A quick hunt in your search engine will provide the following definitions of Public Image:
Ideas the public has about a person or an organisation;
- The opinion that many people have of a person;
- An image of something that is not a true representation of reality.
Is this what we want to portray – something that isn’t a true representation of what Rotary is?
Let’s go to the Thesaurus for synonyms of Public Image: disguise, display, front, guise, image, mask, mere façade, or sham.
This does not look good. Is Public Image really just a false image of what is really happening?
If we look at many of our posts on social media or our photos in local newspapers etc. then probably Yes, that is what we portray. Old looking people sitting around a table or presenting oversized cheques.
We internally talk about Old, Pale, Male and Stale – yet the general public doesn’t perceive us this way. They see Rotary as doing things to help their community be it by service or assistance to other organisations.
We need to see this in ourselves so that the Public Image we display is the truth about what we are doing. We help others all the time. Rotarians live ‘Service above Self’ and now as it has been for over 100 years, Rotarians are ‘People of Action’ that jump in now exactly as it is needed, be that COVID, Drought, Bushfires, Joy of Christmas Holiday Season or helping that person who needs us now.