First the Good News…. We have been notified of our booth at LA Convention.

Now the Bad News……. We were not allowed a second booth as I requested.

More Good News……. We are booth 247 and ICURF is booth 249 which will allow us to hopefully share a computer connection….via wireless router or hub with Ethernet connection and a RJ 45 cable.

Now the planning begins. I will need to gather a list of ROTIans that will be attending the RI Convention in Los Angeles. Those that will be staying at the hotel arranged by Art, provides a good start. The board voted to allow the Latino Cultural Group as proposed by BOD Leticia. The proximity of Los Angeles to Latin America should bring many ROTIans from that area to the convention.

Now for the important news:

On February 10th, Board of Directors Member Robin Chapple moved that the ROTI By-Laws be amended. The motion was seconded by Chris Wilks and was then submitted to the BOD for their vote. The motion passed with a vote of 13 yes, 1 no, and 1 abstaining.

The BOD feels that this revision is necessary due to the large number of Rotarians that sign up to join ROTI and elect to not receive any of the three mailing lists we provide. This may either be by their choosing or of simply neglecting to choose one when they join ROTI.

The ROTI Board of Directors hereby propose that we amend our bylaws. I hope you also see the benefits of this necessary change.

The current clause is:

2.1 Any Rotarian in good standing, spouse of such Rotarian, or any Rotaractor in good standing who has registered on the main ROTI Communication list register, and who is willing and able to receive periodic official announcements and ROTI publications, will be considered a "ROTI" member in good standing.

Proposed new clause 2.2

Every member as defined in the terms of Clause 2.1 shall agree, as a condition of membership, to subscribe to one or more of the ROTI mailing lists.

Reasoning:
We are a Fellowship and by definition "fellowship" embraces sharing; it requires giving as well as taking in a spirit of friendship and mutual support. Why join Rotary and not attend meetings? I think we all agree that is not the way things are done. We don't require you to post; just receive the information that you might find beneficial. The current system requires a great deal of work for the administrators and produces no benefit to those who have joined ROTI, but have opted not to receive any of our fellowship lists. We are now asking that a ROTIan must register for at least one of our mailing lists.

We presently offer three:

ROTI General: Any topic is allowed with some oversight by the ROTI Sgt@Arms
ROTI Serious: A moderated list; only serious topics about Rotary are allowed.
ROTI Technical: A list that addresses web, computer, virus, and spam questions.

Voting will be done using an online form and supervised by two nominated members to scrutinize to balloting. A copy will be sent to the email address which you use. That email address will be validated against our membership database.

I, and the ROTI Board of Directors, ask for your support of this motion to modify our By-Laws. We feel that 1) it will provide greater benefits to our membership, and 2) streamline tasks facing our ROTI membership coordinators.

Ron

Ron Nethercutt
ROTI Chair 07-09
RC Clark Centennial D 3790
Angeles City, Philippines