RI Director Bryn Styles
Joyce introduced Bryn, a member of the Barrie Huronia Club since 1986 where he served as President before moving on to Assistant Governor and District Governor, then Zone membership Foundation Chair, editor of Membership Matters and no one of 19 RI Directors. He's also on the national Board of the Y. He's married to Randy and they have two children and 5 grandchildren. He and Randy are multiple PHs and beneficiaries.
Bryn offered his congratulations on the exchange and said he's visited the Club as it moved around Midland - the Brooklea, the BW and now Rotary Hall, a wonderful facility. He brought greetings from President Ron in Evanston and offered an update. He said the General Secretary (the CEO) of RI retired a couple of years ago and John Huckel took on the job and has been making changes to keep the organization up to date. The big drive is still membership - from 1905 to the 1990s growth was steady but it topped out at 1.2 million and has stayed there despite the fact that 1.2 million new members have been inducted. But other efforts include streamlining the organization and incorporating technology, combining the administration of RI and the Foundation, developing a new website and logo and rebranding. This has created a lot of notice - if you want to get emails, change something, he says.
RI is concentrating on its strengths - its worldwide reach, its membership with its strong individual commitment and its partnerships. It is trying to address its weaknesses - its lack of recognition and public image and the fact that the message is not consistent. RI wants to join leaders in the community to strengthen partnerships, to exchange ideas and to take action. RI is a major humanitarian force because of the work that's done at the Club level. There is a relationship with the United Nations but it is the membership that makes that work.
Bryn admitted that the Polio numbers look bad but in the endemic countries - Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria - the numbers are dropping and the outbreaks elsewhere can be tracked and controlled. Bill and Melinda Gates have agreed to matche - 2 for 1 - our 35 million over the next two years. There's still a way to go but it's close.
Next week we recognize the veterans - heroes who fought so we could have freedom of choice - but we are seeing new heroes - those who fight against mass killers of the most vulnerable. Poor water and sanitation, illiteracy and poor education, poverty. It's incomprehensible to us that 800 million live with no water that that people spend hundreds of hours a month finding it. More people have cell phones that toilets. Diarrhoea takes up 12% of health budgets in Africa. Every 20 seconds a child dies because of poor sanitation.
800 million lack education opportunities and are illiterate. If a mother is literate, the child has a 50% better chance of survival. Rotary started helping a school in Jalalabad. It had no buildings, took boys only. Now 4,000 go, half of them girls, all funded by Canadian Rotary.
Hunger connects it all. 1 in 8 go hungry, 1.5 million children a year. The better educated and employed the woman in the family is, the better everybodies' chances.
We do have problems here in Canada and the Foundation does help there too. It gives us the tools to work on the chinks in the armour of these killers and by focusing on successes we can help children grow up to work for peace and conflict resolution. We can't turn our backs - it's not my child, it's not my community - it is our world and those who help fight these problems are heroes. The Foundation can make these heroes more effective. We have accomplished a lot but there is more to do. We are seeing natural disasters here and we got help from around the world. We have to put ourselves in their shoes - how would we react to being flooded out and loosing everything? Our lives are fragile and any of us might need help.
Bryn thanked the Club for its many contributions.