Our Speaker District Governor Neil Berg

Posted by David Holden
 

We welcome our District Governor Neil Berg as our speaker.  Neil has been a member of Rotary Club of Red Deer East (Alberta, Canada) since May 1988. He served his Club over the years as President (twice, 1992-93 & 2007-08), Secretary & International Service Director. Neil has a special interest in international service.

 
The presentation

President Sid, my fellow Rotarians and future Rotarians:
First off thank you very much for allowing us some time on your agenda today.  Assistant Governor Earl and I truly appreciate the opportunity to bring you a little bit of our take on the Rotary world.
 
We also had a great meeting this morning with your Board of Directors.  The Rotary Club of Calgary has a long history of good leadership and this year is no different.  This club is fortunate to have the leadership that it has.  This club has always been a leader in this community and among the other Rotary Clubs in Alberta and Canada.  You have some great programs underway and everyone in the Rotary world says thank you.
Also, thank you for sharing: we are asked in Rotary to share our time, talent and treasure.  This Club has provided talent at the District level recently & continues to with Past District Governors Garth Toombs, Mark Starratt, Steve Allen and Bill Gilliot; Assistant Governors Paul Bates, Tony Howard; District level chairs Chris Harper (Communications and Public Image) District Treasurer David Bromwich; District Learning and Development Committee chair Carol Rosdobutko; District level subchairs Dahlia Mostafa and Manon Mitchell, Craig Henderson.  Thank you one and all.  I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone.
 
I think every Rotarian needs to be able to tell the story of their own particular Rotary moment – that moment when you became Rotarized, when the Rotary wheel was tattooed on your heart.  This is the story you’ll tell when you’re asked by a non-Rotarian ‘what is this Rotary thing all about anyway?’ The first one for me was going to the District Conference in Jasper with Monty & Liz Audenart in about 1991.  That District Conference really opened my eyes to all of what Rotary involved.  I was like many Rotarians who only knew or cared about what was happening in my own Club, in our own little bubble. 
 
When RI President John Germ gave his theme address in January at the International Assembly, he invoked three images or future stories:
  1. The women in Bangladesh who will no longer need to carry jugs on their heads for two miles to collect water from a polluted stream because Rotarians dug wells to provide fresh water;
  2. The young girls in Africa who can go to school after the age of 12 or 13 because Rotarians built clean and separate toilet facilities; and
  3. The little children of Pakistan and Afghanistan who will not contract polio because Rotarians funded and vaccinated them against this disease.
The theme for 2016-17 was introduced as ‘Rotary Serving Humanity’.  I think this very succinctly and efficiently sums up all we are about, between the Service Above Self ethos of Rotary and the call to do good in the world from the Rotary Foundation.
 
There is much that we do and there is even more we could do.  But what should be our priorities for this year?  For President Sid’s year? RI President John Germ, a Rotarian from the Rotary Club of Chattanooga, laid out Rotary’s priorities for the year and I think they can be applicable to every Rotary Club as well:
  1. Membership, the number one priority of Rotary – we need more willing hands, more bright minds and more giving hearts to do the work of serving humanity;
  2. We need to be able to give clubs the flexibility to attract the two demographics we need to bring in to Rotary in the future: young & mid-career men & women and the newly retired;
  3. Contribution to and celebration of The Rotary Foundation in its centennial year.
Can I tell you my membership story?  When I moved to Red Deer in 1985, my family needed a new dentist and Dr Monty Audenart was the one we chose.  So one day, I’m sitting in the dentist chair and Monty is going on about this Rotary thing and all they were doing.  My mouth is yarded open by that metal and rubber thingy they put in your mouth so I am a rather captive audience.  And just as Monty approaches me with that the syringe with the freezing stuff he leans in and asks me “you’d probably like to come to a Rotary meeting with me, wouldn’t you Neil?”  That was 28 years ago.  The reason I joined Rotary was pretty simple: someone I respected invited me.  With deference to the Four Way Test, that may or may not have happened exactly as described.
 
Your opportunity to serve humanity and make a difference in the world started when an individual who knew you said: you look like a person of high ethical standards.  You look like a person who meets our classification principle.  I think you’re an individual who lives by the Four Way Test.  You seem like an individual who would make a great Rotarian.  That was your opportunity and we thank you.  But have you passed that opportunity forward?  You know that only 25% of Rotarians have ever invited another person to join Rotary.  Why are we so selfish?  I truly believe that if everyone in the province of Alberta knew what we do right here and around the world that we’d have to sell tickets at the door.  But I truly believe that the number one way for us to grow the numbers of like-minded individuals in our Clubs is for each Rotarian to simply invite someone to a meeting or project or event.
 
So think about that individual who gave you this fabulous life altering, world changing opportunity, the Rotarian who invited you to Rotary.
Individuals will be attracted to vibrant groups of committed and engaged people.  So let me ask this: is the Rotary Club of Calgary  a vibrant club of engaged Rotarians?
 
What do I mean by a Vibrant Club?  One that the members look forward to going to when you meet.  A group that non-Rotarians can see (meaning you have a public image presence) that is fun and serving its community and so is one they want to be involved with.
 
We do a pretty good job of attracting new members.  I recall seeing a number not long ago that typically we welcome 100,000 new members in North America each year.  The problem is that we have 100,000 or more leaving Rotary each year.  To me, retention and engagement are two sides of the membership coin.
What do I mean by an engaged Rotarian?  A member who:
  • attends a majority of meetings, a majority of social functions
  • has been assigned to and really provides input into, a club project or committee position
  • contributes to The Rotary Foundation
  • is ready, willing and able to tell the Rotary story when asked
If we think we don’t have enough female members, or enough ethnic Rotarians or enough younger business and community leaders as Rotarians, whose responsibility is it to change that?
 
One place to start is to ask whether the makeup of the RC of Calgary reflects the makeup of the Calgary and area community.
 
Every three years, clubs are invited to propose changes and updates to the RI constitution and bylaws.  A representative from every District in the world is sent to a gathering called the Council on Legislation in Evanston to debate and vote on these proposals.
 
This latest Council in Apr-16 enacted some of the most sweeping changes in the history of Rotary.  The number one item that affects this Club is increased flexibility in how often a Club meets, how it comes together and who it can invite to be members.
 
We’ve got to become more flexible to allow for more community-minded, humanitarian serving people to join our effort.  So this flexibility now allows for a club for example, to meet one week in person and every other week online.  Or once or twice a month meeting as service committees or doing project work.
There are no longer any standard attendance requirements; that is up to each Club now to set its own standards.
 
I hear the claim often that the cost of Rotary precludes many people from joining, not just younger folks.  So what is the biggest expense to being a Rotarian?  Not the Club dues, not the District or RI dues but the weekly meal cost.  Maybe we can do something about that.
 
One of the things we hear all the time is that Rtns & Clubs want more collaboration. Examples of this is the International Chairs of each club in Calgary area who get together quarterly to review projects and share what they’re doing and what worked and what didn’t.  We are this year suggesting clubs do the same within the areas of Membership and of Community Service in specific geographic areas such as Calgary.
 
The other big item from these Council changes is the ability now of the Club to expand the types of membership that it will have: examples are corporate memberships, family, associate or even a special category for Rotaractors.  I want to thank and congratulate the Rotary Club of Calgary on being leaders in this area.  The intel and experience that you have gained has been shared with Rotary Clubs around our District.  Rotaractors can now become full Rotary members without giving up their Rotaract membership.
 
At the International Convention in Atlanta in June of 1917, the sixth President of RI Arch Klumpf stood on the stage and declared that what Rotary needed was a charitable endowment to do good in the world.  The first donation was $26.50 and The Rotary Foundation was born.
 
In the last one hundred years, your Foundation has supported either directly or via District and Global Grants: $3billion of good in the world, in the areas of promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water, saving mothers and children, supporting education and growing local economies.
 
And I also want to acknowledge the great work being done by the Rotary Clubs of Calgary Foundation.  To my mind, the CFRC’s local perspective is perfectly complementary to the Rotary Foundation international focus.  So if you were to ask me should I contribute to the TRF or the CRCF, my answer would be ‘yes.’
I believe that if every Rotarian was fully aware and understood the depth and breadth of all the Rotary Foundation does in the world, in the International community and right here at home in Calgary, there would never be a need to ask for contributions or to give any more incentive than the simple knowledge and understanding of what you were doing to serve humanity.
We will never again get the opportunity to celebrate and participate in the 100th anniversary of the Rotary Foundation so I’m asking you, what can you as individual Rotarians or as a Rotary Club do participate in the celebration?  And in recognition of that the District has set some big hairy audacious goals:
  • That Rotarians in the District will individually collectively contribute $100,000 to The Rotary Foundation in the 2016-17 year;
  • That every club in the District will become a club of 100% Paul Harris Fellows or 100% sustaining member contributors; this is not so far-fetched as many Rotarians are already PHFs or pretty close and could get there with a moderate boost from their own tax-deductible contribution plus possibly matching points from the Club or even the transfer of points from other Club Members.
The actions that will drive that:
  • We will continue with the process of awarding 100 PH points to every new member and every member who signs up for Rotary Direct, the automatic monthly or quarterly online contributions
  • I want to ask that every member consider a donation of $100 to match the 100th anniversary or at least to get started with $26.50.
Our District Foundation group and its processes are held up as examples for other Districts in the Rotary world.  Between the Rotary Foundation holding the highest credit and stewardship rating from Charity Navigator and the due diligence and governance that goes into the Foundation’s grant administration, I have strong confidence in the stewardship that is being applied to the money (the treasure) that I’ve contributed to the Foundation.
 
Polio eradication was the big hairy audacious goal that a Rotarian dared to dream back in the mid-1980’s and we are now this close.  There have only been 23 new cases of wild polio infection to date in 2016, all of those in Pakistan and Afghanistan. There are now also a couple of unconfirmed cases in Nigeria which was thought a few months ago to be polio-free.
 
The world is watching us on this.  The estimate is that it will take about a further $1.5 billion to finish the job and the Polio Plus fund has about three-quarters of that.  Your contributions to and efforts for the End Polio Now effort continues to be required. And so to support the eradication of polio I’m asking every Rotarian to contribute at least $26.50 to the End Polio Now campaign.
 
I believe that the Rotary Club of Calgary can earn RI President John Germ’s Presidential Citation.  This isn’t just what some guy in Evanston or Chattanooga thinks is right for your Club.  The elements of the Presidential Citation are specifically and deliberately set out in such a way that if you set your goals and activities towards those, I guarantee you will be an even more vibrant club one year from now.  If you were to achieve all of the criteria and qualify for the Presidential Citation it will mean that you have had an absolutely kick-butt year.
 
The Rotarian who knows more about all that Rotary does and the endless possibilities is a more engaged Rotarian.  The first opportunity was Make Dreams Real here in Calgary last week; I was happy to see some from this Club there.  This was a day of Rotary information and inspiration.  It was about the WHY of Rotary.
Several members of the Rotary Club of Calgary have taken part in the Rotary Leadership Institute.  That is a three part seminar on the WHAT and HOW of Rotary.
 
I hope to see 100% of the members of this Club at the District Conference the first weekend in May 2017 in Red Deer.  We have a great program of fun, fellowship and Rotary information and inspiration on tap for you.  This includes some special events with world class presenters including Neil Pasricha the best-selling author of the Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation.  And I’m happy to tell you, President Sid, that the District Conference will be extending a complimentary registration to every club with the intention that pass it on to a newer Rotarian.
 
The international convention is coming back to Atlanta Georgia next spring.  Early June 2017 the convention will be held where the Rotary Foundation was born 100 years ago.  That is pretty easy travel for us, at least relative to some of the more recent sites, such as Korea or Brazil.
 
Mark Twain once said: The two most important days in a man’s life are the day he is born and the day he finds out why.
 
So who are we as Rotarians?  We are community and business leaders and who come together in friendship and fun, to discuss ideas of how we can serve our communities and do good in the world and then, most importantly, we take action to carry those ideas out.
 
Thank you for your continued and positive engagement in the quest to serve humanity.
 
Thank you for what you do for Rotary.
 
And I offer my best wishes as we all go forward in Rotary Serving Humanity.
 
DG Neil was thanked by RCC member and Past District Governor, Mark Starratt.