District Governor's message for May 2012

Before I dwell on the celebratory tune, let me share with you some of the minor challenges that came our way! 


1.    The journey started with a few adopting a “let us see” position- we felt intimidated by the task before us. All history seemed to indicate that the task called for too much in terms of financial commitment and the work required to be done. I was scared by what I thought it took to be a district governor that I quickly called my friends to help me fundraise! As the days went by, I however realized that the reality was that I did not need the money. I ended up pledging it all to create the Eric Kimani Awards that have set the district on fire lately and I will mention more about them later! The bottom line was however that we needed to make extra effort to ensure that we defeat any doubting-Thomas.

2.    The next challenge came in February 2011 while in the in the middle of our leadership training and preparations and  a few days after we returned together from training PETS in Ethiopia, we lost one of the most dynamic Rotarians then  in this district and my right hand Rotarian in the leadership,  Linda Longstaff. Like many of us, I was devastated. Many had come to refer to Linda as “The committee of Linda and Linda”. I owe much of any success that I may claim to the work Linda put in during her short-lived tenure as the District Secretary. May God rest her soul in eternal peace.

3.    As we began our year of service, the debate of splitting the district began. As days progressed I would sometimes wonder why this happened in my year as District Governor- it took so much time and energy out of me at a time when I was so busy with club visits! Thanks to God and the help of many of you, we safely delivered the  twins- District 9200 gave birth to  9211- comprising Uganda and Tanzania while  9212 hosted Eritrea, Ethiopia and Kenya. The nomination of DGN Emmanuel by district 9200 had to be validated by district 9211. We had to put in motion the selection of a DGN for 9212. Those were trying times but we triumphed!

4.    As we progressed with visiting rotary clubs, the RI President decided to visit our District and the newly created country of South Sudan. I was excited about this but also challenged by two things that came up- one, I had to now revise my remaining program of visiting clubs to accompany the RI President in his nearly one week flying tour of East Africa! This was a phenomena time and I enjoyed every bit of my time with him! No sooner did the RI President return home, then consultations began on where to place the new country of South Sudan in the district. Late night calls and consultations became routine.  Early this year we received the news that South Sudan would join the new district 9212 with Kenya, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. The upside of all this is the joy of having been part of writing this new chapter in history books of admitting South Sudan into Rotary!

5.    The final challenge is one I often wonder whether we should treat as a challenge or as a joy. Traveling through the large district was a testing and challenging endeavor! We would travel hundreds of kilometers on all manner of terrain! Sometimes we drove for nearly 15 hours! Sometimes flights were cancelled or changed. But all these challenges fade in the face of the joys of seeing the countries- In the Northern part of Ethiopia visiting the Rotary club of Bahar Dar, we saw the Blue Nile and Lake Tana; in the south visiting the rotary clubs of Sod, and Ziway, we saw the amazing land of the Queen of Sheba and the great rift valley; in Uganda we crossed the great Nile three times in one trip while visiting northern Uganda; the memories of the Mountains of the Moon and the beautiful downs of Western Uganda, will forever be etched in our minds; visiting the expansive country of Tanzania from Kilimanjaro in the north  to Iringa in the South- the prize was an amazing experience!

My dear Rotarians and friends, you will by now have noticed that what I called challenges became part of the joys! We adopted an attitude that God had us for a time like this to face the challenges before us and make us better Rotarians; better leaders and use us to shape the future! These minor challenges only helped to make our resolve to “service above self” only stronger and commitment to our cause even deeper!

Let me now dwell on the job you gave me as your District Governor but before I go into a celebration  frenzy allow me to recognize a few Rotarians who were exemplary ;.

My wife Margaret who went with me to virtually all the Rotary clubs visits

 Margaret Mungherera the Country Chair  in Uganda who went with me to every possible club in Uganda.

To my country chairs, Harish in Tanzania, Teshome in Ethiopia and Peter in Kenya. I could not have wished or a better team of leaders.

To the great core team that I often refer to as the “Gideonite 300” that delivered this conference led by Gideon himself in the person PAG Richard Omwela. For those who read wisdom literature in the holy bible I refer you to the book  of Judges Chapter 7 and you will understand how what was started with a 32,000 men strong army was delivered by this 300 who withstood the test!The number of man-hours and effort put by this small committee is incredible.

My conference Advisor PDG Yusuf gave me opportunity years ago to chair his Presidential conference- little did he know that there would be payback time! He has been an excellent Conference Advisor;

Mentioning names is always a risk because if you are like me, you will wonder why yours was not mentioned- there are many of you Rotarians some just ordinary members; some presidents and other leaders; some PDG’s all who made this happen=_ I thank you all from the very bottom of my heart. In the words of Chuck Page, “A single leaf working alone provides no shade”. I celebrate each of you Rotarians for providing the shade that we now enjoy.

Let me now address the “State of the Nation”;

I began our work by looking at the Terms of Reference for the job which I understood to be to MOTIVATE and INSPIRE Rotarians on the following four fronts;

1.    To sustain and grow membership

2.    To implement successful service projects

3.    To support the Rotary Foundation

4.    To develop leaders

I understood that these four things were to be done by making cross reference to both the District Strategic Plan and the four pillars of RI Strategic Plan both of which are totally aligned to these four things.

When I took over the mantle of leading in this District, I expected much of what I found- difficult but most fulfilling work.

Growing and Sustaining Membership.

This year must have seen perhaps the highest growth in membership in any one single year in the history of our district. We began the year with 153 clubs in the District; today even after losing 3 Kenya Clubs (Migori, Homa Bay and Bungoma South) we added 7 new clubs and we now have 161 clubs!  The sweeter story however is that these are strong clubs. We insisted on a minimum charter of 30 members but many clubs gave us more than 40! Indeed the average of all the clubs formed so far over 40!

Unfortunately the DCA now come almost two and half months before the Rotary year-end otherwise we would have delivered even more clubs. We guarantee you that by the end of the Rotary year we will give you another 6 clubs, majority of which will be from Kenya!. In total we will have grown the district by a minimum net of 12 clubs!.

The district membership has grown so far from 3800 to 4200. We will more than meet our goals on membership.

Another most commendable thing that happened was the revival of 2 clubs that had been terminated in Uganda!

I appeal to clubs to update their membership records- there are some clubs we noticed who have more members attending than what is on the RI register. The reasons for this vary from a failure to adhere to “the four way test” in a bid to minimize subscriptions to just leaders not making the time to log onto member access and do what is necessary.

The Rotary Foundation

Perhaps our greatest achievement happened on the giving to the Rotary Foundation. For many years giving to the foundation seemed like the preserve for a few  for the simple reason that many did not understand how the Rotary Foundation works to leverage our giving and bring the benefit back to our communities in need. We set ourselves a mission to educate and it back big time! Many who have never given gave. I recall a visit to one club where the members openly told me that they do not give to the TRF because they belief in instant gratification and seeing where and what their money does. That evening for the first time in over 10 years of club’s existence, 5 Rotarians pledged to give the TRF US $ 1000 each! The Vice country who accompanied us was amazed how we did this- We demystified TRF.

As I speak today, our district has achieved what the majority of the Rotary world has failed to achieve in respect of TRF- we have achieved the threshold US $ 100 per capita for every member in the District! This call for a celebration!

For the first time in this District we will achieve Rotary’s call of $ 100 per capita giving!

I would like to single out Tanzania for a sterling performance; for first time in the history of that country they gave more than Kenya; they gave many times more than they have ever given. As I speak, the rotary Club of Arusha has done the most incredible thing- It has joined the league of the 10 top per capital givers in the entire Rotary world! Please join me in recognizing them! The club has now a per capita giving of over US $ 2,300!

Uganda too delivered a sterling performance.

I would like to challenge Kenya, who despite having a greater capacity, this year was beaten to it by Tanzania and Uganda. I would further like to challenge those who promised to give to do so in the remaining two and half months. If you have never given to TRF, you have missed the joy of Rotary but you still have a chance!

All in all, I had initially promised DRFC Tusu that we would garner for US 300,000 his year  but he pushed us to make it US 400,000. You, my fellow Rotarians at whatever level you gave,  have more than achieved it. You have given us a place of honor at TRF as they approve the many large grants to our part of the world, they will know that we too can give out of the abundance of our hearts!

Service Projects

As many of you are aware, we are one of the lucky 100 pilot districts on the Future Vision Plan that entered its second year during our year of leadership. Many clubs have struggled to qualify and even understand the mechanics of the FVP. We had undertaken to have 80% of the clubs qualify but sadly the ability to achieve this lay too much within clubs. We have made great progress but found many challenges with clubs not willing to learn the new models. However as I now speak we have nearly at the 70%

This year therefore as expected the project activity dipped but for good reason.

Rotarians however continued to deliver better, bigger and bolder projects in their communities. I saw some projects that are phenomenal…

Well done Rotarians- you continue to deliver our motto of “service above self” with distinction!

Fun and Fellowship in Rotary Service

In my own wisdom and long before I experienced RI President’s offer of the Change Maker Awards and the Presidential Citations, I created what was popularly known as the Eric Kimani Awards to drive my overreaching theme of “Fun and Fellowship in Rotary Service” modeled on exactly the same basis as the RI Presidents. It interesting to note that most clubs went after my awards than they did the RI awards despite the fact that the latter had more to offer in rewards!

The fellowship Award was meant to rekindle Rotary fellowship in the district and this started with bang! Never before have we seen so many clubs come together and begin to enjoy Rotary in a complimentary rather than competitive model. Rotary fellowship is better for this. Many clubs did great things and I appreciate you all.

The fun award perhaps generated the greatest competition. My idea was to make Rotary fun and beyond that to improve Rotary’s Public Image. Thousands of Rotarians and none Rotarians came together in pursuit of this award. This I believe drove the membership agenda. Some of the fun events involved thousands of people.

The Membership Growth Award was meant to drive membership growth. This worked magic! One of the bigger clubs in Uganda set up 3 Rotary clubs with an average membership of more than 40 and comprising of very high caliber individuals! Had it not been that we were betrayed by the termination of some very weak clubs, we would have set a world record!

My final award was the conference attendance award that was to encourage Rotarians to attend the 87^th DCA.  Looking at the numbers who attended this conference, this speaks for itself! I would like to single out for recognition Ethiopia and Tanzania who sent more Rotarians to this conference than any other time in their history of conference attendance.

Give yourselves an applause for the manner in which you took up your Dg on the Eric Kimani Awards!

So, now that I have finished my year what are my aspirations going forward?

1.    I aspire to be a better Rotarian – I promise DGE Geeta that in her year of leadership I will be her DGSR to the setting up of a strong new club!

2.    I  want to remain a good giver to TRF

3.    I will continue to enjoy the internationality of Rotary and hope to keep my many friends that I made during this phenomenal year

4.    Believing in the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt that “There is no greater calling than public service” I aspire grow in my Rotary knowledge and my Rotary leadership

5.    I will write another book –perhaps on my most acclaimed subject of “Personal Branding”.

History will judge me and my team. I sense that we as a district are at the mountain top; in the words of RI President Kalyan during his recent visit in our district “this district is a volcano waiting to erupt”.  I could not agree with him more!

You, fellow Rotarians are the Jury and like they say the Jury is out!

Thank you.