Greetings fellow Rotarians and guests!
Welcome to the
Rotary E-Club of One World!
In the spirit of Rotary which binds us together to serve above self for the betterment of humanity and the world, let us share the Rotary Four Way Test of the Things we think, say or do; for which in District 5240 (D5240), a fifth has been added:
- Is it the TRUTH?
- Is it FAIR to all concern?
- Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
- Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concern?
- Is it FUN?
Gradually winding down!!!
As we wind down into the last few weeks of the Rotary year, I’d like to offer a special thanks to our club members and especially the Board of Directors who helped steer the affairs of the club this whole year for allowing me the opportunity to grow and learn as your President. I’ve never had all the answers and I know that I might never have all the answers. I relied on our membership and especially our veteran members to share their past experiences and learnings to help us move the club forward. I strongly hope that we have.
Last year I was in a workshop with one of the most powerful female Directors in Ghana—a Global Economic Forum that I’ve continued to attend. The Director shared a poignant story about how as female leader she had struggled with one her colleagues on the Board. He wanted to a mobile App for a whopping $100,000.00 for a company whose annual net income is barely half a million Dollars annually and she couldn’t understand why that was important. In the middle of a meeting, she said, “Help me understand… what is so special about this mobile App.” Her colleague Director used that as an opportunity to humiliate her for her lack of technical knowledge.
She fought back and replied, “I understand how to positively contribute to the company’s bottom line and this isn’t one of them.” The room of +100 attendees roared. I was one of them thinking to myself, “She freakin’ showed him!” After allowing the room to settle, she quietly spoke and said something along the lines of this: “After that meeting, one of my confidants took me aside and said, ‘You can’t do that. You can’t embarrass someone in front of everyone. They will never be able to be honest with you and they will never speak up again.’ “She urged the audience to hear her message: “We have to have those Truth Tellers in our lives.”
If we keep doing things the way we’ve always done them, we can expect to get the same results. Are we really happy getting the same response we’ve always got? We need to be brave enough to speak up and speak out when we’re on a course that doesn’t make sense to us or isn’t going anywhere. What will you be brave enough to do? Are you courageous enough to be EXTRAordinary! Let us all keep the good spirit of BEing THE INSPIRATION ‘till the end of the year and beyond.
Next week we will come up with an even more interesting program, let us all endeavor to attend and register for our meeting.
Let’s all continue to BE THE INSPIRATION!!!
Yours in Rotary Service,
Amina Sammo
President 2018-2019
