The Rotary Foundation and More

The weekly programme also included Geoff Mathews receiving the well deserved Heart of Rotary award for his continued amazing work for the Club in PR and Fellowship and the Rotary minute from our RotaKid Zoe on Family of Rotary.  This is also an important part of our Rotary life and will more than likely be a presentation from our education team later this year, however in the meantime, Zoe reminded us to involve our families in our Rotary lives and our communities can only further benefit if we do that.

Jeremy explained, with the help of Chris Evans a former District Foundation team member, that although the Foundation is vital for our ongoing local and international community service, and whilst it works, the administration, in particular relating to matching grants requires modernization. 

The Rotary Foundation Future Vision Plan has a mission statement to simplify the administration, become more effective, support both local and global efforts, increase ownership of funds to Districts and Clubs and enhance public image.

Leading towards the centennial of the Foundation in 2017, a number of Districts in the world have been tasked to be pioneers in trying out the new system until 2013.  At that time, and after some fine tuning, the new administrative system will be applied world wide.  Until that time, the existing system will remain for most Districts outside the experimental group. District 7020, of which we are part, will continue in the old system.

It should be noted that whilst the existing administrative system requires modernisation and simplification, there is no doubt that many Clubs have it well practiced, including Jamaica and Haiti in our District--and if Clubs studied the existing system and properly complied with the rules, then it still works, albeit sometimes cumbersome.

The new focus for the Foundation--which does not differ too much from the existing--will include Peace and Conflict resolution, disease prevention, water and sanitation programmes, programmes for maternal and child heath, basic literacy, health and the alleviation of poverty.  The programmes will be perhaps more generic in terms of focus leaving the specifics to the Districts and Clubs.  The Grants for these programmes will become block grants to Districts, as well as globally, and should reduce paperwork, be administered on line and delegate more decision making locally allowing both Districts and Clubs to promote smaller and more varied projects.

Jeremy presented much more detail, however the recommendation to all our members is that they review the Future Vision Plan on the Rotary.org web site.  Members are also encouraged to review the basic Foundation on the web site, which is a treasure chest of information on both how the charity works today and how it hopes to work tomorrow.  Much of the basic detail of the Foundation is unknown to many of our members and it is hoped that as November progresses all will learn some more Foundation basics to understand how vital it is to Rotary, both in our communities as well as internationally.

We ask you all to support the Foundation by giving to the EREY (Every Rotarian Every Year) programme.  It is an investment for our communities with a truly amazing return.