District Governor Craig, Distinguished Guests, Rotarians and Friends.
What a great reminder of the rich fabric of Rotary in our region. Thank you, Peter.
Adding to this I marvel at the amount of service impact delivered, and fellowship enjoyed, via both small and larger clubs, and indeed collectively, over the last century. It’s been fantastic and heartwarming to look back at!
In addition, we see Club and Membership growth patterns have been on a rollercoaster. They rose very slowly in the first 23 years, then exploded for the next 40, before plateauing then declining over the last 37 years. Unfortunately, Membership is down about half from its peak, which occurred in early 1990s.
As we all know, the roller coaster has been driven by significant changes in society, technology, and of course, natural ageing, all which factors, seem to have come together in recent years.
Founder Paul Harris also faced significant change back in 1946, which prompted him to write an article in the Rotarian Magazine, saying:
“Rotary must continue to pioneer or be left behind. There’s probably no part, or parcel of Rotary, which can’t stand improvement.”
He added he felt it was his “divine discontent” to make this statement. Perhaps he had an inkling his time was coming. Sadly, it was. He died within the year.
Seventy years later, Rotary’s General Secretary John Hewko had a similar message when he came to Darwin to address our Governors.
He urged us to act boldly and lead change, as he launched our new vision statement, saying RIs Strategic Planning Committee was working on goals, to be released in the following year.
I recall him saying “this is not a short-term initiative” and he was right. Since then, we’ve had six new RI Presidents, over 3,000 new District Governors and nearly 200,000 new club Presidents. And, each one of us was asked to plan to increase our ability to adapt, our impact and our reach.
It’s not easy. Change never is! It’s a bit like restoring a solid but old home, built in a vastly different bygone era. Its costly to adapt and modernise, whilst seeking to update, maintain and enhance original purpose, charm and value.
Perhaps I am simplifying the challenge. In fact, I think I am because experience has shown that in Rotary it’s much more complex trying to adapt a live and diverse organisation to be agile, flexible and suitable in this fast-changing world.
Recently, I heard a woman commenting on such a challenge faced by her church steeped in rules, practices and a culture from the past. She said:
“The symbol for change in our church is a snail – its slow because we bring our house with us”.
I was hoping that in Rotary we could be a bit faster but looking back it’s been 7 years since John Hewko spoke of that Strategic Planning Committee, which interestingly was being chaired by new RI President Stephanie Urchick.
Nevertheless, its pleasing to know that only last year Stephanie participated in a Board decision to invest US$2 million in our Regional Pilot. Progress is being made, and our RI Board means business!
Last month, I was further encouraged hearing that Immediate Past RI President Gordon McInally let his actions speak louder than words. In person, he attended Regional Pilot Community Leader Training in Melbourne & Auckland!
Today, as we changeover from one Rotary year to another, and thank Craig and Kiki for their service wishing them a deserved rest, Marie Louise steps up to lead us further along this journey.
As she does, let’s keep in mind the most appropriate and profound comments made by Paul Harris back in 1940 during the second world war, when he said: -
“Rotary stands, though tempest rage about us, Rotary stands! “Why and how? Because it is grounded, NOT on fear, rivalry and suspicion, BUT on indestructible friendliness, tolerance and usefulness”.
Going forward together, let’s strive to keep Rotary’s rich fabric intact, and at the same time, be people of action supporting positive change for the benefit of present and future generations.
If we do, and we too are grounded, NOT in fear, rivalry and suspicion, BUT in “indestructible friendliness, tolerance and usefulness”, we will succeed, we must!
Thank you.
