It’s a busy time for Brad Whittaker, the Governor of Rotary District 5050.  As part of his duties, he visits all 57 Rotary Clubs and 8 Rotaract Clubs in our district to promote Rotary.  To do so, he recently retired following 16 years as Director of Research Services and Industry Liaison at the University of the Fraser Valley.  He visited our club on Thursday, October 16.

 

DG Brad is the 4^th DG from the Rotary Club of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada.  He has been a member of that club since 2002 and served as its president in 2012-13. District 5050 is an international district that starts in south Everett and goes north, across the border, and then easterly to Hope B.C.  Vancouver, B.C. is a part of District 5040.

 

 

As he showed in the above slide, the structure of Rotary is an inverted triangle with the members of each of the clubs at the hierarchy and the president of Rotary International at the bottom.  Everything below the club level is there to support the clubs.

 

Rotary International has adopted a new strategic action plan.  It starts with this vision: 

This vision reflects Rotary’s 5 core values:  Fellowship, Integrity, Diversity, Service and Leadership.  To achieve the vision, Rotary International has adopted 4 strategic priorities and objectives.

 

DG Brad pointed out that there is no greater example of our impact than our fight to end polio world-wide.  “We don’t want to be the organization that almost eliminated polio”, said DG Brad.  So far this year we have had 16 cases of wild polio in Afghanistan and 69 in Pakistan.  In December we will probably be able to declare Africa, polio free.  If we stopped our efforts today, in 10 years there would be over 200,000 cases of polio in the world.

 

To expand our reach, DG Brad shared the circle that our current RI President, Mark Maloney uses to demonstrate the relationship between growing members, the Rotary Foundation, and public image.

 

 

Half of all the annual fund gifts from our district come back to the district in 3 years to help the local clubs with community and international projects.  When these projects are shared with the public, it increases our image which in turn helps us grow Rotary.

 

Two other strategies include creating new membership models and increasing the number of Rotary and Rotaract Clubs.  Other strategies to grow Rotary is to bring families into Rotary and create viable paths to Rotary leadership.

 

This year will mark the 75^th anniversary of the United Nations.  Rotary International, because ifs influence in starting the United Nations, has highest status with that organization.

 

To get the most out of Rotary membership, DG Brad urged members to put more into Rotary.  Tools include learning more about Rotary and becoming involved beyond the club level. 

 

There are many places to learn more about Rotary:

The district has many ways to learn and to be involved. Events include the Foundation Dinner on Nov. 15, District Conference (Harrison Hot Springs Apr. 30-May 30), GolFun, training, foundation, youth service, public image, administration (policies and procedures), finances and governance.  Assistant Governors are there to help clubs and DG Brad encouraged officers and directors to call him with questions.

 

Other ways to get involved at the RI level include Rotary Action Groups (MORE) and Rotary Fellowship Groups (MORE).