One of Rotary's rules is that there has to be a local club on the ground to partner with the international effort. It makes sense. They are the eyes and ears to watch out for problems, and they guarantee some level of local initiative and involvement. Rotarians the world over commit to a set of values, and a set of rules. The values are good ones. Their motto is "service above self". How can you go wrong with that? Their current major initiative world wide is the eradication of polio. Their mission is to create a network of professionals who are engaged in service oriented projects, both at home and abroad. Their areas of focus are:
- Peace and conflict prevention/resolution
- Disease prevention and treatment
- Water and sanitation
- Maternal and child health
- Basic education and literacy
- Economic and community development.
Their rules state that they must hold a weekly meeting, and the members must attend a certain percentage of the meetings to remain in good standing. They must also contribute something to the general fund of Rotary, and to their local club. This group of individuals becomes a small community of common interest, and they reach out to their neighbors, and to other clubs around the world. It's Putnam's rule: Don't Go Bowling Alone. (Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone) Communities that have a lot of networking fare much better than those with little. They have better employment, better health, better crime rates - a whole gamut of things. It's why small towns tend to work so well. As Putnam found, even a bowling league builds up a supportive network.
Last night, I was invited to a unique event - the beginning of a new Rotary Club - if it all works out. Think about this a minute. You live in a town of 100,000 people, and your services and sense of common interest need a lot of help. How would you go about forming a group of people together to work on this? How does one invite people to an initial organization of a Rotary Club? The way this happened here - a "fearless leader" gathered five friends and explained the goal: establish a Rotary Club that can help us build community and also attract resources from outside to help us. Those 5 individuals each invited 5 more people. So we had an initial meeting of 25 people. The "fearless leader" started with a brief introduction of each person, where they live, and what they do. It kind of lays the ground work for them to value each other. Then she asked each of them to take a minute, and think about their dream for their community. What would they like to see happen in the future.
We had a wide variety of people - young and old. The group included the head of the local fire department, a teacher, some social worker types, some young people with amazing ideas and energy, and a couple of high school students with their own dreams. They were clearly focused on their community - how to draw it together, heal some of their divisions, solve some of their problems. Some of them had a truly global perspective on the issue. One was clearly interested in this "outside help" - which is perfectly fine in the Rotary world. By the end of the round, I was pretty excited for this group. What a fine group of engaged human beings. They could do anything!
The leader then asked if anyone had any experience with Rotary, or knew anything about them. One individual had some stories - which were not all positive! Our leader accepted those, with the comment that each Club has a very different character. She then introduced the basics about Rotary, their mission and world wide impact. She also explained the basic rules - how one becomes a Rotary Club. There are some numbers of members, and contributions, etc. She also talked about her personal experience with Rotary Clubs in the US and in Nicaragua.
After some give and take on that - our leader asked if everyone would be willing to meet a week from this evening, and bring a few more people who might be interested. Almost everyone volunteered to do this. One individual had a problem with the day of the week. Our leader explained that the actual day for meetings, etc., was something that the entire Club could establish on their own. Some Rotaries meet for a meal, others not, etc.
We departed with a really UP feeling - this could work! As I thought about how one would do this - it made perfect sense in retrospect. But I would not have had a clue how to begin. I'll tell you next week what happens with the Rotarians in attendance. This might be a different kind of Rotary Club from the normal one in the states, but I am sure that around the world, there are many, many different kinds of Clubs. We will see how this works out next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment