HAPPY 105^TH BIRTHDAY TO ROTARY INTERNATIONAL!!!

 

February 23, 2010 will mark 105 years since the founding of Rotary in Chicago Illinois.  What amazing and miraculous things have happened in Rotary during those years.  Take time at your Club meeting during the last week of February to have a special celebration of our 105^th birthday—a Rotary History Minute, a celebration of Rotary in some way to remember that we are an organization dedicated to “Doing Good in the World.”  World wide this day will be celebrated as Rotary Day with special recognition of our efforts in the eradication of Polio.  Celebrate in your Club and your Community!  For more ideas on celebrating Rotary Day, so to the RI Website:

http://www.rotary.org/en/MediaAndNews/News/Pages/100201_news_bdayresources.aspx

 

 

PATHWAYS TO PEACE & WORLD UNDERSTANDING MONTH

RI President John Kenny in the February issue of the Rotarian wrote: “If we are ever to realize Paul Harris’ vision for Rotary as an organization that promotes goodwill among nations, then, as he wrote, ‘the hearts of men must be touched and molded that mutual understanding and goodwill will take the place of fear and hatred.”  In this, World Understanding Month, we do well to remember these words – and to remember as well that in all of our service, we reach for the larger goal of fellowship, understanding and Peace.

To observe World Understanding Month, Rotary District 5340 and the Pathways to Peace Committee encourage all clubs to plan programs for their weekly meetings and undertake special activities that emphasize “understanding and goodwill as essential for world peace”. Some examples of club participation may include: selecting a Peacemaker of the year at club and/or District level, send a team to Model UN weekend, present a Rotary Peace Minute, sponsor a dialogue in the community.

World Understanding Month provides an opportunity for every club to pause, plan and promote Rotary’s continuing quest for goodwill, understanding and peace among peoples of the world. For more information: http://www.5340.org. (Submitted by Clara Harris, Outreach Chair, Pathways to Peace Committee).

 

 

My fellow Rotarians,

Each of us has, at one time or another, been asked the question, what is Rotary? There are many ways to answer, depending on the questioner, the context, and the time available. The shortest and simplest answer is that Rotary is the world’s oldest service club organization. This is, of course, an accurate but necessarily incomplete response, for any true understanding of Rotary must include an explanation of how we in Rotary strive through our service to achieve more than the goal of each individual project. By working together in our clubs, our districts, and internationally, we strive to establish the simple foundations of a better society: friendship, trust, honesty, and hope.

The structure of Rotary, along with our international club projects, helps make friendly connections between Rotarians in different countries. Our emphasis on ethical and honest behavior works to build strong and open relationships between people and nations. Our service projects in water, health and hunger, and literacy help eliminate many of the practical obstacles to peace. And our Rotary Foundation and Rotary Youth Exchange programs go a step beyond by training the leaders of tomorrow to be active builders of a more peaceful world.

These programs help shape responsible citizens of better communities -- people who will have a broad and nuanced perspective, enhanced by opened eyes and open minds. They will be indelibly marked by their experiences, and throughout their lives -- both now and in their later careers -- they will not keep the benefits of these experiences to themselves. These are the people who will help build the kind of future that we as Rotarians strive to create through our every action.

What is Rotary? It is a network of people who care -- people who are both realists and optimists. We recognize the challenges before us and our own limitations; we also recognize our abilities and our responsibility to use them to the fullest. If we are ever to realize Paul Harris’ vision for Rotary as an organization that promotes goodwill among nations, then, as he wrote, “the hearts of men must be so touched and molded that mutual understanding and goodwill will take the place of fear and hatred.” In this, World Understanding Month, we do well to remember these words -- and to remember as well that in all of our service, we reach for the larger goal of fellowship, understanding, and peace.

John Kenny
President, Rotary International

 

 

 

 

DISTRICT 5340 HOSTS INTERNATIONAL ASSEMBLY AND HOST HOSPITALITY NIGHT

RI President-Elect Ray Klinginsmith announced to his District Governor-Elects that they will be “Building Communities, Bridging Continents” during 2010-11.  Following a special two day training session for Future Vision Pilot Districts (including District 5340), District Governor-Elects and their spouses/partners came to San Diego and were greeted at the airport by local Rotarians, organized by PDG Jim O’Meara.  Our local Clubs hosted many DGEs for a Host Hospitality Night ranging from Rancho Santa Fe to Chula Vista to La Mesa/El Cajon and many parties in between.  RI treated our local volunteers to a Volunteers Reception at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, home of the International Assembly which included the International Festival Night (talent show)—kicked off with “Carnavale” brought in by the Brazilian DGEs and spouses and the grand finale was Mardi Gras featuring RIP-E Ray & his wife Judie and the District Leaders from the New Orleans area who are inviting Rotarians for the International Convention in May 2011.   Many thanks to all the District Rotarians who participated in the volunteer activities to make this International Assembly a welcoming event for our Rotary guests!

 

 

DISTRICT LEADERSHIP SEMINAR A SUCCESS IN VISTA

On Saturday, January 30, over 150 Rotarian leaders gathered at the Vista Entertainment Center for our first ever District Leadership Seminar.  District Governor Marge Cole convened current Club Presidents together to share “Best Practices” in the areas of Membership, Fundraising, and PR/Communications.  A lively discussion of what is happening in their clubs followed the Best Practices presentation. 

 

At the same time, District Governor-Elect Dave Breeding met with the President-Elects for 2010-11 and shared the theme for their year, “Building Communities, Bridging Continents” and other Pre-PETS information.  Both groups met together for a presentation on the Future Visions Pilot Plan from PDG Pam Russell, who will be District Rotary Foundation Chair in 2010-11.  A presentation on the District Conference and the Montreal RI Convention preceded lunch which allowed Presidents, President-Elects, Assistant Governors, and Foundation Mentors to meet together informally and share their morning.  Thanks to Vista Rotarians Billy Harmatz for his hospitality in allowing the use of the Vista Entertainment Center and Larry Sundram for making the arrangements for the meeting.

 

GROUP STUDY EXCHANGE PROGRAM IS ACTIVE DURING 2009-10 ROTARY YEAR

Del Mar Club President Janice Kurth left with her Group Study Exchange (GSE) Team for Kenya in D9200 on Sunday, January 31.  Her Team is made up of Health Professionals and will visit clinics, hospitals, and health programs and centers while in Kenya for the month of February.  They will be sending back photos and accounts of their travels on their blog (http://kenyagse2010.blogspot.com/) --check it on a regular basis to see where they are and what they are doing.  They will return to our District on  February 28 at 9:45 PM at San Diego International, Terminal #2.

 

We will host a GSE Team of Educators from Ecuador (D4400) arriving on February 27 and visiting our District until March 27.  They are the Inbound part of the exchange Team  led by Chula Vista Sunrise Rotarian Marta Knight that visited Ecuador in November/December 2009.  

 

Our last Inbound Team from East Africa  (D9200) will be Health Professional and they will visit our District from April 24 through May 22.  They will attend our District Conference in Imperial Valley in addition to visiting our District health care facilities.

 

With the new Future Vision Pilot, we will transition to a new model called Vocational Training Teams (VTT), so these may be the last GSE Teams we send out or host.  This has been a wonderful program which we have participated in for over 30 years.  Because we have hosted and sent out uni-vocational Teams for the past ten years—we are anticipating the new VTT Programs under the Future Vision Pilot as well.

 

100th Anniversary Rotary –Scouting Connection

Dale Long, Encinitas Rotary Club—Chair of the Scouting/Rotary Connection for 2009-10

 

Step One:  January 9^th and 10^th we were at Adventure Base 100 in Mission Valley with a Rotary membership booth as part of the Scouting community in San Diego and took our First Step.  We identified 37 Scouting units and 11 Rotary clubs that are committing to a joint service activity on Rotarians at Work Day April 24^th, 2010.

 

Will you please make note to visit with your RAW and Community Service Chairs to support our connection with scouting this year?

 

Step Two is to continue to connect the communication lines by supporting Scouting in the annual Scouting for Food Drive the week of March 8^th thru 13th.  Your action item would be to have your Community Service Chair prepared to give Dale Long a dlong1@san.rr.com your club’s position on if you’ll collect food on one meeting day during the week of March 8^th thru the 13^th.  With this information Dale will make sure either a Scouter or, our other partner the Salvation Army, will have someone at your  club meeting to pick up the food and thank you for your donations.   Dale will also connect you with Unit leader’s names and phone numbers the troops in your area at this time.  We will make every effort to have a uniformed scout or scouter at your meeting to thank you for helping with the local food drive.  You can see the Scouts information at http://www.sdicbsa.org/Activities/ScoutingForFood/on on the scout’s site

Please make this conversation an action item this coming week of February 1st.

 

 Your action item would be to have your Community Service Chair prepared to give Dale Long a dlong1@san.rr.com your club’s position on if you’ll collect food on one meeting day during the week of March 8^th thru the 13^th.  With this information Dale will make sure either a Scouter or  Salvation Army representative  will have someone at your  club meeting to pick up the food and thank you.  Our goal is 100 tons for the 100^th anniversary, dream big!  Channel 6, the CW Network,  has agreed to broadcast the activities of our 3 way partnership.  Our goal in addition to having event coverage is to get daily personal interest stories about service Scouting, Rotary and the Salvation Army provide to their communities.  The scouting units have been signing up for several weeks.  

This is the beginning of Rotary’s sign up--please hit it hard these next two weeks.

 

Step Three is the clubs decision to connect with a scouting unit or 4 in your local area to do a joint community service project on April 24^th in this Scouting’s 100^th anniversary.  Your action item would be to have your Rotarians at Work (RAW) Chair prepared to give Dale Long - dlong1@san.rr.com - your club’s position on working with a Scouting unit  and what kind of project you are planning.  Dale is working with the Boy Scout Council to identify troops and actual numbers of Scouts and Scouters to help with the day of service.  Jim Roth,  our District RAW chair, will be encouraging these connections with the scout units.  By hitting this communication trial hard for the food drive we hope to fine tune the communication for April 24^th so there can be a better utilization of the sheer volume of man-hours available.  The goal is to have 10,000 volunteers doing community service on the same day through out San Diego and Imperial counties.  Please help us move the communication and planning for the April 24^th forward.

Thanks for your leadership!

 

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES A JOINT EFFORT WITH THE UN GLOBAL COMPACT

 

Rotary and the UN Global Compact are pleased to announce a joint effort to work together to support UN goals through sustained and responsible business practices. The initiative aims to encourage Global Compact local networks and Rotary's more than 33,000 clubs to pursue joint activities and programs.

 

As you are aware, Rotary’s humanitarian efforts are complimented by its emphases on high ethical standards in business and all the professions. Similarly, United Nations Global Compact is a public-private initiative for businesses worldwide committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten principles in the areas of human rights, labor standards, the environment, and anti-corruption.