. Rotary vision: That it make the present A Time for Action on the experiences of the past.

“A Rotary club is autonomous, free to seek its own outlets for service. This is a

source of strength. Springing from it is the ability of a club to adapt itself to the

local community.”

— Address to the 1974 Rotary Convention, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

1974-75 William R. Robbins (citrus fruit growing), Rotary Club of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. Rotary vision: A program to renew its spirit.

“Set high personal standards. Make others aware we expect the same. Respect the

pursuit of excellence. Recognize, dignify honest work.”

— Renew the Spirit of Rotary, THE ROTARIAN, July 1974

What would it take to change the world?

ABCs OF ROTARY

RI President (1992-93) Cliff Dochterman

Rotary's Float in the Rose Parade

It may seem a bit far off to consider the January 1 (New Year's Day) Rotary parade participation, but here is what Cliff Dochterman wrote about Rotary's participation.

The Rotary International float in the annual Tournament of Roses Parade is undoubtedly the largest public relations project of the Rotary clubs of the United States and Canada. Since 1924 a Rotary float has been entered 21 times including every year since 1981. The famous Pasadena, California, parade is seen by an estimated 200 million people via worldwide television.

Funds for the construction of the Rotary parade entry are voluntarily given by Rotarians and clubs in the U.S. and Canada. The cost of designing, constructing and flower-covering a Rose Parade float begins at about US$135,000. Hundreds of Rotarians voluntarily travel to Pasadena each year to help put flowers on the Rotary float. A multi-district Rotary committee in southern California coordinates planning of the Rotary float and provides hundreds of volunteer hours of service. The Rotary float must portray the annual parade theme, usually depicting one of the worldwide service programs of Rotary International.

Each New Year's Day, Rotarians take pride in seeing their attractive float and realize they have shared in its construction by contributing a dollar or two to this beautiful public relations project.

Still More Rotary Firsts

Rotary first presented "Significant Achievement Awards" in 1969 to clubs with outstanding International or Community Service projects.
Rotary's first Interact club was organized in Melbourne, Florida, in 1962 to become the pioneer for about 6,000 Interact clubs in 96 countries.
Rotary's first convention held in the Southern Hemisphere was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1948.
Rotary was assigned the copyright on "The 4-Way Test" in 1954 when its author, Herbert Taylor, became president of Rotary International.
Rotary's first Community Service project took place in 1907 when Chicago Rotarians led a campaign to install a public "comfort station" in the city hall.
1964-65 was the first year The Rotary Foundation received total contributions of a million dollars in a single year. Today more than US$65 million is given annually. Contributions since 1917 total more than US$950 million.
Rotary's first appeal for aid to disaster victims was in 1913 when US$25,000 was given for flood relief in Ohio and Indiana, U.S.A.
Rotary's motto, "He Profits Most Who Serves Best," was first expressed at Rotary's very first Convention in Chicago in 1910.

The motto has since been changed. See below.

...from https://www.rotary.org/myrotary/en/history-rotarys-mottoes

Rotary’s official mottoes, Service Above Self and One Profits Most Who Serves Best, trace back to the early days of the organization.

In 1911, He Profits Most Who Serves Best was approved as the Rotary motto at the second convention of the National Association of Rotary Clubs of America, in Portland, Oregon. It was adapted from a speech made by Rotarian Arthur Frederick Sheldon to the first convention, held in Chicago the previous year. Sheldon declared that "only the science of right conduct toward others pays. Business is the science of human services.

He profits most who serves his fellows best."

The Portland convention also inspired the motto Service Above Self. During a convention outing on the Columbia River, Ben Collins, president of the Rotary Club of Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, talked with Seattle Rotarian J.E. Pinkham about the proper way to organize a Rotary club, offering the principle his club had adopted: Service, Not Self. Pinkham invited Paul P. Harris, who also was on the boat trip, to join their conversation. Harris asked Collins to address the convention, and the phrase Service, Not Self was met with great enthusiasm.

At the 1950 RI Convention in Detroit, slightly modified versions of the two slogans were formally approved as the official mottoes of Rotary: He Profits Most Who Serves Best and Service Above Self.

The 1989 established Service Above Self as the principal motto of Rotary, because it best conveys the philosophy of unselfish volunteer service.

He Profits Most Who Serves Best was modified by the 2004 Council to They Profit Most Who Serve Best, and by the 2010 Council to its current wording, One Profits Most Who Serves Best.

AN UPDATE ON POLIO

RI President K.R. Ravindran closed the convention in Korea on Wednesday, 1 June, with a poignant story about his mother's fight to survive polio at age 30.

When Ravindran was 11 years old in his native Sri Lanka, his mother awoke one day feeling weak and short of breath. Sitting down to rest, she found herself unable to move. The polio virus had quickly invaded her nervous system, resulting in paralysis.

She was placed in an iron lung at the hospital to enable her to breathe, and was told that her chances of walking, or even surviving without a ventilator, were slim. But most Sri Lankan hospitals were not equipped with ventilators in 1963.

Ravindran's grandfather, a Rotary member, hosted a club committee meeting in his living room the evening after his daughter was rushed to the hospital. Rather than simply offer consolation, his fellow members went to work, using their business acumen and professional connections to find a ventilator.

One of the members was a bank manager who called a government minister to facilitate a quick international transfer of funds. Another member, a manager at SwissAir, arranged to have a ventilator flown in. The next day, it arrived at the hospital.

"There was so much red tape at the time in Sri Lanka, but somehow, those Rotarians made it all fall away," Ravindran told the packed audience at the KINTEX Convention Center in Goyang city.

Ravindran's mother spent a year-and-a-half in a hospital bed, but her condition gradually improved. She eventually left the hospital walking -- with a walker, but upright, on her own two feet.

"Fifty-three years ago, my mother's life was perhaps one of the very first to be saved from polio by Rotarians," Ravindran said. "We have saved millions of lives since then.

"Tonight, I stand before you as her son, and your president, to say that soon -- perhaps not in years but in months -- Rotary will give a gift that will endure forever: a world without polio."

At the convention's general session the day before, Rebecca Martin, director of the Center for Global Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had described how close we are to polio eradication. Earlier that day, Rotary released an additional $35 million in grants to support global efforts to end the crippling disease.

This year's convention, one of the largest in Rotary history, attracted more than 43,000 attendees from over 150 countries. Ravindran, in his final speech to members as their president, emphasized what it really means to be a Rotarian.

"There are people on this planet whose lives are better now because you traversed this earth," he said. "And it doesn't matter if they know that or not. It doesn't matter if they even know your name or not. What really matters is that your work touched lives; that it left people healthier, happier, better than they were before."

...from rotary.org

NATIONAL IMMUNIZATION DAY IN INDIA

If you are interested in participating in an NID (National Immunization Day) in India, you may be interested in the following information:

Click these "hot links" below for more information:

http://www.calindiatours.com/rotary/login.aspx

Password - Poliotours

(Both username/password are case sensitive)

http://www.calindiatours.com/downloads/Polio_Tour_Itinerary_India_Trip.pdf

Looking ahead to next year

Following Ravindran's remarks at the recent International Convention, members of Ravindran's Rotary Club of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and RI President-elect John Germ's Rotary Club of Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, took the stage to exchange club banners, a tradition that unofficially marks the changing of the guard.

Germ told the audience that Rotary is about to begin the most progressive year in its history.

"You told us that we need to change and become more flexible so that Rotary service will be attractive to younger members, recent retirees, and working people," Germ said. "You spoke with clarity, and ground-breaking legislation was passed this year at the Council on Legislation.

"Clubs now have the opportunity to be who they want to be, but at the same time remain true to our core. I'm pleased to share with you that Rotarians all over the world are responding with great excitement."

The story below appeared in the ENSCO newsletter this month.

Paul Amoury to Serve as President of

Rotary E-Club of the Caribbean, 7020

A U.S. citizen born in the Bahamas, Paul Amoury has followed his father’s example in his pursuit of service to others through an association with Rotary International. In July, Paul will become President of the Rotary E-Club of the Caribbean, 7020.

Following the goal of Rotary International, as president, Paul will continue to encourage health and wellness by promoting the Rotary push to eradicate polio from the world. There are only two remaining countries with polio.

Another goal of Paul’s is to promote education in developing countries by producing the Butterfly Storybook, books written by Caribbean students, ages 7 to 11 years, about good works and friendships.

President-elect, Paul Amoury

The hope is to improve literacy throughout the world by providing a book that can be read by children in all parts of the world, and at the same time give young authors an opportunity to be published. This is the fifth year for the project, and the books are available in English, French, Creole, and Spanish.

This year, Paul plans to produce Book 1 in Braille and to distribute Braille copies to schools for blind children in Jamaica and the Bahamas. Paul is an administrator in the Contracts and Procurement Division.

OUR NEW DISTRICT GOVERNOR (2016-17)

IS AN INTERESTING FELLOW

WHAT HAPPENED ON WEDNESDAY!

June 22

If you have not seen this speech yet, please take the time now to learn more about

Rotary International for 2016-17.

WHO IS JOHN GERM?

John F. Germ, a member of the Rotary Club of Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, and chair of the International PolioPlus Committee, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of RI in 2016-17. He will become the president-nominee on 1 October if there are no challenging candidates.

For Rotary to thrive, Germ says, members must face current and future challenges and opportunities with "passion, enthusiasm, perseverance, and above all, integrity."

"I envision Rotary boldly and creatively engaging the success of polio eradication, membership and identity issues, strengthening clubs, work with youth – our future lifeblood, and the creation of critical, strategic partnerships," says Germ. "The 2016-17 Rotary year offers a tremendous opportunity for Rotary International and the Foundation partnership unified and thriving, on all levels, via the six areas of focus."

Germ says no one should ever have to ask, "What is Rotary?"

"We will enhance Rotary's public image by successfully and enthusiastically marketing who we are, what amazing things we are doing, and incredibly, have done locally and globally," says Germ.

With the global economy still unpredictable, Germ says Rotary must make participation affordable and "also be unfailingly diligent in efforts to ensure we spend every dollar effectively and efficiently," he says.

In 1965, after four years in the U.S. Air Force, Germ, an engineer, joined Campbell and Associates Inc., an engineering consulting firm. He now serves as the company's board chair and chief executive officer.

He also serves on the boards of several organizations including the Public Education Foundation, Orange Grove Center Inc., and the Blood Assurance Inc. He is the founder and treasurer of the Chattanooga State Technical Community College Foundation and is president of the Tennessee Jaycee Foundation.

In 1970 he was recognized as Tennessee Young Man of the Year, Engineer of the Year, and Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year in 1992.

A Rotary member since 1976, Germ has served Rotary as vice president, director, Foundation trustee and vice chair, chair of Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge, and RI president's aide. He is a recipient of Rotary's Service Above Self Award and The Rotary Foundation's Citation for Meritorious Service and Distinguished Service Award. He and his wife, Judy, are members of the Arch Klumph Society.

"Rotary will adapt to a rapidly changing world by embracing innovation within the guidelines of our tradition and values," says Germ. "By aggressively embracing new technologies, social media, and new opportunities, individuals and businesses will see that Rotary helps promote a good civic and public image while adding credibility to their people."

The Nominating Committee members are T.D. Griley, Newark, Ohio, USA (chair); José Antonio F. Antiório, Osasco, São Paulo, Brazil; Keith Barnard-Jones, The Island & Royal Manor of Portland, Dorset, England; Kenneth R. Boyd, Kerman, California, USA; Michael Colasurdo Sr., Brick Township, New Jersey, USA; Yash Pal Das, Ambala, Haryana, India; John Eberhard, London, Ontario, Canada; Barry Matheson, Jessheim, Norway; Shekhar Mehta, Calcutta-Mahanagar, West Bengal, India; Carlo Monticelli, Milano Net, Italy; Samuel Owori, Kampala, Uganda; Kazuhiko Ozawa, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan; Ekkehart Pandel, Bückeburg, Germany; Juin Park, Suncheon, Jeonranam, Korea; John C. Smarge, Naples, Florida, USA; Barry E. Thompson, Padstow, New South Wales, Australia; and Thomas M. Thorfinnson, Eden Prairie Noon, Minnesota, USA.

By Ryan Hyland

Rotary News

5-Aug-2014

RSS

Also, a video from a PETS conference

In attendance were Bonita, Kitty, Wein, Lou, and Dawn!

Things to think about for our new year -

We are all part of Team Rotary!
Would Dolly Parton's Imagination Library be something we could pursue for another Literacy project? It sounds like it may have some relevance to our E-Club situation.
The decision of what Rotary will be in 100 years begins right now - with each and every single one of us. What will you do to make Rotary better? And what will you do to help Rotary serve Humanity?

Plan to join us on a Wednesday to continue to learn and to have fun!

From the June 2016 issue of The Rotarian

The sun rises on a new school day. In rural Ganguli, India, 450 students climb aboard school buses. Five years ago they couldn’t have gone to school because the distance from their village was too far to walk.

In San Agustín, Ecuador, students used to attend classes in the town morgue when it rained, because their school had no roof. Since 2012, hundreds of children there have learned to read and write in a real classroom.

Quietly orchestrating these and other projects was Vasanth Prabhu, a member of the Rotary Club of Central Chester County (Lionville), Pa. When he was growing up in India, education was not free, and he saw how hard his father worked to pay for schooling for eight children. Understanding how school can change a person’s life keeps Prabhu working to provide education to those with no access to it, he says.

“I feel that everyone is a diamond in the rough,” he says. “But it must be cut and polished to show its brilliance.” So instead of spending his money on luxuries, he is using it to bring out that brilliance.

There are three ways we can deal with enormous problems and our emotional responses to them. We can let them overcome us until we feel too paralyzed to act. We can bury our heads in the sand. Or we can act. And when we help others, we often find that we benefit as well.

“Taking action allows me to exercise passion,” Prabhu says, “to give it a good place to go.”

James Doty, director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University, wrote Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart. “We’re adapted to recognize suffering and pain; for us to respond is hard-wired into our brain’s pleasure centers,” says Doty. “We receive oxytocin or dopamine bursts that result in increased blood flow to our reward centers. In short, we feel good when we help.”

Caring for others brings other benefits, too. “When we engage in activities that help, it also results in lowering our blood pressure and heart rate,” he notes. Research shows that it can help us live longer. And the good deeds we do can inspire others.

On the flip side, Doty says, “People can create mistrust or fear by implying that another group is threatening our safety. When that happens, fear or anxiety makes us want to withdraw into our own group and not care for others. Hormones are released that are detrimental to long-term health. But generally speaking, most people will be kind and compassionate to other people.”

For years, Peggy Callahan has told stories that are hard to hear. A documentary producer covering social justice issues, she’s also a co-founder of two nonprofits working to help people who are enslaved or caught in human trafficking. But perhaps paradoxically, her difficult work brings her happiness, and, thanks to neuroscience research, she understands why. “When you do an act of good, you get a neurotransmitter ‘drop’ in your brain that makes you happy,” she says. And there’s a multiplier effect: “Someone who witnesses that act also experiences that, and remembering that act makes it happen all over again.” She wondered how she could leverage that.

The result was Anonymous Good, a virtual community and website where people post stories or photos of acts of kindness they’ve carried out, observed, or received. For each act posted, website sponsors make a donation to feed the hungry, free people who are enslaved, plant a tree for cleaner air, or dig a well for clean water.

“One act of good is much more than simply one act of good,” says Callahan. “It’s part of a much bigger force.”

Like Prabhu and Callahan, P.J. Maddox – a member of the Rotary Club of Dunn Loring-Merrifield, Va. – has felt the joy of tackling issues that seem too big to face. Rotary projects she has supported include funding a nurse-led clinic in war-ravaged rural Nicaragua. She has also mentored and made a Youth Exchange trip possible for a student otherwise unable to participate because of hardships at home.

“Some problems are so complicated and huge, it could be easy to say, ‘Why bother?’” Maddox says. “But in addition to Rotary’s power of collective talents to make something happen, I realized that the outcome of these projects wouldn’t have been what they were if I wasn’t there. I realized that a single human being can change the world.”

As the sun sets around the globe – as students in India head back home on the school bus, as pupils in Ecuador close their books for the day, and as people in many places are well-fed, free, and happy – the world looks a little different. Because one individual extended a hand, there are people newly ready to change the world tomorrow.

Carol Hart Metzker is the author of Facing the Monster: How One Person Can Fight Child Slavery and a member of the E-Club of One World D5240.

By Carol Hart Metzker

The Rotarian

1-Jun-2016

WHAT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY

June 18

Speaker DRRE Paul

In case you missed it...

SOME HUMOUR

When I was a kid ...

These celebs might just be str-r-r-retching the truth.

"When I was a kid, I had two friends. They were imaginary, and they would only play with each other."

...Rita Rudner

"I was the kid next door's imaginary friend."

...Emo Philips

"When I was a kid, my parents moved a lot. But I always found them."

...Rodney Dangerfield

"As a child, my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it."

...Buddy Hackett

"We used to play spin the bottle when I was a kid. A girl would spin the bottle and if it pointed to you when it stopped, the girl could either kiss you or give you a dime. By the time I was 14, I owned my own home."

...Gene Perret

FOUNDATION CORNER

WHAT IS THE ANNUAL FUND

ANNUAL FUND is the primary source of funding for all Foundation activities. Our annual contributions help Rotary Clubs take action to create positive change in communities at home and around the world. Our gift helps strengthen peace efforts, provide clean water and sanitation, support education, grow local economies, save mothers and children and fight disease.

The EVERY ROTARIAN every year (EREY) initiative asks every Rotarian to support The Rotary Foundation every year.

Through our annual Sustaining Member contributions of $100 or more, the Rotary E-Club of the Caribbean, 7020 has been a 100% EREY contributor since we were chartered in 2013. Let us continue to support The Rotary Foundation (TRF) through our annual donations. We have been and continue to “Be a gift to the World."