Each month, the District 9820 South East Cluster Assistant Governor (AG), Colin Byron has a group meeting with all of the Cluster Presidents. Our Cluster includes the Rotary Clubs of Dandenong-Endeavour Hills, Narre Warren, Cranbourne, Casey, Berwick, Pakenham and the Rotaract Club of Casey-Cardinia. These meetings are not all hugs and kisses, but are for messages from District and Rotary International to be passed through for Presidents to action.
The Presidents also report to the AG on their Club attendance, projects, membership and compliance which then formulate a report for the District about the health of the Club. I feel quite uncomfortable that our Club has failed over the last three years to find a solid future leadership team, but the AG is there to enforce accountability and at this point, the buck stops with me.
It will be of no surprise to anyone, but we are the only Club in our Cluster without a President-Elect. We do not have a Membership Chair either. The pressure is on to fill both these positions as a matter of urgency. We have several very capable candidates that are not quite ready to lead the Club and need time to evolve their Rotary knowledge. Two of these are on our current Board. It will take a couple more years for these members to be ready. We have several candidates that could lead the Club right now, but they have not stepped forward. I can understand their hesitation, but I do believe stepping up to the challenges of leadership in Rotary breaks down a lot of barriers to becoming a leader in other parts of your life. There is personal development value in taking a leading role in a volunteer organisation such as Rotary.
Our Club is full of future potential (“Future potential” is the desire and ability to be more.) and I would like to see that future potential turned into current potential.
Individually and organisationally, it is typically driven by three factors:
- Future courage … Do we dare to be more than we currently are? Future Potential demands personal ambition and drive to go beyond your current world, to let go of what you know, to go further, to enter the unknown.
- Future scope … Do we know where we are heading, and is it the right direction? Future Potential demands more opportunity space, more fertile ground to support new growth, to stretch further and wider ahead.
- Future capacity … Do we have the talent, creativity and resources to get there? Future Potential demands that we become more, dig deeper into ourselves, to develop new mindsets and future-relevant capabilities.
