President Breaux's First Day

A Message from  our new International President Ron Burton.

I President-elect Ron Burton will ask Rotarians to Engage Rotary, Change Lives in 2013-14.

He unveiled the RI theme during the opening plenary session of the 2013 International Assembly in San Diego, California, USA, the annual training event for incoming district governors.

“If we really want to take Rotary service forward, then we must make sure that every single Rotarian has the same feeling about Rotary that each one of us here has today,” Burton said. “We need to make sure that every Rotarian has a meaningful role to play, that they’re all making a contribution, and that their contribution is valued.”

Burton said the July launch of The Rotary Foundation’s new grant model, Future Vision, makes it an exciting time to be a Rotarian. He said the new grant model, which has been used by about 100 pilot districts since 2010, represents a new era for the Foundation, and will help Rotarians get excited about Rotary’s ability to change lives.

“It takes everything that is wonderful about Rotary and raises it to a new level — by encouraging bigger, more sustainable projects while providing increased flexibility for local projects, both of which address the needs of the community being served,” he said.

Burton asked the incoming district governors to take the lead in helping their clubs through the transition, with the assistance of their district Rotary Foundation chairs, who also attended the assembly this year. The training sessions are focusing heavily on equipping these leaders to go back to their districts as experts on the new grant model.

Before the assembly, Burton asked each of the incoming governors to make a donation in their name to The Rotary Foundation in order to demonstrate leadership by example. At the assembly, he announced that all 537 governors-elect had complied; along with donations from all RI Board members and Foundation Trustees, the contributions totaled US$675,412.

“Now, I have to believe that some of this is money that The Rotary Foundation probably would not have received had I not asked. And I think that this is an important lesson” he said. “If you want somebody else to do something, you can just sit around and wait for them to get the idea, or you can ask.”

Burton applied that lesson also to membership development, which he insisted is the responsibility of every Rotarian. He told the audience that although he had been an active member of the Key Club, a youth program of Kiwanis International, he went on to join Rotary simply because the Rotary Club of Norman, Oklahoma, invited him to.

“You have to ask,” he said.

But Burton emphasized that the job doesn’t end when a new member joins: “It’s not done until that new member is engaged in Rotary, inspired by Rotary, and uses the power of Rotary service to change lives.”

Gates Foundation joins with Rotary to boost polio endgame support

 Jeff Raikes, chief executive officer of the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation, addresses Rotarians
during the third plenary session Tuesday via a
prerecorded video message. Bottom: Actress Archie
Panjabi explains why she agreed to be a Rotary
polio eradication ambassador. Monika
Lozinska/Rotary International

By Dan Nixon and Arnold R. Grahl
Rotary News -- 25 June 2013
An announcement at the Rotary International
Convention in Lisbon, Portugal, set the stage for a
bold new chapter in the partnership between Rotary
and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the
campaign for polio eradication.
“Going forward, the Gates Foundation will match two
-to-one, up to US$35 million per year, every dollar
Rotary commits to reduce the funding shortfall for
polio eradication through 2018,” said Jeff Raikes, the
foundation’s chief executive officer, in a prerecorded
video address shown during the convention’s
plenary session on 25 June. “If fully realized, the
value of this new partnership with Rotary is more
than $500 million. In this way, your contributions to
polio will work twice as hard.”
The joint effort, called End Polio Now – Make History
Today, comes during a critical phase for the Global
Polio Eradication Initiative . The estimated cost of
the initiative’s 2013-18 Polio Eradication and
Endgame Strategic Plan is $5.5 billion. Funding
commitments , announced at the Global Vaccine
Summit in April, total $4 billion. Unless the $1.5
billion funding gap is met, immunization levels in
polio-affected countries will decrease. And if polio is
allowed to rebound, within a decade, more than
200,000 children worldwide could be paralyzed
every year.

Rotary and the Gates Foundation are determined not to let polio make a comeback.
“We will combine the strength of Rotary’s network with our resources, and together with the other
partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), we will not just end a disease but change
the face of public health forever,” said Raikes.
In 2007, the Gates Foundation gave The Rotary Foundation a $100 million challenge grant for polio
eradication, and in 2009, increased it to $355 million. Rotary agreed to raise $200 million in
matching funds by 30 June 2012, but Rotarians in fact raised $228.7 million toward the challenge.
“Now is the time for us all to take action: Talk to your government leaders, share your polio story
with your social networks, and encourage others to join you in supporting this historic effort,” Raikes
added. “When Rotarians combine the passion for service along with the power of a global network,
you are unstoppable, and the Gates Foundation is proud to partner with you. Let’s make history and
End Polio Now.”
Endgame strategy
Bruce Aylward, assistant director-general for Polio, Emergencies and Country Collaboration at the
World Health Organization -- a GPEI partner -- said that the finish line for polio eradication is in
sight, but cautioned that “it is one thing to see the finish line; it is another to cross it.”
Sharing details of the latest polio eradication strategic plan, he said the plan is historic in finally
setting out the endgame, the final steps needed to wipe out polio.
“We now have the plan to complete the program of PolioPlus,” Aylward said. “And we have
the backing of you, Rotarians around the world, to get the job done.”
Actress Archie Panjabi, a Rotary polio eradication ambassador, recounted how, as a 10-year-old
living in India, she had seen children crawling along the streets, propelled only by their hands. The
image troubled her for years. When she was asked to join Rotary’s This Close campaign in 2011,

she said she realized that the children she’d seen were polio victims, and that by working to
eliminate polio, she could help prevent others from suffering in that way.
“I came to realize that we still have work to do, and how important it is for people like me -- people
like you -- to use our voices to raise awareness of, and support for, the global effort to eradicate
polio,” Panjabi said. “As a Rotary polio ambassador, I will continue to do whatever I can to spread
the word.”
Million dollar donation
John Germ, vice chair of the International PolioPlus Committee, asked Rotarians to reach out to
their non-Rotarian colleagues to raise money for polio eradication. He also introduced Sir Emeka
Offor, a Nigerian Rotarian, who announced that he is making a new US$1 million contribution to PolioPlus.
During a PolioPlus Advocacy workshop a day earlier, Offor had explained that his contributions to a
number of causes are motivated by his humble origins. Now, as a successful businessman, he
enjoys giving in order to help others avoid the circumstances he faced.
As a Rotarian, he said he takes pride in Rotary’s good work and in the organization’s leadership in
the polio eradication campaign.
“I hope my means will inspire others to join the fight to end polio in Nigeria,” Offor said. “Polio can
be eradicated in my country in my lifetime, and it will be.”
Also during the plenary session, Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair Wilfrid Wilkinson
reviewed The Rotary Foundation’s accomplishments, all of which were made
possible by a 1960s decision by Rotary leaders to use Foundation grants to fund
Rotary service.
“Because of the one moment ... because of their ambition, I can look back with all of you at 50
incredible years of achievements through our Foundation -- lives that we have touched, lives that
we have saved, lives to which we have brought health, education, and hope,”