Chairman's Report

As Rotary (and ROTI) enters 2008, we complete to challenge to “Share,” and prepare to “Dream.” I ask how many of you have “shared Rotary?” Have you shared your knowledge, your time, your skills, or perhaps your finances, to support Rotary’s goals for the Rotary Year 2007-2008? Have you invited a friend to become a Rotarian? Have you asked a fellow Rotarian to join ROTI? If you can answer “yes” to these questions, then I offer you my congratulations. If not, you still have six months to complete those tasks, and enjoy the feelings of meeting the goals set before you.

We opened our January discussions on the General List through fellowship as the members welcomed the New Year in around the ROTI world and described some of the celebrations in their countries. This elicited a discussion on the values of fireworks celebrations versus using those funds for causes of more direct benefit for children. The Rose Bowl Parade in California annually has as one of the floats, one produced by Rotary. A link was provided by a member which displayed how the float was assembled by volunteers and help millions to be aware of Rotary’s biggest project, that of eliminating Polio in the world. This massive and beautiful float was, as required of all in the parade, made entirely of flowers. I hope you had the opportunity to see the video clip of the Rotary float; it would make you proud to be a Rotarian.

We continued by discussing “how to find happiness,” and “how to stay young.” Admittedly, we did not find all the answers, but enjoyed the give and take of several who posted ideas about the topics.

On the Serious ROTI list, we saw appeals for surgeons and dentists who could assist in cleft palate medical projects. An appeal for help in Kenya, caused by the need for homes, brought forth another need for awareness. The word cleft, stirred a request by one ROTIan to translate the clef, a common musical term, to French for a paper he was writing.

I hinted in my opening paragraph at the theme of RIPE DK Lee for RY 2008-2009 “Make Dreams Real.” There was considerable discussion on the theme, the artwork, and the protocol of releasing it to the Rotary membership. Most seemed to feel that if Rotary International chose to release the theme at the same RIPE Lee did, it should be accepted as proper to distribute the information among Rotarians via electronic communication, whether by internet, cellular phone, or other means.

OK, now time for your ROTI Chair’s plea. I’ll follow our present and future theme.
  • Rotary Shares I know many of you have great ideas, and have developed projects in which all of would benefit. How about more ideas about fund raisers, good speakers, or even the funniest thing you ever remember happening at a Rotary meeting?
  • Make Your Dreams Real What dreams have you had in the past for yourself as a Rotarian, or for you Rotary club? Did some of them become a reality? What did you do to make that happen?
  • What was your theme? Did it influence you as a Rotarian? Where you very aware of it at the time? Is it more meaningful now, than it was when you joined Rotary?

OK, let’s lighten up and talk about resolutions for the New Year you may have made. Let us know some of them……and if you have already dumped some of them.

There is so much good information in the ROTI files. Just use the search when you have a question. I suggest you go to the main yahoogroup page and enter your group; general, serious, or ROTI-Tech. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com and you can add your group or groups. Then put it on your bookmarks or favorites so you can go there anytime. You will find a great deal of data there, such as a listing of posts by month and year, membership numbers, files, and photos. You did know you could post a file or photo to ROTI didn’t you? You can’t post them to the general list, but they can be posted on the files or photos section. Go here and see what I mean: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Rotarians/files/

That’s all for now………..see you next month.

Ron



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