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Council on Legislation to meet in Chicago 10-15 April
Representatives from Rotary clubs worldwide will gather in Chicago 10-15 April to consider changes to the policies that guide Rotary International and its member clubs.
The Council on Legislation meets every three years and is an essential part of Rotary’s governance. The representatives — one from each Rotary district — review and vote on proposals that seek to change Rotary’s constitutional documents and on resolutions that express an opinion or make a recommendation to the Rotary International Board of Directors.
Get live updates and daily vote totals on My Rotary beginning 11 April….
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Culture: Dinner for one
From the April 2016 issue of The Rotarian
There is a new ritual in American life. It goes like this: Whenever you invite someone to dinner, you must inquire about any special dietary needs. Because today, it seems that nearly everyone has drawn a line around foods that cannot pass their lips.
This could be because of allergies, moral qualms, lifestyle choices, health issues, or simple preference. The person might be a vegetarian who eats fish, a carnivore who hates carbs, a glutton who avoids gluten, or a time bomb waiting to be set off by a nut. (Asking ahead makes for a more pleasant…
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Convention: Cultural insights
From the April 2016 issue of The Rotarian
Do you need some context for all you’re experiencing while you’re in Korea for the Rotary International Convention from 28 May to 1 June? Check out one or more of these museums:
1. National Museum of Korea: If you have time for only one, this museum, the sixth largest in the world, has something for everyone: relics from prehistoric times, calligraphy, paintings, sculpture, and even a children’s museum, all housed in a six-story building in the wooded Yongsan Family Park.
2. Korea Furniture Museum: To see how Koreans of the past lived, walk through…
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Clubs: The body politic
From the April 2016 issue of The Rotarian
Rotary clubs are catnip to people running for public office: Rotarians are involved in their communities, civic-minded, and engaged in public improvement. Especially in an election year, clubs are likely to receive calls from candidates in search of a receptive audience.
How a club responds to these requests is completely up to the club itself. For many, it depends on experience with politicians and the preferences of the club officers. Rotary International requires only that clubs not endorse candidates or take sides on public issues.
But the role of…
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Blazing a trail to a national park in the Smokies
From the April 2016 issue of The Rotarian
America’s most-visited national park, the Great Smoky Mountains, is a half-million acres of temperate forest bristling with biodiversity – as 30 species of salamanders and some 1,500 black bears attest. Yet the contours of the park, in Tennessee and North Carolina in nearly equal measures, might have been drawn differently if not for several members of the Rotary Club of Knoxville, Tenn., a role the club marked during its centennial celebration last August.
In 1915, David C. Chapman, the owner of a wholesale drug company and a veteran of the Spanish-…
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Member spotlight: Stephen Mwanje promotes health care for all in Uganda
From the April 2016 issue of The Rotarian
“This was a gift from God.” Stephen Mwanje remembers those words, spoken by a sick man who had just received free treatment from a doctor at a Rotary-led Family Health Day in Uganda last fall. “He never thought he would get the medical attention he needed,” explains Mwanje, a member of the Rotary Club of Mukono, Uganda, who made that man’s care possible.
In 2010-11, Mwanje was governor of District 9200, which then included Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. As he was researching options to address Uganda’s lack of health care, he crossed…
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Get live updates from the Council on Legislation
Get live updates and vote totals from the Council on Legislation on Rotary.org beginning on 11 April.
Representatives from Rotary clubs worldwide will gather in Chicago 10-15 April to consider changes to the policies that guide Rotary International and its member clubs.
Many of this year’s proposed changes are designed to increase membership by giving clubs greater flexibility in the timing and the nature of their meetings. Other proposals would amend membership requirements.
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Grant brings clean water to thousands in Ghana
Worldwide, more than 748 million people live without access to clean water and at least 3,000 children die each day from diarrheal diseases caused by unsafe water. Rotary is working to change that. For example, members used a Rotary grant to drill more than 20 clean-water wells and to repair another 30 in villages across Ghana. The project also included education about and treatment of Buruli ulcer, a debilitating infection that if untreated can lead to disability and death. Nearly 70,000 people will benefit from this initiative.
Support a water and sanitation projectGive now to the clean…
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Institute equips regional leaders to advance Rotary’s story
Regional leaders from around the globe gathered at Rotary World Headquarters in Evanston in early March for training they will use to inspire members in their respective areas.
Several participants – most of whom will begin their term on 1 July – noted that the true measure of the institute’s success will be how well the information they learned is transmitted to Rotary members.
“We have to realize that training doesn’t stop at the district level,” said Michael Boyer, a Rotary public image coordinator from Pismo Beach, California, USA. “We train people really well to be governors and club…